Deadpool violently climbed the list of the highest-grossing R-rated movies ever, surpassed only by Todd Phillips’s Joker in 2019. Ryan Reynold’s passion project turned from a failure to a magnum opus; it became an instant success and gnawed out its status as a pop-culture staple and one of the most beloved R-rated superhero movies.

Deadpool is an absurd carnival of jaded disillusionment and existential angst masked by cynical mockery and self-aware jokes that push for anti-meaning, giving a masterclass for being in the right place at the right time and hitting all the right notes. Released in probably the Golden age of soft postmodern nihilism in cinema, this absurdist gory juggernaut packed with pop culture references, one-liners, and profanity, asks what it means to be a hero in Marvel’s universe and far beyond it.

Deadpool as a Deconstruction of the Superhero

Colossus and Deadpool Tender Embrace
20th Century Fox

Deadpool knows he is a character in a movie, and therefore, he knows that ultimately his existence has no meaning. For him, there are no stakes, and societal axioms become even more ridiculous. He will point out movie cliches, breaking the fourth wall, and he will wonder if he left the stove on in the middle of strife. Fighting with a woman, Deadpool ponders whether it will be sexist to go full-on or refuse to fight her because she is female?

Deadpool dissects the superhero genre, unveiling a world that is not any less horrifying or hopeless than Watchmen or The Boys; however, it is self-reflexive enough to make dark hysteria palatable to the current generations’ morbid sense of humor. Deadpool’s hangout spot is a dingy mercenaries bar that used to be a Christian school for wayward girls. The postmodern irony cannot get any more literal.

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Deadpool is a trickster and a special kind of antihero, a ridiculous champion without his shiny armor, a noble damsel, or a loyal sidekick. Wisecrack draws a comparison between Deadpool and the postmodern classic Don Quixote. The famous novel was a reflection of the radical skepticism of the time. Cervantes taunted Spanish society by deconstructing grand epos about knighthood. Superheroes are in many ways a modern version of Arthurian knights, so Deadpool stands as a spiritual successor to Don Quixote by laughing away the death of the past's romanticism and the overwhelming anguish of no longer having moral codes, religion, or science to rely on.

Deadpool as a Nihilistic Hero

Deadpool looks at the camera, breaking the 4th wall, next to two mutant friends in a junkyard.
20th Century Studios

Unlike other superhero movies, Deadpool doesn’t concern itself with the good ol' "saving the world from unspeakable evil" thing. Wade is not even a good person, to begin with, and he resists the ‘hero’ label fervently. The conflict of the movie is absolutely personal and then turns out to even be kind of trivial (because Vanessa quickly accepted his new face, and the experiments actually did cure Wade’s cancer).

Throughout the story, though, we see Deadpool go through, dare it be mentioned, a pretty classic hero's journey. The first movie, a revenge rampage story, ends with Deadpool rejecting ‘superheroism’ one more time, as he kills Francis without hesitation, even as Colossus pleads to take the high road.

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If Vanessa gives Wade’s life meaning in Deadpool, in the second installment she becomes his virtue guide, his judge, and his reward, serving as an amalgam of the romantic interest and a mentor figure. In the climax of the film, Deadpool sacrifices himself for someone else — and even delays gratification, voluntarily parting with Vanessa again. His literal rebirth symbolizes his figurative rebirth, as a true hero, going from selfish to selfless. Deadpool reads as a simultaneously farcical and sincere ‘Arthurian knight’, not unlike Lancelot, who obeys the lady of his heart even if it means going against his way of life.

Jack Fisher suggests a similar idea, declaring Deadpool a perfect nihilist hero. Instead of wreaking havoc like Joker, or dwelling in misanthropy like Rick Sanchez of Rick and Morty, Deadpool embraces that life is meaningless but that does not mean his actions are meaningless. Unlike brooding superheroes who have to choose one or the other, Wade can be both selfish and selfless, whatever he is in the mood for. Sometimes that even serves as better entertainment and a gauge for the character development of Deadpool; as Fisher write about the nihilistic movie, “In a meaningless universe, you can be a selfless hero. You can be a greedy prick, too. It doesn’t matter either way. The only thing that matters, in the context of nihilism, is that someone chooses it because they want to and not because they think it serves some higher purpose”.

Deadpool and the Prison of Irony

Deadpool and Cable
20th Century Fox

Irony in pop culture comes from a dark place of dissatisfaction and disillusionment. The best satire movies brutally attack dominant power structures and ideologies, proving to be both funny and extremely effective as criticism. The rise of modern irony reflects how millennials, declared to be the new lost generation, and zoomers are stuck in a burning world with no sanctuary — quite literally, as nowadays, most can’t even afford to own a house and resort to renting, in a world of rising temperatures. As Livereal writes: “The idea of life as a rational, coherent, well-ordered system just doesn’t ring true with everyday experience. It’s a failure of rationalism. It’s not a celebration of irrationalism, just a recognition that the rational, as it’s normally presented, is like trying to measure a tornado with a slide-rule."

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With access to the Internet, young people are constantly surrounded by information: floods, fires, ecological disasters, wars, poverty, hunger, and social injustice — and there is a prevalent sense of anxiety because no one can stretch themselves so thin to care for every single cause out there and lead a 100% sustainable lifestyle. Feeling like the older generation has duped them, the newer generations become cynic and viciously mock the ‘good old days’. Deadpool making fun of boy scout superheroes and the meaninglessness of life squarely hits home for them.

Every generation has a counterculture, and irony is generally nothing cutting-edge, but it used to belong largely outside of capitalism and authority. However, today’s irony turned from outsider to mainstream, ending up in a paradoxical position of endless superficial reference cycles with the inability to create new ideas. Late-capitalism is so powerful that it swallows up and incorporates even its own critiques into itself, as we see, for instance, with the announcement of the reality show based on Squid Game.

The Search For Sincerity in Deadpool 3

Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool making a heart
20th Century Fox

Hollywood mindlessly references itself, with endless gags, reboots, remakes, revivals, and adaptations of other mediums, be it comics or video games, leaving hardly any space for the creation of original movies. Movies use the same tired formula and tropes, but now they pepper in some witty self-aware remarks. Deadpool is a perfect example, from the very titles where it called its cast, not with their names but their tropes: A British Villain, A Hot Chick, and so on.

The major problem is that poking fun at a cliché and using it still without subverting it in any way is not as groundbreaking as it sees itself. By denying the audience from living through any genuinely heroic or emotional moments on the screen, Hollywood still uses the same structures and clichés but distances the viewers from any kind of sincerity so that it feels new and intelligent (as opposed to naive or discriminatory older interpretations). But how long can that ironic, self-referential distancing stay smart and fresh? One wonders if Deadpool 3 will actually attempt some sincerity, which would (ironically) be even more subversive in these days of corporate postmodernity.

As David Foster Wallace predicted, “At one time, irony served to reveal hypocrisies, but now it simply acknowledges one’s cultural compliance and familiarity with pop trends. The art of irony has lost its vision and its edge. The rebellious posture of the past has been annexed by the very commercialism it sought to defy.” So the question is: how does art move on from cynicism and irony to sincerity? Whether Deadpool is a great deconstruction and a fresh, modern take on heroism, or it’s just another cheesy exploitation relying on the capitalist assimilation of irony, is up for the viewer to decide.