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This article was originally published in February 2016, in advance of the release ofDeadpool.
That last bit is what makes his Ryan Reynoldsstarring film extremely timely.
Even the lighter ones are pretty self-serious, blindly accepting the bizarre tropes of the genre.
Flip through online superhero-fandom communities, and youll see page after page of Deadpool memes and quotes.
And he now exists as a character beloved by fans who otherwise might not agree on just about anything.
He deserves to be proud.
His first issue in this new role wasThe New MutantsNo.
I had a notebook full of names, he recalls.
Liefeld liked the way the term sounded and mashed the words together.
Being an artist first and foremost, he moved on to concocting an appropriately violent look.
So he sketched out a red-and-black jumpsuit, littered with pouches for ammo.
You just do an oval and two big eyes.
Youre in, youre out.
Spidey also loomed large in Liefelds conception of the next creative building block: personality.
Spider-Man in 1990 was a depressed married guy, Liefeld accurately recalls.
The Spider-ManIgrew up with would make fun of you or punch you in the face and make small cracks.
That was the entire intent with Deadpool.
But even if he was going to be jokey, he couldnt be too light.
This was the 90s, after all readers needed a little bite with their bark.
I specifically told Marvel, Hes Spider-Man, except with guns and swords.
The idea was, hes a jackass.
There was one more foundation stone every good new character needs: backstory.
Liefeld wanted Deadpools to be rooted in failure and disgrace.
The gruff and iconic Wolverine was the most famous product of the program.
Weapon X, thats a roman No.
10, he explains.
I said, I want Deadpool to be Weapon 9.
If Wolverine were Schwarzenegger, Deadpool would be DeVito.
Then the concept was given its final and crucial addition: a voice.
If the character couldnt actually be funny, hed be dead in the water.
No filter, less remorse.
Thats liberating for a writer!
And so the world gotThe New MutantsNo.
The cover left no ambiguity that this was supposed to be the debut of a superstar.
This previously unseen figure stood proudly at the center of the image, chest and crotch pointing slightly outward.
Whoever this guy was, he meant business.
Readers were denied immediate gratification when they opened the issue, however.
Then, out of nowhere, Cable gets knocked on his ass.
Turn the page, and you see that red-clad figure from the cover in his very first comics panel.
Pleased to meet you, he says, standing over his stunned prey.
Deadpool explains that hes a mercenary, hired to take Cable down.
So when I frost your sorry old mechanical butt, dont take itpersonally, okay?
Five pages of vintage Liefeld tussling and Nicieza quipping followed.
And he was an instant hit.
New Mutantsmail increased no kidding by about 500 percent forNew MutantsNo.
He started making cameos in other Marvel series.
He got a commemorative trading card.
Nicieza poked a little fun at Liefeld when he came up with the characters civilian moniker.
As a cheeky homage, Pools birth name would beWadeWilson.
But if some of the characters aspects were derivative, one became unique: his speech bubbles.
Typically, comics feature simple white bubbles with black outlines and black text.
But Deadpools had, oddly enough, a yellow outline.
The idea was to convey that this guy was a little … off.
As a result, co-creator Nicieza became the characters steward.
His dialogue was becoming mouthier and wackier.
he yells while kicking someone in the face.
Come ta think of it Ive seen tougherKendolls than you!
Then things started to fall apart.
Nicieza had what he calls a very acrimonious divorce from Deadpool soon afterThe Circle Chase.
A second mini-series did indeed happen but Nicieza wasnt allowed to write it.
In fact, he was already clashing with the higher-ups about his work on other X-Men-related series.
The editors deemed it too depressing which,no kidding, of course it was depressing, he recalls.
But their reign was short-lived.
Deadpool-mania had died down significantly, and Marvel wasnt excited enough about the character to keep pushing him.
The publisher had financially collapsed due to an industrywide slump, and Marvel found itself in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The leadership was in shambles, with new editors-in-chief cycling in and out every few months.
But one consequence of chaos is opportunity.
Deadpool was a character that, honestly,they didnt … Joe Kelly trails off.
Hes describing Marvels attitude toward the characters first ongoing series.
They really figured that he might go six issues.
Today, Kelly is an entertainment impresario who co-owns a writers collective called Man of Action.
But in the mid-90s, he was a wet-behind-the-ears comics writer with virtually no experience.
He got the gig but realized the series would need to balance its massive ridiculousness with equally massive pathos.
This was a very consequential idea, as that theme has come to define the character ever since.
Deadpool is a guy who wouldliketo do the right thing but is constitutionally incapable of pulling that off.
And on those rare occasions that hedoes, the universe kicks him in the nuts.
That was always the deal.
He just cannot win.
But hecanmake you laugh.
In other words, Deadpool became something of a murderous Robin Williams.
The first moment we see this comes in the second issue of KellysDeadpool.
And burst into a dance number?!?
I thought youd never ask!
He starts leaping in balletic poses.
He hes moving differently!
His technique … suddenly erratic unpredictable but thats impossible!
So it was from 1997 to 1999, during Joe Kellys run on Deadpool.
It was rarely a financial hit, perpetually running into the threat of cancellation.
11, in which Wade and Blind Al get shunted back in time.
The resulting tale cemented another essential aspect of Deadpool: commentary on superhero tropes.
Someone tells Wade theres a new writer onDeadpool, one who has never been assigned to a successful series.
A few pages later, he says hes learned a secret about the world: Noneof this isactually happening.
This is all histwisted imagination.
This kind of storytelling tactic in a mainstream superhero comic was unusual.
By then, for all its stylistic virtues, it was something of a financial basket case.
(For comparison: The top-rated X-Men series of the era was shipping about 100,000 copies a month.)
The results were as funny and hyperactive as the heights of the Kelly run.
And yet, as is always true with Wade Wilson, no good deed goes unpunished.
The first issue is out and theres all this buzz, I couldnt be happier, Simone says.
All of a sudden,Deadpoolwas replaced with a strange new series also written by Simone calledAgent X.
A few factors might have been at play.
(Neither Liefeld nor Marvel responded to requests for comment on the matter.)
No matter the reasons,Agent Xonly temporarily juiced sales.
After her departure, the series went back into the 24,000-a-month range and ended after issue 15.
Wade made an appearance in the final few installments, but the damage to the brand had been done.
Marvel shuttered the series, and with it, any ongoing solo adventures of Deadpool.
The thinking was,This character has flatlined.We dont care what you do.
Just get a pulse, writer Daniel Way says.
This was my mandate.
One who always came up was Deadpool.
I wanted to double down on the sophomoric, anarchic humor hes built for, Alonso says.
Humor was a hard sell at the time, but lets face it, thats Deadpools oxygen.
It was a surprise smash when it debuted in 2008.
Then the third issue sold out and needed a new printing, too.
And the 11th issue.
It was flying off the shelves.Something had changed.
Marvel recognized that Deadpool was suddenly a hot property in a way he hadnt been since 1992.
The trouble is, to this day, no ones exactly sure why.
Marvel was smart enough to know the book was working, Way recalls.
Its entirely possible thatDeadpools success was simply due to Ways storytelling.
His Wade was more insane than hed ever been.
Way says it was part of his effort to accentuate Wades moral ambiguity and mental instability.
We had this internal tagline: Madness is his method, he recalls.
Doesnt everyone have an angel and a devil on the shoulder?
Thats what I was doing, except I made them both devils.
It gave him a triangulating perspective so he could see things others didnt.
These internal conversations got very surreal.
Shouldve grabbed that cleaver!
Why didnt you think of that?
Wade yells to his own mind.
Sorry, not my department, says one of the voices.
Ban an an an an an an an an an a, replies the other.
Wade screams to himself.
The more esoteric realms of thought, the functioning voice replies.
For example:in mortal danger / in shadows, a psychopath / step into the light.
Wade crinkles his forehead in thought about what his own brain has just said to him.
Was that …haiku?!
Havent seen you sinceAmazing Spider-ManNo.
Way says the key was accentuating Deadpools uniqueness in the superhero canon.
With my Deadpool stories, if you take Deadpool out of it, it makeszerofucking sense.
His sense of humor is so referential and quick.
He has no attention span.
A different kind of digital medium one far more popular than comic books also contributed to Wades rise.
By 2011, any game appearance was merely contributing to the tidal wave that had already overtaken comics.
Marvel doubled down on the character in an unprecedented way.
Between 2009 and 2012, there were an astounding 11 different comics series starring Deadpool.
No character in comics history has been that prolific.
We have more Deadpool shirts and apparel than any other character.
Hes the antihero that instantly connects with me, he says.
I was never the school jock or the prom queen …
I was the outsider.
I was the joker in the classroom, the speak-and-think-later pop in of guy.
Even children perhapsespeciallychildren are into Pool.
Cohen says of little visitors to his store.
Another thing setting him apart: Deadpool is a rape survivor.
Yes, hes had some stories where hes very dudebro.
(Marvel, for what its worth, declines to comment on Wades sexuality.)
On the other hand, his identity can be divisive.
But hes still a Deadpool fan nonetheless.
Theyre self-contained romps featuring Wade doing things like fighting zombies or inserting himself intoMoby-DickandA Christmas Carol.
Novices are very much welcome to join the Pool party.
But it wasnt easy to get it made.
It was a passion project for Ryan,says Simon Kinberg, one of the movies producers.
Their plans for a Deadpool movie didnt work out, but a seed had been planted.
Reynolds remained obsessed with the character,according toformer Fox exec Jeff Katz.
His first two scenes were pitch-perfect Wade.
At one point, their squad gets briefly trapped in an elevator.
Stuck in an elevator with five guys on a high-protein diet.
Dreams really do come true, Wade whispers.
The commander tells him to shut up.
Thank you, sir.
You look really nice today, Wade replies.
It brings out the seriousness in your eyes.
Wolverine growls at him: God, do you ever shut up, pal?
No, Wade says, not when Im awake.
Then they get out, and Wade viciously annihilates a room full of baddies using his swords.
It was something straight out of a Daniel Way or Nicieza/Liefeld issue.
If only the rest of the film had done him the same kind of justice.
But … his mouth is sewn shut, for some reason.
The Merc With a Mouth couldnt speak.
The movie did reasonably well at the box office, but it was anathema for fans.
I heard that movie is still played as a torturing machine during police interrogations, says Andy the cosplayer.
Nevertheless, there was still hope for a big-screen Wade.
Liefeld told everyone who would listen fans, movie insiders that the footage was awesome.
But gradually, he was one of the only ones making any Deadpool-related noise.
The project went on the back burner for years.
Fox devoted its efforts to first rebooting the core X-Men franchise withX-Men: First ClassandThe Wolverine.
Then something remarkable and mysterious happened.
It tore up entertainment and geek-news sites.
Deadpool Movie Test Footage Leaks, Is Perfect, read the headline on DenOfGeek.com.
Interest was reignited, and the movies team was suddenly taking meetings about the project again.
Within just a few months,Deadpoolwas green-lit, and production began.
Dead Poo L?).
Thetesticular-cancer-awareness videostarring Reynolds in the Deadpool costume.
Asoccer promoin which Wade fantasizes about kissing Wayne Rooney.
Thats just a small fraction of theadvertisingthe studio has done.
Fox is pretty confident about this thing.
And now we are on the verge of the apotheosis of Wade Wilson.
The movie is good, but Wade sorry, I mean Ryan is electric.
They didnt know that the Liefeld family had anything to do with it.
Theyd just say he was cool.
Thats just job security.
Deadpool will be around for a while, and it feels good.
