Are you one of the people who knew nothing about Deadpool a year ago, but now you can't stop talking about him? You're among friends, as it's no news to anyone that the comic book anti-hero Deadpool's popularity has skyrocketed in the past couple of years seemingly out of nowhere and with good reason. He is definitely one of the greatest comic book characters of all time due to his unique nature, set of powers, and out there personality. In this article, I'll be discussing the history, lore and background of Deadpool, and what exactly makes the Merc with a mouth so great.

History of Deadpool

So the history behind Deadpool is somewhat jaded. The most accepted truth is that Deadpool's real name is Wade Winston Wilson, but he has also been called Wade T. Wilson, Jack and has been accused of actually stealing the identity of Wade Wilson by his enemy of the same name in one comic book issue.

What is most widely known and believed is that he was born in Canada. At an early age, his mother died of cancer, and his military father was physically abusive. Wade grew up to be a delinquent teenager and wanted to spite his abusive father any way he knew how. One night, whilst Wade was drinking with his friends, his father attempted to take him out of the club that they were in. In an act of defense, one of Wade's drinking buddies stole Wade's Father's handgun and shot Wade's father, killing him.The canonical acceptance of his identity, as stated by Deadpool himself, is whichever name the writer feels like calling him. For all intents and purposes, we'll call him Wade for now. Wade's life before his Deadpool alias is mostly unknown, with the true identity of his parents shrouded in so much mystery, that in one comic book issue, Loki (brother of Thor and god of mischief) actually claimed to be his father.

After a few more years, Wade joined the military, developing his now famous exemplary mercenary skills. After a short time, he left the military to become a hired gun, taking contracts out only on people whom he thought deserved to die. Soon after, Wade fell in love with an American prostitute named Vanessa Carlysle, with whom he shared dreams for a better life.

After many more mercenary adventures, including a partnership with a target turned ally Blind Al, Wade had discovered that he had contracted terminal cancer, and broke up with Vanessa rather than force her to be with a terminally ill man. Upon returning to Canada, he was offered hope for his condition by Department K, a branch of the Weapon X program developed by the United States government that dealt with special weapons development. Wade became a test subject in the Department K program and had his cancer temporarily arrested derived from another Department K test subject, Wolverine. With his newfound abilities, Wade went into the covert field unit of the Weapon X program alongside fellow test subjects Slayback, Kane and Sluggo. He also met with someone in his past during his time with this team, as his ex-girlfriend Vanessa Carlysle joined the team after taking on the alias 'Copycat' due to her newfound shapeshifting abilities.

After killing Slayback during a mission, Wade was terminated from the Weapon X program and sent to Hospice, a government facility where failed government experiments were treated. During his time in Hospice, he was tortured by the heads of the facility, Doctor Killebrew and Ajax along, with all of the other patients. During their time in Hospice, the patients placed bets in a "deadpool", betting on which subjects would die next at the hands of the sadistic doctors.

After many affiliations and tangos with the likes of Hammerhead (he served as his bodyguard), Cable (was first sent to kill him, but they became friends), Domino, the X-Men, Blind Al (Deadpool trapped her in her home whilst killing anyone she sought after if she tried to escape), Sasquatch, Bulls-Eye, Taskmaster (Beat him once and joined two teams with him), T-Ray, Juggernaut, Weasel (Deadpool recruited him as a weapons dealer), Constrictor, Black Tom Cassidy, Tiamat, Doctor Bong, Sabretooth, Duncan Vess, Titania, the Director, Death (Love Triangle), Thanos (Love Triangle), Black Swan, and many others as well as joining teams such as the X-Men, the X-Force, the Alpha Flight, the Frightful Four, Agency X, and even The Avengers, Deadpool became widely known throughout the Marvel Universe as being one of the most dangerous mercenaries to ever walk the planet. With his regenerative abilities, mercenary training, vast array of weapons, teleportation abilities, and his infamous breaking of the 4th wall, Deadpool has proven himself a force to be reckoned with inside the Marvel Universe.During the time that Doctor Killebrew tortured Wade through his sadistic experiments, Wade formed a semi-romantic relationship with Death itself, who regarded Wade as a kindred spirit. Due to Wade's strong emotional will (so much so that if he were DC, he would have probably earned a Green Lantern Ring), he earned the respect of his fellow patients and caused the sadistic doctors to become so angry at him, that they lobotomized one of the Wade's friends in front of him. At Death's discretion, Wade killed his friend in order to end his suffering, however, due to the policy enforced at Hospice, any patient that killed another was to be executed. Ajax tore out Wilson's heart, leaving him for dead. However, Wade's thirst for revenge was so strong that it kickstarted his healing factor that he gained from the Weapon X program and he regenerated his heart, however, the healing factor couldn't heal the scars from the cancer and the torture on his skin. He then attacked Ajax, left him for dead inside Hospice, and escaped with his other patients, taking on the name Deadpool in honor of these torturous memories.

Deadpool Bio and Powers:

Favorite Food: Chimichangas

Favorite Weapon: Guns and Katanas

Powers:

-Healing Factor

-Accelerated Strength, Agility, Stamina, and Speed

-Extremely Gifted at Hand-To-Hand Combat

-Drug and Toxin resistant

-Cursed by Thanos with Immortality

-Teleportation Device

-4th Wall Breaking

So What's So Great About Deadpool?

The question that I've heard uttered so many times is thus: "What's so great about Deadpool?" or "What makes him different than any other hero?" The difference in Deadpool is that due to the torturous experiments that he has suffered through, as well as the Weapon X program, his sanity is unidentifiable. He hasn't lost his marbles simply because the marbles are actually refrigerators dancing to Elvis Presley. This is exemplified due to Deadpool having two voices other than his own in his head due to the Weapon X program. Coupled with this, he breaks the fourth wall constantly and is able to identify that he is inside of an entertainment medium, bringing an air of humor to his comics and mediums.

The answer to the question posed earlier is a result of all of these factors. The Deadpool character cannot truly be summed up in paragraphs and words, in order to truly understand the Deadpool character and what makes him so great in the eyes of so many people, you need to see anything he is in (other than X-Men Origins, we'll talk about that later). He makes an appearance in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon, in which beginners to his character can begin to understand his tendencies, he has an endless amount of comic books to read, and my personal favorite is the video game that was developed by High Moon Studios that is available for all consoles except Nintendo (for obvious reasons) in which I truly feel he is done justice to his character. Another fantastic medium that has found insurmountable success is Deadpool's new movie that was released in February, which was met with both critical and viewer acclaim.

If any of these are not enough to answer your question, then just accept the answer that your favorite hero is your favorite because he is your favorite. Same with Deadpool. People are entitled to their opinions as to who they think are good characters and who they think are not. Deadpool may not be your personal favorite, but he sure is mine.

Deadpool, His Movie, and His Audience

The actor who portrayed Deadpool in February has actually played him before his newest outing in the cinematic world. In 2009's X-Men: Origins, Ryan Reynolds took the role of Deadpool and hated it, as well as many of Deadpool's fans. During this film, the directors threw Deadpool's nickname "The Merc With a Mouth" completely out the window by sewing his mouth shut during the latter half of his screentime. They then gave him the ridiculous power to shoot lasers out of his eyes, which appears nowhere in the Marvel comic books. This film basically attempted to destroy any shred of credibility Deadpool had with audiences and was quickly dismissed from the Deadpool canon.

However, after fighting an uphill battle with studios for years, Ryan Reynolds convinced Fox to produce a Deadpool movie and, within even more fighting, convinced them to give it an R rating.

After the atrocious response from X-Men: Origins, Fox was hesitant to give the film's least liked character a standalone film. However, being a fan of Deadpool himself, Ryan Reynolds was able to give the anti-hero what he deserved. Many fans were on the fence concerning Reynolds due to his portrayal of the character in X-Men: Origins as well as his only leading role in a superhero film was the train-wreck known as the "Green Lantern", (to which he referenced in one of the trailers for 'Deadpool' as he doesn't want his super-suit 'Green or Animated'.) however, when the test footage that Reynolds pitched to Fox went public as well as viral, fans quickly began backing Reynolds with everything they had.

The test footage was really when everyone began to like Deadpool for who he was, a smart-aleck (I wanted to use another A-word for that.) who doesn't take anything from anybody and will make quick remarks while slicing you in the face.

So how was the movie? I personally loved the film strictly because it is the closest we have ever seen to the Deadpool Canon in the comic books. The video game was fairly close, but there were a few small details that were missed out, however, the film seems to have the perfect balance between the backstory of Wade Wilson as well as the alias Deadpool and his misadventures. Accompanying the canonical loyalty of the film, it was beautifully done with all aspects of textbook cinema intact. Ryan Reynolds, being a Deadpool fan as well as an experienced cimenatic artist, was able to have a lot of breathing room with his role by having an R rating on the film and is able to perfectly execute what he knows Deadpool would do in the situations posed in the script thanks to his knowledge of the medium and talent as an actor.

If you are not familiar with Deadpool as a character, I would highly recommend going to see the movie, playing the video game, or reading any of his comics. He is personally my favorite fictional character of all time and I give you my personal guarantee that you will love him too! Now bring on the chimichangas!