I enjoyed Deadpool quite a bit. And I’m not even a 15-year-old boy, nor do I think or act like one, which is what most critics believe is the only audience for this movie. Not that I don’t have certain criticisms about its comedic assumptions. Also, I have a lot of questions for this Marvel Comics adaptation. It has been more than 20 years since I followed the character on the page, so perhaps some answers can be found in the panels of his publications, but as always we should be able to appreciate a movie on its own, without need for supplementary media.
I admit that some of the below queries are examples of nitpicking or of trivial interest. Deadpool would probably give me a wedgie for asking some of them. I can’t help it. My mutant power is frivolous curiosity, and I’ve never learned to control it. If you have any questions of your own, please drop them in a comment down below.
Is Deadpool a mutant? Is everyone a mutant?
Let’s start with a two-part question. If memory serves, in the comics Deadpool has never been labeled a mutant. He received his uncanny regenerative healing powers through the Weapon X program, which infused him with Wolverine’s mutant gift. In the movie (where he’s played by Ryan Reynolds), it’s implied that everyone has a latent mutant gene and a certain serum and a lot of torture can cause it to be manifested. Sounds a bit like Midi-chlorians to me. We all have the potential to have powers, but some of us are more special than others.
Why would Ajax seek out and attempt to cure Wade Wilson?
Apparently the plan of the mini Weapon X program, led by Ajax (Ed Skrein) in the movie is to create an army of super soldiers. But that would only work if the subjects were somehow willing to serve him. For whatever purpose he needed them for. Does he brainwash them? That one guy Deadpool knew from Jacksonville (Bob, in the comics)seemed pretty clear-headed. Are they paid well? Anyway, they recruit Wade Wilson, promising to cure his cancer and realize he’s such a snarky asshole that there’s no way he’d work for them — I mean it should have been obvious, at least. Why go through with the experiment at that point? It’s not like Ajax and Angel Dust (Gina Carano) would have liked working with him if the test worked on him.
Why would Deadpool seek out and kill Ajax?
It’s addressed in the movie, but Deadpool never really answers to the matter of why he needs to kill Ajax. For saving his life by curing his cancer? For attempting to murder him when he tried to escape — a plan that wound up killing other innocent test subjects, including his bedside buddy. And now his revenge plan involves killing many more guys who were probably just like him — the dude from Jacksonville proves this to be the case. Yes, first he’s looking for a supposed cure for his ugliness. Not necessarily to kill Ajax. That would make all the rest of the killings leading to Ajax even worse. Eventually Ajax does kidnap and threaten the life of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), Deadpool’s girl, so then he has some incentive to take out his enemy, but otherwise it’s like he just needed a plot for himself.
Was Deadpool really abominably deformed, or is he just sort of ugly?
Let me answer this one: he could have looked much, much worse. Deadpool should be terrifying or at least disturbing to lay eyes upon. In the movie, he’s not that bad. He just looks like an old man who spent too many years out in the sun. Maybe he looks somewhat burned at the very worst. I guess if you start out looking like Ryan Reynolds than this is the equivalent of being the love child of Sloth and the Toxic Avenger, but he certainly wasn’t hideous. He probably could have been fine out in society, despite the occasional stares. Some Morlocks would dream of being so attractive.
Why didn’t Deadpool let Vanessa know somehow that he was still alive?
I guess I get that Deadpool believed himself too hideous for Vanessa to still love him — although what a weak, untrusting idea from someone otherwise so confident — but why did he have to let her think he was dead? Even if he had eventually found a cure for ugliness, by the time he went back she’d be pissed (as she was when he revealed himself to her, uncured) and possibly even moved on, maybe with someone else. He could have called or at least written to say he was alive and embarrassed of his appearance and that he planned to be beautiful for her again someday. Guys like Deadpool can be as macho as they want to be, but if he can’t be honest with his fiancee, he’ll always be the biggest kind of coward.
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