Deadpool is Wade Wilson, a mercenary who talks so much he is called the Merc with a Mouth. His healing factor, a copy of Wolverine's made in an offshoot of the Weapon X programme, lets him survive almost anything, from bullets to losing his head. It also left his skin covered in scars, because it is fighting a cancer it can never quite cure. And he breaks the fourth wall: he knows he is in a comic, or a film, and talks to the reader.
He first appeared in The New Mutants #98 (1991), as a villain hired to kill Cable. This follows the comics and flags where the films differ. The prints are on the Deadpool shelf, with his healing factor's source on the X-Men shelf.
The Merc with a Mouth
Wade is a gun for hire with a red and black suit, two swords on his back and more guns than he needs. He never stops talking: jokes, insults, songs and commentary on the fight he is in, aimed at enemies, allies and nobody in particular. That is where the nickname comes from, and it was the title of one of his series.
He began as a villain, became a hired gun who sometimes did the right thing, and grew into a messy, unreliable hero. His longest partnership is with Cable, the soldier from the future he was first paid to kill; the two shared a series for years, the straight man and the joker. In the films the red suit has a practical reason he gives himself: it stops the bad guys seeing him bleed. Merc is the mercenary, and Maximum Effort carries the films' catchphrase.
Weapon X, the Hospice and the dead pool
In the comics, Wade is diagnosed with cancer that cannot be operated on. He volunteers for an offshoot of Weapon X, the secret programme that gave Wolverine his adamantium, which is trying to give an ordinary man Wolverine's healing factor. It takes, but it heals the cancer as fast as it heals him, so neither wins. The tumours keep returning, and his skin is left scarred all over.
Subjects who wash out are sent to the Hospice, run by Doctor Killebrew and his sadistic assistant, later known as Ajax. The patients bet on how long each of them will live: the dead pool. When Ajax tears out Wade's heart, the healing factor finally fires in full and grows him a new one. Wade escapes and takes his name from the pool.
The films tell it differently. In X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) he is Weapon XI, loaded with other mutants' powers and with his mouth sealed shut, a version the later films never stop mocking. In Deadpool (2016) a lab run by Ajax tortures him until latent mutant genes switch on, curing nothing and scarring everything.
How the healing factor works
Deadpool's healing factor repairs almost any wound in seconds to hours, depending on the damage. He has survived being burned to nothing, cut to pieces and decapitated, and a severed limb, or his head, can be put back and heals in place. It also heals his brain, constantly, which is one explanation for why his memory and his grip on reality are both unreliable.
For a while he could not die even if his body failed. Wade has a long infatuation with Death, Marvel's cosmic personification of it, and Thanos, who loves her too, cursed him out of jealousy so that he would never die and never be with her. The curse was later lifted.
The healing factor also makes for spare parts. Headpool is a Deadpool from the Marvel Zombies reality who survives as a severed zombie head and tags along with Wade; Souvenirs puts him beside Wade.
Why Deadpool breaks the fourth wall
The fourth wall is the invisible wall between a story and its audience. Deadpool talks through it: he knows he is a comic character, addresses the reader, comments on page layouts and jokes about his own continuity. It started as an occasional gag and became his trademark in his first ongoing series in 1997.
The story gives two answers for why he can do it. Other characters mostly assume it is a symptom of a damaged mind, and that his healing brain sees things that are not there. The other reading is that he is simply right, and the only person in the Marvel Universe who has noticed where he lives. Many runs show his thoughts in captions that argue with each other, which plays the joke both ways.
The films took the gag further: he talks to the camera and mocks the studio and other superhero films. It lets the series send up superhero stories while still being one. Unicorn Cavalry is a title only he could carry.
Deadpool vs Wolverine
Deadpool and Wolverine are bound together by the healing factor. In the comics Wade's was copied from Logan's, and their fights rarely have a winner, because both get back up. Wolverine plays the grim one and Deadpool needles him, but they have worked together, most notably on Wolverine's secret strike team, X-Force.
On screen, the 2009 film ends with Wolverine fighting Weapon XI. Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) builds a whole film on the pair: Wade's universe is set to be erased because its Wolverine has died, so he recruits a version of Logan from another universe, one regarded as the worst Wolverine of all. The two are dumped in the Void, a wasteland where erased things end up, and fight their way to a partnership. The yellow suit from the comics finally makes it to the screen. Weapon X is the programme that ties their stories together.
On the back of a tee
Wade's prints are on the Deadpool shelf, and Logan's are on the X-Men shelf, all drawn from canon reference art. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why Deadpool works on the back: a red and black suit, white eyes and a pair of sword hilts is a silhouette people know at a glance, and he is the one character who would approve of being worn back to front.
Read next: Weapon X, adamantium and the healing factor explained (where the healing factor came from) and The Phoenix Force, Magneto and the Sentinels explained.
Back Issue is fan-made, unofficial merchandise. We are not affiliated with, licensed or endorsed by any studio, publisher or rights holder. Character names, titles and marks belong to their owners and are used only to describe what a design shows. Rights & IP