Editor's Note:

This column originally ran on Jan 29, 2014, but with the Deadpool movie finally getting a release date , we wanted to bring this topic back up for discussion. Enjoy!

Deadpool = Hurley?

Deadpool has almost no peer in the comics industry. I'm not saying that his stories are of such high caliber that even Alan Moore is forced to bend down and worship at his altar. Moore already has far stranger altars he prays at. I've read some pretty lousy Deadpool comics in my day. But the character has a level of enduring popularity among readers (and even non-comic fans, to an extent), that many find perplexing. People who otherwise have no interest in comics have been hardcore fans of the character since the '90s. After Batman, he's probably the most common choice of superhero message board icon on the Internet. He managed to sneak into Hollywood before even A-List Marvel heroes like Thor and Black Widow in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. And since he first received an ongoing solo series in 1997, he's essentially never been out of the spotlight. Even supposedly more iconic characters like Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange can't claim that.So what the heck is the source of this popularity? He seems like such a random character to receive that level of fan devotion. What makes Deadpool so special? I'm not even sure I have a definitive answer, but there are a few elements to Deadpool that explain his perplexing rise to fame.In some ways, Deadpool's popularity isn't even a result of him being unique. He initially caught on in the early '90s precisely because he was so redundant. Looking at Rob Liefeld's resume of original characters, a lot of his superhero creations are thinly veiled riffs on popular Marvel and DC characters. They might have 200 pounds of extra armor and no feet, but the inspirations are pretty obvious. That's basically how Deadpool was born. Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza created Deadpool as an obvious spoof of DC's Deathstroke the Terminator. Even the name "Wade Wilson" was clearly an homage to "Slade Wilson." Deadpool was initially positioned as Marvel's answer to Deathstroke, except that he looked vaguely like Spider-Man and had a similar penchant for wisecracks. Combining two popular characters into one "certified '90s extreme" revamp isn't the most clever way to develop a new book, but it certainly worked out pretty well for the Image founders back then.Deadpool was a pastiche of many gritty anti-heroes in comics at a time when gritty anti-heroes were at their most popular. Plus, there's the ninja factor. Everyone loves a good ninja. And much like Lobo at DC, he quickly proved more popular than most of the characters he was spoofing.But as Deadpool's past and connections to the X-Men franchise became more apparent, his writers struck on another key piece of the puzzle. Deadpool may look like Spider-Man and Deathstroke's forbidden love child, but he's got at least as much Wolverine in him. He's tied to the same Weapon X program, he has a similarly tragic but largely mysterious past, and his powers are even a direct result of meddling scientists trying to replicate Wolverine's healing factor. I'd argue that Deadpool has a leg up on Wolverine these days. Since the release of Origin ten years ago, we've seen quite a bit of Wolverine's formative years. Some of this material has been interesting, some not so much. But either way, Wolverine's former aura of mystery has been pretty well diminished in the past decade. As for Deadpool, it's far more rare to see any real glimpse into his past before he was an immortal mercenary with a bad skin condition. He's remained cool and mysterious in a time when Marvel has pretty much chronicled Wolverine's every battle, personal conflict, and bowel movement from the 19th Century to the present day.But there's also the very obvious factor that Deadpool is a funny guy. His humor wasn't emphasized in his early appearances as much as it is now. Liefeld envisioned Wade as more of a cool action hero with Schwarzenegger-worthy catch phrases. And if you follow Liefeld on Twitter or read his various candid interviews, he frequently laments the fact that Marvel doesn't share his vision for the character. But that humor is an essential part of who Deadpool is now. Much like how the X-Men franchise as a whole didn't really come into its own until it occurred to Marvel to add some actual ethnic and cultural diversity to the mutant lineup, Deadpool was an idea that didn't full coalesce until writers like Joe Kelly added the Looney Tunes element to his world. So maybe Liefeld and Nicieza created Deadpool, but Kelly is at least as much a father to him.People like to laugh. And increasingly throughout the '90s, superhero comics weren't making anyone laugh. They were all grim and gritty and depressing, and it seemed like every character was standing in a line waiting for writers to come in and kill them, cripple them, clone them, or otherwise dismantle their life for the approval of the Roman mob. But over in this corner of the Marvel U, you had Deadpool getting into wacky hijinks, having fun, making jokes, and constantly breaking the fourth wall. Not every comic featured Deadpool goading Wolverine into a fight by Shoryuken-ing Kitty Pryde in the face. Kelly's Deadpool was amusing, and it was a genuinely good comic in a time when most Marvel books weren't up to snuff.And it's not simply a matter of Deadpool being funny. Pick up any Marvel comic written by Rick Remender or Jason Aaron or Matt Fraction these days and you'll find plenty of superheroes cracking wise and getting into goofy antics. It's the fourth-wall bending nature of Deadpool's humor that has allowed and continues to allow him to stand out. His particular brand of insanity has led Deadpool to a realization only a handful of comic characters like Animal Man ever have - he's inside a comic book. Whether on the recap page or within the story itself, Deadpool frequently steps back and acknowledges the fact that he's in a comic book and playing the clown role for thousands of readers. He's like a walking, talking, chimichanga-scarfing meme - which only fits even better in today's ADHD-riddled, Internet-obsessed culture.And that fourth wall element allows readers to connect with Deadpool in a more tangible way. He's like Ferris Bueller or Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris. His self-awareness allows Deadpool to directly poke fun at other heroes and even the industry as a whole. That's what makes team-ups with other heroes so appealing. Deadpool can roast Thor for being a pompous ass or Captain America for being a patriotic do-gooder. At his best, Deadpool can even be compared to Hurley from Lost. He serves as the voice of the audience - poking fun at story elements that don't make sense and asking the same sorts of questions the audience would.People can argue about the reasons behind Marvel's recent Hollywood success and why DC has been struggling so much to compete. To my mind, more than any sort of mainstream recognition or special effects wizardry, it's the emphasis on humor that has been raking in the big bucks for Marvel. What average person cared about Iron Man or even knew who he was before 2008? But Robert Downey Jr. almost singlehandedly made Tony Stark a star through his manic, uproarious performance. Humor and banter were more a reason for the success of The Avengers than the painstakingly rendered CGI New York. And humor is why the non-Marvel Studios franchises like X-Men and the rebooted Spider-Man series haven't been quite as successful. They don't make people laugh often enough. And with Spider-Man in particular, that's criminal. I'm convinced that if X-Men Origins: Wolverine hadn't been such a colossal dud, the planned Deadpool spinoff starring Ryan Reynolds would have been the most successful X-Men movie yet. Reynolds is Fox's Downey, and they need to re-saddle that horse and head back on the trail while there's still time.So Deadpool's resemblance to characters like Spider-Man, Deathstroke, and Wolverine, as well as his zany humor, have kept him in the spotlight all this time. But why is he so popular with people who aren't comic book readers? How would they even have known who he was prior to 2009? This is the part of his appeal I find most perplexing. I don't recall Deadpool having much presence in Fox's animated Marvel fare from the '90s, other than a few silent cameos in X-Men: The Animated Series. Sometimes I wonder if it's a simple as people mistaking Deadpool for Spider-Man when they see goofball images of him riding his matching scooter or punching Kitty, and then being compelled to investigate further to find out who this Spider-Ninja fellow is.But I do think that video games have really helped boost Wade's popularity more recently. In particular, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance exposed Deadpool to a new audience. Ultimate Alliance came along at an ideal time in 2006. The Xbox 360 had launched, but there wasn't exactly a wealth of great games on the system yet. So this solid but unremarkable action RPG was a rare beacon of light, and attracted a much bigger audience than it probably would have had it released a year later.Ultimate Alliance allowed players to assemble their own four-hero teams, and Deadpool was one of the core characters included in the game. Between his shooty/stabby abilities and his frequent wisecracks, he really stood out among the cast. And he continues to stand out in most of the Marvel games he appears in. I wasn't overly enamored with Marvel vs. Capcom 3, but the fact that one of Deadpool's special moves involves him grabbing his own health bar and whacking the opposing player with it is pretty nifty. He's really ideally suited for the world of video games. That's how he managed to land his own solo game in a time when Marvel and Disney continue to struggle to exploit their characters in that medium. I wish the Deadpool game had turned out better, but what can you do? It's not the fault of the source material, that's for sure.However redundant Deadpool might have been in the beginning, he's become a distinct enough character that I can understand why so many people flock to him. And as long as Marvel doesn't go through any more phases where they publish more Deadpool spinoffs than Wolverine or Spider-Man books, there's nothing wrong with this sad clown enjoying his share of the spotlight.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter , or Kicksplode on MyIGN