Deadpool, Ryan Reynold’s X-Men spinoff about a wise-cracking gun-toting mutant mercenary, is on track to be one of the highest-grossing R rated movies of all time, and likely one of the highest-grossing movies of all time, period. However, the raunchy main character has a long history both in comics and on the silver screen before his current appearance.
Deadpool appeared first in The New Mutants 98, as a foe of the junior X-Men team, and their mentor Cable. Created by Rob Liefeld, the weirdly proportioned, pouch and gun-covered anti-hero was archetypal of 90s-era comics. Deadpool was extremely popular, and sales of The New Mutants, later rebranded into X-Force, boomed. He was given a tragic backstory as mercenary Wade Wilson, who, in an effort to cure his fatal cancer, joined Weapon X, a Canadian/US Super-Soldier program also responsible for Wolverine. After his appearances in New Mutants and X-Force, Deadpool bounced around, recieving a pair of low-selling miniseries, and then slowly disappearing from the Marvel Universe.
From 1997 to 2002 Deadpool starred in a series of his own, where his current personality — a childish, free-associating idiot whose mouth never stops moving — was created. He gained a secondary cast, a broad collection of foes and a deeper history. But writer Christopher Priest added one of Deadpool’s most unique traits. He breaks the fourth wall — that is, Deadpool knows that he is a comic book (or video game, or movie) character, and that he’s being written by some guy. In 2002, Deadpool was rebranded, temporarily, into Agent X, but the series was soon cancelled.
Deadpool returned in 2004, costarring with his old friend and sometime foe Cable (shown here facing off against Domino (background) and Citizen V (foreground)). The series was a smash hit, running for four years and spinning off into another eponymous title, and two spinoffs, Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth, and Deadpool Corps. The ever-more insane and sophomoric anti-hero was incredibly popular, starring in over ten series between 2009 and 2012, and in the video games Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Ultimate Alliance 2, and Marvel vs. Capcom. He even received an in-name only appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as the creepy guy with the arm-swords, laser-vision, and mouth sewn shut. Ryan Reyonlds, the actor, wasn’t satisified in this titular version of Deadpool, and lobbied successfully to play the character in a starring role in his own movie — a movie that is an out and out success.
