Now into its second week of release, Deadpool shows no sign of letting up at the box office. In just over a week, it has crushed the competition with an almost $500 million worldwide haul. Not bad for an R-rated movie about an obscure comic book hero that casual fans might have never heard of, right?
You can probably chalk the runaway success of Tim Miller’s film up to a few things. First of all, Deadpool is the first real event movie of the year, following a typically dreary January. It’s also something of a palate cleanser after months of serious, worthy Oscar fare.
Perhaps more crucial to Deadpool‘s success than anything else, however, is that the film gleefully distinguishes itself from the rest of the blockbuster field, superhero movies in particular. There’s no other comic book film like it; after years of the superhero movie following a similar roundabout pattern, Deadpool takes that pattern and shoots it square in the face.
So, on that note, here are 10 reasons why the Merc With a Mouth’s solo outing is so different to the standard superhero movie.