Deadpool is the New Wolverine: A Character Representing the Times or Just One Shoved Down Our Throats?

Deadpool in the foreground and Wolverine in the background. From the cover of Wolverine: Origins #23 from Marvel Comics. Art by Simone Bianche. Taken from ComicBookResources.com

Everyone knows Wolverine, right? The guy Hugh Jackman played in the three X-Men movies and recently spun off into his own origin film this past summer? Well, before the characters mainstream success, Wolverine was a superstar of Marvel Comics. Well, all comics for that matter.

You see, back in the 80’s and 90’s, anti-heroes (amoral individuals who served as protagonists) were the most popular characters on the market. New characters were introduced or created to take advantage of this popularity, like Wolverine, Cable , Punisher, or Ghost Rider from Marvel and Doctor Fate and Lobo from DC Comics.

Wolverine was easily one of the most popular of these characters, and Marvel was quick to take advantage of this by putting the character into as many of their other titles as possible to bolster sales. Got a series that’s failing? Stick Wolverine in there for a panel and advertise the crap out of it, then count your money.

This was neat at the time, but looking back you see that many of the comics featuring anti-heroes were just a collage of violence and character’s acting “bad-ass” for the sake of getting attention.

Then along comes Deadpool.

I'm not too sure of the context here. The cover of Cable & Deadpool #15. Taken from Marvel.com

Created in the 90’s as a villain in X-Factor (an X-Men spin-off book), the character served as juxtaposition to the more serious characters in the book, like Cable. While Cable grunted and fired heavy weapons into swarms of enemies, Deadpool would crack morbid jokes…and slaughtered swarms of enemies.

Deadpool’s biography mirrors that of Wolverine. Most of his life is unknown before he joined the Weapon X program, the same government program that gave Wolverine a skeleton lined with an unbreakable metal. Deadpool was a mercenary named Wade Wilson, who had cancer. He joined the program when they promised to cure his cancer. To do this, they experimented on Wilson to see if they could replicate Wolverine’s ability to heal from any injury in a regular human. Wilson was at the brink of death when his healing factor finally kicked in, causing him to violently attack the doctors for the pain they caused him. He took the name Deadpool since he was the only person left alive of those who were experimented on.

As a result of the experiments, Wilson gained the ability to recover from just about any mortal wound, but at the cost of a hideous appearance and loss of sanity. As serious as this sounds, its often played effectively for laughs. He will constantly blather on about random topics, like the degradation in quality of G.I. Joe action figures, while fighting his enemies. His healing factor also allows him to act like a morbid Wily Coyote: losing limbs and reattaching them for comedic effect.

In a world where Judd Apatow movies are blockbusters, and the meme driven humor of the internet is bleeding into popular culture, Deadpool seems the perfect character for the times.

An example of classic Deadpool dialog:

“A nation full of Chuck E. Cheeses and Fern Bars to choose from and you pusheads nuke the only decent waterin’ while east of the panhandle!

“You have any idea how hard it is to find a joint that’ll serve a guy in a mask and bandoleer? They won’t even let me into Taco Bell!”

–Deadpool to mercenaries who ambushed him. Taken from Deadpool #1 (1994) MARVEL COMICS

Deadpool recently made his first animated appearance in the film Hulk Vs. Wolverine:

Deadpool had a long running series in the 90’s and early 2000’s and as of now has 2 ongoing series with his name in the title (Deadpool, and Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth). By the end of the year he will have one more book, Deadpool Team-Up, and he’ll become a cast member of X-Force.

Problem is thought that he’s starting to show up just about everywhere these days. The Deadpool Bugle, a Deadpool fan site, lists every Deadpool appearance in Marvel comics, and it’s starting to get ridiculous.

Deadpool(right) on the cover of Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu #1. Shang Chi is one of Marvel's lesser known characters, even in the comic community, which is probably why Deadpool shows up on the cover. Picture taken from Deadpool Bugle.

There is such thing as too much of a good thing. And if Marvels not careful, they could drive this character into the ground.

You know what it’s like when we hear a comedian too much, like Dane Cook? You grow to hate them, right? I don’t want this to happen to Deadpool.

What do you guys think? Is Deadpool overexposed now? Do you guys want more of him? Let me know what you think.