Marvel has created many of the greatest superheroes and supervillains in the history of superhero comics. These characters have become extremely popular, making in-roads into pop culture, and many of them were crossover successes before the Marvel Cinematic Universe made Marvel the hottest pop culture property. Often times, these are great characters, with multiple layers that fans can see themselves in. Characters like Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Hulk, Captain America, and others all have aspects that the fans can relate to, and this has made them very popular. Their trials and tribulations are a major part of why they’ve become so popular. And then there’s Deadpool.
Deadpool started out as an evil mercenary based on Deathstroke, and much like his inspiration became something of a hero as he became more popular with readers. However, if we’re being honest, Deadpool isn’t a good character. In fact, let’s be 100 percent real — Deadpool is the worst Marvel character. Comic characters can be pretty complicated, and Deadpool is no different, but there are so many problems with the character and how he’s used. It’s gotten to the point where the only successful Deadpool books are team-up comics. Deadpool has a problem, and it’s the one that made him so popular in the first place.
The Jokes Have Killed Any Worth Deadpool Has as a Character
Deadpool is a character that has become defined through the humor of the character, but this has turned into a major problem as the years have gone on. Deadpool isn’t the only character who is known for their jokes, Spider-Man is also a character that is well-known for being funny. However, the difference between Spider-Man and Deadpool is that the jokes aren’t the reason Spider-Man became popular. Spider-Man became popular because he was the like the readers — a nerdy poor kid who understood the pains of life. Now, obviously, Deadpool isn’t just jokes. There is plenty of tragedy to be mined from Deadpool as a character, and plenty of writers have been able to tell excellent stories with Deadpool that are more than just quips and ultra-violence. However, it was the quips and ultra-violence that made Deadpool popular, so that is what most Deadpool stories focus on. This has become a major problem for the character. Deadpool stories are usually funny, violent affairs that don’t always use who Wade Wilson is as person, the broken man who uses humor and violence to get away from his problems. Instead, we get series that focus more on Deadpool as the funny joker that annoys everyone but still has friends who love him. Deadpool stories have become quip fests and the jokes just don’t really work anymore for the character.
There was a time when I was somewhat a fan of Deadpool. This was pretty common for X-Men fans. Deadpool would show up, everyone would have a good laugh, and some fans preferred the character to others. Writers like Fabian Nicieza, Joe Kelly, Gerry Duggan, and others found ways to balance out the jokes and the character. Over the years, that balance has been lost. Deadpool, especially since his movies came out, has become more and more of a joke character. However, even the Deadpool movies do a better job with Deadpool as a character than Marvel does. Deadpool is a character that can be used in a variety of ways, but instead, we continually get Deadpool the joke. Even his most recent series, which had him and his daughter working together, leaned too heavily on the jokes and not enough on Deadpool the person. Instead of using this as a way to show Deadpool as something more, it was just more bad jokes. Deadpool solo books have been barely lasting a year before new creative teams come aboard to reboot the character. This would have been unheard of a decade ago. Creators have squandered all of the potential of Deadpool, all so there could be more jokes.
Deadpool Isn’t What He Used to Be
Deadpool has always been a character with a lot of potential, but all of that potential has been lost because of the humor of the character. Creators have been trying to cash in on the “appeal” of Deadpool — the risque jokes — but they’ve made it so jokes are all he is. This has taken away all of the really interesting parts of Deadpool, and he has fallen to the point where he can barely sustain a solo book.
Deadpool has become a one-dimensional character, and is the least interesting of Marvel’s most popular characters. This is a terrible state of affairs. A lot of creators worked hard for a long time to give the character the gravitas he deserves, but in recent years, Marvel hasn’t found anyone to flex those muscles on Deadpool. Deadpool has fallen from grace; he’s still popular, but the stories, the things which made him popular, haven’t been worthwhile in a long time. Deadpool has joined the ranks of Marvel’s worst characters, and the only way to fix him is to focus on him and not the jokes.
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