Fox Studios will be releasing their newest superhero movie, “Deadpool,” Friday, Feb. 12 in theaters. I know what a lot of you are thinking: “Who is this Deadpool guy and where did he come from?” Well, that’s where I step in – I’m going to give you a brief rundown of the Merc with the Mouth and if you’re really lucky, I might give you some sweet reading recommendations from my extensive research. I’m totally going to give you reading recommendations. My research was just reading copious amounts of comic books; I just thought the word “research” sounded more official. Moving on.
Deadpool, also know as Wade Wilson, was created by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld. Deadpool made his first appearance as an assassin in “The New Mutants” issue 98 (here come those reading recommendations I mentioned). Deadpool was created as more of a joke to DC Comics’ very own Deathstroke whose alias is known as Slade Wilson. Deadpool is known as an antihero rather than a superhero, because he doesn’t always do what is right but rather what pays the bills for him. Deadpool does whatever benefits himself the most, rather than the good of the general public as a superhero would.
Wilson grew up in a dysfunctional family with a mother who turned to alcohol and a bad spending problem after Wilson’s father left one day. Wilson always felt like a burden to his mom, so one day he left home for good. After leaving home, he joined the army for a while before becoming a mercenary, but not just your run-of-the-mill mercenary; one who only took on assassination jobs that he believed in himself. A guy has to sleep at night, after all.
Wade had a girlfriend named Vanessa who was a, how do you say, lady of the night. Once again, a dysfunctional relationship, but they made it work as well as that can work. Wilson came home one day from a job and found a letter from his doctor saying that he had Stage IV cancer which caused him to fall back on his ideology of not wanting to be a burden to anyone. So he left Vanessa to try to deal with his cancer alone.
Wade left for Canada and ran into another mercenary who pointed him toward the Weapon X program, the same Weapon X program that gave Wolverine his Adamantium skeleton and claws. The focus of Weapon X, at this time, was to give someone the healing factor of Wolverine that has enabled him to live for so long and walk away from basically any injury unscathed. Wilson volunteered for the Weapon X program in order to escape his inevitable death and was admitted for testing. The testing worked, however, Wilson was hideously scarred making him unbearable to look at (All of this information can be found in “X-Men Origins: Deadpool” for more details).
One thing that makes Deadpool so unique is the fact that he breaks the fourth wall; in other words, Deadpool is a comic book character who is self-aware that he is in a comic book, and will often speak to the reader (Yes, that is Deadpool talking to Ben Franklin, go read it to find out why!).
As previously stated, Deadpool has a very fast healing factor that rivals that of Wolverine. He can regrow limbs and is virtually indestructible. He also is immune to any poison, drug or disease and is also extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat.
It’s certainly not a hard concept to understand that Deadpool was certainly made out of some form of a joke as the character is one of the funniest comic book characters hands down. He has a huge sense of humor and isn’t one to stay quiet during battle, as he is constantly taunting his opponents and making jokes throughout, hence the name, “Merc with the Mouth."
“Deadpool” will certainly be the most unconventional superhero movie to be released this year, but will certainly not be one to disappoint. What do you guys think? Is “Deadpool” going to amaze, or is he a character better left for the comic books? Let me know in the comments!
