#deadpool (2012)

I honestly have an embarrassing number of panels from almost every issue in the Duggan run saved, and that’s one of my (many) favored issues. Here’s some of what I have on hand + dumb comments. ENJOY.

“I know what I’m doing,” he says as he crashes.

Preston: There are some things I want to talk to you about.

Wade: Uh-oh. My "uncomfortable chat sense" is tingling.

Preston: First, I'm worried about you being alone. I think you need someone to talk to.

1. I love the way Mike Hawthorne draws Deadpool. This is the default “Deadpool” look for me. When I picture Deadpool in my head, I usually picture the Hawthorne expressions and body language even though this technically wasn’t even the first Deadpool run I started. Duggan/Posehn/Hawthorne made this man real for me first.

2. Butler treated Wade like his broken, dangerous pet that needed a handler to be worth anything and to be safe for others, like something unreasonable and volatile and unable to think for itself, and Wade internalized all of it.

"Look, Preston, I'll always be grateful for helping me out. We made a good team, but when you're out of my head, it's over. And it ain't because I don't like you..."

emotional support lingerie 

The time finally comes to get Preston out of his body and into an LMD. Wade struggles with the all-too-familiar feeling of being hooked up to things on a table in front of scientists, but muscles through both that and his fear of being alone again for Preston (+butt comment to distract himself)--

Going into Wade’s head--I didn’t notice that tacked-on Doctor Strange painting in the background until my most recent reread and I have to comment on it: So of course this is issue #24, and the reader finds out that Deadpool killed his own parents in #30. Deadpool himself notices the painting and comments on it a few issues after that. The 2012 series ends at issue #45, and then Wade finally finds out that he killed his own parents and that Doctor Strange helped him re-suppress the memories (repeatedly) in #11 of the 2015 series. That means this foreshadowing is over 30 issues early; it’s a subtle detail consistent to something the reader doesn’t actually know for years. This creative team went the extra mile.

big “this is fine” energy

(as Wade’s head gets chaotic) Classic New Mutants/X-Force Deadpool!

“I said I would not abandon you, and I meant what I said.” Strange is so good and so underrated as an intuitive, supportive friend.

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine laser eyes, lmao 2. The biggest trope of the Duggan run is probably Deadpool hurting himself to protect his loved ones. I think this might be the first (but certainly not the last) time Deadpool says something like this explicitly in this run.

I love their friendship and I ache over it.

We also meet “Zenpool” earlier than necessary! Which helps triple-affirm that Deadpool is still Deadpool under the Axis spell.

Good panel-work </3 And an ambiguous moment that ramps up Deadpool’s anxiety about Preston’s well-being going forward.

(Preston wakes up after being successfully moved to the LMD body)

Coulson: Never took Deadpool to be the kind of guy to run from something.

Michael: This was too much for him.

Strange: I agree with Michael. You cannot blame him for leaving. He's lost so much. [...] (to Preston) I think he was embarrassed that he may have harmed you in any way.

Michael: Don't take it personally that he's not here. You know, he just like, has to work this out by himself.

Already pushed to a breaking point by Butler/North Korea, at least 75%-convinced that Preston is dead but in denial, and grieving the loss of Preston’s presence in his own life either way, Deadpool starts hallucinating.