Contrary to popular belief and common depiction across various media, Deadpool has depth; in fact, he just might be one of the most tragic characters in Big Two comics. Given the staggering amount content where Wade Wilson is nothing more than "silly badass ninja guy who likes chimichangas," that may be incredibly hard to believe. There's certainly nothing wrong with Deadpool stories that focus more on action and humor than character. The two Ryan Reynolds movies are great, Daniel Way's run gave readers some truly hilarious moments, and Cullen Bunn's Deadpool mini-series featured things like Wade fighting Captain Ahab and the adorable Dogpool.
When he first appeared in New Mutants #98, Wade was very much a product of his time, a grim killer decked out with guns, swords, and so many pouches. His co-creators, artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza have never been shy about their inspiration behind the character. In all essence, visually he was a rip-off of Deathstroke, something that Nicieza cheekily acknowledged in naming the character, Wade Wilson. Following his debut, Deadpool appeared in various X-Men titles and ended up being featured in several of his own mini-series before the team of Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness were handed the reins for Deadpool's first feature series. Over the years the character has pretty consistently been featured in his own-solo book and various team books. The tone of these books and Wade's characterization can wildly differ.
At his best, Deadpool has been starred in or been featured in runs that drag him through drastic highs and lows that take an emotional toll that's just as harsh as the gratuitous violence that's inflicted on him physically. In Kelly's seminal run the tragicomedy began as Wade tried but ultimately failed to become a hero. In Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force, he joined Wolverine's mutant hit squad and became something of a moral center for the group but still took part in some very nasty business. And in Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn's 6-year-epic, he became a hero, built a family, and burned it all to the ground in the end. Wade may be the Merc with the Mouth, but beneath all that quipping lies a sad man with a tragic story.
When his origin story is considered, Wade being the goofball that he is seems like an incredibly odd choice. Although his origin has been retconned to hell and back various times, there are a couple of concrete details about Deadpool's backstory. Despite some claims from the villain T-Ray, Wade Wilson really is his identity. He was a Canadian mercenary who fell in love with Vanessa Carlysle AKA Copycat, a mutant prostitute. After he is diagnosed with inoperable cancer, Wade breaks up with Vanessa to spare her from watching him die. As a last-ditch effort to overcome his cancer, he signs up for the Weapon Plus program through the Canadian Department K.
It is here that he is given his healing factor. After being rejected from Weapon Plus, Wade is sent to a hospice under the care of Doctor Killebrew and Ajax, who subject their patients to vicious experiments. Kelly's run on the series visits this incident, where Wade is seen simultaneously losing his mind and gaining his signature disfigurement. It's an incredibly effective sequence that displays what is undisputable one of the most upsetting origin stories in comics. While Wade himself can at times be far from sympathetic under Kelly's pen, the treatment he and his fellow patients receive is monstrous and difficult to see. Making it all the more satisfying when an enraged Wade blasts his way out of the facility. The unhinged rage monster that is seen fleeing the labs of the Weapon Plus program is a far cry from the zany fourth-wall breaker who pops up in everything from Fortnite to the slipcase covers of movies he doesn't appear in.
Apart from that ghastly origin story, the Kelly-McGuinness run on Deadpool established a supporting cast of supporting characters like Weasel and Blind Al and a tone that would frantically shift from goofy to incredibly dark. One moment Wade could be dance fighting a bunch of ninjas, the next he could be locking Blind Al in a room full of sharp objects. Underneath all of the zany pop culture references, Kelly's Deadpool was a cruel bastard and a terrible friend. But he was also a genuinely self-loathing person who desperately wanted to change, and become a hero like Wolverine or Captain America. And while he pretty spectacularly fails to achieve that goal by the end of the run, Kelly's tenure comes to a poignant conclusion with Wade taking comfort in the fact that at the very least he's trying to be better.
Rick Remender's Uncanny X-Force is one of the best team books to ever be released at Marvel. It's also one of Deadpool's best showings ever. After being recruited by Wolverine along with Psylocke, Archangel, and Fantomex, Wade embarks on a series of vital undercover missions to preemptively eliminate threats to mutantkind. In a shocking turn of events, he quickly establishes himself as the moral center of the group after Fantomex guns down a young boy who would grow up to be Apocalypse. Bearing witness to Fantomex's actions is a turning point for Wade, who finds himself conflicted while questioning the dubious reasoning behind the team's assassinations. By the end of the series, Deadpool establishes himself as the most heroic and caring member of the group in his own twisted way.
When Gerry Duggan took over writing Deadpool along with comedian Brian Posehn as part of the Marvel Now! initiative in 2012, the series began with a full-fledged superhero Wade teaming up with S.H.I.E.L.D. to take out an army of zombie U.S. Presidents. When the series ended in 2018, Duggan, now the only writer on the series, was murdered by Deadpool himself within the pages of the final issue before the now-disgraced hero wiped his own memory of all the tragedy the writer had subjected him to. Quite a bit happened in Duggan's 6 years at the helm. Some good, but mostly bad.
There was a landmark wedding issue, a brief spell as a pacifist under the moniker of Zenpool, but the biggest consequence of the run was the introduction of Wade's daughter Ellie. Ellie was conceived after Wade had a one night stand with a woman named Carmelita Camacho. In arguably the greatest Deadpool story of all The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Wade teams up with Wolverine and Captain America to investigate a Weapon Plus facility in North Korea that is grafting mutant powers onto political prisoners. The site is helmed by a man called Butler, one of the people who had experimented on Wade during his own time with the program. It's a somber story-arc that sees an uncharacteristically quiet Wade confront the trauma he experienced in the Weapon Plus program. Matters are made worse when it's revealed that Butler has captured Ellie and had her mother killed.
At one of the lowest points in an already miserably life, Wade sobs over his former lover's corpse, blaming himself for her death. After brutally snapping Butler's neck, Wade discovers that Ellie is alive and well. For a time, he chooses not to be in his daughter's life, as he believes that his presence would put the girl in danger. Despite the hardships of his North Korean escapade, things briefly begin to look up for Wade. He marries the queen of the underworld before reuniting with Ellie and retiring from costumed heroics before a rude interruption of the 2015's Secret Wars event. A melancholy Wade clings to his daughter before lamenting why the event couldn't just be contained in an Avengers book before being vaporized in the incursion of Earth 616 and Earth 1610. It's the closest that Deadpool ever came to a sense of normalcy and happiness and it was rudely ripped out of his hands by a crossover event.
Following the new status-quo established by the Secret Wars, Deadpool's friendship with Steve Rogers is used to manipulate him into becoming a Hydra agent by the evil alternate dimension Cap counterpart in the Secret Empire event. Before coming to the conclusion that he had been aiding a fascist doppelgänger, Wade kills two close allies and destroys his relationship with Ellie in the process. This all leads to that bizarre, Animal Man-style finale where Deadpool kills the writer of his own comic book for giving him so much before taking it all away.
Deadpool is better when he's suffering. As much as some folks might enjoy the random ninja clown who tells dirty jokes, he's actually a pretty compelling character when he's written with any ambition. All those quips are nothing more than a defense mechanism for a broken, self-hating man. He deserves better, both in the life that is written for him and the way he's portrayed across several mediums. The Merc with the Mouth has a heart and soul that needs to be put on display more often. There's a resilience to the character in how he bounces from tragedy to tragedy with a smirk and a one-liner. It's a resilience that can only be appreciated when the full scope of his character is acknowledged. Wade Wilson is a self-destructive and miserable screw-up who's lost far more than he's won over the course of the little under 30-years he's existed. But all those losses just make the little victories Deadpool pulls off every now and then that much sweeter. All those quips are a little bit funnier if they're preceded by a tear or two.
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