Summary

• Deadpool created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld in 1990, first appeared in The New Mutants #98.
• Deadpool introduced as a mercenary, teamed up with Cable, and had a unique snarky personality.
• Deadpool's character has evolved over the years, with varying quality in storytelling and representation.

Marvel is full of funny characters, but Deadpool is in a category all his own. Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld in 1990, the merc with a mouth hasn't had a moment of rest since. Many fans know of his team-ups with the X-Force leader, Cable, but most might not know that in his first appearance, he was sent to kill him.

In the early 1990s, Marvel was not the media powerhouse it currently is; it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Selling movie rights to their most popular characters like Spider-Man and Fantastic Four kept them afloat, but they needed fresh ideas and new characters to regain their audience and draw in new readers. Young writer/artist Rob Liefeld had just ed the company, and was given a blank check to bring his art and stories to The New Mutants series. Drawing on his own comic book favorites for inspiration, he created a mercenary worthy of taking on the X-Men: Deadpool.

Marvel Needed The New Mutants To Go Out With a Bang

Rob Liefeld started drawing for the series The New Mutants toward the end of its run, at issue #86 out of 100. He and writer Louise Simonson had collaborated on creating Cable, a time-traveling, militaristic mutant from the future, to much success. Liefeld has said he was always competing against Marvel's two big-shots: Wolverine and Spider-Man. However, since neither character was in his book, he needed to create his own versions of the heroes to play with. Cable was already the grumpy, no-nonsense tough guy, so he just needed to come up with a quick, quippy companion to pair him with.

While baby Nathan Summers had been seen before - the child of Scott Summers and a clone of Jean Grey, sent to the future to cure his techno-virus - Cable and Nathan had not yet been retconned into the same person.

When Fabian Nicieza took over writing The New Mutants, Liefeld sent him a sketch of his new character: fully masked with large, Spider-Man-like eyes, dressed in red and black, and armed to the gills with swords and knives. Nicieza wrote back, “This is Deathstroke from Teen Titans,” and gave the character his civilian alias, “Wade Wilson,” as a reference to the similarities (Deathstroke's name is Slade Wilson). In Deadpool's first appearance, Liefeld handled the art while Nicienza gave him his signature snark. The cover of his premiere issue introduced “The Lethal Deadpool,” who left a huge mark in just 7 pages.

Deadpool's First Comic: 'The New Mutants' #98 (1990)

"The Beginning of the End, Part One" By Rob Liefeld, Fabian Nicieza, Joe Rosen, and S. Buccellato

In The New Mutants #98 (two issues before the series ended), Cable has become a mentor to the young mutants. However, he's also on the radar of a fellow time-traveler: an arms dealer known as Mr. Tolliver. Tolliver has sent an assassin to kill Cable: thus enters Deadpool. The merc already has a mouth on him, telling jokes in almost every word bubble. He's also pretty sturdy: Cable breaks Deadpool’s jaw, but it doesn't stop the zingers. When the young mutants arrive to help take down the intruder, Deadpool's prepared for all of them, with specific devices to incapacitate their powers.

"Mr. Tolliver" is an alias of Taylor Dayspring, who is Cable’s own time-traveling son from the future, and has come back to the present. You never mean to turn into your parents, it just sneaks up on you like that.

What Deadpool doesn't expect is that his luck has run out - Domino (also introduced in this issue) appears behind him and knocks him out. Cable and Domino already have an off-page history together, as the young mutants mention that they've never seen Cable smile before. That said, he's smiling because he and Domino are threatening Deadpool with a variety of ways they'd like to send him packing. On his final page of the issue, Deadpool requests being rehabilitated in a prison in the Bahamas, but ultimately is sent back to Tolliver in the mail (FedEx, Cable specifically says).

Deadpool's First Appearance Has No Wall-Breaking, No Healing Factor

He was on fewer than ten pages in this issue, but Deadpool left a big impact. His sarcasm is already on the page, courtesy of Fabian Nicieza’s great writing, but there's nothing fourth-wall breaking about it; he's just a funny guy. He never takes off his mask, so there's no big reveal that he looks like “Ryan Reynolds crossed with a Shar-pei,” which would come later with the rest of his backstory. He's very sturdy, still quipping after he says Cable broke his jaw, but there's nothing to suggest his near-immortal regenerative powers.

The New Mutants moved over to their new title, X-Force, still led by Cable, with Domino by his side. Deadpool next appeared in this series in issue #2, on an unrelated heist interrupted by Kane and Bridge. There, his background as a Canadian and a product of Weapon X were established. His third appearance cemented him as a series regular, popping in to reveal that Domino was actually his ex-lover Copycat in disguise; the real Domino was being held captive by Tolliver. Despite this rocky start with both Cable and Domino, Deadpool would fight side-by-side with each in the future.

Deadpool Has Massively Changed Under Future Creative Teams

And those additions have been a good thing for his character's legacy

While Deadpool has been popular since his introduction, the quality of his character has varied over the years. As some creators saw Watchmen and thought, “This means comic fans want violent heroes who swear,” many Deadpool writers have used him to vocalize ugly thoughts like sexism and homophobia. While Deadpool is canonically pansexual, sometimes it has been played for laughs instead of as a proud icon.

He is of course rude and cartoonishly violent, but those work best in contrast with his humanity, exemplified with the depth brough to his character by making him a father to his now-central daughter. The merc has always had a mouth, but Deadpool works best with a heart.

New Mutants #98 is included in Deadpool: Classic Vol. 1, available now from Marvel Comics.