"You look familiar, did I spin you like a beanie propeller and leave you in a motel room in Dubuque?"

Today's title comes from the special guest of today's post, Deadpool! Yep, you asked for him, you got him (and I would have had a regular post about him anyway)!

Instead of just covering an issue of his series, I'm going to take a different tact with old Wade. First, I'm going to talk a bit about his past, and then I'm going to show some of my favorite Deadpool moments & give some of my favorite quotes.

The Past

(much thanks to this post on Wikipedia, which helped refresh my memory on Deadpool & helped me learn a few facts I didn't know)

Deadpool first appeared in 1991's New Mutants #98, and he was created by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. This is probably the only good thing Liefeld has done in his time. I'm really not a very big fan of him or his art, as you'll probably learn as we go along in this blog.

Deadpool was originally pretty much the Marvel universe's answer to DC's Deathstroke; his name is even a reference or a parody to Deathstroke's (Wade Wilson vs. Slade Wilson). Although he did crack wise some in his early appearances, he didn't become the wacky fellow we know today until the mid-90s; I feel that his second miniseries is the one that really solidified his character.

So, who is Deadpool? Well, known as the Merc with a Mouth, he's an assassin for hire who's known for his snappy wordplay. He is a member of the Weapon X program (best known for giving Wolverine his adamantium skeleton), and he owes his healing factor to them. Wade Wilson was dying of cancer when he chose to take part in the Weapon X program, believing they would cure his cancer; instead, he got the healing factor, and, unfortunately, tumors from his cancer all over his body. Good news is his healing factor keeps the tumors contained & the cancer from killing him; bad news is it's left him looking not unlike Freddy Krueger when his mask is removed.

Wade is also a little bit insane; there has been a lot of speculation on whether he was prior to the Weapon X treatments or if it came as a side effect of them, and I personally side with the latter. Now, as far as I know, they've never shown much of Wade prior to becoming Deadpool, so I'm not sure where I got that feeling from, but given the way the Weapon X treatments affected him and the way they sent the cancer tumors spreading through the rest of his body, it makes sense to me that possibly the tumors would have messed with his brain.

So, Deadpool lurked around various areas of the mutant and general Marvel universe before he wound up with his own title in 1997. My absolute favorite character from that book (aside from Wade, natch) was Blind Al. She was this crotchety old lady (think Aunt May crossed with Bea Arthur crossed with old Mama Fratelli from The Goonies) who was actually Deadpool's prisoner but wound up being kind of a mom to him. I'll be showing a little bit of her in a while, don't worry.

From there, he was paired up with Cable of all people. See, it's ironic because Deadpool's first hit waaaay back in New Mutants was supposed to be Cable & his team. Actually, this worked out pretty damn well; much better than I would have supposed, any way. They had kind of an Odd Couple bromance going on, and I really miss their interplay. I got into the book shortly before it was cancelled (seems to be the way things happen for me).

And that pretty much catches us up to the now. Deadpool is once again starring in his own solo title, written by Daniel Way, and he's also got a miniseries going on and soon, he's going to be getting his own team-up title, if what I've heard is accurate. I would love to see Wade paired up with Spider-Man (for reals, this time!) or maybe She-Hulk or Hercules (I've seen that this last one is actually going to happen, yay!).

Wade has always broken the fourth-wall and has been portrayed as realizing he's just in a comic, but now, he's kind of got a weird thing going. See, his thought boxes have always been portrayed as yellow boxes, but now he's also got a second internal voice, a more irrational one (not like the first one was terribly rational, but there you are), that is in white boxes. Some have speculated that this is his interpretation of Cable talking him through life, but I'm just not sure about that. Honestly, I'm not sure how to take the white boxes at all, but they make me laugh, and that's all I really care about in a Deadpool book.

Great Deadpool Quotes

(I apologize that I don't have the issue numbers for these.)

Weasel: What did you do with Agent X? (looks out the window) Oh, you spelled "Hi Weasel" with his intestines.

Deadpool: I knew you'd peek.

Deadpool: Speaking of games, you ever play Street Fighter?

Shadowcat: As if.

Deadpool: (uppercuts Kitty) SHORYUKEN!

Cable: Wade... only thing that can help me is your blood. Only thing that can help you is mine Deadpool: We're not gonna haveta kiss or anythin'... are we?

Deadpool: Well if it isn't Nathan Christopher Dayspring Askani'son Summers... or are you just calling yourself Priscilla now?

Deadpool: Hey. Naked Avengers painted on the side of the pool. This guy's a loser but he's my kind of loser. Where's Sue Richards...? Duh, Invisible.

Cable: It's a secondary hard drive that acts like a virus, which acts like a server.

Deadpool: Gesundheit.

A great example of Wade breaking the fourth wall:

Deadpool: I am not going back to any more alternate worlds! I mean, Days of Future Past was a classic and all, but it's really all been done to death now...

Sabretooth: Scream for me.

Deadpool: Okay how about this: OMG FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DONT KILL ME PLEASSSE!!
Sabretooth: Quiet!

Deadpool: I can say it with a girly tone if you want.

Deadpool: "Pwangg?" Trees don't go "Pwangg--" Llamas don't go "Pwangg--" Nothing found in nature goes "Pwangg", which means -- we're officially hip deep in the smelly stuff.

Deadpool: I've been besmirched! This besmirchment will not stand!

Deadpool: It's an angel of God. My glorious Bea Arthur--

Favorite Deadpool Moments

Ahh, the moment I've been waiting for! The chance to show you some of my favorite Wade moments, the stuff that made me laugh the hardest or hurt the most for him (yeah, there's at least one of those coming; I'm a sucker for the angst).

First, a couple of scans from Deadpool #11. In this issue, Wade & Blind Al get sent back through time, back into the time of Peter Parker/Spider-Man's teenage years. Wade ends up impersonating Peter & Blind Al, Aunt May.

This scan is from early in the issue, when Wade ends up with a little girl ripping him a new one:

From later in the issue when Blind Al tells Wade they have to be careful or they'll mess up the timeline:

And one more from this issue. Wade decides to use his image transformer to impersonate Peter Parker. Who should he chance running into?

Okay, now for a few more serious ones. These all came from issue 4 of the second Deadpool mini-series.

First, two scans that I think you all will see why I freaked out when I found them today:



These next two scans are why I've always shipped Deadpool & Siryn (then again, maybe the fact that her name is Theresa has something to do with it, lol):

*sniffle* I warned you guys there would be a little sappy stuff in here! Wish more writers would attempt the serious side of Wade from time to time.

Okay, back to the funny. This is from Deadpool #18, during a story arc where Cable gets deaged to an infant:
Baby Cable is so cute!

And, finally, some recent scans. First, from Deadpool #11. A little backstory on this: so, during the recent Skrull invasion, Deadpool was hired by Nick Fury to steal some Skrull data, but Norman Osborn (Green Goblin) intercepted the info, which caused him to be able to kill the Skrull Queen. Deadpool never got paid, which, of course, really pissed Wade off. He tried to take on Osborn's Thunderbolts and succeeded, stealing Osborn's credit cards as repayment. Ante upped once again. Osborn sent Bullseye/Hawkeye to kill Deadpool, and Wade ended up with an arrow in his head, courtesy of Bullseye, which leads into issues 11 & 12.

After his internal monologue uses haiku to warn him of Bullseye's impending attack:


Deadpool manages to defeat Bullseye by wearing a meat suit (yes, it's as wacky as it sounds, no, I'm not going to show you because you must see it for yourself!), and after a quick stint in the hospital, Bullseye returns to hunt Wade again. This time, he brought a rocket launcher:


And on that awesome note, I'll end our first Deadpool post. Hope you guys got as much of a kick out of it as I did putting it together. Return tomorrow for superheros & pirates (no, it's not what you think it is, sorry).