Thursday, August 27, 2009

I Think Three Deadpool Ongoings May Be Asking For Trouble

I was thinking about my irritation with Hal Jordan getting a prominent role in DC these days, and I wondered about whether Deadpool is going to suffer the same fate, on a larger scale. He's getting an even bigger push than Hal, in some ways. True, Deadpool's books don't serve as the focal point for the big comic event of the year, but still, three ongoing series, plus he seems to pop up as a guest star quite a bit. True, he's not at Wolverine levels, but I'm not sure Deadpool has ever reached Wolverine levels of popularity*, so that would be expected.

I know there's already some irritation online about Deadpool having three books while things like Agents of Atlas fall to backup story status, but I'm not sure whether those folks were fans of Deadpool to begin with, so their dissatisfaction wouldn't constitute a backlash. Do you think there'll come a point when even Deadpool's fans go "Whoa, that's enough; I'm burned out on the Merc with a Mouth"? Or will they just gobble it all and demand more? I do like Deadpool, and I don't want to grow tired of him, so I'm hoping to limit my exposure over the coming months**. Deadpool: Suicide Kings should serve as a warning to me about that, but I can be slow on the uptake.

* When was Wolverine's popularity at its height, do you think? Last year, mid-'80s, the '90s, the mid-2000s? I feel like he isn't quite the instant big seller he used to be, but he is still in three different team books, plus two ongoings, and whatever assorted one-shots they throw out, so maybe he's still peaking.

** Though I ordered that Team-Up with Hercules against Arcade and Nightmare issue. It has Arcade in it, all right?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is always a heavy backlash when this sort of thing happens, I know everytime I see wolverine, despite how I used to like the character, I can't stand him. Hopefully the ongoing with the best writing will survive and the others won't.

Jason said...

I think The Punisher in the early 90's is the best comparison to what's happening with Deadpool right now. The Punisher was huge, but Marvel spread him too thin, sop that even fans who really enjoyed one of his books felt overwhelmed buy the sheer volume of stuff to buy, and a lot of it was crap.

As for Wolverine, in talking to the manager of my LCS, his stuff always sells, so no matter how many crappy one-shots or guest-starring gigs they put out, it still sells through, so I guess you caould probably say that his popularity is constant.

CalvinPitt said...

anonymous: Yeah, I don't find myself nearly as interested in Wolverine, even compared to 2 or 3 years ago.

jason: Dang, I can't believe I forgot about the Punisher in the '90s! he got so overexposed and used up it took a major effort by Ennis and Dillon to make him usable again.

Does that mean we should expect to see Deadpool as, I don't know, an exorcist in a couple of years?

SallyP said...

But...but Hal is PRETTY! Deadpool, is not by ANY stretch of the imagination...pretty.

CalvinPitt said...

sallyp: Well, I can't disagree with that, but Deadpool is funny (sometimes), that counts for something, right?

SallyP said...

Well, he's funny, but does he get blinded by mustard or hit in the head by yellow ceiling tiles?

I think NOT!