Marvel’s Deadpool aka Wade Wilson is currently in the process of tearing up the box office, as in just a few years, the Merc With a Mouth has cemented himself as one of the superhero A-list. This is all much to the annoyance of Deathstroke aka Slade Wilson – who Deadpool is totally ripped off from – and he’s laying out his frustrations in this hilarious trailer for Teen Titans Go! To The Movies.
The two characters’ similarities date right back to the moment of Deadpool’s birth in 1990. Creators Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld had decided that they were going to introduce a superpowered sword and gun-wielding assassin in their New Mutants comic, but when Liefeld delivered the first drawings, Nicieza immediately responded, “This is Deathstroke. From the Teen Titans.”
In a hilarious twist, rather than try to change Deadpool just enough so people might not think he was a shameless copy, Nicieza and Liefeld decided to make their ripoff as blatant as possible. And that’s the story of why Wade Wilson is called Wade Wilson.
At this point, you’d expect an army of copyright lawyers to descend on their offices, but apparently, the personality differences between the two meant that DC was happy to let this one go. After all, just how successful can a boring old sword and gun mutant assassin be anyway?
Now, this Slade/Wade rivalry has finally boiled over as both characters are in films this summer – albeit coming out on different dates and appealing to very different audiences. Personally, my opinion is that there’s room enough for both superpowered assassins in multiplexes. Deadpool 2 is great and Teen Titans Go! To The Movies looks like it’s going to be absolutely brilliant. So let’s all just have a big non-litigious hug and carry on the slicing, dicing, shooting and superhero-bashing.