Deadpool

Background

Jeez, what can you say about Wade Wilson? He's handsome, charming, brilliant and the perfect killing machine. You can say all of the above about him, but only the last part would be true. He's really a disfigured psychopath with no sense of loyalty or restraint.

He had a good old fashioned screwed up childhood. He can't remember if his mother died when he was five or if she beat him as a teenager. His father was either absent completely or killed in a bar fight when Wade was 17. He joined the army and became a mercenary, finding himself to be an exceptional killer. A Canadian, he eventually moved to the US and fell in love with Vanessa Carlysle. Soon after he was diagnosed with cancer and his left his love to prevent her the burden of dealing with a sick loved one. He also has a severe case of mental illness, which makes his behavior unpredictable and erratic. Wade often chats with the voices in his head, much to the confusion of the people around him.

He joined Canada's Department K and was treated with a mutant healing factor to cure the cancer. While the cancer is not gone, the healing factor does keep it in check. The tumors continued to grow, disfiguring his appearance without killing him. Still rebellious, he was killed for insubordination. The healing factor made him all better. From then on, he took odd jobs as a hired killer. He worked for the Kingpin and fought Wolverine among other adventures.

"Death Threats"

Jacques Girard, who happened to be the new lover of Silver Sable, had been framed for selling nude pictures of Silver to a magazine. She eventually regained trust in him and hired Foggy Nelson as his lawyer, which caused the Genesis Coalition to hire Deadpool to kill her. Wade was more than she expected, so instead of defeating him, she offered to pay him more to tell her who his customer was. (Silver Sable and the Wild Pack (vol. 1) #23)

"The Gauntlet"

Deadpool was hired by Sasha Kravinoff before the "Grim Hunt" to keep Spider-Man distracted while Ana Kravinoff kidnapped Mattie Franklin. The wisecracks flew fast and furious between them during the fight, ending in a "Yo Mama" joke contest. For example:

• Spider-Man: "Your mother is so ugly that a Skrull tried to copy her during the invasion and died...of ugly."
• Deadpool: "Your mother is so stupid she tried to get bailout money so she could afford to pay attention."

He didn't tell Spidey what the situation was all about, just that whoever hired him had a major bone to pick. (Amazing Spider-Man #611)

"Magnum Opus"

He even cracks wise like this while taking on Norman Osborn, who had intercepted Wilson's communication to Nick Fury from the Skrull mother ship during the invasion. Osborn tried to have Wilson eliminated after the interception but one of the assassins spilled to Deadpool that Norman had hired them. As far as Wade was concerned, since Norman Osborn received the package that he delivered, then Norman Osborn owed him his money.

Deadpool broke into the Avengers Tower (which Osborn was head of after killing the Skrull Queen, using the information sent by Wade) and entertained himself with one of his hallucinations (climbing a bean stalk to face Osborn, who looked like a giant) as he climbed the elevator shaft of the tower. Wilson was eventually fought off by the Thunderbolts, Osborn's personal bodyguards. (Deadpool (vol. 4) #8)

"Start Spreadin' the News"

Sometime later, Deadpool teamed with Spider-Man to take down one of the most dangerous killers in the mercenary world: Hit-Monkey. Spidey and 'Pool had the usual "confuse the other hero of being the villain" fights before Wilson could tell him that the real killer was a simian. (Deadpool (vol. 4) #19)

"Suicide Kings"

At another time, Deadpool, Spider-Man and Daredevil worked together to take down the mob and Tombstone.

”Marvel Hyp-Now”

At another time, Deadpool was hired to invade Spider-Man's dreams to bring him back to reality, a la "Inception." They battled their way through Peter's dreamscape, which took the form of his high school days. After Spidey woke up, Deadpool confessed that he had been the one to control Spidey's mind. He used Spider-Man to fight his way through a prison to help Deadpool's boss escape. His boss? Hypno-Hustler. (Avenging Spider-Man #12)

H.H. told Spidey that every video camera in the prison had caught him beating up guards to help him escape and now that his reputation was ruined, he had Deadpool try to kill him. Hustler was much more dangerous than the last time Spider-Man had met him as his cell mate, the Tinkerer, had upgraded his hypnotic tech.

When H.H. began to change the deal he made with Deadpool (who wanted to be hypnotized so that his heart would stop beating), Wade was Hypnotized to kill Spidey. After he was released from the hypnosis by a secret word (Ryan Reynolds), the heroes changed costumes to fool the Hypno-Hustler into thinking Spidey was dead. Deadpool planned on leaving afterward, until he was hypnotized into staying in prison by Spider-Man. (Avenging Spider-Man 13)

"Eight Legs to Kick You"

Wade soon met with Spider-Man again, even if it was the Superior Spider-Man. He was collecting souls for a demon that had granted people superpowers and one of those people was Daniel Gump. Gump had sold his soul for precognition and became a businessman and criminal. When Deadpool arrived at Gump Tower, he was stopped by Spider-Man who was also there investigating Gump. Several hired guns were waiting for them, like Trapster, Taskmaster, Lady Stilt Man and Chance. Deadpool managed to...well, trap most of them with the Trapster's glue while Gump escaped with Lady Stilt Man. Wade took Spidey's webshooters (against Otto's wishes) and followed the duo, eventually killing the crooked businessman. Deadpool was soon captured and webbed up by Spider-Man but escaped with a tiny blowtorch that Spider-Man hadn't found. (Deadpool (vol. 5) #10)

"Carnage vs Deadpool"

At a later time, Wade was watching the TV news when he saw a report on the escaped mass murderer called Carnage. He switched the channel, as he was eating and grossed out by the graphic report. Every channel he switched to made him think of Carnage, until he realized that he and Kasady were the same kind of crazy. If anyone could find Cletus Kasady, it was Deadpool. He followed completely random "clues" to a mini-mart and on the magazine stand he found a story about an abandoned housing subdivision in Oklahoma. It was near the spot of Carnage's last massacre, so he went to the abandoned ghost town. He blew up the house that Kasady was staying in but the symbiote protected Kasady from the explosion. In the following battle, Kasady's head was nearly blown off by a grenade and as Deadpool was about to finish him off, he was blasted by Shriek. (Deadpool vs Carnage #1)

As Carnage shoved his spiked tentacles through Deadpool, he demanded to know how the Merc had found them. It wasn't hard, Deadpool told him. He just followed the clues. Carnage believed he was too random and chaotic to leave patterns and was about to finish Deadpool for good when he was blasted by a dubstep that 'Pool had illegally downloaded. "Because you...you don't deserve sonic torture that has been paid for." Deadpool was again blasted by Shriek, who was more than happy to play doctor with the woman if that was what she wanted. Kasady again tried to kill him, but Wade threw some grenades at him....which didn't blow up. Carnage told him to buy American next time and Wade remembered that he had rigged the grenades to a remote detonator. The explosion didn't kill Carnage but did force him to flee with Shriek. This was after he tore out Wade's intestines.

Deadpool regenerated and headed to a storage facility to find spare weapons and costumes (which apparently, he keeps all over the place in case of emergencies) but found that his items had been auctioned off when he missed his third payment. (He had been busy traveling through alternate dimensions killing evil versions of himself.) He eventually found the person that bought his costumes, a hugely obese man named Doverton. Doverton was also mentally ill and could see the same patterns that Deadpool and Carnage could. Deadpool had Doverton point him in Carnage's direction and found him on the freeway. Kasady and Shriek were escaping in a convertible when Deadpool drove a farm harvesting machine off of a flatbed truck and over the convertible. This caused Shriek to hit her head on the windshield and really tick off Kasady. Soon the maniac had smashed through the harvester and tossed Wade into traffic. (Deadpool vs Carnage #2)

Soon Deadpool and Carnage were stabbing away at each other, and Wade tried telling Kasady that his dedication to chaos was misplaced. There was a pattern in the universe, even if Kasady didn't see it. Bored by Wade's speech, Carnage threw him into the path of a semi, which splattered him across the pavement. His healing factor saved him, allowing him to hear the panicked conversations of the onlookers. In their speeches, he picked out the words "The fight is not over. Find him. Stop him." He started looking for more signs and found that the trucker that hit him worked for Mercury Trucking. A school bus with a "Go Team Go" banner caught his attention and he knew that his clue was "Mercury Team."

He stole a motorcycle and followed more clues: clouds that looked like Carnage, roadkill, a little girl that spilled hot sauce on herself at a restaurant and some hillbillies gutting a deer. The clues led him to a ghost town, where he found the bloody car of a family that Carnage and Shriek had hijacked. Underneath the ghost town was a military group called Mercury Team, which were bonded to the symbiotes that had formerly made up Hybrid. Carnage had already killed Mercury Team and had set the self-destruct on the facility to kill the rival symbiotes. Carnage then arrived and tore Deadpool apart, making sure that he couldn't regenerate. As the self-destruct timer counted down, the Mercury Team dog arrived with the symbiotes, which bonded to Wade and helped him regenerate. (Deadpool vs Carnage #3)

Deadpool caught up with Carnage and Shriek at the Carrington Cottage Psychiatric Hospital. Deadpool sniped at Carnage through a window, blowing his head off. He sent the dog, which was bonded to a symbiote, to attack Carnage. Shriek tried to blast the dog, but the symbiotes image changing ability made her think that she had killed her lover. Shriek fled and the two madmen fought to a draw. Carnage fled, and Deadpool disguised Shriek as himself. Carnage tried to kill Deadpool, but was stunned to see that he had cut up his own partner. He put himself into a cell at the hospital and waiting for the police to arrive, somehow deciding that he was going to wait until he was his own man again. Deadpool left the symbiotes with the dog, telling them to go back to the government agents that knew how to take care of them. (Deadpool vs Carnage #4)

"Axis"

Deadpool joined the fight against the Red Skull after the former Nazi took control of Charles Xavier's brain and attacked the mutant nation of Genosha. Red Onslaught (who Red Skull became after gaining Xavier's vast psychic powers) fought back the combined attack of the Avengers and X-Men with the help of two adamantium Sentinels created by Tony Stark. Magneto soon arrived with a villain army consisting of Deadpool, Carnage, Hobgoblin, Absorbing Man, Enchantress, Mystique, Loki, Doctor Doom and Jack O'Lantern VI.

As the other killers dealt with Red Onslaught and the Sentinels, Deadpool was dragging away the badly hurt Iron Man. He hoped to get on Stark's good side so that he could become an Avenger, a wish which Tony was extremely reluctant to grant. Deadpool wasn't telling Stark where he was being dragged to, until he found that he had brought him to a downed power line to recharge him. Apparently, Deadpool was granted membership to the Avengers for helping Tony. (Axis #3)

”Mercs for Money”

Deadpool was being sued by Luke Cage and Matt Murdock, leaving him strapped for cash. Meanwhile he was losing assassination jobs to an impostor. The fake turned out to be Solo, who enjoyed getting paid at Deadpool’s rates. The extra Deadpool raised his profile and Wilson got the idea to start a franchise. He renamed his group from Heroes for Hire, to Mercenaries for Money. (Deadpool (vol. 6) #1)

"Isn't it Bromantic?"

Deadpool momentarily kidnapped Spider-Man and took him to Hell to fight Dormammu. When they returned, they found Hydro-Man threatening to drown New York in its own sewage unless he was paid $100 million. He was beaten when Spidey blew him (and Deadpool) up with Deadpool’s grenades. Later, Deadpool took a job to kill Peter Parker, the CEO of Parker Industries. He hoped that he and Spidey could still be friends after he killed his boss. (Spider-Man/Deadpool (vol. 1) #1)

Deadpool got Spider-Man’s attention by giving random hugs to people on the street, which was reported as muggings. Both Spider-Men (Parker and Morales) showed up and knocked him out when he asked for information on Peter Parker. At that moment they were seemingly attacked by multiple Green Goblins but no bystanders seemed to notice them. He shot the spiders webshooters, which carried Parker Industry’s “webware” technology. The webware had been hacked at Parker Industries by Mysterio, who was run over by Deadpool and the “Deadbuggy.” Spidey stopped the hack and Deadpool saved Mysterio by giving mouth to mouth. After Spider-Man left, Deadpool checked around the building and found P.I. scientists conducting experiments on human beings. He ended the scientists and called his contact, telling him he’ll do the Parker job for free. (Spider-Man/Deadpool (vol. 1) #2)

Later, Spidey gave Deadpool a second chance by attaching a tiny lie detector to him. It quickly shorted out. Deadpool screwed up his own children’s charity event. Deadpool told Spidey that he really wanted to be better and took him to meet his daughter, whom he’d only recently met. Spider-Man felt guilty for being judgmental and left. Deadpool’s contact called him, saying he had scanned Spidey during the conversation and found he’d be difficult to get past during the assassination of Parker.

Deadpool took Spidey to a club, which Spider-Man told him wasn’t his image. Deadpool changed him via a hologram into a black man named “Leonardo DiCaprio” and introduced him to his date. During their date, Thor (Jane Foster) arrived as set up by Deadpool. Spidey’s date turned out to be a demon that hated Asgardians. The fight between Thor and the demon ended when Deadpool and Spidey danced for their entertainment. (Turned out it was Ladies Night at the club.) They laughed afterwards and agreed to hang out again soon. The next morning Peter went to his door after the bell rang and was met by Deadpool. He shot Peter square in the head, killing him. Deadpool joined his wife (who apparently was some kind of demon herself) to watch Peter Parker be tormented in Hell. When they arrived, Peter wasn’t at his torture room. The head demon said there was no reservation for Peter. They went to Peter’s apartment and, yes, he was still dead. Deadpool’s wife brought him back to life and Deadpool killed him again. Back in Hell, Peter has still missing.

Deadpool went looking for Peter’s soul and found him being tortured by Mysterio. He was only being tortured by illusions but Deadpool still blew them away. Deadpool told him to think of something that could help them with the illusions and of course, Peter thought of Spider-Man. He defeated Mysterio but felt a presence. Peter was taunted by Mephisto, who smugly told the clueless webhead that he was the one to truly defeat him. He made sure he’d always be alone. Peter woke up in bed with a note from Deadpool, apologizing for killing him. He asked him to not tell Spider-Man about killing him. He was going to take care of the guy that set him up, free of charge. (Spider-Man/Deadpool (vol.1) #5)

"Deadpool vs The Punisher"

Wade had done a job in Mexico for a man named Simon Noonan Banks and was reviewing his mission with Banks when Frank Castle, the Punisher, arrived. Castle had come to kill Banks, whom he knew as a money launderer for criminal organizations around the world. The Punisher began his assault on Bank's mansion and Deadpool went to protect the Banks family. As the shootout began, Wilson judged Castle to be a "self righteous, sociopathic, shoot-first-ask-questions-never, humorless, fascist hardass." During the fight, Bank's wife and young son tried to escape via their boat, which blew up when the key was put in the ignition. Punisher escaped to his safehouse, which had been robbed. Deadpool was waiting for him, as he had tracked Castle's very rare and expensive bullets to a supplier that gave him Frank's address. Deadpool intended to kill Punisher for killing the boy and Frank denied planting the charges that destroyed the boat. Punisher managed to put a bullet in Deadpool's head before Wade could finish him off. (Deadpool vs The Punisher #1)

When Wilson woke up, he was in the Punisher's battle van, tied to the seat. Castle had taken them to a place on the U.S./Mexico border called Terminal, where everything from contraband to fugitives were smuggled. Punisher left Deadpool tied up in the van, telling him that it was to keep him safe if he fell asleep. Deadpool stayed away until Punisher was confronted by a Mexican criminal calling himself The Don of the Dead. Wade crashed a speedboat through the skylight and on top of the gang. Deadpool had insulted The Don by giving him a wedgie when they last met and they battled it out with swords, until Punisher gave The Don another wedgie. The duo finished off the gang and Deadpool met the Bank's wife and son, who had faked their deaths at the mansion. Mariana tried to explain to Deadpool that she had explained everything to him when he and Punisher had found them in Kentucky, an event that Wade had no memory of. He soon had Mariana and the boy escape in The Don of the Dead's helicopter, much to Punisher's annoyance. Deadpool started asking about when they suddenly teamed up, what happened in Kentucky and why Castle was carrying around a briefcase. Punisher answered him by shooting him in the head again and putting a bullethole-less mask on him. (Deadpool vs The Punisher #2)

”Acts of Evil”

He received a letter from an 8 year old boy named Peter Quincy asking him to kill his nightmares for $7. Every night Peter had the same dream of being hurt by a creature that looked like a gnome. Wade stole the Eye of Agamotto and traveled to the dream world, eventually confronting the otherworldly creature called Nightmare. He saw that the gnome in Peter’s dreams looked like his babysitter and broke the amulet to return to the physical world. He killed the babysitter and asked Peter for his $7. (Deadpool Annual #1)

"Comrades at Arms (And Arms and Arms)"

Deadpool had been hired a group of assassins called the Atelier to kill Otto Octavius. However, he had been kidnapped by a mad scientist named Harrower, who wanted to wipe out humanity. She infected him with a symbiote as an experiment and a Carnage like symbiote was hatching from him. Shocked at first by the new appendages, Wade was soon giving them a fist bump and attacking Octavius in his lab. Ock demanded to know why Deadpool was in his lab and Wilson replied that he was there to interview for a job by killing him. There was also a cute co-worker that he wanted to impress. Deadpool was briefly taken out of the fight by Harrower, who had come to collect her experiment. Also, the symbiote was trying to eat it's way out of Wilson, which he said was like eating bad fish and chips but the fish and chips was trying to eat him back.

He wasn't doing well against Ock and Harrower but did worse when a new symbiote arm burst out of his mouth. Otto was disgusted and began throwing Deadpool around the room, until Harrower stopped him so she could take the alien back to her lab. Wilson tried to attack Ock but the symbiote went after Harrower instead, and she ripped the arm out of his mouth. The creature did stab her in the shoulder and Ock snuck up behind Deadpool as he was yakking. Octavius was stopped by Deathstrike, who had also been sent to kill him. Deathstrike was furious with Wilson, who was supposed to be her partner until he disappeared for 24 hours and went after Ock alone. Assassins and criminals worked together, but the pain from the symbiote was slowing Deadpool down, so he cut the arms off and fled. He went back to his crush, Valentine Vuong and collapsed. Later, she was performing surgery on him on her kitchen countertop. (Deadpool (vol. 9) #2)

”Contest of Chaos”

At some point, Deadpool bonded the Carnage symbiote to a dog and named it Princess. As he took Princess for a walk, a ballon with a purple face called out to him from a storm drain, telling him to touch its string. The string wrapped around Deadpool and dragged him into the drain, eventually taking him to a demented carnival boardwalk. The balloon called it Hopper Land and Deadpool was gushing over the rigged carnival games, overpriced cotton candy and “so-ugly-they’re-cute” mascots. At that moment, a portal in the sky opened and Venom crashed to the ground. The creature said it didn’t have time for the nonsense and needed to find Eddie. Deadpool asked who was under the goop and it replied that he was no one important.

The person under the goop was Dylan Brock, Eddie’s son. As Deadpool stuffed his face with hotdogs, a purple animatronic rabbit told them that judgement was coming, and its mistress needed a champion. They had been chosen to compete to be her Chosen One. They both declined until the rabbit told them that the golden toy rabbit it held was made of pure chaos energy and whoever held it had the power to reshape reality…and lifetime tickets to any Hopper Land location worldwide. Dylan needed it to find Eddie and Deadpool wanted it to get a new collar for Princess. All they had to do was capture the majority of the four balloons that it released. Despite the even number, there could be no tie.

Venom bit the head off of a guy dressed in a costume, finding it full of maggots and the first balloon. As the contest went on, both Deadpool and Venom felt unnaturally aggressive. They both needed to win at all costs. (Deadpool reasoned that maybe the impulse wasn’t too weird after all, considering how expensive theme park tickets were.) Deadpool grabbed the second balloon and they were sent to the fun house.

From a secret location, Agatha Harkness studied the cursed book, the Darkhold. The rabbit reported that the contestants were feeling her magic and she was pleased. It was a trial run and she liked her champions to be spirited. At the same time, Deadpool caught the third balloon. He didn’t get to keep it, as Venom impaled him with a wooden post. The purple rabbit declared a tie but repeated that there can be no ties, so they’d have to fight to the death. Deadpool realized that the purple light was affecting their brains but Venom didn’t care. He soon ripped off Deadpool’s arm and took the balloons. Venom stepped through an opened portal and Deadpool recognized Agatha on the other side.

Deadpool was dropped off at his apartment and scolded Princess for chewing on one of the maggot filled toys. After he finished a hit job in Munich, he wanted to go to an amusement park. (Venom Annual #1 Summer 2023)

"Venom War"

New York was suffering another symbiote infestation, this time with "zombiotes," symbiotes bonded to zombies. Deadpool was trying to fight them off but was getting overwhelmed. He was saved by the arrival of Silence (Andi Benton) and Princess. The zombiotes continued to multiply as Deadpool watched them overtake a school bus full of kids on a field trip. The trip had been to the circus and they soon were attacked by a symbiote enhanced elephant. Silence managed to cure the kids with her Anti-Venom, while Deadpool's arm was ripped off by a symbiote lion. They fled to the sewer and arrived at Monster Metropolis, home to all sorts of creatures. "Frank" (Frankenstein's monster) wasn't happy to see him, as Deadpool had abandoned them for another monster kingdom. Wade said he was done with Staten Island and here in Monster Metropolis on business. Frank didn't approve but Wade said the place could use some money. Frank took him to see Michael Morbius, who tolerated Deadpool. Morbius brought him to Jimmy Hudson (aka, Poison) and Deadpool said he had work to do, despite his self-loathing. The zombiotes followed Deadpool to Monster Metropolis and began to infect the residents. (Venom War: Deadpool #1)

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