Character Analysis
Before Ajax gets his sadistic hands on him, Wade Wilson is just your average, run-of-the-mill New York City mercenary with a loving fiancée and terminal cancer. You know the type.
Once his mutant abilities are unleashed and he adopts his Deadpool alter ego, though, it's not just his healing powers and reflexes that are cranked up to 11. Everything else is, too: his ego, his pain, and, especially, his mouth.
Merc with a Mouth
Deadpool's mouth is incredibly foul. Nothing is off limits, and that's established from the opening credits that bear his distinctive editorial eye and refer to director Tim Miller as "Some Douchebag" and star Ryan Reynolds as "God's Perfect Idiot." Monologues, random thoughts, and pop culture references—he just can't help himself. Some of his jokes land; others, not so much.
Still others are so pop, so current, that we have to assume they probably won't stand the test of time. Check out how Deadpool explains love to Dopinder, for example:
DEADPOOL: Love is a beautiful thing. When you find it, the whole world tastes like Daffodil Daydream. So you've gotta hold onto love tight—
Deadpool grips Dopinder's finger. Dopinder winces.
DEADPOOL: And never let go. Don't make the same mistakes I did. Got it?
DOPINDER: Yeah.
DEADPOOL: Or else the whole world tastes like Mama June after hot yoga.
Hopefully, a Mama June reference will be lost on the next generation of comic book movie buffs. Actually, we're kind of hoping it's lost on you right now. Either way, Deadpool's success rate as a comedian is entirely subjective. No two people find all of the exact same things funny. Just ask your cousin who "doesn't get" Monty Python.
Deadpool also lacks a filter. If he thinks it, he says it, and his mouth gets him in trouble. This is most evident in Ajax's workshop when Deadpool—then still Wade—ruins not one but two of Ajax's attempts at evil monologues by telling him he has food in teeth:
AJAX: You're never going home after this. Now there's a brave face.
WADE: Wait, wait. Seriously; you actually have something in your teeth now.
Ajax is trying to have a super-villain moment here, and Wade shuts him down with exasperating disrespect. Ajax later pays Wade back by dangling a cure in front of his face and giving him a second run in the torture tank that turned him into a giant flesh-toned avocado:
AJAX: I've cured you, Wade. Now your mutated cells can heal anything. It's attacking your cancer as fast as it can form. Yeah, I've seen similar side effects before. I could cure them, but where's the fun in that? Now, I'm gonna shut you in again, Wade; not because I need to—because I want to.
Those harsh words show you precisely how much of a liability Wade's mouth can be for him. We'll never know for sure if Ajax would've promised Wade a non-existent cure had Wade not continuously mocked him during his entire stay at the Weapon X workshop, but we're pretty confident that Ajax wouldn't have shut him in the tank for another round of torture just because he could.
Mr. Wilson, Tear Down This Wall
Deadpool doesn't just make jokes; he's in on the joke, too. He's the living, breathing, sword-wielding commentary track to his own movie, and he wastes no time in breaking the fourth wall, buddying up to the audience, and turning his sardonic lens on himself.
DEADPOOL: Oh, hello. I know, right? Whose balls did I have to fondle to get my very own movie? I can't tell you, but it does rhyme with "Polverine."
Okay, so he turns it on himself and Marvel's most enduring movie star, Wolverine.
That's the thing: Deadpool reserves some of his harshest barbs and most cutting critiques for 20th Century Fox, the studio that produced his very movie, as well as for the comic book movie genre itself. When Deadpool stops by the X-Men's mansion to enlist the help of Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead, for example, he takes a jab at the notoriously small budget given to Deadpool:
DEADPOOL: It's a big house. It's funny that I only ever see two of you. It's almost like the studio couldn't afford another X-Man.
They probably could; they just didn't want to. In 2016, Deadpool the comic book character was a cult sensation, but as a movie character, he was a completely unproven commodity, and popularity on the page doesn't always translate to big box office returns. Just ask Ryan Reynolds circa 2011. If Green Lantern https://youtu.be/vkPx0oyfzeY hadn't been a massive flop, we might not have a Deadpool movie for Deadpool to mock in the first place.
OMG. He's, Like, So Superficial.
Deadpool may be the only top-tier comic book character who regularly breaks the fourth wall, but that's not the only thing that sets him apart from most of his super-powered peers. He's also selfish and superficial, two qualities that you'd never use to describe Superman or Cyclops.
The main plot of Deadpool centers upon Deadpool's mission to catch Ajax and make him repair his deformed face. Deadpool's motivated to do this because he thinks it's the only way to get back together with Vanessa, the fiancée he left in the middle of the night so (according to him) she wouldn't have to see him die a painful death due to cancer:
WADE: Listen, we both know that cancer is a s***-show. Like, a Yakov-Smirnoff-opening-for-the-Spin-Doctors-at-the-Iowa-State-Fair s***-show. And under no circumstances will I take you to that show. I want you to remember me, not the Ghost of Christmas Me.
VANESSA: Well, I wanna remember us.
WADE: I swear to God I will find you in the next life, and I'm gonna boom-box "Careless Whisper" outside your window. Wham!
VANESSA: No one is boom-boxing s***, okay? We can fight this.
By all accounts, Vanessa is in this for the long haul. Still, Wade pushes her away. If she doesn't want him to leave, why is he leaving? Because he doesn't want her to see him meet an undignified end. Wade ditching Vanessa without so much as a goodbye isn't a measure to protect her; it's self-preservation. When they're reunited at the end of the movie, Vanessa is ticked off, and with good reason. He blew up their relationship to save himself. It's an understandable move, but it's still fundamentally selfish.
Deadpool also assumed Vanessa was really, really shallow. Underlying his seemingly romantic quest to "get the girl" is the fact that he thinks Vanessa will only take him back if he gets his face fixed. He spends most of the movie letting her think he's dead and stalking her because he's certain that Vanessa will find him grotesque as is. We don't about you, but we think that's selling Vanessa pretty short.
As their reunion at the end of the film proves, Deadpool's had it wrong; he may be mourning the loss of his handsome mug, but she's just not that superficial. Check out what happens when Deadpool removes his mask and shows Vanessa his new face:
VANESSA: Wow.
DEADPOOL: Yeah.
VANESSA: Hey. After a brief adjustment period and a bunch of drinks, it's a face…I'd be happy to sit on.
So what if Wade looks like a pound of ground chuck? He's alive and cancer-free! And underneath all that gnarly skin is still the man Vanessa wanted to marry before he pulled the ultimate Irish goodbye.
King of the Antiheroes
Let's recap: Deadpool is vulgar, violent, pop culture-obsessed, and self-centered. In other words, he's a postmodern superhero sired by selfie culture. He has a lot to say, about everything, and he thinks we want to hear it—maybe even that we need to hear it. He expresses himself through crude jokes and acrobatic carnage, always with a clever insult and his trademark "maximum effort." He plays by his own morally questionable rules and can self-justify any move he makes accordingly, no matter how shallow, egocentric, or downright nasty. He's motivated by love and vanity and has few, if any, regrets.
In short, Deadpool's the brutal, bloody king of the antiheroes masquerading as the wisecracking court jester.
Deadpool / Wade Wilson's Timeline