While Captain America has faced Batroc the Leaper for years, the Unbelievable Gwenpool was the first to point out the villain's name is actually a pun. The French super-villain has rarely been taken seriously, and Gwenpool takes him down another peg by explaining the origin of his ridiculous name.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Batroc first appeared in Tales of Suspense #75, where he was introduced as a master of savate, the French style of kickboxing. A mercenary who once served in the French Foreign Legion, Batroc's martial arts skills make him incredibly deadly. The character has also found a life outside of the comics, most notably in the MCU, where he’s portrayed by martial artist Georges St. Pierre. Ever since his debut, Batroc has been a constant thorn in Captain America’s side, but there are times when the character’s devotion to honor has seen him switch sides. Perhaps the best of these instances was when Batroc became a mentor to the young hero Gwenpool.
In the events of The Unbelievable Gwenpool by Christopher Hastings and Gurihiru, Batroc found himself leading a mercenary squad for ridiculous Marvel villain MODOK. Gwenpool sneaks her way onto the team at the last minute, taking the place of a squad member she killed. During a subsequent fight, Batroc realizes she’s not who she says she is and threatens to reveal her duplicity to MODOK. However, Gwen then reveals that she’s from another universe where Batroc is a fictional character. She proves it by pointing out several discrepancies in his origin, and the ridiculousness of his name. As she points out in The Unbelievable Gwenpool #3, Batroc is a play on “batrachia,” the class of amphibians to which frogs belong. “It’s in your Wikipedia article,” she says.
Although taken aback at first, Batroc soon realizes the value of such an ally, given Gwenpool's knowledge of the Marvel Universe as a fictional construct. Seeing her lack of skill, Batroc decides to train her in the use of weaponry and martial arts, and the two eventually develop a close, rather sweet friendship. True to the character’s underlying sense of honor, Batroc reveals that he’s been depositing her share of the money they’ve earned in legitimate bank accounts. Their partnership reaches a culmination at the end of The Unbelievable Gwenpool’s run, where Gwen ruminates that Batroc will go back to being a two-dimensional villain; fearing no other creators will provide him with the same depth of characterization.
Considering where it started, the friendship between Batroc and Gwenpool surprisingly grew into one of the sweetest relationships in the recent Marvel canon. Batroc the Leaper may be plagued to forever be the joke in Captain America’s rogue's gallery, but The Unbelievable Gwenpool showed there was more to the character than obvious French stereotypes... even though his name is still a ridiculous pun.