Comic Book / Deadpool (2012)

Deadpool is a 2012 comic book series by Marvel Comics. The series is written by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn with art by Tony Moore.

Deadpool fights the dead United States' former presidents, brought back to life to fix the current world's problems - only they didn't want that.

The first issue was released November 7, 2012. The series lasted 45 issues, with the last issue releasing April 8, 2015. The series ended in the lead up to Secret Wars (2015), and was continued by the tie-in series Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos.

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Deadpool (2012) provides examples of:

• And I Must Scream: Played for laughs with throwaway villain The White Man. The White Man has Mandarin tech that allows his cane to turn people into stone; a fate he is subjected to when Deadpool, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist fight him in the 70's. He is unfrozen in the present day (Deadpool loves to mock comic book time) where it's revealed he was conscious and fully aware of his surroundings the entire time. He attempts to freeze Cage and Iron Fist and dump them in the ocean, but Iron Fist's students kick him in the balls, freeze him in a pose holding his crotch, and accidentally knock him overboard. The heroes assume he's dead while the White Man sinks to the bottom of the ocean and sinks into mud. He's not only still conscious, it's implied he's also constantly feeling the pain of having been freshly kicked in the nuts. He is eventually rescued... one million years later, where an alien race picks him up on a long abandoned desolate Earth. By this point the White Man has long since gone gibbering insane and the aliens throw him in a zoo, assuming humans were an unintelligent species.
• Asshole Victim: Vetis is a demon who barters with souls and is an all round piece of garbage. No sympathy for him when Mephisto punished him for screwing up. Or when Michael cut a deal with Mephisto and Vetis was Dragged Off to Hell.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: In issue #4, Deadpool dons the infamous Marilyn Monroe dress to kill zombie JFK. Suprisingly, he manages to rock the dress, with even Agent Preston agreeing.
• Back from the Dead:
  • Agent Preston's mind ends up stuck in Deadpool's body after her death for many issues until she could be placed into a life-model decoy.
  • Deadpool kills Michael to send him to Hell so he can recruit Mephisto to help take down Vetis. As part of the deal with Mephisto, he's brought back to life after years in Hell.
• Bad Boss: The resurrected George Washington doesn't treat his men as equals.
• Badass Boast: "There is nothing to fear—BUT ME!" says Franklin Roosevelt.
• Been There, Shaped History: In issue #26, A time-travelling Hitler is killed by Deadpool, Cable, and Nick Fury. They then trick out time by taking the body back in time to the bunker and staging it to look like a suicide.
• Berserk Button: Do not mention John Wilkes Booth near Abe.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While Vetis is by no means harmless, Mephisto himself notes that in the larger spectrum of things, he's just a low-level demon with delusions of grandeur.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly has yet another hero-to-villain example in the case of "The White Man". In the seventies, the Heroes for Hire and Deadpool took down this unfortunately-named pimp slash mob boss by turning his petrification powers back on him. Needless to say, when he's finally unfrozen forty "years" later, he's a bit pissed. He's even more pissed when he finds out that none of them remember who is or have any idea why he's so mad at them.
• Call-Forward: In issue #7, a fake "inventory story", supposedly written in The '70s, Peter Parker chides Flash Thompson (still firmly in his Jerkass persona) for Stealing the Handicapped Spot. Future Handicapped Badass Flash is callously dismissive of "legless people."
• Came Back Wrong: Though some of them are implied to have been evil in life as well, The resurrected presidents are all evil now.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Deadpool previously hooked up with a hot Spanish chick named Carmelita Camacho in a flashback story. Unbeknownst to Deadpool for years and to the readers for several issues, Carmelita became the mother of his beloved daughter, Ellie.
• Close on Title: The name of issue #7, "Drinking Game",appears on alcohol bottles scattered on the ground in the last panel.
• Cool Sword: Washington had a straight-up pimpin' sword. Which was used by Deadpool.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: After Vetis receives the souls of a bunch of unlucky humans he had made deals with, he was too strong for Deadpool.
• Deal with the Devil: Via Retcon, Deadpool is contracted by a demon named Vetis, who wanted to overthrow Mephisto, to "get Iron Man drunk", with the promise of a laser disc factory in return. However, Deadpool invokes Exact Words when he finds Tony Stark so drunk it wasn't funny — he steals the Iron Man armor and gets himself plastered. The demon's not happy with this and neither is Mephisto when he gets word of what the demon was doing. Also, Deadpool never received his laser disc factory.
• Dirty Old Man: Being dead hasn't stopped Franklin's love for the ladies; he uses his ghost form to spy on attractive (usually older) women and people having sex. Over time, he's grown bored with just watching.
• Dragged Off to Hell: After Deadpool Out-Gambitted Vetis the first time, Mephisto dragged him to Hell for his incompetence. This was his final fate when Deadpool worked out a plan with Michael to cut a deal with Mephisto to swap Vetis' soul in exchange for breaking the contract he held everyone in.
• Dying as Yourself: Washington reverted back to his former self when Deadpool beheaded him.
• Evil Cripple: FDR still can't stand up and now he's evil.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Michael probably should've realized using a magic book he got from a Deal with the Devil to resurrect dead presidents would end badly no matter what his intentions.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Vetis went from this◊ to this◊, due to Mephisto's torture. Don't @#&*$ with Mephisto, people.
• Evil Sorcerer: Washington gains some nasty magic stuff near the end of the resurrected presidents arc.
  • Averted with Michael the Necromancer, who was only trying to fix the current world's problems.
• Exact Words: In issue 7, Deadpool makes a Deal with the Devil (or rather, a demon connected to Mephisto) to get Iron Man drunk in order to empower the demon. However, Deadpool has a change of heart when he sees how horribly plastered Tony is (as it was set during the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline), so he ends up knocking Tony out, hijacking the armor and getting himself plastered. When the demon appears calling him out for failing, Deadpool points out that the contract specifically stated Iron Man, not Tony Stark.
• Fan Disservice: Deadpool dressing as Marilyn Monroe in order to lure zombie JFK. The undead ex-president is suitably squicked out when he gets a closer look, especially when Deadpool jumps up to reveal that he isn't wearing any pants.
• Fat Bastard: William Howard Taft, naturally. He's still got that big old gut.
• Fusion Dance: Preston involuntarily bunks in Deadpool's mind after zombie George Washington kills her body. Unlike Deadpool's fusion with Mad Cap, Deadpool and the readers know it's her inside his mind. She does this again with Warda's brain at the end of the 2099 arc to keep her in line.
• Historical Domain Character: In the first issue, a necromancer brings back all the former Presidents of the United States from the dead in a misguided attempt to restore the country.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: FDR throws his chair away when the fight gets real.
• Incoming Ham: "Who DARES to disturb HARRY TRUMAN?"
• Knight of Cerebus: The moment Washington takes matters in his own hands, shit gets real.
• The Man Behind the Man: Demon, actually. Vetis is revealed to be the one who the Necromancer-that-brought-the-presidents-back got his powers from.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Vetis in the 70's. When he returns in the present, he seems to have fallen on some bad times since then. Mostly because of the torture in Hell.
• Meaningful Name: Vetis is apparently the demon of corruption, if demonology is to be believed.
• Omnicidal Maniac: The resurrected presidents want to destroy America and rebuild it anew.
• Our Presidents Are Different: And freaking zombies, to boot.
• Out-Gambitted: Deadpool manages to do this to Vetis twicw, once in the 70's, and again in the present, after he killed Michael before him.
• Power Incontinence: In "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" arc, a North Korean man had been artificially implanted with Wolverine's healing factor. However, not only was it so incomplete that he couldn't heal brain damage, but his body kept trying to heal every orifice he had!
• President Evil: Technically the resurrected presidents are not presidents anymore, but they are, ah that american political stuff stuff is confusing.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The resurrected presidents, even within their own ranks too, as Washington is one tough son of a gun.
• Retraux: Issue #7 is supposedly an inventory story from 1979, RetConning Deadpool (who, of course, didn't exist at the time to write inventory stories about) into the Iron Man "Demon in a Bottle" storyline, with 70s Spidey and the Power Pack also making appearances. The art and writing style both reflect this, and it even has oversaturated Bronze Age colouring. Later issues in that run follow on from this, having Deadpool show up in what are claimed to be inventory stories from other eras, with the writing and art in the style of those periods. Including one from Deadpool's actual early days, with a Rob Liefeld in-joke as the characters have everything possible hiding their feet.
• Running Gag: Deadpool being repeatedly told "You're not a mutant! ...and you're not an X-Man!"
  • Finally climaxes in issue #36, when after the death of Wolverine, Storm offered Deadpool membership with the X-Men, and Deadpool surprisingly refused.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Deadpool kills Michael as part of the plan to defeat Vetis, Franklin decides Deadpool has gone too far and can deal with Vetis solo.
• Someone to Remember Him By: Deadpool finds Carmelita's body in a mass grave in North Korea. Knowing Carmelita previously gave birth to their daughter, he fears their child is likewise dead and can't bear to investigate what happened to Ellie. Preston takes up the mission and Preston finds Ellie alive. Deadpool is happy for that, but sad that Carmelita died because she was involved with him.
• Spanner in the Works: By killing Michael and sending him to Hell prematurely, Deadpool ruins Vetis's Evil Plan to accumulate all the souls he's made deals with and use their power to overthrow Mephisto; in Hell, Michael notifies Mephisto of the plan.
• Spirit Advisor: When Agent Preston's mind ends up stuck in Deadpool's body, she advises him and provides emotional support during an event he later calls the worst in his life.
• Take That!:
  • In issue #9, while collecting souls for Vetis, one of the people Deadpool had to kill is pretty much a discount Aquaman. Downplayed since he is the only soul Deadpool had to collect who used his powers for good.
  • In issue #34, when DC Comics made a bunch of 3D motion varient covers, Marvel shot back by do the same.
• The Starscream: Vetis seeks to overthrow Mephisto.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Zombie Abe Lincoln gives Deadpool one of the these summing up why everyone in the Marvel Universe hates him. Deadpool gives the appropriate answer.

  Zombie Abe: [After giving Deadpool a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown] You're a vapid, unfunny, pale shade of a hero! You're unintelligent, uncreative and unremarkable in every way! You don't seem to do anything well except heal yourself and appear EVERYWHERE! I don't understand your APPEAL! I HATE you, these PEOPLE hate you! Tell me, what is that you are good at? What do you do?

  Deadpool: I DON'T GIVE UP!'''

• Red Shirt: The D-list Presidents, i.e the ones people aren't that familiar with.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: In issue #4, when taken prisoner by a man who plans to use the regenerating Merc With A Mouth as an infinite source of food for his intelligent zombies, said zombies quickly find him to be completely unappetizing. Could be because he tastes like cancer. (Or more specifically, "rancid tofurky that's been marinated in formaldehyde".)
• Took a Level in Badass: After Mephisto released Vetis from his torture, Vetis stepped up his game and trapped Deadpool in a loophole where he had to do his dirty work, or he would find someone else. Then when he got the powers from his victims he inflicted a Curb-Stomp Battle on Deadpool.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Michael hopes all the undead presidents will unite to return America to its former glory; instead, every single undead president turns evil and starts killing everybody.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Deadpool calls out Captain America and Wolverine for not taking him seriously when he approached them about someone chasing after him with an interest in Weapon X.
• Worthy Opponent: Washington started to admire Deadpool near the end.

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