I Have A Confession: I Can’t Stand Deadpool

The geek world is positively abuzz at the moment, and it’s almost all down to dear old Wade Wilson.

This week we have already had a teaser for the Deadpool movie trailer, which is expected to follow in the coming days. And while fans of the ‘merc with a mouth’ across the world rejoice, I have a confession to make.

I can’t stand him.

Seriously, the character of Deadpool makes my skin crawl. I realise this is heresy to some – Deadpool attracts a passionate fanbase, who are never shy to tell you just how funny the character is, with his zaniness and his ‘breaking the fourth wall’ exploits.

But I can’t stand him.

Just last week I was working my way through the Secret Avengers title on Marvel Unlimited by Ales Kot and Michael Walsh. It’s a cracking book, really funny, with a great cast of characters including Maria Hill, M.O.D.O.K. (turning into a hero, perhaps?), Hawkeye and Spider-Woman. I was loving every single page.

And then Deadpool turns up, for no real reason. And suddenly we have ‘hilarious’ comments about how Kot’s version of Hawkeye is nearly as good as Matt Fraction’s, and that Deadpool is only here to boost sales of the comic book. Seriously, we have a section which feels like it lasts forever where Deadpool explains to Hawkeye how this is all taking place in a comic book, and none of it is real.

It is excruciating.

I don’t like it when comics get that self aware at the best of times – when the aforementioned Fraction turns up in FF during his run on the book with Mike Allred, it’s a rare bum note in a great story – but this was just awful. It completely killed the momentum of the book, it felt like a waste of time, and most important of all it just wasn’t funny.

It’s not just comics either. Two separate Marvel gaming apps – War of Heroes and Marvel Puzzle Quest – felt positively saturated with Deadpool appearances when I played them. I appreciate that he has a vociferous fanbase who can’t get enough of him, but I can’t be the only one who was turned off by him constantly showing up.

I didn’t always feel like this about Deadpool. My first experience with the character was the excellent Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher, and I thought he was really funny in an incredibly bleak book.

But it’s been all downhill since.

And I’ve tried, really I have. I’ve worked my way through Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe, Deadpool Killustrated, a handful of Deadpool Team-Up issues, the horrendous Deadpool Max and even Baby’s First Deadpool Book (which genuinely may be the worst comic I’ve ever read. And I’ve read Nemesis).

I want to like him. I want to find him funny. I want to chuckle along with everyone else at his inside jokes and wacky antics. But I just can’t manage it.

With all that said, I hope the Deadpool movie is a roaring success. I like Ryan Reynolds a lot, dating back to Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place, and think it’s time he was forgiven for his part in that rubbish Green Lantern movie.

But I doubt I’ll be going to see it. If I can’t cope with him on the page, how painful would a full film be?