January 1, 2016

Deadpool or Who Was On First, First?

A new Deadpool movie is coming out, and the filmmakers are promoting this as the "first" queer superhero movie.

Now personally I've never read the Deadpool comic books. In fact the only comic book or rather, graphic novel, that I've ever read is Watchmen. But the word is that Deadpool is bi/pan/omnisexual (depending on who's talking) because he... flirts with both men and women.

Admittedly, this is a case where the movie hasn't come out and thus this is all speculation, but the trailers show the character Deadpool exchanging one liners with other characters, while talking about how he has to save the girl (who at least declares she doesn't do damsel in distress).

The thing is, if flirting is all it takes to make a superhero queer, then the first queer superhero arrived in cinema decades ago with the black and white silent film The Mark of Zorro (1920). It also bears remarking that all around flirting tends to a major feature of well, just about every super hero ever. So if all Deadpool does is flirt, then he's not going to be the first omniqueer superhero by a long webshot.

On the other hand, I do like the flippant gallows humor on display in the trailers. It should at least make for a nice change of pace from the ultra-vanilla Marvel Avengers flicks we've been getting a steady supply of for the past few years.

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