The Many Forms of Deadpool

After class Monday night, I decided to make a stop by my local Blockbuster. I’ve had a couple of movies longer than I should have, and I noticed they charged the films to my credit card. Taking this as an appropriate sign that they wanted their merchandise back, I didn’t want to put off the chore any longer. I intended to walk in and out, but a video game caught my eye: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (specifically the version for the Wii).

If you aren’t in the know (read: not a nerd), MUA2 is a dungeon-crawling role-playing game in which you control various Marvel superheroes and villains and proceed through various missions. As the title suggests, this is a sequel to the 2006 game that came out for various game systems. It was well received, most critics citing the expansive character selection and quality game play as high points. Most importantly, though, I enjoyed it a lot. Of course, a Marvel game would have to be terrible for to not enjoy it at least a little bit, but I digress.

So, along with handing over my tardy DVDs to the clerk, I proceeded to checkout MUA2. The clerk, apparently a fellow nerd, then challenged me to play as the Invisible Woman for the first half of the game. I respectfully declined saying that my two favorite heroes would be sharing my time: Iron Man and Deadpool. “Deadpool?” he sighed, shaking his head with obvious disappointment. What could he possibly have against Deadpool? Then it hit me that the movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” was being released on DVD the next day, and any negative reactions the name “Deadpool” would bring up probably came from that debacle. Let me explain….

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” struck a sour note with me for not only being linear, formulaic and surprisingly boring, but because of the hack job it did with my beloved Deadpool. See, Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, is a mercenary who has some serious mental problems. He rants with an ADD-like tenacity, not shutting up even when his life depends on it. Also, he frequently breaks the fourth wall between him and the reader, making him one of the few self-aware comic book characters. Beyond those quirks, he has a healing factor and is skilled at killing people in dozens of different ways.

This depiction of Deadpool apparently wasn’t interesting enough for Fox Studios. Instead they featured Wade Wilson, who was played excellently by Ryan Reynolds, and turned him into what is called “Weapon XI.” Weapon XI was a genetic experiment where the government gave Wilson other mutants’ super powers, including but not limited to laser eyes and teleportation. So, instead of having a smart-mouthed merc who carries a lot of guns and swords, the filmmakers opted for the final boss of a fighting game. Even worse, Weapon XI’s mouth was sealed shut, so any opportunity of witty banter was destroyed.

Sure, the fight scene between Weapon XI, Wolverine and Sabertooth was pretty to watch, but it was boring and never reached any worthy climax. And sacrificing my dear Deadpool for that was devastating. Sure, my regenerating degenerate will be getting his own film in a few years, and Ryan Reynolds has been saying that if he has anything to do with it, then it’ll be the real deal, but promising something sweet tomorrow doesn’t take the bitter taste out of my mouth today.

All in all, I understood the clerk’s disdain for Deadpool if his only experience was the Wolverine movie. But that didn’t diminish my excitement for the game. And when I got home I was pleasantly surprised to see that Deadpool was a playable character virtually right away. The video game’s depiction of Deadpool is immeasurably better than his in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” but it’s unfortunately one-dimensional. Like I said, Deadpool is a self-aware comic book character, so he does bring up things like the fact that he hasn’t seen somebody since issue 16 from time to time. But he does this intermittently. If he spouted off about being in a comic book every two seconds, it would be annoying…which is what he does in MUA2. And it doesn’t help the situation that the voice actor for Deadpool sounds like Michelangelo from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” It’s almost enough to make me not want to play as him.

Almost.

Truth is that my adoration of Deadpool runs deeper than the shallow annoyances the game brings me. He’s a truly unique and interesting character in the Marvel universe and is part of one of the best series of comic book series I have ever read (Cable & Deadpool). I’ll suffer through all of the Weapon XIs and stereotypical video game characters the universe can throw at me if it means one day I’ll see him on the silver screen kicking butt and cracking jokes like only Deadpool can. But, in the mean time, that guy seriously needs to get a personal relations consultant.