His superpower? Sarcasm

MANILA, Philippines – Not many Marvel superheroes frequent strip clubs, but that’s where you’ll find Deadpool, the latest dude in the long string of action dudes unleashed by Hollywood, halfway through his eponymous origins movie. This is odd, considering Marvel is now owned by Disney, and there are more four-letter words here than you’ll find in all of Frozen. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is the so-called “Merc with a Mouth,” a former mercenary with a gift for sarcasm and postmodern fourth wall breaking (i.e., talking to the camera). The opening credits are meta as hell, announcing Deadpool as “Some Douchebag’s Movie,” directed by “An Overpaid Tool” and featuring “A Hot Chick,” “A Moody Teen” and “A British Villain.” So the tone is more, shall we say, Kick-Ass than Spider-Man.

When we meet Deadpool (née Wade Wilson) he’s looking pretty scarred-up beneath his red mask and suit, because a British villain named Francis (Ed Skrein) has forced his genes to mutate, not so he can become a superhero, but for more nefarious purposes. Reynolds, post-mutation, looks a lot like a radioactive John Malkovich.

He needs to get back to his one true love, Vanessa (Morena Baccarin of Homeland), who thinks he’s dead. But payback is more important than a reunion, for the time being. Deadpool (his name spawned by bartender T.J. Miller — better known as Erlich in Silicon Valley — because he’s listed among those his fellow mercenaries bet will die earliest) wants to track down Francis and exact the obligatory revenge.

Have we reached a point in Marvel’s trajectory where every single character has a movie franchise except Black Widow? Will there be no more room left in the world for Kate Winslet movies? Something must be done! Stat!

After the surprising appeal of Guardians of the Galaxy (which will, mark my words, spawn a sequel that will be inferior in every possible way), Marvel scraped around in the barrel some more and introduced Antman, who also surprised audiences by being watchable.

But there was at least a twist in Antman, in that the mega-huge proportions of Marvel action movies were inverted: Antman populated a tiny space.

Balls up: Reynolds and Morena Baccarin are a pair of misfits who share a love of skeeball in Deadpool.

Similarly, Guardians of the Galaxy was a kind of parallel universe Star Wars for fans too young to truly geek out to the original Star Wars. (Disney now has both bases covered, obviously.)

But Deadpool reads more like “Jim Carrey: Superhero.” His every line is a bit of wiseassery or meta patter, meant to show how the constrictions of the genre are ridiculous. References are made not only to characters, but to the actors who play them, like Huge Jackman and Ryan Reynolds. We are both within the Marvel universe, and outside, chuckling along. At one point Reynolds points out how Ryan Reynolds is not really much of an actor. At another point, he visits Dr. Xavier’s school for mutants and notices that only two new faces — Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead — answer the door. “Guess the studio couldn’t afford any other X-Men for this scene,” Deadpool quips. This line got a big laugh. And in the post-credits sequence (which fans patiently wait for), Reynolds/Deadpool appears in a bathrobe à la Ferris Bueller and tells the audience “It’s over! Go home!” before disappearing. (Then he pops back in and slips some important sequel info about an upcoming character.)

But here’s the point: Deadpool had been circling the drain of Hollywood Development Hell for over a decade. As a Marvel character, he had about as much broad fan appeal and name recognition as Antman (before, that is). His wisecracking, talk-to-the-camera antics were big with meta comic fans, when irony was still a thing, but few thought a foul-mouthed, anti-heroic Marvel character would hold up other than in cameos cameos (see: X-Men Origins: Wolverine). Now, here he is. Ready to serve up the snark.

Will fans feast upon the snark? Reynolds is comical enough, serving up penis jokes faster than Seth Rogen and Jonas Hill combined, though his skills are more of the samurai sword/guns a-blazing variety. (He does possess phenomenal healing abilities, capable of regrowing a hand, for instance.)

Marvel movies are becoming a little like Filipino group photos, it seems to me. Whenever a small crowd of Pinoys group together, and someone is hoisting a camera, there’s always some stragglers who are waved over, one after another, to squeeze into the shot, while the unlucky person holding the camera keeps saying “Compress! Compress!” Similarly, Marvel is squeezing in as many characters as possible, to enjoy the rocket ride of Hollywood sizzle for as long as it lasts. Yes, it’s basically the same shot, over and over again. This one’s the “wacky pose.”