I love Deadpool/Wade Wilson. I have for years. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more unique character in the Marvel Universe. For me, Deadpool’s comics are action-comedy in comic book form, and if you aren’t familiar with Deadpool in comics, go to your local comic store, randomly grab an issue of Deadpool, read, enjoy. Deadpool really counters the Marvel U that sometimes takes itself too seriously, with his own brand of humor.

Deadpool’s (Wade Wilson) history in comics is long, complicated, and intertwined with many major players in the Marvel U. I won’t bore you with every detail, but it’s certainly interesting and definitely worth a read. If you don’t feel like reading up on his entire history, here’s some basics that you need to know: Deadpool is a mercenary for hire, commonly known as the “Merc with a Mouth” due to all his wise-cracking and shit-talking (think Spider-Man times one hundred) and has an incredible delusion of grandeur. He was part of the same Weapon X program as Wolverine and was fused with Wolvie’s healing factor, but not before he was left scarred and mentally unstable. He has super strength, enhanced agility, and is deadly with any weapon (though, he prefers katana’s) as a skilled assassin. He has a teleporter that he uses to get out of bad situations. He constantly breaks the “fourth wall” and narrates directly to the audience. Deadpool is actually the savior from Secret Invasion, but Norman Osborn stole the information to kill the Skrull Queen from Deadpool. He used to be in a relationship with the female human-manifestation of Death.

Yeah, Deadpool is an unkillable,weapon-toting, shit-talking badass who used to bang Death.

So, to X-Men Origins: Wolverine. First off, Ryan Reynolds. I thought it was good casting, and frankly, for all 10 minutes he was on screen, I still think that. Reynolds plays the over-confident wise-cracker very well (i.e. Hanibal King in Blade Trinity), and there was one scene in particular that I thought captured Wade’s personality perfectly:

Wade Wilson: Great, stuck in an elevator with 5 guys on a high protein diet.
Wade Wilson: Oh Wade!
Wade Wilson: Dreams really do come true.
William Stryker: Now just shut it! You’re up next.
Wade Wilson: Thank you sir, you look really nice today. It’s the green, it brings out the seriousness in your eyes.
Logan: Oh my God, do you ever shut up, pal?
Wade Wilson: No, not while I’m awake.

At this point, Wade comes out of the elevator, whoops some ass classic over-the-top-Deadpool style and makes a snyde remark. In the theater I thought to myself, “Awesome, they’ve nailed him.” But then to my dismay, that was about it for Wade. Later it is mentioned that he is killed off-screen by Victor Creed and that’s the last we hear of from Mr. Wilson for the entire movie. I’m not saying that if Wade Wilson was in this movie more it would have been better, but it would have made the Deadpool fans more happy, because Fox actually got the character right up to that point; I was actually a little impressed. And let’s face it, he could have supplied some much needed comedy-action relief. But “lucky” for all of us, Wade Wilson is not dead and in fact, he is the final anatgonist in the story! (spoilers ahead)

Stryker “pools” a bunch of mutant powers into Wade Wilson (hence the name Deadpool in the movie canon) and turns him into a brain washed mutant-killing… mutant (with a surprisingly user-friendly interface! Type “decapitate” on they keyboard and he’ll decapitate someone!). To start off, I was actually fine with his mangled appearance. He’s mangled in the comic books, he’s mangled in the movie, all be it in totally different ways but at least they got the point across. I was not fine with his mouth being sewn(/healed?) shut! You can not, I repeat, can not sew the Merc With a Mouth’s mouth shut! Especially because if you did, Wade would just cut the damn thing open so he can keep talking! (Strike 1) Next, Wade loves his Katana’s. Great! But you don’t need to install them into his hands/forearms Wolverine-style! Fox! Not everyone needs retractable blades in X-Men movies! (Strike 2) Wade has a healing factor now and can teleport (courtesy of Wraith), okay, I am fine with this. Wade has a healing factor he got from Wolverine in the comics and uses a device to teleport, I can buy into these two things just fine inthe movie… but then… Lord… He has optic blasts. Why? Why does he need them? Wade is a skilled hand to hand assassin, he doesn’t want/need Cyc’s optic blasts, nor do they even help him out, in fact, they pretty much cause his demise! (Strike 3)

I really don’t get why Fox does this. They put character’s in their movies just so they can say “Oh, “so and so” is in this movie! Come see it!” and then they do one of three things: 1) Get the character right, but under use them. 2) Basterdize the character to the point where they can even barely be called by their comic book namesake. 3) Just flat out miss the mark.  It started with some of the X-Men in the original movie, with Rogue being a timid young whiney girl instead of the sultry Southern girl she is, and Cyclops being a whiney pretty-boy douche, instead of an over-confident asshole douche. Then it was all down hill from there in X-Men: The Last Stand where there were several character that made appearances, but you probably never even knew because they were so far off the mark (i.e. Psylocke?!).

With ramblings about Fox wanting to do X-Men Origins: Magneto, a Gambit movie, an X-Men: First Class movie, and a Deadpool spin-off they need to take a step back and take inventory on how they are making and ruining so many classic and beloved Marvel characters and start doing it right. I know you can’t please ALL of us comic nerds out there, but at least try to get it right and acknowledge the spirit of the characters instead of just making a new character to fit your story and saying “Oh, this is… let’s say