One thing I love about my job is the down time I can get, and that nobody minds when I bring a book or my Kindle so I can read over lunch or when the janitor needs to go through with the vacuum. It means I can finally go through the backlog of some of my favorite character’s comic books. I’m completely caught up on New 52 Batgirl, Pre and Post 52 Harley Quinn, and New 52 Suicide Squad. Basically if it’s a character created in the 90s or later I’ll go through every bit of it, while Batgirl might be a bit too large of a project even for my completionist personality. But one of the things I’ve learned while going through all of the backlogs basically boil down into one thought.
“So many of these awesome characters, my absolute favorites in these titles, NOBODY knows about.”
So lets fix that, shall we? Consider this something I’ll come back to now and again. Here’s a Comic Book Character that you SHOULD know about.
With these, I’m only counting recurring characters that lasted at least two story arcs. Or one-off villains who died at the end of their arc, because while they aren’t coming back, they’re some of my favorite storylines. I might make exceptions for characters or villains that people never really seem to know about as well. If you’re wondering how I’ll test that last one, it’s pretty simple. I ask 3 friends of mine who read comics what they know about a character. If the answer is "not much at all" for two of three, I can write about it.
I’ll be playing with the format, but for now, here we go.
THE SERIES: Deadpool
The Character You Know:
Deadpool. What can be said about Deadpool that hasn’t already been said? He’s the Internet’s Darling Boy, The Merc with The Mouth, mainstay at conventions, the birth of a thousand internet memes, not crap-tier for Marvel Vs Capcom, and not nearly as weird an origin as his cinematic appearance in Wolverine Origins (I’m hopefully optimistic for 2016, as a note). This super-merc with the healing factor of Wolverine is a fan-favorite, even by those who haven’t read his surprisingly dark backstory and emotionally complex original release.
Created by Fabian Nicieza and Rob Liefeld in 1991, the original run of his solo comic began in 1997 and lasted 69 issues before the X-Men related multi-series revamp occurred. Deadpool was involved because of his origins and a long-standing love interest subplot with Siryn (now Banshee), so his book was revamped as well. I’ve read every issue of the original run, and I have nothing but good things to say about the characters and the series. Those of you who know of my feelings towards Liefeld might be surprised that I have nothing bad to say whatsoever about the art or design from his very first incarnation in The New Mutants #98.
Writer Joe Kelly helmed the original run, and set the baseline for Deadpool’s eventual rise in popularity. While he evolved over time, Deadpool always had a complex relationship with morality and self-preservation. And if there’s one thing I’m eternally thankful to Kelly for, it’s for creating the person who could not only keep up with Deadpool mentally, but serve as his moral center and someone to beat some sense into the nigh-immortal mercenary and get him back on track to do what he needed to do.
Yes, even Deadpool has someone who can whip him into shape. Well, some semblance of in shape at least.
The Character you SHOULD Know.
Blind Albert
Yes, a blind old woman who was his “prisoner”/roommate. I’m not kidding. She is one of the most amazing characters I’ve ever followed.
Appearing in Deadpool #1-25, Blind Al has many names. Althea, Al, Crazy Old Coot, things like that. One thing’s for sure, the “blind” part of Blind Albert is not just part of her name. She really is completely blind. Deadpool once got her a seeing-eye dog as a goof, and she wasn’t too happy having a “mutt” around for the longest time. Until issue 17, she wasn’t allowed outside of the Deadhut and she memorized every part of the house. Unless Wade spun her around. Which was often.
Her favorite revenge for that usually involved Ex-Lax brownies. Not usually bullets. Usually.
Al is ??? years old. Yeah. Nobody really knows how old she really is, and it seems to keep changing. One issue she said she was sexagenarian. A later issue she said she never went flapper because she thought it made her butt look big, putting her in her teens around the 1920s. Another character thought she was a septuagenarian. How old is she? We have no idea. Some have speculated that she was “Golden Girl”, aka Betsy Ross, but that was never considered canon and has been discredited. Kelly himself intended her to be a Black Widow, as in the orignal Black Widow, but that was scrapped as well. The only thing we absolutely know for sure that can help pinpoint her age is that she had a relationship with Captain America back in the day. That’s right, Captain America and Blind Al were sweethearts during the war.
Al usually treated Wade like a misbehaving child, which in all honesty, was a pretty accurate response for most situations. However Wade did have his dark side, and “The Box” was the representation of that. One thing that was easy to forget was that they weren’t just roommates, but a prisoner/captor situation that made it impossible for Al to leave the house or accept visitors. Wade completely snapped one day, and threw her into the room along with her visitor, another amazing side character named Weasel in issue 14.. Wade always had great guilt for his actions, and trust me, Al got revenge on him for that eventually through passive aggressive tactics that eventually broke Wade down. At the end of that arc she was technically free to leave, but chose to stay because she had what I can only describe as a weird mix of maternal instinct and a heaping dose of Stockholm syndrome. She eventually did leave after issue 25, and became a more sporadic support character.
 |
| They had a special relationship |
We don’t know much about Al’s past either, but we do know that she was in British Intelligence. Not much about what she did is actually known, but she first met Deadpool in Zambia where she was stationed. Well, it was less “meeting” Deadpool than “being his target”, but everyone else but her died and she escaped, only to get captured by him years later. Their weird relationship was one of the things that kept me hooked on the series.
For all the pranks Deadpool pulled on Al, she always got back at him. Once she even sabotaged all of his weapons before a job because he pointed her in the direction of the basement stairs after being spun around, and after the “Box” incident she used the silent-treatment on top of ultra-servile behaviors to guilt trip him so badly he was begging for forgiveness. She even ironed his underoos. But even when he was at his worst, there was still some affection for the merc.
While her major appearances lasted only 2 years, she still comes back occasionally. And anyone who gets an invitation to Deadpool’s wedding has to be really special to him. Even if he’s crap at Braille. And sent her to a mob funeral instead by accident.
She’s pretty special to me too.
Deadpool is property of Marvel Comics, and by extension Disney. I can’t wait to see the next movie with Deadpool in it, and even though I doubt they’ll include Blind Al, I hope for its success.
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