Superhero films had been the most dominant force in popular culture since the summer of 2008 saw the debut of both Iron Man and The Dark Knight, but the genre reached its apex eight years later. In 2016, every studio that had a stake in Marvel or DC properties attempted to broaden the scope of their universe in order to set up future installments: The year saw a clash of heroes in both Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Captain America: Civil War, there was also the introduction of Marvel’s mystical side in Doctor Strange, the expansion of the DCEU with Suicide Squad, and Fox’s most ambitious X-Men blockbuster with Apocalypse. By comparison, Deadpool was a scrappy, mid-budget experiment that had fought to get a greenlight, only to be dumped in the middle of February.
It’s ironic that Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool has become the face of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that the snarky edge to the character is now the way in which nearly all action heroes operate. The original Deadpool wasn’t used as a gateway for bringing in legacy characters, and it wasn’t seen as a fan-serving project meant to win back public support for the humbled Marvel universe. The differences between Deadpool and Deadpool & Wolverine don’t just reflect the way that the genre changed over the course of the decade; the version of Wade Wilson that Reynolds crafted in 2016 simply isn’t the same one that’s rumored to be in Avengers: Doomsday. Tim Miller’s Deadpool may have hooked its audience with pop culture references and flashy ultra-violence, but it became a phenomenon because it was a surprisingly sincere underdog story.
