Deadpool is in an interesting place in the hierarchy of the Marvel Universe. He’s undoubtedly one of the most popular characters around, thanks to his ’10s domination of Hot Topic and his brilliant trilogy of films, with Deadpool & Wolverine being a billion dollar success. While the character was always popular enough, it wouldn’t be until writers Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn took over the character that he would really start to shine consistently. Deadpool had always been something of a screwball with some hidden depths to him, but Duggan and Posehn, along with many other writers in the era, were able to remember the dark, sad core of the Merc with a Mouth.
However, recent runs on the character have often failed to connect with readers. Deadpool has become a cliche in a lot of ways, and creators have focused more on the jokes and absurdity of Wade Wilson than they do the man under all the jokes and pain. His books have rarely lasted past a year lately, but it looks like Marvel wants to solve that. The publisher put the team of Benjamin Percy and Geoff Shaw on Wade Wilson: Deadpool, a comic that is one of the most anticipated 2026 Marvel books. The first issue has come and gone, and it looks like Percy and Shaw might be able to take the character back to old heights.
Wade Wilson: Deadpool #1 Brings the Complexity of the Character Back to the Fore
Image COurtesy of Marvel Comics
We have all a certain idea of what a Deadpool story is — funny, violent, with wild action scenes and some quieter chaos that is part of what makes the character so beloved. However, over the years, the chaos has been all there is. One of the things I remember liking about the character in the ’90s is the way Wade developed. There was always the violence and the humor, but there was also the pain at the center of the man, the tragedy of the man who kills everything, even the good parts of his life, and yet can never die.
That has been forgotten in the salad years since Duggan and Posehn left the book. The two of them were able to take the tragic seeds planted by writers like Joe Kelly and Fabian Nicieza and tend them to gardens of great story. Sure, we got funny stories from them, but we also got the man under it all, dealing with his broken mind (and another broken mind in his mind), and that made all of the violence and humor better. Sometimes, the best comedy hurts and Deadpool stories should hurt. However, more contemporary writers tried to just use the humor, and the stories have rang hollow for years.
That brings us to 2024. While Cody Ziglar’s run on Deadpool was being mostly overlooked, we got two books that would show off Marvel’s new approach to the character: Deadpool/Wolverine: WWIII, from Joe Kelly and Adam Kubert, and Deadpool/Wolverine, by Benjamin Percy, Joshua Cassara, and Robert Gill. These two books went deeper, keeping the humor but showing the man. Deadpool/Wolverine was ’90s X-goodness and Deadpool/Wolverine: WWIII was a heartbreaking look inside Wade to find the raw core who just wants to be a hero and rest. Percy has been killing it in the grittier corner of Marvel, working with Shaw on Ghost Rider, Wolverine, Hellverine, and Red Hulk, and has been writing the best Deadpool since Krakoa, so giving him the character’s book was perfect.
Percy does a fantastic job taking Marvel’s most violent characters and finding the soul of them, and that what he does in Wade Wilson: Deadpool. The violence and the jokes are there, but the pain and melancholy of the man are also on display. There’s a return of the omniscient narrator in his stories, one that is both a part of it and telling the story, and the why is a mystery. Something terrible has happened to Deadpool’s daughter, but we have no idea what. All of this plays into what makes this series so special. It has everything you expect from Deadpool, and it has that little something extra that made classic Deadpool tales so great. This is what Deadpool has been missing.
Marvel Is Finally Giving Us the Deadpool We’ve Wanted for Years
Image COurtesy of Marvel Comics
Percy and Shaw have been giving readers great work for a couple of years now, and reading Wade Wilson: Deadpool #1 shows off just how amazing they are together. This is an action-packed issue, with the kind of Deadpool jokes that we all love, and it engages readers in every way. Percy and Shaw have something in mind for this book, and it’s apparent on every page of this gorgeous issue. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a Deadpool story this complex, and it’s what the character has been missing.
Deadpool can be an easy character to hate. It’s so simple to write him as just the violent, chimichanga loving mercenary, breaking the fourth wall and giving readers risque thrills. However, all of that ignores the most important part: the broken man underneath it all. Percy is giving us that man again, giving us Wade, that one missing element from the hero in some of his more recent series. Percy and Shaw are trying to take us to a new golden age of Deadpool, and it’s honestly about time.
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