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~Matt Key

With Deadpool already setting records both domestically and abroad for Opening Night Previews for a rated-R film, no doubt if you were on the fence with this movie you’re definitely considering it now.

If you are one of the people pleasantly sitting on the fence — if it’s possible to sit upon a fence pleasantly that is — it’s more than likely you might have a few questions about Deadpool.

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So, here is everything you need to know about the character to help you make that difficult decision of if you want to give this movie your $15 for President’s Day.

By the way, the answer is yes, you do want to give this film your money, but, if you won’t take our word for it, let us spell it out for you.

The mercenary Wade Wilson, a.k.a. Deadpool, was first seen in New Mutants #98. 

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He was created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld, an artist notorious for an over-abundance of pouches and an inability to draw feet or backgrounds — yet still somehow helped to define the comic book style of the 90’s. Here are some examples.

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Famously, Liefeld was a huge fan of the DC villain Deathstroke and wanted to create his own version of that for the Marvel Universe. Slade Wilson a.k.a. Deathstroke became Wade Wilson a.k.a. Deadpool and we were off to the races.

Since the character premiered with the New Mutants and X-Force, he’s often times found his way back into their stories, either as an ally or an enemy, just depends on who’s paying more, though more recently he’s upped his game to consistent hero status, not really caring too much about the money, though he doesn’t always let that truth seep out.

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So, what can he do? What are his powers?

First of all, he’s a bad ass. He’s a master martial artist and acrobat and is proficient with pretty much every sort of firearm.

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He also really loves his katanas.

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But, that’s not really what sets him apart — it’s his superhuman mutant healing factor that does that. He can heal from pretty much every wound, basically making him immortal. He’s been decapitated and then reattached his head. He’s been atomized and still found a way to reconstitute himself. His body can stitch itself back together from pretty much any wound. He still feels pain, but he just doesn’t die.

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It also doesn’t hurt that at one point he had a sort of tryst with Death. Like, actual Death. Lady Death, the one that Thanos is in love with? That one. But, that’s an entirely different story to tell.

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Where did he come from? What’s his origin story?

The movie pretty much has it dead on. He’s a highly trained soldier who, after finally finding the love of his life in Vanessa Carlyle (played by Morena Baccarin in the film) is told that he has incurable cancer. Instead of forcing a woman he loves to wait by his side as he withers and dies, he breaks things off with her and then joins a secret military program called Weapon X under the promise that they can heal him.

Weapon X, coincidentally, is the same program that created Wolverine.

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Eventually, he meets up with an evil, sadistic physician named Dr. Kilebrew, and his assistant Ajax, and they both perform cruel and torturous experiments on their patients, testing the limits of human physiology in search of making a better soldier. Wade Wilson revolts, destroying all their work and is killed by Ajax when he literally rips his heart out.

Wade Wilson’s healing factor kicks into overdrive, growing him a new heart and now, reborn as the mercenary Deadpool, he exacts his revenge on Ajax Kilebrew.

Coincidentally, it’s him dying while still disfigured that has kept him so intensely scarred and corpse-like in his appearance. He doesn’t wear a mask to protect his identity, he wears a mask because of how terrifying he is.

The other big gigantic important thing for you to know about Deadpool is that he breaks the fourth wall and is hyper-aware that he is, in fact, a comic book character.

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He knows that he talks in word balloons, he knows that little boxes appear in little framed bits of action that dictate what he’s doing. Even better than that, he addresses those boxes. And his thoughts address the word balloons, which in turn re-address the word boxes. Deadpool is as meta a character as you can get.

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The best part about him talking to the word balloons and little boxes, calling out whatever things they say, is that no other characters around him believe that they are in a comic book. So when he breaks that wall and talks to the boxes, the other characters just believe he’s crazy. He’s not, of course, and we know that, but Captain America, Wolverine and Cable, or whomever else he is with, do not know that.

This fourth wall extends to knowing that he’s drawn and written for as well, which has caused him to address his creators and even, in one instance, jump off the page to kill them. He’s also tried killing his audience so he can kill himself, which means that he has fully embraced the knowledge that he is as much of a concept as he is a character.

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No one in the Marvel Universe likes him. At best, he’s an irritant that they have to put up with. The only real friends he has, other than the girl he loves, are Blind Al, a woman who was originally a prisoner of his but has now just relegated her life to being stuck with this man that she both loves and hates. The other ally he has is Weasel, played by T.J. Miller in the film. He is a tech expert and weapons buyer for Deadpool.

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Deadpool likes Chimichangas and tacos, is a total fan boy for Spider-Man, falls in love easily and, in fact, defines himself as pansexual.

Deadpool is in theatres now and has already broken the record for largest soft opening for a Rated-R comedy ever.

GO SEE IT!

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