Even after 25 years, comic-book artist Rob Liefeld still can’t home in on a single reason exactly why Deadpool, Marvel's resident "Merc with a Mouth" and Hollywood’s spankin’-new movie star, is so popular among fans.<br />Instead, there are quite a few.<br />He has a neato red-and-black outfit.<br />He breaks the fourth wall regularly.<br />He does serious damage with guns and katana swords.<br />He lives for chimichangas and Bea Arthur.<br />And he’s a total wisenheimer.<br />The antihero doesn’t have the mainstream recognition of Captain America or Batman, but that could change with Deadpool (in theaters Friday), directed by Tim Miller.<br />The R-rated action comedy stars Ryan Reynolds as Wade Wilson, who turns to some shady figures to cure his cancer and ends up a wisecracking disfigured warrior with an obscenely good healing factor.<br />So Deadpool isn't exactly a patriotic super-soldier like Cap or a muscular thunder god like Thor.
