Deadpool first appeared within the pages of The New Mutants #98 in 1991. However, the character we were introduced to was a way away from the zany, fourth wall breaking lunatic we all know and love.
After a recurring role in X-Force and two self-titled miniseries, Deadpool finally got his own ongoing series in 1997 and writer Joe Kelly leant into Wade Wilson's parody roots hard, satirizing all the gritty heroes and anti-heroes that were very popular at the time.
Since then, Deadpool has been the subject of some seriously creative and unusual storylines. Wade's self awareness, endless quips, twisted sense of humor and variety of powers enabled writers to let their ideas run riot and tell stories they simply couldn't with the majority of the Marvel universe.
The Merc with the Mouth soon became a fan-favorite character and started appearing everywhere, crossing over and teaming up with pretty much every character and team you could think of.
Outside of the comics, the character has enjoyed mainstream popularity thanks to Ryan Reynolds pulling on the mask and playing the role he was apparently born to play on the big screen.
With Deadpool 2 right around the corner, we thought there was no better time than to pillage the archives in search of some of the more obscure, weird and wonderful facts about Mr. Pool.
Here are the 20 Things Even True Fans Don't Know About Deadpool.
He's probably not a mutant
Wade Wilson's superhuman abilities come from his time in the Weapon X program, the same shady bunch responsible for Wolverine. Wade was imbued with a powerful regenerative healing factor derived from Logan, albeit significantly stronger.
Strictly speaking, mutants are born with their abilities, although the age at which these powers activate varies. Wade is most likely a mutate, an individual who got their powers via other external means be they accidental or deliberate.
Deadpool tends to refer to himself as a mutant, but only because it annoys the X-Men, who treat the term with reverence.
We say he's “most likely” a mutate because there are a few things that indicate otherwise.
Mr. Sinister refers to Deadpool as a mutant during a sit-down barbecue, but Wade brushes it off. Then there's Deadpool vs. Thanos #2, where Rocket Raccoon's computer read-out identifies Wade as a mutant.
Whether these are down to different writers exercising their artistic licenses, sloppy continuity or hints that Wade may have been born awesome remains up for debate, but considering what we have, it's probably safer to call him a mutate in lieu of harder evidence.
Movie Deadpool, on the other hand, is even more confusing.
The X-Men: Origins version definitely was, but the actual good movie version is a question mark, as Ajax's torture lab is designed to bring out any latent mutant genes. Wade survives the process, so it could be argued that he can hang with the X-Men, at least on a genetic level.
Rob Liefeld made Deadpool funny because '90s Spider-Man was a bit of a drag
Rob Liefeld has made no secret about his love for both Wolverine and Spider-Man, with Cable and Deadpool being heavily inspired by them.
Spidey's influence didn't just extend to the mask and the red get-up, though. Liefeld wanted to make Deadpool a funny, quippy character because he believed that by the time the '90s had rolled around, the new version of Spider-Man had lost his humor somewhat.
To quote Liefeld, “Spider-Man in 1990 was a depressed, married guy” and it's hard to argue.
The '90s had brought in a wave of brooding grittiness that most comics rushed to get in on. Peter Parker had inherited the iconic black symbiote suit and Kraven had just completed his tragic last hunt.
Liefeld wanted to create a character who had the energy, humor, and abandon of the 1960s Spider-Man and brought it to Wade Wilson.
“The Spider-Man I grew up with would make fun of you or punch you in the face and make small cracks. That was the entire intent with Deadpool,” he said.
Summarizing his final pitch to Marvel with the plainly stated “He’s Spider-Man, except with guns and swords. The idea was, he’s a jacka**.”
Deadpool's orientation
The Marvel universe is populated by a vast array of people from all walks of life, resulting in a wide spectrum of colors, creeds, genders and orientation.
Deadpool's love life is as unconventional as he is, made all the more diverse by the fact that he's pan, meaning that he's attracted to individuals regardless of their gender identity.
Writer Gerry Duggan probably said it best on Twitter, stating that he considers Wade “to be ready & willing to do anything with a pulse.”
Co-creator Fabian Nicieza weighed in on the matter, stating that Deadpool's preferences are down to his brain cells constantly being in flux. This means that he could be “gay one minute, hetero the next, etc.”
Deadpool is one of a handful of other pan Marvel characters, but he's certainly the most high-profile and this didn't escape the notice of the Deadpool movie crew.
Director Tim Miller did not mince his words.
In an interview, Miller exclaimed “Pansexual! I want that quoted. Pansexual Deadpool.”
Ryan Reynolds has also gone on the record to state that he'd be open to Deadpool having a boyfriend and exploring his orientation in greater depth. “I love that he can break any boundary. In the future, I hope we get to do that more.”
His family tree is weird
It shouldn't be surprising that Deadpool has a family, especially considering that there was a series called Deadpool Family. However, since a particular group consists of alternate reality versions of Deadpool, they don't really count.
As far as actual offspring go, Wade does have a legitimate daughter in the form of Eleanor Camacho.
Wade met the civilian Carmelita Camacho when they were both captured by the White Man. Carmelita believed that she only had few hours left to live and she and Deadpool got together.
Unbeknownst to Wade, Carmelita became pregnant after their encounter and gave birth to Ellie, who tracked him down once she was old enough.
Thanks to her superpowered father, Ellie is a mutant.
In the alternate 2099 reality, we're shown what her powers are. She has the ability to be reborn as a teenager, which allows her to basically reboot with all her memories after she perishes. Sticking with 2099, there's also Warda Wilson, daughter of Wade and demon Shiklah, rocking a futuristic Tron-esque get-up.
In terms of genetic children, you could probably count villainess Itsy-Bitsy too.
Itsy-Bitsy started life as an anonymous woman who became a willing test subject. Given the alias Susan Mary, the woman was injected with both Deadpool and Spider-Man's DNA, turning her into a blue-skinned, eight limbed mutate with the combined abilities of her two “fathers.”
Itsy-Bitsy has only made a few appearances, but last time we saw her, she survived a supposed atomization and appeared in the form of a small spider.
His thought and speech bubbles sometimes don't work properly
In comics, there are numerous ways to try and communicate what a character's voice actually sounds like. For Deadpool, it's his trademark yellow speech bubbles that give an indication of how he talks.
His voice is messed up due to his condition and it's described by Cable as having a gravelly "Demi Moore- like" quality.
When Deadpool faces off against the Great Lakes Champions in Cable & Deadpool #30, it's shown that sometimes his yellow inner monologuing can malfunction, with the Great Lakes Champions able to hear everything he's meant to be telling the audience.
Then there was the white caption box, which is an even crazier version of Wade's inner thoughts. This was later revealed to be the villain Madcap.
The pair had got into a rooftop fight before both being shocked to ash by Thor's lightning. Deadpool regenerated, but Madcap's essence remained a part of him and manifested itself as a secondary voice in Wade's head.
In Deadpool Annual Vol. 3 #1, Wilson finally solved the mystery of the white caption box.
He was hit so hard by Luke Cage that it jogged his brain enough to allow Madcap to take control of Wade's body. Madcap and DP eventually come to an agreement to separate and they enlist powerhouses Thor and Luke to forcibly split them apart.
The moment is bittersweet for the pair and with Madcap promising to call, he leaves. Wade ends the issue by sitting alone with his thoughts, missing the company they used to have.
He has an immunity to telepathy and possession
Deadpool's healing factor is constantly working overtime to repair the ridiculous levels of damage that he's sustained and continues to provoke in his day to day life.
As a result of this, his brain cells are always in a state of flux, leading to his unstable mental state. There is a benefit to this, however.
It also means that his mind is resistant to mental attacks from powerful telepaths. He's been shown to be able to shrug off psychic attacks from Cable, Emma Frost, the Red Onslaught and even Dracula.
Trying to read Wade's mind is a mistake in and of itself, but when Psylocke tried in Deadpool Vol.2 #50, she found it to be utter chaos, a random assortment of pop culture references and noise.
When the demon Xaphan tries to take over Deadpool's body by entering his mind, he gets more than he bargained for.
Before Xaphan can wreak havoc in his new form, Wade's will makes itself known, stating that he's used to voices in his head and proving that his will is stronger than the Demon Lord's.
He wrenches control back, beating himself up before allowing himself to get caught by Ghost Rider's chains and purging Xaphan for good.
He's a fan of Deadpool and Wolverine comics
Deadpool's medium awareness came from an accidental trip to the Foundation of Reality. Since then, Wade has known that he's a fictional comic book character drawn and written for our amusement.
As he knows we're reading his adventures, he breaks the fourth wall and talks to us directly. This was taken to the next level in Deadpool #900, where he realizes the reason he can never be put down for good is because we as the audience keep reading his adventures.
Wade gets angry and decides that the readers have to go. He travels to a reader's house and eliminates him, the story ending on a claret-soaked final panel of DP holding a gun to the man's head.
This gets even weirder as it seems that Wade likes reading his past adventures, despite having lived them. In a self-aware recap panel featuring Domino, Deadpool refers to the previous issue, much to Domino's confusion.
Wade is also a Wolverine fanboy, so it would make sense that he'd read about his exploits too.
In one meeting with the X-Men's Storm in Deadpool #35, Wade offers his condolences after Wolverine's passing.
Storm is confused before DP quickly realizes that in the continuity he's in, it hasn't happened yet. Wade then apologizes for the spoiler before saying “Eh, he'll be back” under his breath before changing the subject.
He has several phobias
Considering the mental and physical abuse he's been on the receiving end of, you wouldn't think much would scare Wade Wilson.
According to Deadpool Vol. 2 #17, though, he has Bovinophobia – a fear of cows.
Domino captures him and ties him to a bed. As part of his insufferable chatter, Deadpool confesses that cows “scare the ****” out of him due to the way they stare you down, remarking that he finds it “chilling.”
He tries to get Domino to tell him her fears, to which she eventually replies “chickens.” Wade says “me too!” before Domino reaches her breaking point and throws him through the window.
However, these could just be Deadpool kidding around.
One of his true phobias was revealed in Deadpool Corps #5. The Corps face a being known as The Awareness, a malevolent cosmic cloud that feeds of the collective consciousnesses of entire planets.
The team are trapped within their own minds and Wade is left in an empty void, without any distractions whatsoever.
Without an audience and his precious television and video games gone, Wade must contemplate his own existence. He was alone and he was going to stay that way.
The Awareness' plans were scuppered by Headpool, but it was a dark glimpse into what Wade truly fears.
He once cut through the pages of his own comic to warn his past self
In Deadpool Team-Up #885, we're given a team up that even Wade admits no-one was asking for.
It seems that his fear of cows doesn't extend to vampire cows and Deadpool ends up fighting alongside Bessie the Hellcow, an old Howard the Duck villain.
DP is captured by a mad scientist named Dr. Kilgore. Kilgore had a terminal illness but had managed to stave off the inevitable by drinking the Hellcow's pink milk.
He wanted a more permanent solution and so he kidnapped Deadpool to dissect him for the secret to his regenerative powers.
The doctor's experiment fails and he turns into a massive vomiting monster instead. DP and Bessie have a ferocious fight with him before a second Deadpool pops into frame, his dialogue drowned out by gunfire.
Team Cowpool triumphs and they step outside of the lab into the daylight. The vampire cow sizzles in the sun and becomes a meat patty. Wade is upset (but not enough to not eat it) and uses his katanas to slice through the comic itself, in an attempt to warn his previous self.
As we know, this didn't work and so he eventually comes up with a new plan.
He drives a stake into Bessie before reviving her outside at night. He apologizes to her before she flies off in a mood after seeing an army of burger-eating Deadpools, clearly the result of Wade's multiple failures.
He once used the Infinity Gauntlet to roast the Marvel Universe and his readers
In Deadpool Vol.3 #45, Wade finds Thanos flying around the city in his infamous Thanoscopter. DP gives him a cosmic cube, but uses its power to switch Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet with a plastic replica.
Wade then uses the real thing to warp reality and construct a glitzy roast at a theater to get his own back on the Marvel universe. Howard the Duck appears and soon turns the event into a roast of Deadpool where the assembled guests, including Cable, Storm, Spider-Man, Daredevil and the Hulk all get their barbs in.
Wade turns the tides, making the audience laugh uncontrollably at his jokes using the power of the gauntlet. He then seems to have an existential crisis. He freezes the action and then speaks directly to the audience.
He talks about how knowing that he exists for our entertainment is an endless source of depression for him. He resents the fact that nobody else has this problem before telling us to “enjoy [our] funny books, but just know that not everyone finds them funny.”
His issues worked out, he travels back in time to the Thanoscopter encounter, gives the Mad Titan his gauntlet back before being kicked out of the helicopter.
Fans tried to get a Deadpool statue displayed in Regina
There's a moment in the first Deadpool movie where Wade has finally caught up with Ajax (Francis). He's got him at his mercy and starts giving mock play-by-play commentary of the beating he's doling out.
He says “A hush falls over the crowd as rookie sensation Wade W. Wilson out of Regina, Saskatchewan, lines up the shot. His form looks good!” before kicking Francis in the head.
Many Canadian fans were delighted with this shoutout and wanted Regina to be marked as Wade Wilson's official hometown. Two petitions was started online and soon fans from all over the world were signing off on the idea.
When asked about the issue on Facebook, Regina's mayor, Michael Fougere, simply replied “Nope” to the idea.
Looking at the idea on paper, it's easy to see why Fougere felt this way. It's all well and good having a statue of Captain America in Brooklyn because of what he represents and what he stands for being a safe, all-ages message.
Deadpool on the other hand? We can see why the city of Regina may not want to embrace what Deadpool's all about.
Still, if enough people want it, it could happen. For proof, look at the crowdfunded Robocop statue that will now be on display at the Michigan Science Center.
He was the Venom symbiote's host before Spider-Man
As Spider-Man's Alien Costume Saga is probably one of the best known comic storylines around, we're not going to waste much time recapping it.
Spidey's warped to a place called Battleworld, finds a mysterious suit, it turns out to be bad and it eventually morphs into Venom, one of his deadliest enemies.
In Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars, this isn't how it went down. It is in fact Deadpool who tries out the supposed alien fabric replicator.
The black goo bonds with him and he tries out some new looks, including a swimsuit, before feeling the symbiote probing in his brain. He immediately rejects it, but wonders if the sentient goo's exposure to his unique and chaotic mind may have turned it insane.
This thought doesn't bother Wade for long, though, and he strolls out of the lab, passing Spider-Man on the way it.
Wade gives him directions to the machine before giving him the advice that black is “slimming.”
As with most Deadpool stories, this likely isn't a part of Venom's canonical backstory, but it's genuinely amusing to think that a small blast of Deadpool's unfiltered brain processes were enough to turn one of Spider-Man's most iconic enemies bad in the first place.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 contains a Deadpool reference within a reference
In Deadpool Vol 1. #27, Deadpool is suffering with hallucinations of women and cartoon rabbits. He talks to his therapist, the bell-headed Dr. Bong, who suggests that he needs a nice, long fight to work out his aggression and stop seeing the apparitions.
Wade chooses Wolverine due to his endurance. He travels to Japan and tries to make Wolverine fight him. Logan is accompanied by Kitty Pryde, who gets in his face when Wolverine refuses to “snikt” him.
Changing tact, Wade asks if Kitty has ever played Street Fighter before suddenly uppercutting her and screaming “Shoryuken!”
The plan works and Wolverine sees red, punching and slashing the living daylights out of Wade before DP finally has a breakthrough and his hallucinations stop.
Deadpool ended up being a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds where some of the big M's best and brightest took on Capcom's roster of fighters, including the Street Fighter crew.
As a reference to the Kitty Pryde moment, the developers gave him the Shoryuken (or spinning jumping uppercut) as part of his moveset.
Ryu even remarks on it, asking how and when Deadpool stole his moves. It's nice when things come full circle like that.
He was once cursed to look like Tom Cruise
When we catch up with Wade in Deadpool Vol. 1 #37, he's wearing Loki's helmet and calling the God of Mischief “Dad.”
Loki tells Wade to travel to Earth and steal Mjolnir from Thor. He does just that and when he's able to lift the hammer, becoming Thorpool, complete with helmet wings and cape.
Wade soon realizes that he's been manipulated and returns to Loki to get some payback. It turns out that Deadpool had lifted a Mjolnir forgery, a fake with powers, but nowhere near the level of the actual Mjolnir.
Loki puts a curse on Thorpool before disappearing, leaving Wade to fight Thor.
Thor wields the real Mjolnir and after a vicious battle, Wade wakes up several hours later on the side of the road. He returns to his room, only to discover that his curse is looking like Tom Cruise (actually Thom Cruz to dodge any legal troubles).
Wade isn't pleased with his new face, claiming that it's ruining his life and tries violent and extreme measures to try and return it to its usual scarred condition.
This lasted for a handful of issues before he finally reconciles with his father, breaking the curse and giving him his familiar ugly mug back.
He made several cameos in the X-Men animated series
The '90s were a time when there were legitimately good superhero animated series on TV. There was the awesome Batman: The Animated Series as well as the great Fox Kids Spider-Man cartoon.
Then there was the X-Men animated series with an epic earworm theme that never failed to pump up the audience for the mutant action to follow.
The show included many of the vast X-Men roster but Deadpool got a few shout-outs too. That's not to say he gets any lines or is even the actual Deadpool, but he makes several appearances as an illusion, most notably as one of the forms that Morph takes to mess with Wolverine.
In the season three episode "Phoenix Saga- Part II: The Dark Shroud", a psychic probe causes Professor X to psychically project a manifestation of his dark side. One of these illusions took the form of Deadpool, who attacked Wolverine.
Unfortunately, we never got to see the real Wade Wilson interact with Xavier and his team, but portraying it may have been a little too much to ask from a Saturday morning cartoon show.
Weirdly enough, it seems that the show called Deadpool's direct connection to Wolverine, outside of the Weapon X shenanigans, several years before it was established in the comics.
Marvel isn't allowed to draw Deadpool's movie suit or Ryan Reynolds
The first Deadpool movie brought in a lot of new fans over the Crimson Comedian and it seemed that Marvel wanted to pay some of that favor back by featuring him in their comics.
This wasn't going to happen if the property lawyers had anything to say about it as it turns out that Marvel can't feature the movie suit or Mr. Reynolds himself with incurring a legal headache.
Artist Reilly Brown found this out the hard way when he was tasked with drawing an actor playing Deadpool in an in-universe movie for an issue of Spider-Man/Deadpool. As a throwaway gag, he drew the movie suit and Ryan in the role and didn't expect people to notice, considering the limited differences between the suits.
People did notice and Brown was forced to redraw the panels. The suit was changed and the actor, who was only “vaguely” going to look like Ryan Reynolds, was changed and had a mustache to put even more distance between the fictional and real actors.
It has to be said that intricate licensing laws do seem to make the world a less fun place, but they are what they are. We're sure Ryan Reynolds would have been down for it too.
The X-Men Origins: Deadpool comic predicted a Celine Dion soundtrack
In 2010, Deadpool appeared in the comic X-Men Origins: Deadpool, where Wade meets with a bunch of screenwriters to turn his life into a feature movie.
After some violent encounters, Wade settles on one that simply listens to his life's story. Wade details his tragic childhood, his traumatic time in the Weapon X program and his mercenary work.
Before he knows it, he's attending the premiere of his own movie. He sits down to watch it and is appalled that it's a goofy, generic action flick with a soppy romantic take on his relationship with Vanessa Carlysle.
To his horror, Wade realizes that the scene is scored another famous Canadian. Wade exclaims “Oh God in Heaven in charge of all things merciful and just, please don't tell me this is Celine Dion.”
Flash forward to the real world eight years later and Celine Dion provided a song called “Ashes” to the official movie soundtrack with a video of Deadpool strutting his stuff on the stage and dancing with Celine.
Couple this with that whole “Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-Pei” comment that appeared years before the movies and we're starting to think the Deadpool creative team may have some psychic abilities.
His comic holds a Guinness World Record
The cover of Deadpool Vol. 3 #27 promised to be the “most important issue 27 in the history of comics!” Whether they actually delivered on that is debatable, but it certainly gave us a jam-packed cover to feast our eyes on.
It depicts Wade's marriage to Shiklah and it seems anyone who's anyone has turned out for the service.
The cover, by artists Scott Koblish and Val Staples, features a whopping 232 characters. The Guinness World Record people deemed that 224 of them were familiar enough to qualify as recognizable, and they were given an official record and certificate.
However, there is some (very mild) controversy over the record.
Comic fans have stated that an issue of G.I. Joe America's Elite has more, with 236, not including the animals, which Deadpool's cover did.
Whether this is a case of more recognizable characters or not remains to be seen, but as it stands, Deadpool was the one that broke the official documented record and boasted it proudly on the cover itself.
Either way, now artists know this oddly specific record exists, it's bound to be beaten at some point in the future. He's hoping Deadpool stays the champ for a while longer at least.
The cancelled Deadpool animated series may have been pulled over a Taylor Swift episode
Donald Glover is everywhere at the moment. The man hardly seems to sleep with his sheer number of appearances in TV shows, movies, and instantly memorable, visually charged music videos.
Fans were more than a little disappointed to find out that the animated Deadpool series he was working on as a showrunner with his brother has been dropped.
Rumors about the nature of the parting of the ways swirled, including Donald's incredible busy schedule, but he confirmed he'd have had the time to fulfil his duties. The official reason given was the standard hand-waving “creative differences” excuse, but it does seem like there was a little more to it than that.
Stephen Glover thinks it was due to a proposed episode about Taylor Swift. In a now-deleted tweet, he called the script “hilarious” but also noted that it was “definitely the last straw” when it came to them and the FX network.
Whether it was due to the controversial nature of the script or the fact they were taking shots that could have resulted in legal action is unknown and the real downside is that we'll never get to find out.
Stephen described the show as trying to give the dominant Rick and Morty a run for its money and it's easy (if rather depressing) to imagine what form that would have been.
Guess we'll just have to stick with movie Wade, Cable, and the clear best character, Peter in Deadpool 2.
Deadpool's love of chimichangas comes from a Saturday Night Live skit
Ever wondered quite why Deadpool loves chimichangas? If you have and can't be bothered to look it up elsewhere, we've got you covered.
It turns out that Deadpool just liked saying the word, admitting that he wasn't even that big a fan of the food itself. Even in Cable and Deadpool #13, he just repeats it to himself before ordering an enchilada instead.
Whatever the reason, the word and a subsequent enthusiasm for them stuck and it's rattled around in his brain ever since, becoming one of his defining loves, which extends to tacos and pancakes.
Co-creator Fabian Nicieza explained that this odd moment was the product of a long-running in-joke between him and Mark Gruenwald.
Nicieza and Gruenwald had seen a Saturday Night Live sketch from 1990 featuring Jimmy Smits where a bunch of businesspeople started over-pronouncing Spanish words. They started doing it in the office to make each other laugh and it found its way into their work.
The fact that an in-joke from a decade old episode of Saturday Night Live soon became its own thing in Deadpool's universe is perfectly fitting for the character.
After all, as psychics will testify, his thoughts are nothing but noise and obscure pop culture references.
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Can you think of any other interesting facts about Deadpool? Sound off in the comments!