10 Subtle Changes That SAVED Iconic Comic Book Characters

6. Leaning More Into The Crazy - Deadpool

Daredevil Yellow Red
Marvel Comics

The best thing that ever happened to Deadpool was Rob Liefeld being kicked off of writing him. Once that happened, the Deadpool we all know and love began to surface.

It's difficult to pin-point a precise moment where this change happened - if anything it was more of a slow dawning realization on the part of the people writing him throughout the late nineties and early 2000s, that a character who can come back from literally anything can be a great vehicle for comedy. (It is worth noting, however, that the first occasion where Deadpool broke the fourth wall came in Joe Kelly's run on the character, in Deadpool #28.)

Thus, Deadpool went from yet another Rob Liefeld creation obviously ripping off Deathstroke, to the dark biting satire of superhero comics that everyone loves.

What makes watching the change in real time throughout Deadpool's early appearances really is how subtle it surprisingly is. After all, basically nothing about his backstory and personality change. he was already pretty casual about his inability to die and the harm he causes others. It's just that the universe around him started treating what was going on as funny instead of with the typical edginess that defined comics in the nineties.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?