How Old Is Deadpool? – Marvel Settles the Fan Debate with a Surprising Answer

Pinning down exactly how old Marvel’s Deadpool is might have proved tricky in the past, but a definitive age range has now been provided by the character’s co-creator, giving fans greater context for the Merc With a Mouth in the process. As it turns out, Deadpool is in his “late thirties/early forties.“

Speaking with AIPT for X-Men Monday, writer and Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza discussed his thoughts on the character’s age. Given his incredible healing factor, and the tragicomic uncertainties of his backstory – not to mention the fact that he is a fourth-wall breaking character in a continuity with a sliding timescale – Wade Wilson’s precise age remains inevitably elusive, but Nicieza managed to helpfully narrow down what stage of his life the beloved anti-hero is in.

Nicieza shared how he approached writing the character – extrapolating from there how many birthdays might have passed for Deadpool in the years since. For curious readers, this provides some much-desired insight into Wade’s personal chronology.

Deadpool Is The Opposite Of Wise Beyond His Years

In many ways, being Deadpool is a young man’s game – that is to say, while his signature comedic dialogue may often contain mature language, the content of it is often immature, juvenile, even downright childish. From irreverence, to pure silliness, humor has always been integral to the success of Deadpool; however, it is fair to say that the older the character is portrayed as, his bits and punchlines hit differently. This was highlighted by the three-issue “Oldies” arc from Spider-Man/Deadpool, which featured the oldest version Wade Wilson to date. The arc still made time for Wlson’s familiar wisecracks, but notably, this served to underscore how aging had changed him.

“I always wrote Deadpool as being in his mid-to-late thirties when I started out,” Fabian Nicieza told AIPT. In addition to co-creating the character with Rob Liefeld in the early 1990s, Nicieza also wrote the majority of the Cable & Deadpool series that helped to solidify Deadpool as a Marvel icon, in turn proving integral to the Merc With a Mouth’s path to the screen in the successful Ryan Reynolds film series. “By now,” Nicieza reasoned, “I imagine, even taking “Marvel time” into account, he’s aged up,” though the writer suggested this has only added a few years to Deadpool’s total.

Whatever His Age, Deadpool Is Young At Heart

As a character in his thirties, Deadpool’s youthful exuberance and goofy sense of humor seems like a perfect fit – especially considering, as fans of the character will know, how deeply ingrained as a defense mechanism Wade’s joking manner is – but as the character continues to age, slowly if not gracefully, it isn’t wrong to question how his personality might develop as well. By giving a definitive age range for the character, Fabian Nicieza has given readers a vital piece of context for analyzing Deadpool‘s history, as well as his future – providing insight into how he has been written in the past, and how he could be written moving forward.

Source: AIPT