[Boy Blunder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

You know, I never understood the love for Grifter in the 90s. He was just Image's version of Deadpool, who was already a rip off of Deathstroke.

My favorites in WildCATS were Voodoo and Warblade.

Likewise, they were above Grifter for me. But, to be fair, Grifter wasn't really based on Deadpool, except maybe the mask. The two didn't really share any personality or backstory similarities (other than being involved in clandestine government organizations), and snarking gunmen were a dime-a-dozen back then. Personally, I just dug Grifter's visual design.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trebleshot

At least with Deadpool, he was a bit of an in-joke when he was created. Aside from his abilities and character, his name and alias are both puns on Deathstroke:

Deathstroke = Slade Wilson
Deadpool = Wade Wilson
Death = Dead
Stroke = Pool (stroke being a movement you would do in a pool. Wade also references pool as another movement you would do in it).

While the Wade - Slade thing is accurate, I don't know if the comparison between their codenames is. Mostly because a dead pool is an actual thing (a gambling scenario where bets are made on which one of a given group of people is going to die first/last), which was used in Wade's backstory as the inspiration for taking his name.

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Originally Posted by CMIII

If you look at all the heroes and Villains that appeared in the 90's both DC and Marvel were chasing Image. I hate to admit it but Jim Lee became the man for a while. This is the Era of Lobo, Grifter, Azreal, Wolverine, Deadpool, Spawn, Shadow Hawk, and Punisher as well as Marvels 2099 lines. As it sits we are in the worst comic book time Print Media is dying thanks to computers, Ipads, Kindles, and other Ereaders. Who wants to read a comic book anyway when the same characters are in Movies every 3 months

Um, there's a ton of comics not involving characters showcased in feature films these days, and even then, there's a world of difference between the stories told in each medium. Even with "accepted backstory" in the films, there's a difference between, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which builds off of five years worth of movies) versus Marvel Comics (which comes with over 50 years of stories, characters, and canon).

I believe the worst time for comic books was following the Late 80s/Early 90s collector boom, when fans were turned off from the market saturation of gimmicks (variant issues, massive crossover events, lenticular foil-embossed holographic pop-up blacklight sauteed scratch-and-sniff die-cut wet-nap covers, etc etc). Keep in mind, that's also when things like the Marvel Bankruptcy took place.

We're in a better place, both in terms of the medium, and in terms of storytelling. As a print medium, comic sales might be down, but the industry as a whole isn't suffering as much as you may think. The New 52 may be a big bucket of suck for the most part, but it still got people interested in comics again, and there have been some good stories to come out of it.