Today’s reading: Deadpool #1, Jan. 1997
Story: Joe Kelly
Art: Ed McGuinness
Joe Kelly loves Deadpool. He says so right on the letters
page of the first issue of this series, his first ongoing solo title (and a
springboard to future gigs writing the X-Men, Superman and Superboy).
And like any good lover, Kelly wants Wade Wilson to change.
He wants him to become a hero. But, y’know, still make jokes and kill people
and stuff.
Deadpool #1 is the
start of a 33-issue hero’s journey. As he goes about his daily business of
helping topple regimes, harassing other mercenaries and hanging out with
homeless people, he’s being watched by Zoe Culloden and Noah DuBois,
representatives of the pandimensional firm of Landau, Luckman & Lake
(formerly Landau, Luckman, Lake & LeQuare). Zoe first appeared in 1994’s Wolverine #79 and was also a major
character in that book during the mid-1990s, accompanying Logan on a mission
that should have resulted in him getting his adamantium skeleton back but
instead turned him feral for a time and led him to kill Cable’s son, Tyler, as
well as a number of Dark
Riders (mostly the lame second-generation ones).
LL&L want Deadpool for a very important but very unclear
mission. But first, they need to test him. More on that in a bit.
The book’s tone is established right away, as DP narrates a
mission in the Bolivian jungles, but his prey can hear him doing so. There’s
also a string of pop culture references (many now dated) in just the first
scene, including bits about Marlin Perkins, Game Boy, Super Mario and a parody
of lines from the Keanu Reeves movie Speed.
Ed McGuinness’ blocky, cartoonish style is perfect for this
book about a master of cartoon violence. His penchant for drawing
barrel-chested dudes will later get him gigs drawing the Hulk and Superman.
In the meantime, issue 1 starts a tradition of drawing what
look like Street Fighter characters
into Deadpool comics. One of the Bolivian soldiers looks exactly like Ryu, down
to the red bandana, and Deadpool’s primary nemesis during the Kelly run, T-Ray
looks like a differently-coifed variant of Akuma. Things get even more Street Fighter-y five years from this
run, when Udon Studios draws the book in conjunction with writer Gail
Simone. Udon has since become the primary name in Street Fighter comics.
But it’s letterer Richard Starkings who introduces one of
Deadpool’s most important traits: His trademark yellow word balloons. The
previous two minis, which
we covered last time, had DP speaking in white balloons with yellow
borders, and appearances prior to that used white balloons with red borders,
but the yellow balloons are what we see today when Deadpool speaks on the page.
Also new to the Marvel Universe in this issue are the
mercenaries of Hellhouse, the outfit Deadpool works for at the start of the
series. Running things is Patch, a short, bald, mustachioed man who is not
Wolverine’s Madripoor alter ego. Fellow mercs include T-Ray, who knows magic
and hates Deadpool; C.F., a Blob-like fella who can take a beating and bounce
back like a Looney Tunes character; Fenway, who speaks in baseball terminology;
and, of course, Weasel, Deadpool’s best bud/punching bag/weapons and tech
supplier, who will be played in next
year’s movie by T.J. Miller.
Speaking of things that have carried over from the Deadpool
minis, DP’s crush on X-Force’s Siryn has become official canon, with Weasel
mentioning “that bonnie Irish lass” to get a rise out of Wade, who in turn
socks Weasel across the jaw. Between Mark Waid and Ian Churchill’s 1994
miniseries and this issue, Wade and Theresa also teamed up in a couple issues
of Jeph Loeb and Adam Pollina’s run on X-Force.
If anything, said crush is one of the pre-Kelly seeds that makes Deadpool want
to be as good as someone like him can be.
Siryn isn’t the only woman in Deadpool’s life, though.
There’s also Blind Alfred, the vision-impaired Aunt May lookalike Wade keeps
prisoner in his rundown row house in San Francisco. Why won’t be revealed for a
bit, but what is revealed to us about her instantly is that while she’s a
prisoner, she’s no victim. She trades barbs with Wade on the regular, hits him
as needed, and her first act as an extant character is to threaten a Girl Scout
with imaginary optic blasts and steal her cookies. Blind Al will be appearing
in the movie as well, played by Leslie Uggams.
Then there’s Gerry, the homeless old Haight-Ashbury hippie
Wade sometimes talks to. Or is he something more? (Spoiler: He is, but there’s
really no indication of that at this point.)
A first issue deserves a special superhero guest star,
right? So who do we get? Wolverine? The Hulk? Spidey? Nope, try again. It’s
Sasquatch from Alpha Flight! Remember what I said last time about heroes being
in short supply? Canada’s premier superteam was without a book at this point,
but that would change in a few short months, when a second AF series would
launch written by then-future Uncanny
X-Men writer Steven T. Seagle and drawn by Scott Clark.
Deadpool is sent to Sasquatch’s Antarctic lab on a demolition
gig trumped up by LL&L to test his abilities and see if he’ll sacrifice
himself for the greater good, in the first of many years of stories in which
Deadpool makes difficult choices to prove he can be a hero when he wants to be,
a theme cropping up now in Cullen Bunn and Matteo Lolli’s Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars miniseries.
Specifically, Wade dives into a gamma-radiation vat to keep it from melting
down and giving everyone in the Southern Hemisphere cancer (a disease that’s
kind of a sore spot for him). This corroborates LL&L’s belief that Deadpool
can help usher in a galaxy-wide age of peace. Except when Zoe and Noah tell him
that, he essentially tells them they’re full of crap and to take a hike. Don’t
worry, they’ll be back.
Nostalgic ad alert: The inside back cover lets people know
that Independence Day will be
available to own on VHS on Nov. 22, 1996. Just in time for Christmas!
Next time on Thursdays with Wade, we’ll check out issue #2
and the beginning of Deadpool’s long, strange frenemy-ship with Taskmaster. If
you’re looking for the issue in a non-digital way, check out the Deadpool
Classic Vol. 2 trade, which collects issues 2 through 8, plus the Flashback
Month -1 issue and the 1997 annual in which he teams up with Daredevil and
steals his dog (more on that later).
In addition to writing
for The Matt Signal, Dan Grote is now the official comics blogger for The Press
of Atlantic City. New posts appear Wednesday mornings at PressofAC.com/Life. His
new novel, Magic Pier, is available however you get your books online. He and Matt have been
friends since the days when Onslaught was just a glimmer in Charles Xavier's
eye. Follow @danielpgrote on Twitter.
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