Welcome to the second installment of our 2022 Pride Month Series! Each weekday in the month of June, we will be highlighting a different member of the LGBTQIA+ community who we think is a great example of representation and dynamic characterization. We will focus on fictional characters, celebrities, and activists alike — the positive voices within the LGBTQIA+ community and in mainstream media. Today’s spotlight is none other than the Merc with a Mouth himself, Marvel’s one and only Deadpool … Wade Wilson.
How could we do a pride month series and not include the pansexual wonder that is Deadpool? Created by artist Rob Liefeld and writer Fabian Nicieza, Wade Wilson was introduced in 1991, making his first appearance in The New Mutants #98. The Wade Wilson we are first introduced to was a very different character than the one so many know and love know — he was a serious and grim professional assassin, and it wasn’t until the character received his own solo book that his trademark personality took form. Deadpool has a slew of powers and abilities that make him one of the most formidable adversaries in the Marvel universe(s), and his fourth-wall-breaking and sarcastic nature have pushed him to the top of many Marvel fans’ rosters.
Deadpool has done a little bit of anything, and everything in the comics — from being a ruthless villain, to killing the entire Marvel Universe, to teaming up with street-level heroes like Spider-Man and Daredevil — Deadpool certainly gets around, and not just when it comes to the anti-heroics. Wade Wilson likes to flirt with, date, or be intimate with a little bit of everyone and everything in the Marvel Comics Universe — from Theresa Cassidy, to Lady Death, to Thor Odinson, and many, many more — all the way to perhaps the most popular dynamic the Merc with a Mouth has with Spider-Man, about whom he frequently makes suggestive comments. While Wade has never confirmed specifically his sexual identity, given the wide range of genders and species Wade finds himself attracted to, most fans of the mercenary agree the character is best defined as pansexual.
Wade Wilson’s live-action counterpart played impeccably by Ryan Reynolds, leaves much to be desired in the way of confirmation of his sexual identity. While Wade is certainly not shy about flirting with male co-stars in the Deadpool films, particularly Cable and Colossus, the only true romantic and sexual relationship we’ve seen from him is with his girlfriend, Vanessa. And yes, while Morena Baccarin is stunning and impossible to resist as Vanessa, fans agree that seeing some sort of official confirmation that Wade is queer beyond the flirting would be phenomenal. Representation is important, after all, and even Reynolds is reportedly pushing for the further exploration of Deadpool’s sexuality. We don’t just want throw-away comments about fondling Wolverine’s balls or fleeting moments of Wade grabbing Colossus’ colossal backside — we want to see Wade explore his desires toward more than women.
Stay tuned for the rest of our Pride Spotlights this month!
