Matt's Rantbox: Deadpool

Or: Marvel is to Blame Here, Really

Good to see you again, faithful circuiteers.  Sorry it has been such a long time since you all have heard from me. You see, normally how this column is written is that I put about 1000 monkeys in a room with typewriters and whichever document has the least banana references in it is the one that I post. Unfortunately, PETA found out about this, and I’ve been busy trying to hire the best legal team I can manage. Also unfortunately, the best legal team I could assemble in time consisted mainly of Genki, Musashi, and some of the aforementioned monkeys…

Anyway, while I wait for my court date (and desperately try to get rid of all of the evidence involved in my illegal monkey activities) I figured I would take some time to please the masses with yet another of my infamous rantboxes. Now, this week’s rantbox was going to be about the best types of bananas (Chiquita), but instead I think I’ll talk about everyone’s favorite merc-with-a-mouth, Deadpool!

Now I hate to somehow turn myself into a huge nerd and a fucking hipster (nerpster?) in one fell swoop, but I’m going to go ahead and say that I liked Deadpool before he was cool. Well, okay, maybe not before he was “cool,” but certainly before he was a household name… Well, he’s not really a household name, either… but certainly before anyone thought that a Deadpool movie could ever be a reality, and certainly before he had two ongoing series and more limited series than I can shake a stick at.

If you clicked on that link, you’ll notice that Deadpool has had four limited series centered on him since 2009. Compare that to the two that he had prior, both of which were way back in 1993 and 1994. So what happened to make Deadpool so popular that he has all these limited series (not to mention 2 on-going series)? Was it Ryan Reynolds playing his alter ego, Wade Wilson, in the suck-fest that was Wolverine?

Regardless of exactly what made Deadpool popular, Marvel has certainly taken notice. Like I pointed out before, they’ve currently got two on-going series, a ton of miniseries, and Deadpool has even been making a bunch of cameos in other comics. Now, I’m not one to frown upon one of my favorite comic characters entering the mainstream a little (except for when they butcher his character), but Marvel has to realize that there is such a thing as over-saturation.

Oh no, that’s right, I forgot we’re talking about the same comic publishing company that prints out 3 Amazing Spider-Man comics PER MONTH (amongst others), not to mention the unbelievable number of Wolverine comics they publish.

So they publish a lot of Deadpool comics now, what exactly am I getting at here? This is how I see it going down. Say a non-comic-book-reading individual actually takes a brave step and wanders into their local comic shop. They’ve heard some good things about this Deadpool character from their nerpster friends, and they ask the kindly gentleman at the counter for a copy of this Deadpool comic.

“You mean Deadpool or Deadpool Team-Up or Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth or Deadpool: Wade Wilson’s War or Deadpool: Prelude to Deadpool Corps?” responds the comic shop employee, but before he can even finish the consumer has already left the building (and the employee quickly returns to his riveting bag of cheese-puffs).

Yes, little does Marvel realize that by providing their consumers with so many options, they could actually be scaring away new consumers. I suppose they hope to make this up when the already-established fans of Deadpool start picking up all the new series, but personally, I just can’t. As it is, I’m only subscribed to one Deadpool comic (you know, the MAIN one), and I have a hard enough time keeping track of that what with all of Marvel’s cross-overs and Secret Invasions and Sieges. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to try and track all of this through three or four different Deadpool comics. Being the person that I am, I feel like I’m missing out on the full story by only reading one of the Deadpool comics, as if I was only getting 1/4 of the full story. So, it is a bit of a conundrum, on the one hand I don't want to subscribe to all of the series, and on the other I feel like I'm being cheated by not following them.

So, I guess the main point that I’m trying to get at here is please send help, he didn’t let us monkeys go like he told PETA he would, we’re still locked in this room typing for him, bananas bananas bananas.