The Evolution of Deadpool: Entry 001
I'd never read any Deadpool comics until last summer, but in the short time I've been delving into him I've become pretty attached, so I'm gonna write this little series exploring his development over the years, from villain to anti-hero, as a tribute to the character who is now tied with Batman and Spider-Man as my favorite superhero. I imagine it's easy to assume that my preoccupation with Deadpool is down to his puerile humor and general douchiness (which I
do love), but he has depth that I really identify with that probably gets ignored by a lot of people---honestly, I think you really have to be kind of an ******* to truly get him. But enough babbling. Hopefully this post'll give some folks a bit of an interesting history lesson in Deadpool's origins...
First Appearance/
X-Force #2--#15
There really isn't a whole lot to say about Deadpool at this point. He was created by Rob Liefeld---one of the only good things he ever did---which should give you some idea of the Pool's early depth. By Liefeld's own admission he just wanted a character with a Spider-Man-like costume (I imagine mostly cause he just hated drawing facial expressions) who made Schwarzenegger one-liners. Deadpool wasn't even crazy yet, just kind of a ruthless mercenary who made bad jokes (as in
bad bad, not
good bag), and was a mid-level flunky working for some guy who hated X-Force for reasons I've already forgotten. Any character development just made him look like a dirtbag with no motivation other than money. The only time we ever really learned anything about him was with a former girlfriend, who was impersonating the X-Force member Domino in order to spy on the team for Deadpool's employer. She seemed to have switched sides, and so Deadpool was dispatched to bring her back into the fold. Rather than showing a human side, he merely knocked her around a bit, making him look like nothing more than a psychopath.
It wouldn't be until his first two mini-series in the early/mid nineties that he ever showed signs of becoming the character we all know and love today.
TBC...