Deadpool: The Morbid Game Behind The Marvel Character's Name
Ryan Reynolds has certainly played his part in making Deadpool a bigger name than he already was. However, even after three big screen appearances under his black and red belt (one of which we don't talk about anymore), Wade Wilson, aka the Merc with a Mouth, has been slicing foes and fourth walls since Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza brought him to the comic book page in the early 1990s. Cracking wiser than the beloved web-slinger his design was inspired by, plenty of important details were considered for Wade's creation, with one important element being his superhero name. Well, as it turns out, Liefeld revealed that the name of Deadpool was one that took a long time coming and that it was from a fairly grim family game that it became the winning pick.
Speaking to Vulture back in 2016, Liefeld explained that his parents believed in the "rule of 3" regarding celebrity deaths, which was their own "dead pool." If a famous star passed away, it was an expectation that another two weren't far behind. In all fairness, it certainly feels like the sort of thing Wade Wilson would play to pass the time between blood-drenched missions. However, as Liefeld explained, it wasn't the first one drawn from the hat. "I had a notebook full of names," Wade's creator explained, only for Deadpool to get the winning slot. As for the name's comic book origin story, that actually wouldn't be established for another eight years, albeit in a similar fashion.
Wade Wilson made a name for himself in a similar fashion to the Deadpool movie
While he hit the ground of Marvel Comics running with blades drawn and a name already sorted, it was in the 1998 annual "Deadpool and Death" that Wade Wilson revealed to his loving fans just how he settled on his killer code name. Sent to be tested in the facility where Weapon X candidates don't make the cut, the greater downside was that some of these human guinea pigs didn't make it out alive. From here, Wade's inmates began their own dead pool over who would kick the bucket first, which Wade made an effort to win in order to court Death. That was until after his mutant healing factor kicked in, he returned from the brink and sought revenge on Ajax, who had been torturing other inmates.
For those more vested in the movie version of the Merc with a Mouth, it's easy to see that this version of Wade getting his name isn't that far away from how he got it in the original movie. He endured similar issues of torture and a return from death, only to pick up his moniker following his escape. Either way, it's nice to see that a pretty bleak game originally created by Rob Liefeld's parents ended up becoming one of the most well-known titles in comic book and comic book movie history. Wonder if they bet on that.