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Wanda Wilson’s First Appearance;
Wanda Wilson is an alternate universe version of Wade Wilson, aka everybody’s favorite Merc with the Mouth, Deadpool. Deadpool has massively grown in popularity over the last few years, and as his popularity has grown, so has his cast of characters and alternate versions of himself. Deadpool and the Wolverine showcases a wide variety of these characters in the form of the Deadpool Corps—a team of Deadpool variants from across the Marvel Multiverse. It’s kind of crazy to think that Wanda is going to be in the film at all because she was just created like 14 years ago back in 2010. But I guess that’s not really that crazy when you consider that Spawn got a film like five years after he was invented, and Superman was on TV and radio shows just two years after he was created back in the 1940s. I just think we need more badass katana-wielding women in films today, so, your move, Hollywood.
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the complete comic book history of Wanda Wilson, aka Lady Deadpool.
Lady Deadpool in Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #7
Wanda Wilson’s first appearance in the comic books is in Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #7, written by Victor Gischler and with art by terminally online artist Rob Liefeld. This entire miniseries is an alternate dimensional trip between the main Deadpool from the Marvel 616 universe and Headpool—an alternate reality, zombified, severed head of Deadpool from Earth-2149, which was the Marvel Zombies Universe.
Deadpool and Headpool enter through a portal to Earth-310, where General America—the Earth-310 version of Steve Rogers—is locked in a battle with a group of rebel separatist fighters. Within this universe, Steve leads the United States Army, which has become a repressive fascist state, even commanding Sentinels. Steve’s main goal is tracking down and killing or imprisoning heroes who are not loyal to this new regime. Steve is confronted by a female version of Deadpool—Lady Deadpool—who Steve refers to as “lady,” implying they already know each other. The main Deadpool watches from a distance at first but quickly jumps in to assist her in the fight against General Rogers, and the two tag-team the battle before Wanda grabs Headpool and throws him at Steve for the secret hidden zombie bite jutsu. Now, Headpool bites Rogers’ arm, infecting it with the virus he carries. Wade and Wanda kiss in a bizarre display of cross-dimensional self-incest, and Wade chops off Rogers’ arm, preventing the virus from spreading, and vanishes from their dimension. This effectively ends Wanda’s first appearance within comics but not her appearances within the greater Marvel comic universe, as she becomes a pretty crucial part of the Deadpool Corps.
The Role of Lady Deadpool in the Deadpool Corps Miniseries
What is the Deadpool Corps, you ask? Well, let’s discuss.
Wanda is heavily involved in the Deadpool Corps miniseries. We get additional backstory for her here in two issues as well: Prelude to Deadpool Corps #1 and Lady Deadpool. These issues show that in her universe, America devolved, generals took sides, and states broke free of the Union before Wanda eventually joined the side of the rebels. Why did she side with the rebels, you may ask? At first, it’s established that she joined up with the rebels simply because they flattered her by asking her to join them first. That’s it. The loyalists didn’t ask, and the rebels did. However, it’s later expanded upon that the rebels kind of tricked her by using a hot guy as a spokesperson for the rebellion, a former actor-turned-activist that Wanda became obsessed with. He is imprisoned for leading anti-American propaganda, and Wanda goes in to break him out and ends up battling General America again, who she stabs in the gut. However, her boy toy dies in the process, further pushing her towards the rebellion and establishing her vendetta with General America.
Wanda Wilson’s Battles and Growth
Later in Prelude to Deadpool Corps #1, Wanda ends up locked in combat with Rogers again, now with a new adamantium arm replacing the one that was bitten, infected by the zombie virus, and ultimately amputated. Wanda’s losing the fight before Wade reappears to help turn the tide, and the two eventually incapacitate Rogers for the third time. It’s called chivalry, fellas—look it up. Wade ends up asking Wanda to join an interdimensional group of Deadpools called the Deadpool Corps. She’s literally his first draft pick, and of course, she accepts because she loves being chosen for teams, as we’ve already established.
The crux of the story here is that Wanda and the Corps are drafted by a cosmic elder being known as the Contemplator to battle an ancient entity known as the Awareness. The Awareness is a lot like the Borg from Star Trek in that it inhabits and assimilates species and merges their consciousness into its own to create a hive mind. So, who better to take on a large cosmic collective consciousness than a group of heroes who are literally insane and unpredictable?
Wanda’s Involvement in Deadpool Corps’ Missions
The main Deadpool Corps is comprised of Wade Wilson from Earth-616, Lady Deadpool, Headpool, Dogpool, and Kidpool. However, the Contemplator is not the only elder who believes they have a champion suited to take on the Awareness, so he sends his own hero, known literally as the Champion, to fight the cosmic gang of Deadpools to see who deserves to fight the Awareness. The Deadpool Corps lure him down to the surface of a moon and end up stealing his cosmic motorcycle that strands him on the moon, sort of proving that the Deadpools, while unorthodox, are the best choice for a team of heroes to take on a cosmic villain that feeds off consciousness.
The group ends up in an alien brothel, where they begin the process of hunting down the Awareness. That is until the Champion arrives again and starts a fight. Wanda and Kidpool leave to find weapons capable of helping them defeat the massively more powerful Champion, but ultimately, instead of battling him, the main Deadpool ends up recruiting him into the Corps as Championpool. Wanda and Kidpool return with a new ship called the Bea Arthur and are ready to fight when they learn that the entire time they were gone, the main Deadpool, Championpool, and the cosmic elder, the Gardener, were just getting wasted at the bar.
No sooner than Championpool is initiated into the Deadpool Corps, they end up stranding him again on the surface of another planet, which ends up being a running joke over and over again within the miniseries. Wanda and the group are next intercepted by a triangular Borg-like ship belonging to a race of aliens controlled by the Awareness. They bust into the ship but are incapacitated by gas and imprisoned. Dogpool, who was left at the brothel issues ago, and Championpool hitch a ride to the same ship with a cosmic plumber who was on his way to fix the Awareness’s ship’s bathroom. They arrive, break the other Deadpools out, and they go on a murderous rampage throughout the ship. Ultimately, Championpool stays behind to attempt to destroy the ship as the other Deadpools make their escape. They destroy the ship along with all the aliens but strand Championpool again in the cold vacuum of space.
Wanda’s Final Battle Against the Awareness
The Deadpool Corps, along with help from a smuggler named B.B. (short for Broken Blade), end up sneaking up on the Awareness, which is now visualized as a giant space cloud comprised of thousands of worlds. The Awareness launches its attack and penetrates itself into the minds of the various Deadpools, attempting to drive them mad and subjugate them but struggles due to their collective insanity. He leads them to a castle—a figurative castle filled with the things that the Awareness believes would drive them into madness so it could assimilate them.
Each Deadpool faces a form of their own terror within. In Wanda’s mind, she’s confronted with pixie-like creatures that all have scarred and deformed faces. They ask Wanda to see her face and beg her to remove her mask, which she does, revealing that now her face has been fully healed. But the pixies reject her for her beauty and leave her. And remember, a big part of Wanda’s personality is that she just wants to be accepted and chosen by people, which bums her out.
While all of this is happening, Headpool—a deceased, zombified version of Deadpool—makes his way to a control room within the castle that has a single alien controlling the entire massive collective consciousness of the Awareness. Headpool isn’t detected because he’s deceased and not giving off living brain waves. Headpool bites the controls and frees the other Deadpools, but shockingly, Wanda’s face is still pretty—her scars are gone permanently. The group has to fight off one last defensive robot, and Wanda stabs the alien controlling the Awareness, ending the threat of the Awareness once and for all.
Wanda’s Sacrifice in Deadpool Kills Deadpool
As a token of appreciation, the Contemplator gives each Deadpool Corps member a ring that allows them to summon a cosmic elder for a favor one time. However, the group is still left broke and figures they need to earn money when a local agricultural planet hires the Corps to fend off a cosmic crime lord known as the Blue Buccaneer. The group accepts the job
but soon realizes that the Blue Buccaneer is just a powerful scarecrow—essentially a hologram used to scare off potential attackers. Wanda and Wade realize that the planet doesn’t even have any money to pay them in the first place.
After that, the group splits up to find work elsewhere. Wanda is later shown leading the Deadpool Corps to help a resistance group known as the Fourth Wall in Deadpool Corps #10, and they claim that they need Deadpool’s help because they are in a world almost fully dominated by a corporate kleptocracy and free from government oversight. The resistance claims that the Omega Corporation is attempting to use their world as a testing ground for bioweapons and is hiring mercenaries to eliminate them. Sounds like a good fit for the Deadpool Corps, right? Turns out the resistance was right, and the Omega Corporation was using the Corps as their own private mercenaries. The Deadpool Corps ends up turning on the Omega Corporation and assisting the rebels. They destroy the Omega Corporation’s private army, drive them off the planet, and ensure that they leave for good.
The Sad Conclusion of Wanda’s Story
Now, here’s where things get sad.
Wanda’s final appearances are in the Deadpool Kills Deadpool crossover series that involves an alternate version of Deadpool going on a rampage, attempting to kill every version of Deadpool across the Marvel multiverse. Wanda is responsible for putting the Deadpool Corps back together to fight against this evil version of Wade, called Dreadpool, and his gang of Deadpools. Wanda ultimately sacrifices herself in this battle, flying her ship directly into the head of Galactipool, killing both of them in the process. The real kicker here is that Wanda also ended up on the cutting room floor in this final battle in the Deadpool Kills Deadpool miniseries. What a bummer. She deserved better.
And that’s the full comic book history of Wanda Wilson, aka Lady Deadpool.
