An experiment

Keeping in line with one of his origin stories, it can be explained how Wade Wilson contracted cancer – if his mother had it, then the malfunctioning genes were transmitted to him. Facing an imminent threat, he saw the Weapon X program as his only way out – the tests were supposed to heal his cancer and give him Wolverine’s regenerative powers.

So, basically, even if people say otherwise, Deadpool is not an actual mutant, but rather a mutate – someone who develops mutant-like powers only after he is exposed external stimuli (such as exotic energies or mutagenic compounds). Obviously, like all such experiments, it all went bad to a certain degree.

Wade Wilson did receive regenerative powers (even more enhanced than Wolverine’s), but his cancer wasn’t healed. The same powers also helped his cancer cells spread even more. As the movie says it, this made him completely death-proof and completely unf**kable (although in the comics there is a whole other reason why he cannot be killed).

So things went completely wrong with the experiment, even if he was able to heal from any wound afterwards.

The name

Back when the character was first created, he bore so many similarities to DC’s Deathstroke that his creators decided to name him Wade Wilson – an inside joke, since Deathstroke’s real name is Slade Wilson. Obviously, as the timed passed, the two characters parted ways as far as their similarities are concerned.

Pretty interesting, right? We say that because Marvel has done this quite a few times until now (draw inspiration from other comic book publishers), only to develop characters more iconic than their counterparts.

Returning to Deadpool, the origin of his hero name is also a pretty interesting one. During the Weapon X program, the volunteers (who didn’t necessarily volunteer themselves) knew that the rate of success was pretty low. And so did the guards. So the guards used to bet on who would survive and who would die. Obviously, the guards always won – until the arrival of Wade Wilson, who survived despite the odds.

The game played by the guards was a death pool. So Wade Wilson became Deadpool.