In this feature we spotlight the various characters, phrases, objects or events that eventually became notable parts of comic lore, like the first time someone said, "Avengers Assemble!" or the first appearance of Batman's giant penny or the first appearance of Alfred Pennyworth or the first time Spider-Man's face was shown half-Spidey/half-Peter. Stuff like that. Here is an archive of all the When We First Met features so far! Check 'em out!
Recently, I did a piece about the introduction (and removal) of Deadpool's second inner monologue. That got me to thinking, though, about when Deadpool's word balloons first became yellow. So read on to see the surprisingly complex history of Deadpool's word balloons!
Lettered by Joe Rosen, Deadpool made his debut in New Mutants #98 by Rob Leifeld and Fabian Nicieza. His dialogue was bordered right from the get go (presumably to indicate that his voice sounded different), but it was bordered RED, not yellow...
Deadpool next appeared in X-Force #2 by Liefeld and Nicieza, only know Chris Eliopoulous was the letterer and we got the debut of the YELLOW bordered dialogue for Deadpool...
However, in his next appearance, it looks like it might not be yellow borders in X-Force #4...
And he DEFINITELY didn't have yellow borders in X-Force #5...
Or his next appearance, which was, surprisingly enough, in the pages of Nomad #4...
We're getting a bit image heavy here, so I'm splitting it into a second page. Go to the next page to see where yellow was locked in as THE border for Deadpool, as well as the debut of the full yellow word balloons for the Merc with the Mouth!
X-Force #10 had yellow-bordered dialogue...
And since it continued into X-Force #11...
and X-Force #14...
I think we can basically say that it was now his standard.
After two mini-series (which had yellow borders throughout), Deadpool took a bit of a break from the spotlight during 1995 and 1996.
He popped up again in X-Force #46 (one of only TWO appearances he made in 1995), still with the yellow borders...
His last appearance before his own ongoing series was in X-Force #56...
And that led into Deadpool #1 in late 1996, where we see the first appearance of his yellow word balloons...
If anyone out there is curious about when a particular piece of comic book lore debuted, drop me a line at bcronin@comicbookresources.com and I might give you an answer in a future When We First Met!