Best 1991 Adventures (1)

By: Joshua Glenn
May 18, 2020

One in a series of 10 posts identifying Josh Glenn’s favorite 1991 adventure novels.

Marvel’s sardonic-superhero Deadpool comics (1991–ongoing).

Deadpool made his first appearance in The New Mutants #98; created by artist/writer Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Wade Wilson was a killer with super-agility… who bore an uncanny resemblance to Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke, from DC’s Teen Titans. (From the start, he was an in-joke.) Kicked out of the Special Forces and given a regenerative healing factor akin to Wolverine’s — by a secret government Weapon X program — he’d become a villainous mercenary. Deadpool would appear sporadically in various Marvel titles until he was given his own series, initially written by Joe Kelly and drawn by Ed McGuinness, in 1997. The “regeneratin’ degenerate” now became the Deadpool we know and love — a parodic antihero aware that he’s in a comic book. He breaks the fourth wall, directly addressing readers; he also reads Marvel comics in order to gain an unfair advantage over his opponents. Its creators expected the series to be canceled at any moment, so they didn’t hold back; Deadpool comics were stupid, slapstick, angsty, outrageous, and weird. “When it comes to the Merc with a Mouth,” Marvel’s official character webpage proclaims, “with great power comes no responsibility.”

Fun facts: Ryan Reynolds portrayed Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and reprised the role in Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018). In these latter (pretty great) adaptations, Deadpool’s “Truman Syndrome” gives him the ability to reference and mock not only X-Men movies, but also Ryan Reynolds’s previous movies.

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Best 1991 Adventures (1)

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