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.
Does Deadpool not feel pain?
We know he can heal. He can even grow a whole hand back. But when he’s cutting his own hand off to escape from Colossus (voice by Stefan Kapicic), shouldn’t that still hurt? I’ve seen it explained that in the comic book character actually does feel pain and enjoys it because he’s crazy. I never got the impression that the movie Deadpool felt a thing.
Does Ajax not care about severe injuries?
On the other side of the coin, we know Ajax doesn’t feel pain. But that’s not a great power to have if you don’t also possess a healing factor or immortality. It means you may not notice a wound that will cause you to bleed out or create other problems of a lethal nature. Sure, it’s fine that you don’t care about being shot because it didn’t hurt, but don’t act like it’s not an issue.
Where are the other X-Men?
Yes, I know that the absence of more than two X-Men is a joke in the movie, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be curious. Even when the X-Men of the movies are on a mission, there are typically students of Xavier’s School still around. Maybe classes weren’t in session. Anyway, I’m also curious about Colossus and Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – sorry, Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand). She’s after my time, so I don’t know anything about her. What’s her power? And what’s up with this weird dead-eyed Colossus? Is he always in metal form? Is that the way they do him now? I need one of those character backstory comic-book tie-ins.
NEXT: DEADPOOL WANTS YOU TO WATCH BAD MOVIES
Aren’t Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead a bit too lethal in this movie?
While not nearly as deadly as Deadpool, the two X-Men in the movie don’t seem nearly as concerned about human life as legitimate good guys should be. The X-Men have never been totally kill free in the movies, especially when you figure in Wolverine’s body count – and Colossus even took out two fellow mutants in X-Men: The Last Stand, but we know that film is no longer canon. Still, Colossus and NTW seem a bit more lethal than Professor Xavier would surely stand for. I guess it’s more on the younger of the two, and that could just be a matter of her being a rookie. It’s also hard to imagine her blasts being used in a way that would simply decommission the bad guys, rather than obliterating them. The funny thing is that at the end of the final battle, Colossus does put in the suggestion that Deadpool spare Ajax’s life.
Why does a Deadpool movie need a comic-relief character?
This may sound like a question for the production, but it really is in reference to something that’s technically in-movie. Assuming Deadpool himself is responsible for the opening credits. Weasel (TJ Miller) is referred to as the movie’s comic relief, but that’s a weird thing to have here, given that Deadpool is already comical. In fact, he’s dominantly comical. Weasel is a funny guy, but next to Deadpool he’s relatively the straight man.
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