It’s strange. I had planned to write an article where I detailed chronologically how I fell in love with one of my all-time favorite characters, Deadpool. It made sense. The guy has a freaking movie coming out. But as I tried to remember how I fell in love with the character, the pieces just wouldn’t fit together. I remember first reading about the character during the early issues of Agent X, a book I picked up simply for the art. That was back in 2002. I’m sure I saw mention of the character in Wizard magazine or in an X-book at some point in the 90s, but I wasn’t an avid comic book collector at that point.

So where did I fall in love with the character? There are so many points in the character’s history that I realized I was enamored with the comedy and complexity of the character that is Wade Wilson.

Agent X

Yes, {Spoilers} this title did not in fact feature Deadpool. Spinning out of his struggling initial series, the story of Agent X followed an amnesiac who was believed to be Deadpool at the time. As a teenager, I was initially drawn by UDON’s beautiful art on the book, but I became infatuated with the book when I saw the comedy that lied within as well. I was young and beginning to dive deep into collecting comic books. This was one of the first books I read with a sense of humor and I would come to learn that Gail Simone is a master when it comes to fun titles. Unfortunately, at that young age, I couldn’t afford to collect the entire series and learn the truth behind Agent X’s connection to Deadpool.

Cable and Deadpool

I find Cable to be a dreadfully boring character. So I kept my distance from this book for quite some time. But then, a little thing called Civil War happened. I don’t remember if it was me or my brother who made the decision to include this book in our pull list at the time, but it would eventually be Skottie Young’s covers on the tail end of the series that convinced me to keep picking these books up. That, and the ridiculous fun that I had reading this book. Yeah, I found Cable boring, but he was barely in the book and would eventually die leaving the series completely to Deadpool. And who better to give me my first true taste of Deadpool than one of his creators, Fabian Nicieza?

Deadpool Vol. 2

I’d gotten hooked. Cable and Deadpool came to an end and Deadpool was relaunched under the capable hands of Daniel Way. Deadpool had previously appeared in Daniel Way’s Wolverine: Origins, and Way continued to demonstrate an uncanny (heh) ability to have fun with the character. It wouldn’t be until issue #37 that I would finally get to understand the pathos behind Deadpool. Up until this point, Deadpool was a sort of parody/comedy character that just went on absurd adventures. Under Way, his adventures were still just as absurd, but he had a reason for doing what he did that wasn’t money or fame. He wasn’t simply a funny character; he was actually a very tragic character as well.

Uncanny X-Force

At about the same time that I started understanding Deadpool on a deeper level, Deadpool began to be featured in Uncanny X-Force. Simply put, I believe Rick Remender is a master of character-based storytelling. He doesn’t just write stories where cool shit happens; he writes stories where cool shit happens that deeply affects the characters in his books. Uncanny X-Force was a title that is one of my all-time favorite books for this reason. I found every character utilized in this series to be interesting and real. And to my surprise, Deadpool became the heart of that team. Enough to say, this was a series about a group of people who did bad things but did them for the right reasons.

Since Then…

I admittedly got a little fatigued as Marvel went into Deadpool overdrive with Deadpool Corps and a litany of other mini series featuring the Merc with the Mouth. I also spent a couple years not collecting comics. I gave Brian Posehn and Gerry Dugan’s relaunch a chance but didn’t quite recognize the character I’d embraced. I’ll probably go back and read it all later as I’ve heard some positive stuff. I’ve also read some of the Joe Kelly series, but want to go back and read straight through as I’ve only ever read bits here and there. I’m also thinking about giving the recent Uncanny Avengers a shot.

So what was the point of this? To share a little bit of why I love one of my favorite comic book characters. To give folks an idea of where or how they can jump on to reading Deadpool.

And what was the point of that intro if I ended up writing it out chronologically? I really don’t know.

Hope you enjoyed reading one Deadpool fans account of the evolution of his love for Deadpool. If you love Deadpool too, where did you start? Any suggestions for what to read and what to skip? Are you as excited by the movie as I am?