Comic Book Questions Answered - where I answer whatever questions you folks might have about comic books (feel free to e-mail questions to me at brianc@cbr.com). Here is a link to an archive of all the past questions that have been answered so far.
Reader Chad W. asked when did Deadpool's face mask first start having the point on the back of it, which you don't see on other heroes with full face masks like Spider-Man.
Read on for the answer!
When Deadpool was first drawn by Rob Liefeld, he had a face mask just like Spider-Man and a bunch of other guys like that, where it is tight around his entire head...
That's how it stayed through his appearances in X-Force, as well.
Also, that's how it looked in his first two mini-series. First, by Joe Madureira...
Then by Ian Churchill...
And even when his ongoing series began, Ed McGuinness also drew him that way...
However, over time, McGuinness slowly began to draw his mask slightly differently, I think mostly inspired by the li'l Deadpool that McGuinness would draw for the recap page in the book...
But the first real hint at all was the last page of Deadpool #3...
and the cover to Deadpool #5...
But what's weird is that even when McGuinness really started drawing the point, he would not be consistent with it. It would change from page to page, or even PANEL to PANEL. Check out these four pages from Deadpool #6....
The point made its full cover debut on Deadpool #8...
But McGuinness' successors did not follow up on the point approach. Not Pete Woods...
Nor Walter MacDaniel...
When Paco Diaz became the regular artist with writer Christopher Priest after Joe Kelly left the book, Diaz also didn't draw it at first...
But then in Deadpool #38, Diaz started drawing it and did so for every other issue he drew...
However, Jim Calafiore did not...
Nor did Paul Chadwick...
Darick Robertson did on a handful of issues...
Udon Studios mostly didn't, but then would throw it in there oddly enough here or there (these are back-to-back pages!)...
Okay, so when did it become consistent?
Go to the next page to find out!
It was not until Cable and Deadpool #1, with artist Mark Brooks, that the point in the mask became consistent. It was in all of Brooks' issues...
But I suppose Patrick Zircher should be credited for maintaining it, as Zircher was on the book much longer than Brooks, and Zircher made it part of Deadpool's regular outfit...
Ron Lim kept it in his issues...
And it's been there ever since.
There ya go, Chad! If anyone else has a question, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com (or bcronin@comicbookresources.com)!