The Adventures of Captain Otter

I find this really funny.  We recently found out that Quentin Tarantino was offered Green Lantern, and turned it down.  Today, Ryan Reynolds talked a bit about the upcoming Deadpool movie.  Who does he think should direct it?  Tarantino.  Maybe these two were destined to be together, somehow.  And even though I think Tarantino’s sense of style wouldn’t be suited for the cosmic adventures of Hal Jordan, that insanity might just work for Deadpool.  The whole idea of Tarantino doing Deadpool sounds too crazy and perfect to be true.  The director who brought uber violence and non stop pop culture references to the 90’s?  Who else could be more in touch with the essence of Deadpool.  And all the guns and katanas sound right up this guy’s alley.  And the sense of humor?  I’m trying to think about who else could do this movie now.  That being said, Reynolds was quick to note that this is a long shot, since Tarantino usually likes working with his own stuff.  This was one of the big reasons Tarantino turned down GL after all.  But, hey, who knows?

Reynolds also told us about the search for a writer that’s going on right now.  The movie should be getting one soon (hopefully).  Reynolds is also confident that if they can nail the script and get the right tone, finding a director will be easy.  I gotta love the guy’s enthusiasm for this.  At this point, we’ll have to wait quite some time before we get any more updates.  But hey, at least they’re moving along. 

I think I have a pretty fair view of reboots.  They offer amazing potential to revitalize a franchise after an older series (Batman, James Bond) or a disastrous showing and change of studio (Hulk).  At the same time, rebooting just to milk a franchise for all it’s worth annoys me to no end.  It almost feels like they’re pressing the do-over button.  The latest reboot?  Deadpool.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?

Lauren Shuler Donner, the producer of the X-movies, recently commented on the status of the movie.  She described it as a “reboot”, meaning that we would see a character much closer to the one we know and love.  On one hand, this is great.  Baraka-pool has no place in a Deadpool movie, and we want our Merc With a Mouth to actually talk.  It’s been pretty well known that we would see classic Deadpool.  But a reboot?  I hope this doesn’t mean they ignore what happened in Wolverine altogether.  Even if you don’t love the treatment of the character, you have to admit it sets up how he obtained his powers and went completely crazy.   I don’t think I want to see a Deadpool origins movie, where alot of time is devoted to Weapon X experimenting on him.  It would feel too much like Wolverine.  No, let’s start the movie out with Deadpool recapping how he got here, and then move the plot forward from there.  And if they ignore Wolverine, it just feels kind of cheap.  If they ignore everything that happened to him, why was he in the movie at all?  It feels like the people making the X-movies don’t care enough about source material and are too willing to play around with things.  When they make big decisions with characters, I don’t want to see the movies just move on from them. 

The more Deadpool stuff I read, the more I love the character.  He’s just so damn likeable, and it’s little wonder why he’s had a cult following since his debut in the 90’s.  But for some reason, Deadpool seems to be popping up everywhere nowadays.  Comics, video games, movies, no medium is safe from Deadpool’s wrath.  How did this happen?  I mean, for years it’s been mostly the same characters getting attention, but Deadpool is quickly becoming an A list character.  He’s the only character from the 90’s (that I know of) who’s exploded to quite such heights.  If anyone deserves it though, it’s Wade Wilson. 

If you’ve been reading stuff on the more recent Marvel events, you would notice that Deadpool is starting to have a pretty active role.  He was the one who (accidently) gave the Norman Osborn the information to kill the Skrull queen.  Apparently, Norman needed a large amount of inside, covert information to figure out that shooting something’s head off will kill it.  Norman then wanted to clean this up, and we’ve seen a couple of crossovers involving people trying to kill our favorite mercenary.  The Thunderbolts tried and failed, and Bullseye had no choice but to give Deadpool the money he deserved. Regardless, Deadpool is now considering a career as a pirate.  I’m not sure if I want to join his crew or not.  On one hand, Deadpool + Pirates= is mind blowingly awesome.  That’s like ninjas in space, with guns.  On the other, Deadpool as a pirate means almost certain death for me.  It’s a hard decision, I’m sure you’ll agree.  You’d think Deadpool would confortable with a steady, ongoing solo series and a possible career in pirating.  No, Deadpool has a second series titled Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth.  Seriously?  Two titles?  Iron Man doesn’t even get two series to himself.  Merc with a Mouth is only in it’s second issue, and is closer in artistic style and plot to the Deadpool from the 90’s.  The first issue saw Deadpool fight off cavemen led by the merc’s own zombified head.  I swear I’m not lying.  He’s also had a few limited series, such as Suicide Kings, which ended fairly recently.  To make things better, he’ll soon be teaming up with both Spiderman AND Hercules in the coming months.  The man certainly keeps good company and are bound to be amazing issues.  If you don’t read either of them, then you my dear reader, are a communist.

To make things better, Deadpool popped up in theaters this summer.  Kind of.  Ryan Reynolds played an early version of Wade Wilson in the Wolverine movie, before all the scars and horrifying experiments.  We then saw some kind of Baraka-Pool that had nothing to do with the character.  I don’t know how it’s even possible to fit katanas in your wrists.  Imagine a long piece of metal going from your hand to your shoulder.  You wouldn’t be able to bend your arm!  Makes it kind of hard to perform basic tasks and such.  Kind of a lousy killing machine if you ask me.  All is well though, since Deadpool is getting his own movie in 2011.  Just think of the Deadpool you saw in the movie as what was going on in Weapon X.  We’ll see all the good stuff like breaking the fourth wall, the costume, and most likely some good old fashioned hallucinations.  Ryan Reynolds is coming back, but I don’t think they’ve set a specific date or lined up a director.  If 2011 is too far away, maybe Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 will tide you over.  Deadpool will be one of the playable characters, and apparently is a blast to play with.  Come to think of it, all this Deadpool hype started when the first game came out.  Ever since then, people havn’t been able to get enough of him.

 So there you have it.  The only thing Deadpool is missing is a TV show, and I think I can safely say it’s just a matter of time.  I’d like to see it on comedy central or something and be just insanely funny and over the top.  If you havn’t jumped on the Deadpool bandwagon yet, do so now.  It’s a fun place to be.