When Does Deadpool Learn He's A Marvel Character & Why Does It Matter?

An acclaimed "Deadpool" run by writer Joe Kelly and artist Pete Woods put a new spin on Wade Wilson and gradually started introducing the idea of playing with the fourth wall. An early issue sees Deadpool accidentally travel back in time and relive the events of old "Spider-Man" comics, quickly establishing that this series wasn't being coy when it came to outrageous and hilarious world-bending narratives.

But "Deadpool" #28 dropped all pretenses and, for the first time, Wade blatantly revealed that he knows he's in a serialized comic book. He runs into fellow merc and longtime Daredevil villain Bullseye, who asks how long it's been since the two last met. "Issue sixteen," Deadpool nonchalantly responds, not even making a big deal of his unique perception of the Marvel Universe. And if that wasn't definitive enough, a few issues later, in Issue #34, Deadpool unequivocally states, "[N]one of this is actually happening. There is a man. At a typewriter. This is all his twisted imagination."

Subsequent creators picked up and expanded upon this new characterization of Deadpool. Before long, he began to address the readers directly, usually in the form of offering color commentary, and this self-awareness has been his trademark ever since.