Back in like 1992 or 1993 is when I got into comic books. Naturally, like most kids of that era, it was X-Men that proved to be the gateway into comic-nerd-dom forevermore, and it wasn’t really long before I would blow loads and loads of my parents’ money on comic book related shit, in hopes of getting X-Men related crap.
I bought the entire set of X-Men Series One trading cards (minus the oddly-rare Iceman card) from a classmate for $15, which was a gargantuan amount in the fifth grade. I remember being all thrilled to seeing all the cards of the characters I recognized like Gambit and Wolverine, as well as the lusty excitement to see how disproportionately sexy Jim Lee drew women like Rogue and the White Queen, but all in all, of the 208 card set, there were a fuck ton of characters that I had never seen in my life, because the set encapsulated all sorts of villains that weren’t Magneto, and all of the B-characters that were a part of X-Force, X-Factor, and Excalibur. Regardless, being the inquisitive wannabe comic nerd poser, that didn’t stop me from reading all the cards’ bios and examining each and every one of them at some point.
It was during this time that I discovered the existence of Deadpool. From what his bio revealed, he was a guy mired in the X-Force storylines, entwined with whatever Cable was doing. The mention of Weapon X meant nothing to me at this point of my comic noob-ness, since I was that new to comic books at that time, and was unaware that Weapon X meant Wolverine, which meant something that ultimately the entire company revolved around. But for the most part, he was a negligible character that seemed to look too close to Spider-Man to my earlier comic days.
And that’s pretty much how it remained for the better part of an entire decade. As my comic-reading habits expanded, I eventually discovered how those previously-unknown and mystery characters that were a part of X-Men Series One worked into the X- and Marvel universe. Stryfe, Mr. Sinister and Apocalypse were integral parts of the X-Cutioner’s Song, the advent of the Legacy Virus, and into the Age of Apocalypse storylines. I branched out and actually briefly got into X-Factor, and storylines like Fatal Attractions that encompassed all of the X-stories always appealed to me. In fact, I still have a lot of the original direct editions of most of the Fatal Attractions comics, including what I argue is one of the best singular X-related comics ever, in Wolverine #75.
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I as I grew up, went through my weeaboo phase, and other aspects of growing up, American comic books kind of took a back seat, to my revolving door of interests, phases and kicks. Somewhere in this chunk of time, about some, ten years after Deadpool really debuted in 1991, Deadpool exploded in popularity, and became pretty much one of the most popular comic book characters, like ever.
I’m sure a lot of it came aided by the fungus-like spreading of the internet, but there was no denying that Deadpool’s popularity was soaring. Although he mostly stayed somewhat close to the X-Universe for most of his storylines, he grew to such a point where he couldn’t be contained in just X-related storylines. Eventually, he had his own series, several of them, and began becoming intertwined with various other Marvel properties, both as an anti-hero or as a villain. He mixed it up with Hulk, the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., Norman Osborn, the Skrulls, etc. Much like the Juggernaut, he had crossover capabilities, and transcended the need to be tethered to the just the X-universe.
But aside from his massively increased presence in the comic books, the most astounding thing to me was his overall popularity all over the internet in general. There was no joke that seemingly could not be made better by adding Deadpool, and it was like there was no bad joke if it involved Deadpool. Deadpool has become somewhat of a symbolic anti-hero of the troll-championing tendencies of the internet. Deadpool makes memes. Memes become better when Deadpool is incorporated into them. Deadpool is just about everywhere. Even when I go to Dragon*Con, I’ll see at least three different people dressed up as Deadpool, whether they’re male or female.
What I’m most curious about is how this all happened? I mean, Deadpool has been around since 1991, but for the most part, nobody really knew or cared about him until way much later on. The only things I can really think of is that some writer decided that they really liked Deadpool, and they made it their mission to see to it that everyone else would like him too. Much like when Shane McMahon decided that Steve Blackman would become his personal project, and Blackman was put into a pretty memorable feud with Shane, but collapsed almost immediately once McMahon had proven his point. Except that Deadpool’s popularity stuck, and has apparently not let go, either. This just goes to show the importance of the writers, and their abilities to make or break a character, even if he was relatively obscure for a decade previously.
I also think it’s that the audience has grown up, and Deadpool finally was able to reach the audience that now understood his wit, humor, and the situational humor of whenever he broke the fourth wall. Maybe such is the reason why he wasn’t really popular prior to the mid-2000s, and why he is nowadays. And when a large group of people like something, it doesn’t take other groups of people to fall in line and also like that same thing, regardless of their age, understanding or familiarity of the properties, and with the internet growing to what it is today, it makes spreading the word of Deadpool that much easier.
Honestly, it’s probably a combination of both. I also realize it’s presumptuous to assume that the whole world is my world, and that I could very well have been the one asshole who never noticed Deadpool in my noob days, and took over a decade to understand that he not only existed, but also existed in popularity for a while, while I was out going to anime cons and trying to spin some game with crazy weeaboo girls. But there really aren’t a lot of my own friends who understood the phenomenon as I have either, so at least I know that I’m not entirely alone in this inquiry.
Anyway, it’s cool that Deadpool is so big and popular nowadays, but I can’t say it’s enough to make me want to read everything that has to do with Deadpool just yet. He’s undoubtedly got one of the funnier super moves in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and I like how lots of artists use Deadpool as a convenient tool to sneak in memes and/or jokes into their comics, but sometimes, I like comic books that are a means to escape reality, not be brought back to a place with the same bad jokes and poppy references.
