An Analysis of Deadpool's Writers

I've read all of Deadpool's first solo run, a few issues each from the new Deadpool run and Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth, and all of Cable and Deadpool. Each of his writers have a (sometimes drastically) different take on a very complex character. I'm going to talk about each of them (too bad I haven't read anything by Liefeld...I would have liked to talk about him). But first, this is a comment on a site I was reading about the top 70 Deadpool moments:

"I notice that Rhino is in love with Dazzler and her music. Him and Juggernaut. That love triangle is a Valentines Day comic in the making."

THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN.

Anyway, here we go.

Joe Kelly

Joe Kelly set the standard for Deadpool. While Liefeld and Nicieza created him, he didn't really become Deadpool until Kelly started writing Deadpool's solo run. While I wouldn't call Kelly's writing flawless, it was still fantastic. The quips and most of the plotlines were solid gold. Nobody else but Kelly could come up with: Deadpool beating Tasky by dancing, Deathtrap and his giant teddy bear, Deadpool saving the world by kicking Cap in the nuts, a skinless cripple pretending to be a zombie, Deadpool dying with laughter at Talon's costume, Deadpool going back in time and having to deal with Spiderman's supporting cast from the 60s, etc. Kelly's run on Deadpool was the most emotionally wrenching. Joe Kelly tended to set Deadpool on the path to redemption and then pull the rug out from under him, which I'm not quite sure I liked that much. Deadpool becomes a hero by accepting his role as the Mithras...and then learns he has to be a murderer, as usual. Deadpool decides to become a good guy and decides to be with Siryn...and it's actually Typhoid Mary being a bitch and pretending to be Siryn. Deadpool is starting to be good...and then freaks out because Al and Weasel have been bonding. It was like watching Sisyphus. His run went from one end of the spectrum to the other: at times it was gloriously silly and funny, and then it would be like watching a puppy get kicked. I'm not sure if I liked or disliked this tendency.

Kelly also created some of the best supporting characters. Weasel is a loser slacker type who for some reason is Deadpool's best friend. Weasel is as much of a smartass as Deadpool sometimes but isn't as morally corrupt as Deadpool (which, trust me, isn't saying much). Blind Al was the blind old lady who was Deadpool's prisoner, but she could go toe to toe with him and sometimes win. She was sardonic and sarcastic, a motherly figure for Deadpool and someone who would bring him down to earth (like in the heartbreaking sequence where she is overly submissive and Deadpool is sad because he just wants her to forgive him). I can't remember who got rid of her (Kelly?) but it was really abrupt and nothing about her was explained. She had a cameo in Cable/Deadpool, but it was a panel long and disappointing. Blind Al also used to sleep with Captain America, so that's cool.

Kelly also created some of the most annoying villains in Deadpool: T-Ray and Typhoid Mary. Yes, the point of villains is that you hate them. But there are villains that are fun to watch (Apocalypse, Magneto, Joker, Doc Ock, Venom, etc.) and then there are some who are just SO MEAN that I can't stand to read about them. This is just a personal preference, but I HATED T-Ray and Typhoid Mary. They were well done villains and they weren't ANNOYING, they were just so evil.

The one thing that bothered me a lot about Kelly's run was Deadpool's self-hatred. He seemed to blame other people for letting him down and his upbringing for the person he turned into. He knows he's a killer, so he thinks he'll never be anything else. WELL, WHOSE FUCKING FAULT IS THAT? He's the worst friend ever, and by rights he shouldn't HAVE any friends. He's lucky Weasel, Blind Al, and Siryn even hang out with him (well, Al doesn't really have a choice). He could stop killing and he could stop being a mercenary, but he won't. I hated the way he blamed everyone else for the way he was.

Anyway, that sounds like a lot of complaints, but I really loved Kelly's run.

Then Kelly left and we got...

Christopher Priest

I really disliked Priest's run, but whether it's because it was as bad as I remember or because it wasn't as good as Kelly's is a mystery. I'll probably have to go back and read it again. Priest can write a passable Deadpool, but what he can't write is plot. This could just be because I'm dumb sometimes, but I read about the first five issues of his run thinking they were a flashback because they didn't tie in AT ALL with what came previously. The first bit of his run involved Deadpool somehow falling apart so that he would turn into goo if he left this weird chamber thing and then he's suddenly Loki's son, except he's not, and then he gets a Mjolnir that gives him powers, except it's fake so it shouldn't have given him powers in the first place. The things Priest writes should be funny, but they're not. Deadpool flying around and talking in a fake Ye Olde English accent should be funny, but it was merely confusing. Deadpool renting an apartment with two other B-list villains should be funny, except...it wasn't, AND HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP? I also remember way too many issues being taken up with a confusing adventure in space involving a double cross by Tasky and some Deadpool interns, AND HOW DO YOU SCREW THAT UP? And someone named Wolff or something and I didn't know his purpose. There were just so many things that didn't make sense, even though Deadpool himself was pretty well written. I'll have to go back and read it when I'm not thinking that it's a flashback. Plus I'm pretty sure Weasel and Al didn't show up at all.

Jimmy Palmiotti

Palmiotti had the opposite problem from Priest: he could write plot, he just couldn't write Deadpool. His Deadpool was humourless; pure antihero. I could have dealt with that. I like my Deadpool funny, but after Priest all I wanted was a Deadpool with a coherent plot. But Deadpool just kept doing things that were so out of character. He fell in love with a tattoo artist after knowing her for like a day. He took a kid under his wing, and while everyone seems to LOVE Kid Deadpool, I only found him passable. I did like that finally there was a sidekick who really hated his boss. There were also these twin schoolgirls who were trying to kill Deadpool for some reason. If Simone had control of the comic, that could have turned into something much better. With Palmiotti, we had the heartbreaking page where one twin had to kill the other. I don't know, there's not much else to say about Palmiotti except that while I was glad I could understand the plotlines, Deadpool was too OOC and the comic was too realistic. I mean, just a few issues previously Deadpool was hanging out in space. It was like Frank Miller took over Deadpool, only with fewer whores. Plus I think it was Palmiotti's run where a dog got thrown through a windshield, and that was just unnecessary.

Buddy Scalera

He only did one or two comics by himself, but I remember them being pretty okay. Except he did the issue where Siryn comes back and it was all over the cover and I thought it was going to be AWESOME except Copycat just beats her up and then Siryn yells at Deadpool and leaves. I'm pretty sure she's in the issue for about five panels. All in all though, I remember quite liking Scalera, especially after Palmiotti.

Frank Tieri

I guess it's pretty telling that I recalled nothing from Tieri's run. I had to look over the comics to remember stuff. He knows how to write Deadpool; in Tieri's run, he's wacky and spouts off pop culture references. Plotlines were decent. Every Deadpool writer needs a rape the dog moment, and Tieri's was when Kane killed a little boy who had lost control of his powers. I wish I could find a picture that looks like my facial expression. My mouth hung open for about two minutes in stupefaction and horror. Anyway, I can't remember anything about Tieri really, except he's better than both Priest and Palmiotti. Moving on.

Gail Simone

Okay, I love Gail Simone and since she's usually accompanied by my favourite artists (that would be Studio Udon) there is never anything wrong with her run on comics. She's funny, but the funny and the serious is balanced very nicely, and she is also very adept at writing secondary characters. She didn't bring back Weasel for her run, but she created Sandi, Outlaw, and a new version of Tasky, all of them very well done characters. While Kelly's Deadpool leaned more towards the bad side, Simone's was always solidly a good character, even if he was still an antihero. He got revenge on Sandi's boyfriend because he was beating her and he made Swan make Ratbag better, even at the expense of his own life. The plotlines were solid, including the Swan thing and the issue where he had to protect Dazzler and Rhino was starry eyed with love was fantastic. This is about Deadpool, so I won't go deep into Agent X, except her run on it was stellar. I also quite like her take on female characters. Comics are traditionally male wish fulfillment. Simone's females are definitely always skimpily dressed, but Outlaw makes it no secret that she wears a wig and has implants. Sandi is the traditional damsel in distress, but she is also a real person, not just a prop.

Fabian Nicieza

Fabian Nicieza originally created Deadpool with Rob Liefeld and I'm pretty sure he's written other stuff but the only thing I've read is Cable and Deadpool. Cable is a difficult character to write: he's somewhat of a Sue and in Cable/Deadpool he has a Messiah complex and a driving need to make the world a better place. Frankly, he's boring. Nicieza would very rarely make Cable joke, and each time it was perfect. I remember one time in particular when Cable and Deadpool had a tender moment and then Cable goes "Your fly's undone." When Deadpool looks, Cable's like, "Made you look." Because it is so unexpected, it adds depth to Cable's character. Sometimes Cable got annoying, but I think it was inevitable, and not solely a result of Nicieza's writing. Is it bad that Cable/Deadpool got way better after Cable died? This could also be because it was around Cable died that the best thing in Cable and Deadpool showed up...Bob, Agent of HYDRA!

Who doesn't love this guy? You can't not love him. Bob's training to be a henchman with HYDRA (for the health plan), and his training mostly consists of how to run away from stuff. He also instinctively yells out stuff like, "HAIL HYDRA!" and "CUT OFF ONE LIMB AND WE GROW THREE MORE!" Deadpool keeps him around as a pet and Bob loves Deadpool. He's like a little dog.

Nicieza also brought Weasel back. At one point Weasel gets kidnapped by HYDRA but plans his escape by creating teleporting technology and calls himself the Penetrator, leading to some immature but hilarious jokes.

The one thing that I and a lot of other people dislike about Nicieza's run is how he butchered Outlaw. This is a chick who is an expert markswoman and is stronger than normal. And what does she do in Cable and Deadpool? Nothing. And then she and Sandi get kidnapped by T-Ray and she does more nothing. She doesn't even try to fight back. SHE IS SO AWESOME WHY ISN'T SHE BEING PUT TO USE????? And Nicieza made Agent X get fat and then he did nothing except help fight the dinos near the end.

The end of Cable and Deadpool's run is pure gold. Deadpool accidentally teleports dinosaurs from the Savage Land into Manhattan and if this wasn't awesome enough, they get infected with the same symbiote that makes up Carnage. So you have CARNAGE DINOSAURS. IT IS SO AWESOME MY MIND CANNOT COMPUTE. Then Deadpool, Bob, the Avengers, Spiderman, and the Fantastic Four fight dinosaurs. It's amazing. And then in the very end, Deadpool finally becomes a hero and the last page is him and his friends (Irene Merryweather, Agency X, Bob, and Weasel) watching TV, which is playing the theme of Golden Girls. Which is, let me remind you, "Thank you for being a friend."

Awesome.

Daniel Way

I haven't read much of Way's work. He knows how to write Deadpool, and he knows how to write stories. He's pretty good. A point of contention among the Deadpool fandom is Deadpool's text boxes.

Deadpool knows his text boxes exist and he sometimes talks to them. In Way's run on the new Deadpool, we don't just have the one set of textboxes. We have some white textboxes, and the white textboxes talk to the yellow textboxes. That's not how it's supposed to work. Deadpool is aware of his textboxes, which shows he's crazy and it's funny. The textboxes, as far as I know, aren't aware of anything and don't talk back. Way writes self aware and sentient text boxes, and that's weird.