Everyone loves a villain in a movie. Without the villain, the superhero is unlikely to look as amazing and storylines would be limited if the hero did not have a villain to defeat. There has recently been a trend for superhero movies, and each of these has their own villain that moviegoers love to hate. In the case of the 2016 superhero film ‘Deadpool’, the villain featured in the film was a character called Angel Dust. However, this character was not originally a villain in the Marvel comics, so it begs the question of why the film’s producers decided to completely change the persona of this particular character.
Angel Dust is a character that first appeared in the Marvel comics in June 2002 in Morlocks #1. This fictional mutant character was created by writer Geoff Johns along with artist Shawn Martinbrough. This character is a teenage mutant who runs away from home, much to the distress of her parents, and joins the Chicago branch of the Morlocks.
She swears to help the Morlocks solve one issue above ground before returning home to her parents to tell them the truth. She is fearful that they will reject her when they learn she is a mutant. However, she is surprised when they are so understanding and accept her for who she is. She then defeats a Sentinel base before deciding to return home for good.
Angel Dust has a range of special powers in the comics. These include an increase in her levels of adrenaline that allow her to gain superhuman strength for short periods of time and this means she can lift immensely heavy objects. Other skills that are enhanced when she has these short bursts of power include her agility, her speed, and her stamina. Unfortunately, the 2005 ‘Decimation’ storyline revealed that she had lost her superpowers.
The character seen by moviegoers in the 2016 film ‘Deadpool’ is entirely different to the one presented in the comics. The role is played by actress Gina Carano. She is no longer a teenage mutant superhero; she is now an adult who has acquired her powers in a completely different way than is outlined in the comics. According to the film, Angel Dust has powers as a result of an experimentation by Ajax.
There are also some other differences between Angel Dust in the comics and Angel Dust in the movie. For example, she no longer has only short bursts of power that result from an adrenaline surge. The upper limits of her strength are also higher in the film than they are in the comics.
There are no specific reasons given for why she is such a different character in the movie to the one presented in the comics, so it is probably just down to artistic license. Despite changing Angel dust from a superhero to a villain, the film was a phenomenal success. It grossed $783.1 million at the worldwide box office from a budget of $58 million. It was directed by Tim Miller and starred Ryan Reynolds in the role of Wade Wilson/ Deadpool.
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