Miss Dawn’s Musings – Outside the Box

Blog-MissDawnsMusingsMy favorite comic book character (can’t exactly say superhero) is Deadpool. For some reason, this seems to take many people by surprise (mostly male, mostly those who don’t know me very well). Admittedly, Deadpool is not a “girly” character, nor are the majority of his plotlines what would be considered female friendly (in other words, they’re usually violent as all get out). So why is he my favorite?

First, as much as it pains me to do this, I need to get a little hipster on you – I liked Deadpool before it was cool to do so. Before the flood of merc merch hit Hot Topic, before the movie was confirmed, before he infiltrated every corner of the Marvel Universe. My love for the Merc with the Mouth goes way back – I even have a copy of The New Mutants #98, his first appearance (and yes, I bought it in 1990 when it first came out. It was around this same time I also fell in love with Lobo, who still has a place in my heart.)

So now to the “why”. I could take the easy way with “because I do!” I mean, no one usually needs to explain why they love Wolverine or Batman or Hellboy (though geeks do typically love to discuss the whys). But then this entire post will have been a waste, except for the hipster part above and I’m not having that! My love for Deadpool comes down to thinking outside the box (from hipster to corporate in one paragraph!).

If you know anything of Deadpool, you know that he is one of the only “mainstream” comic book characters to break the fourth wall. This means he knows he’s a character and he frequently makes comments on what’s going on and talks directly to the reader. Sure, he’s also crazy and perhaps only believes he’s a character, but the fact that there is some self-awareness is what appeals to me. And yet, he goes along with whatever the plot happens to be, just occasionally commenting on it (either first person or quasi first person via the extra couple of voices in his head).

Another thing I like is the variety of storylines Deadpool ends up with. It all started with him as a mercenary for hire, doing whatever jobs he gets paid for. And that still pretty much covers what he does. But along the way he ends up in some crazy situations, meeting characters from across the marvel Universe and even ending up in their comics. There are some plots that are just generally fun and others that get pretty serious. You know what to expect of him as a character in general, but you just never know how things are going to end up. And considering he has the power to regenerate, it’s amazing the ways the writers manage to abuse, maim and pretty much kill him on a regular basis.

Quite honestly, I could go on about this for some time, but I’m sure you get the idea by now. I’m not exactly mainstream with a lot of my “likes”, even for the geek world. But I don’t think that’s anything to complain about.


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