Hey nerds and nerdettes! February has been a fun month for superheroes! The Deadpool movie has set records and quite possibly new standards with the way we could see comicbook movies in the future. So, with that, I figured it was time to give Deadpool the spotlight and really learn just who exactly Deadpool is and how he has changed over the years.
Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, made his first appearance in The New Mutants #98 in February of 1991 created by artist/writer Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza. In his first appearance, Deadpool is hired by Tolliver to attack Cable and the New Mutants. After subsequently appearing in X-Force as a recurring character, Deadpool began showing his ugly face in a number of different Marvel Comics such as The Avengers, Daredevil and Heroes for Hire. In 1993, the character received his own miniseries, titled The Circle Chase, written by Fabian Nicieza and penciled by Joe Madureira. It was a relative success and Deadpool starred in a second self-titled miniseries written in 1994. In 1997, Deadpool was given his own ongoing title. It became an action comedy parody of the cosmic drama, antihero-heavy comics of the time. The series firmly established his supporting cast, including his prisoner/den mother Blind Al and his best friend Weasel. The series gained a cult popularity for its foul mouthed, unorthadox main character, Deadpool became less of a villain but the element of his moral ambiguity remained. He has professed to be Canadian but the original story had him joining the Weapon X program after being kicked out of the United States Army Special Forces.
Deadpool's primary power is an accelerated healing factor. Artificially endowed by the Weapon X program, this enables him to regenerate any destroyed tissue at a superhuman rate, as well as making him immune to diseases. Deadpool's healing factor is strong enough that he has previously survived complete incineration and decapitation more than once. Although his head normally has to be reunited with his body to heal the wound, he was able to regrow his head after having it pulverized by the Hulk. Deadpool's brain cells are similarly affected, with dying neurons being rejuvenated at a super accelerated rate. This allows Deadpool to recover from any head wounds, and it renders him nearly invulnerable to psychic and telepathic powers, although this ability is inconsistent. It has been revealed that at the time that his healing ability was given to him, Deadpool suffered from some form of cancer. After the healing factor was given to him, it made his normal cells as well as his cancerous cells unable to die, giving him a heavily scarred appearance beneath his suit. His body is also very resistant to most drugs and toxins, due to his enhanced cell regeneration. This means that he can't even out and get drunk! He can be affected by certain drugs such as tranquilizers but it has to be in very large doses. Deadpool is aware that he is a fictional comic book character. He commonly breaks the fourth wall, which is done by few other characters in the Marvel Universe, and this is used to humorous effect. He often has conversations with his two internal monologues, which are shown as caption boxes in his panels; in Deadpool #28 it is revealed that the villain Doctor Bong, a foe of Howard the Duck, is the logical voice appearing in yellow captions, and in Deadpool Annual #1 (2014) it is revealed that Madcap, a foe of Captain America, is the psychotic voice appearing in white captions with a typewriter serif. He is a highly trained assassin and mercenary, adept in multiple forms of martial arts, and an expert swordsman and marksman. Over the years, Deadpool has owned a number of personal teleportation devices. Also, during Deadpool's first ongoing comic, he possesses a device which projected holographic disguises, allowing him to go undercover or conceal his appearance. He also has a magic satchel containing all of his unlimited weaponry and ammo. Deadpool is multilingual, with the ability to speak fluently in German, Spanish, ASL and Japanese, in addition to his native English.
Needless to say, Deadpool could possibly be one of the most fun characters in the Marvel Universe and has finally been given justice on the big screen. Were you a fan of Deadpool before the movie? Did you go see the movie and what did you think?
