There’s no shortage of popular Marvel superheroes who have headlined their own movies. While this honor was once reserved for cultural icons like Spider-Man, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s boom opened the door for all kinds of comic-famous characters to headline their own silver screen adventures. Case in point, this introduced a whole new audience to the beauty that is Deadpool. The Merc With a Mouth has been one of Marvel’s most popular characters for decades, and his movie debut slingshotted him to multi-media superstardom. Still, even sensations like Wade had to start somewhere.
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This month marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Deadpool’s first appearance. He debuted in New Mutants (1983) #98, which has a cover date of February 10, 1991. He actually first appeared alongside the forgettable Gideon and the fan favorite Domino, funnily enough. Of course, the Deadpool that first stalked those pages was very, very different from the fourth-wall-breaking anti-hero that we know and love today. The original Deadpool was much more serious and, at the same time, an even bigger joke than he is today.
A Hyper-Serious Parody Pushed to the Extreme
It’s no secret that Deadpool, Wade Wilson, is a parody of DC’s most famous assassin, Deathstroke, Slade Wilson. From their shared proficiency as mercenaries to their choice of weapons, the resemblance is as plain as day. Heck, even Deadpool’s costume is almost the same, just with a more Spider-Man-inspired mask. The Merc With a Mouth was designed to poke fun at the hyper-serious assassin who had become so popular at Marvel’s rival company, but the funniest part about Deadpool is that he played it completely seriously.
Today, Deadpool is one of Marvel’s jokiest characters. He can’t go a single scene without a pop culture reference or witty banter of some kind. Immediately following his introduction, however, Deadpool was an uber-serious character. He was an edgy anti-hero at the forefront of the Dark Ages of Comics, which were known for being as carnal, irreverent, and over-the-top as possible. Deadpool was the shining star of that mindset, even as he made fun of it by existing. He was a hyper-extreme mercenary who had all the trappings of a serious character, but who was really a big joke, because he lost all seriousness the second you learned anything about him.
Obviously, no one in Marvel ever acknowledged Deadpool’s connection to Deathstroke, except for Deadpool himself, after he developed into the jokester that he is today. That only makes the fact that he took himself as seriously as possible even funnier. It’s like Marvel itself was telling a joke that its characters could never understand, but taking it to an illogical extreme. Deadpool’s existence was always a joke, but as he developed, he got in on it himself.
From a Joke to Marvel’s Beloved Monster
Deadpool’s evolution from a serious mercenary to an irreverent yet traumatically deep man trying his best came slowly. He was always presented as somewhat insane, but the exact nature of his psychosis and his horrific backstory were not explored until nearly a decade after his debut in Deadpool/Death ’98. Today, Deadpool revels in the fact that he’s a joke. He liberally pokes fun at every part of the comic book medium and superhero genre. He’s self-aware of all of his own flaws and how he’ll never be allowed to truly live a normal life, and that is the driving force behind his character.
Deadpool is one of the most popular comic book characters in the world. He’s become a symbol of ironic rebellion against the status quo, even while loving the very media he uses as ammo. He started as one big joke, but now, Deadpool is the one pulling the strings on that. He uses his status as a joke to unsettle the fabric of the Marvel narrative. He’s popular and uses that fact to force the reader to look at the ugly idea that the chaos we celebrate is someone else’s pain, and that is such an ironic, insane thing to come from a parody of Deathstroke.
Deadpool began as a joke, but his role now transcends everything by embracing what he was and becoming something new. Deadpool is truly a unique character, showing that a good character can come from anywhere, so long as they are given the opportunity to grow into themselves. Here’s to thirty-five more years of Deadpool.
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