We are living in the Golden Age of Superhero films. As a fan, I am thrilled and have enjoyed the ride so far but I am also a little dissatisfied.
Look, I love Iron Man, Hulk and rest of the Avengers. I’m a fan of the X-Men reboot. Batman and Superman? Yes, please. But even though the films are coming at a fast and furious pace, they’ve all been very generic: good white guys, fighting bad white guys, saving the universe. Sometimes they have women in there who look nice and need to get saved. Sometimes there’s a power McGuffin.
And while I’m looking forward to the slew of upcoming “dudes-in-tights blowing stuff up” flicks on the horizon, I’m more intrigued by projects that have a chance to explore new aspects of comics. There are some truly weird and wonderful graphic novels out there that would allow us to see some things that we truly haven’t witnessed before.
This is why, perhaps more than any other film, I’m just aching to see Deadpool next year. For those of you not familiar with the character, Deadpool is a…weird comic to adapt. He’s a mutant who shares some of his origin with Wolverine, but where Logan is a tortured hero, Wade Wilson is a gleeful maniac. He curses, references pop-culture, addresses the audience (and the writers) directly, decapitates people, is obsessed with Mexican food and generally talks and laughs the entire time. The current Deadpool comic storyline deals with him realizing that he’s in a comic book and traveling to another dimension to kill every other Marvel character. Hey, I told you it was weird.
As a brief primer for Wade Wilson (his “human” alter ego), here’s the deal: originally a troubled kid who joined the military, Wilson eventually became a gun-for-hire. All was going well for him, until he was diagnosed with cancer. In an attempt to find a cure, he volunteered for some Canadian military experimental treatments, eventually leading him to the same lab as Wolverine.
The Weapon X program gave him a hyperactive healing factor and increased agility, but left him heavily scarred (hence the mask) and unbalanced. He’s appeared as a villain many times (not surprising, given the glee with which he carries out his assignments), but has also headlined his own comic series as a weird hero of sorts.
For years, there were rumors of a Deadpool movie, but network executives were understandably leery. I mean, the central character is a maniacal, obscene, and mentally unhinged assassin for hire. However actually seeing the Merc with a Mouth (brief appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, notwithstanding) seemed far-fetched until test footage shot in 2009 was “accidentally” leaked to widespread fan approval.
Hopefully you’ve seen this not safe for work (due to extreme violence) footage before. Even if you have, take a moment to revel in its awesomeness once more! Yes, that’s Ryan Reynolds, voicing. The guy who nearly single-handedly destroyed Green Lantern and DC’s hopes of a viable non-Batman film as well as helped signal the end of the relatively successful Blade franchise.
However, despite Reynold’s previous superheroic missteps, I’m optimistic about this movie. His sense of humor clearly didn’t play well as Green Lantern, but he was certainly not the only thing wrong with the film. In fact, I’ve enjoyed him in a number of other roles (particularly Waiting… and The Change Up).
However, even if you dislike him, you have to admit he’s particularly good at conveying a certain charismatic, jerkish/likeable-vibe. This, more than anything, is what encourages me. He’s just good at delivering a funny, outrageous lines that should make you hate him, but somehow makes you kind of root for him at the same time.
Reynolds appears to be enjoying himself immensely on set, as he’s been tweeting some pretty awesome stuff:
- With great power, comes great irresponsibility. #deadpool #officialsuit @deadpoolmovie pic.twitter.com/MPM89bYz1B
- Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 27, 2015
- Smells like someone died up in here. #alivepool pic.twitter.com/sZqvmagVND
- Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) April 8, 2015
Look, I know it’s a long way off and there are a lot of question marks about this project: the film could be terrible and Reynolds could be unwatchable.
But how can you not get at least a little excited about the potential? Not simply because it could be funny and gory and dark and weird and amazing, but because it could, maybe more than any other upcoming superhero film, take the genre in a completely new direction.
I agree. Ryan Reynolds was a great casting decision. Given his knack for comedy, he was born to play Deadpool!