My favourite comic just got ruined by ableism and Disney

And it targets my favourite character—and I’m pissed.

So below, you will see what I’m trying to craft into a letter to the writer of this clusterfuck. Because I’m lazy and wanna bite this person’s head off as well as not fall behind on my monthly writing.

Spider-Man/Deadpool #9

To all parties concerned,

I do not expect to be original in my frustration. I can’t be the first person to have had something to say about this. But I take it upon myself to reach out, in case I am the only one, by some miracle. In the following paragraphs, I will try to break down how and why this e-mail came into existence.

First off, I understand it is not much appreciated that we get our comics online for free when they are available to buy. Things to consider:

• I live in Eastern Europe. We don’t have them here, except in forms horribly mutilated by clumsy translations done by people who do not understand the importance of resonating with a character before you try to put words in their mouth.
• I don’t own a credit card for online shopping.

However, I do buy mine whenever possible. Art takes ages to make and seconds to consume and I get that.

What took ages to make and I refuse to consume is the ninth issue of the comic in the title of this e-mail. I understand the irony created by me having read it before I started writing this.

I could be wrong on this, but I understand Disney bought Marvel. However, I was not expecting to see Beauty and the Beast bullshit about how “You’re ugly ’cause you’re a bad guy and you’ll be made pretty again by the validation of some at-least-partially exterior source at one point in the future” quite so soon.

Let me explain.

Interpretation A: Your face is ugly as fuck because you’re bad.

Interpretation B: Your face is ugly as fuck because you hate yourself.

Can we agree that, fictional setting or not, this is very damaging to the very non-fictional readers who have issues with their appearances for whatever reason, and who are reading this because Deadpool helps them cope? It either turns someone in your fanbase into a villain to themselves, or leaves them powerless, because if you hate yourself, you’re screwed.

Now, I love Spidey. I do. Especially since in a previous issue, there was this beautiful line about how Peter could’ve been like Deadpool in a slightly different world. And I want to let this slide because he was out of character for the whole of 22 pages, so maybe there’s a huge plot device hidden in there that I don’t expect you to reveal to me. Very well.

HOWEVER.

I refuse to get into how Spidey basically says he’s half the reason any of this is happening. I also don’t want to get caught up in how upset I am over how shallow Shiklah seems right now, since I’m afraid that the justification will have something to do with her being a succubus, implying that all sexual people are nothing but that. It would, on top of that, be painting Wade as an absolute idiot for having been so happy about this marriage in the first place (albeit in a different comic series), because guess what, she didn’t actually love him for anything but the sex, the murder, and the burnt pancake mug.

I want to talk to you about Wade’s reaction, if anyone’s even still reading.

Wade Wilson needs validation, that I agree with, but in previous issues we have seen him attempting to argue at least to an extent (stating that him wanting to be a super-hero and him wanting people to like him are actually the same thing and calling Spider-Man naive).

This is also the man that moralizing speeches are known not to work on, and yes, my most recent proof of that being the movie, I know that the cinematic universe and the comics don’t always line up and aren’t made by the same people, but you can see how that’s character-relevant.

And yet, he has no negative reaction to this whatsoever.

It would be believable that he goes along for the sake of his and Spider-Man’s current friendship, but if not the “What the fuck is this? Don’t call me, I won’t call you” reaction I was hoping for, then at least some degree of questioning should have been shown.

Or else, you are just telling your fanbase that if they really, really deserve it, their insecurities and disabilities and illnesses (no trace of White and Yellow in this comic) will magically disappear. And no, we do not expect actual magic, but that is a toxic message to send and makes it that much harder for us to accept ourselves because it is plastered on the walls of places where we go to heal. Kind of like someone leaving post-it notes on your rocking chair in the garden that say “Lol you suck” in very tiny writing. Except this would be happening in a world where those post-it notes are also everywhere else along with banners that say “Remember: You do not, in fact, exist.”

Now this, this is the worst bit.

“I have to say thanks. I’ve never felt so good in my life. You did that for me.”

I wanted to believe you were just terrible at preaching self-acceptance, but now you’re telling us it has to be kick-started by something from outside ourselves. And that just doesn’t work. And yes, Peter does say “I didn’t do much, you just realised you were a good guy.” But in the previous panel, he states Wade did not deserve the chance he got, even with Spider-Man’s famous “Don’t kill them, they might change” policy and the many times we’ve seen him risking something just to put a little faith in people who, in my opinion, had not even had the chance to put half as much effort as Wade has into changing, so … he wasn’t a good guy?

To sum up:

You took a disfigured, mentally ill and morally ambiguous character that, with those three traits, automatically created a safe space for so many people (thank god there’s a chance that the pansexuality aspect is coming out of this unscathed), made him all sane and pretty, slapped some Disney icing on the cake, and wiped that safe space off the face of the Earth and made us not even want to gaze upon its ruins, because your bottom line was …

That beauty is the reward you get for being good?

That ugliness is your punishment for not being good?

That self-acceptance is something you can give yourself, but not really?

That your wife is not meant to love you if you change because she’s a shallow plot device?

That … that …

What were you even trying to say?!