Joe Kelly Returns to Deadpool in Ultimate Spider-Man
By Christina Diem Pham
The Merc With the Mouth graces your television screen this Sunday at 11:30 a.m. ET in an all-new Marvels Ultimate Spider-Man inside Marvel Universe on Disney XD! To get you amped for shenanigans, awesomeness and chaos galore, we sat down with series writer Joe Kelly--one-quarter of seires Co-Executive Producers Man of Action--to get a better idea of what to look forward to!
Wade Wilsons debut in Spidey brought forth sweet, sweet nostalgia for Kelly, the writer of many classic Deadpool tales as well as a member of Spidey's Web-Heads during the Brand New Day era of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN--a period included a Spidey-Deadpool team-up in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #611.
It was so much fun, Kelly emphasizes. I mean, Deadpool is like a cornerstone in my career. [I havent had] much opportunity to work on the character in a while, so it was cool [we got] to bring him up into Marvel's Ultimate Spider-Man. It was a little bit like old Deadpool, except with the PG wheels on instead of the usual mania.
Mania might just qualify as an understatement in this instance. Fans can definitely expect a whole lot of ruckus when Deadpool makes an appearance, so Kelly and Man of Action made sure to take their target audience into consideration for Ultimate Deadpool.
[This episode] is sort of an introduction to Deadpool, clarifies Kelly. We didnt want to go deep into any of the comic book stuff, [some of which] is too inappropriate
Its [basically a matter] of how you introduce these characters to a kid whos never seen them before. I think we have a pretty clever way [of integrating] Deadpool into [the series], where you certainly dont need to know any kind of backstory or anything else."
While both Deadpools differ from one another, Kelly still wanted to pay homage to the comics, but please, hold the spoilers.
In a lot of ways, we went back to the origin of Deadpool even before I came on to write him, he underlines
[Its] like, what if you had a Spider-Man with no morals? When we came across that [concept] in the room, it got everybody excited because this idea that [Spidey and Deadpool] could fight physically and on the comedy plane, for lack of a better term, seemed like it would be really, really fun, and something that we had never seen before.
While having Deadpool in the picture sounds like a bundle of joy, moral compasses are also put into check as well--and that includes Spider-Mans.
Spideys having a bad day and questioning why hes doing what hes doing, explains Kelly. [Cue] Deadpool, whos having the time of his life, so it sounds like the next level for [Parker] and he goes along with the ride. As layers of the onion get peeled back, he realizes the more sinister and [cynical] side to Deadpool, which reaffirms what kind of hero Spidey really wants to be by seeing what he doesnt want to become.
This writer goes on to highlight the success of bringing this episode together, from the beginning to final stages of production.
[Co-writer] Ed Valentine did an incredible job processing what [was] put into the outline, and we had a lot of fun refining it and talking through it with the director, he reminisces. From soup to nuts, its a pretty fun episode and, like I said before, its like visiting an old friend but in a different way. That was really exciting for me.
Fans will most certainly see this Merc giving the poor Webslinger a difficult time, to say the least. Long story short, Spideys buttons are pushed, and pushed, and pushed.
You have to take [Deadpool] in very small doses, Kelly laughs. Hes not really loved ,and it was just another way to mess with Spider-Man.
In other words, Deadpool represents the friend, or friend, that can only stick around for a short amount of time before the tolerance meter explodes.
Theres very limited crashing-on-the-couch time, stresses Kelly.
Now, swing into action this Sunday with Marvels Ultimate Deadpool--er, Marvels Ultimate Spider-Man--inside Marvel Universe on Disney at 11:30 a.m. ET! Thwip thwip!
