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Everyone loves or hates Deadpool. I, so far, cannot find one person who simply finds Deadpool acceptable, but doesn't really want to read about him except maybe once a month. "Not my favorite character, but I enjoy his antics from time to time." Find me a person who feels that way and I'll find you Ambush Bug Year None #6.
A lot of comic readers love Deadpool. Again, I work in a comic book store and those who love Deadpool LOVE him. They want every book he is in, they want back issues, they want Deadpool Classics Volumes 3 through whatever published now, and they want the Cable Deadpool Trades reprinted ASAP. However, when I pull comics those who dislike Deadpool want nothing with him in it. They will begrudgingly pick up their regular titles that have him in them because they won't want to break their full runs. Now there are other characters like that, Wolverine being the other main one, and Batman at times being similar in terms of their fan base. Wolverine has a lot of supporters who want everything he is in (and with three monthlies, one spin-off and up to three team books a month, with usually at least one one-shot, plus various guest appearances . . . that's a lot). However, I know fans who will not touch a Wolverine book, even the Frank Miller/Chris Claremont original mini because they hate that "hairy midget Canadian" with a passion. (Yes that is a direct quote.) Batman doesn't get quite the same hatred, but he does have fans who want everything he is and those who only get everything except the "Batman titles".
So this month I got to thinking . . . why is that? Why does one character get so much love and sales that publishers say "hey, he needs more then one book so that we can make more money". So I started developing a theory which tried to account for the various characters that have hit this lucky formula. However, I need to clarify first which books do and don't belong and which characters do.
First, I'm not including team books, because this is a focus on characters, not groups of characters. Second, some characters right now can't be considered because they aren't actually staring in their own books. The best example right now? Superman. He isn't even starring in this own book right now! He is sustaining one monthly that is a spin off mini-series which only runs till issue #12. His other two books are starring different characters so at this point Superman just doesn't count. Same goes for Green Lantern. Essentially both books are team books in a weird way with Green Lantern Corps being an obvious team book and Green Lantern itself being a team book in the sense it is supposed to focus on Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Doesn't always but it can pretty often either way, Hal Jordan only has one book he is spotlighting. However, Spider-Man does count because one, his one title is published three times a month, and two the new spin-off does feature him in it in solo stories. Also Batman counts because he has at least two books he is spotlighted in, though with the new Dick Grayson/Batman this is tricky because both Batman Streets of Gotham and Batman & Robin could be considered team-up books and Streets of Gotham does focus on other characters then Batman so far. However, even if we ignore those two books, we have Batman, Batman Confidential and Batman Brave & the Bold. Batman Brave & the Bold may be a team up book, and the remaining two may be starring different people as Batman, with Batman Confidential still showcasing Bruce Wayne as Batman, he is still headlining five titles and will be sharing the spotlight soon with Batwoman in Detective. Either way I count Batman because . . . well, he's Batman, I have to!
All this leads us to question what do these few characters have in common and who are they? Well first we have Deadpool, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Punisher, Batman, and Phantom . . . and I can't think of any others. There have been others at one time or another: Spawn, Superman (and he'll be back to this status), Iron Man, Captain America, Thor (for about a year), and many others . . . So why do the current ones have multiple series or able to sustain more then one issue a month? Well I believe it comes down to four main character traits: relate ability, mystery, humor, and kick ass ability.
First each character is relatable to, but in a different way. Spider-Man is the everyman, though not as much in some regard having nothing to do with his marriage but too many constant years of fighting the same villains and having a moral compass that's forty years old. The Punisher is the cold part of . . . well most of us . . . who wants to dispense cruel justice. Batman, Bruce Wayne, is the hurt part of all us who wants to get justice for those who are unjust. Batman, Dick Grayson, is the part of all us that wants to grow up and be Batman and get to be cool because we know Batman. (Silly I know.) Deadpool is the smartass in all of us, though some are more in contact with that side then others. Wolverine and the Phantom I think tie back into the Batman Bruce Wayne part where we all just want to be cool and kick ass. The last are the hardest to "relate to" I feel.
However, the second trait of mystery perfectly captures Wolverine, Punisher, Phantom, and Batman. Despite the fact we know a lot about these characters (particularly Wolverine now) we don't often get to see what they are thinking, leaving us with a great mystery of just what is going on in their minds and we want to know! Spider-Man and Deadpool lack this trait quite a bit, so the mystery from their titles tends to belong to their opponents or supporting cast. (See Joe Kelly's use of Blind Al and other characters during his run on Deadpool for this.)
Humor, though, is what Deadpool and Spider-Man have in spades. So much so that Deadpool's books are carried by this trait. It is what I think helps them sell so well. People want to laugh at the absurdity of super hero comic book trappings, and having Deadpool who can break the fourth wall and perceive them makes it acceptable and enjoyable. Such metafiction is a common humor element in literature and is Deadpool's main calling card. Spider-Man doesn't do this but he does enjoy a lot of funny quips and situations, much more then most super heroic characters until Deadpool came along (or maybe Speedball, but Deadpool made it more acceptable. Our other four serious characters, Punisher, Batman, Wolverine, and Phantom occasionally have an instance where humor just sort of "happens" (the Marvel Knights Punisher is the best example of this) but by and large they don't rely on this device at all.
In the end though all the characters kick a lot of ass, in fact I believe this is the main reason the Phantom has multiple titles, he is just cool and has kicked a lot of ass! Deadpool and Spider-Man also really show this trait off, but Punisher, Wolverine, and Batman are the main winners here with almost a three way time between them for kicking the most ass. Wolverine may have "comic book logic wise" been doing it the longest, and be "the best there is at what he does" but that healing factor and claws sure help. The Punisher is just good, what any man could be if he drove himself fanatically to being able to compete with criminals in a super-hero world. In the end though, Batman is the best due to his analytical mind and the ability to get out of any situation it seems. Punisher can do this most times, but Batman would not have been sliced by Wolverine's son into cold cuts . . . (Sorry if I've ruined Dark Reign the List Punisher #1.)
While many other characters float around sustaining multiple books per month, all these characters, with the exception of Deadpool, have been sustaining multiple titles for a decade or longer (Wolverine being the only one to have barely pushed a decade, with Punisher and Spider-Man each over two decades, and Batman for almost seven decades). The traits listed above I think explain a lot of it, but there is just something about these characters that make them so sustainable and enduring for a lot of readers. One thing that seems to happen is that Batman, Wolverine, and Punisher can have tales set all over the place space and time wise, and still be tales that fit those characters. It is weird and I know we all have a character that we wish was doing more then one book, but without these skills other characters just don't seem to be able to pay the bills.
As always you can reach me at vdf1@hotmail.com
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