On
Friday it was revealed that we would be getting an alternate
Madcap headsculpt with the upcoming
6" Marvel Legends Deadpool themed wave 2 X-Men Deadpool figure. This in turn has left many asking who exactly is
Madcap?
Well Madcap is one of those fairly obscure Marvel characters that has actually been around quit a long time, but flown mostly under the radar. He first appeared back in
1985 in issue number 307 of
Captain America. The character was created by
Mark Gruenwald and
Paul Neary, and in large part was a character very much like Deadpool before there was an actual Deadpool.
The story of Madcap's origin is a fairly typical comic book based one. As young man (Madcap's real name remains unknown) was in a bus accident where the vehicle collided with a truck carrying some kind of mysterious liquids created by
AIM called
Compound X07. All of Madcap's friends and family who were on the bus with him were killed, and yet he somehow miraculously survived when the strange AIM chemicals were absorbed into his body. Madcap awoke in a hospital where he was then informed about the deaths of all his friends and family which drove him insane. After attempting suicide he discovered his body had become virtually indestructible which only further drove him into the hands of insanity.
Doing what any insane super powered individual would do, he went out and purchased a rather loud looking clown costume and bubble gun. He then set out on a mission to prove to everyone that life is entirely without reason.
His first super hero encounter was with Nomad, but the Madcap character has clashed with many other heroes over the years including the likes of Daredevil, She-Hulk, Hawkeye, Quasar, Silver Sable, Ghost Rider, The Thing and even Power Pack.
Madcap first encounters Deadpool while working for Silver Sable. The two discover how similar they were to each other and ended up trying to kill one-another.
The two encountered each other again prior to the events of Invasion where both got incinerated from one of Thor's lightning bolts. Deadpool seemed to be the only one who regenerated from that, but it was later discovered that the two were actually merged together. Eventually after having an internal argument, the two decided to tear Deapool's body in half and have the two sides regenerate as both Deadpool and Madcap. This episode drove Madcap even more insane and caused him to become obsessed with Wade.
The two had a number of conflicts following the merged incident, including when Madcap infiltrated Deadpool's group Merc's For Money, wearing a dark purple Deadpool like suit. Eventually Deadpool struck a deal with the cosmic being known as The Collector who ended up capturing Madcap for his museum.
While Deadpool and Madcap have a significant connection to one another, I am not entirely sure why Hasbro choose the Madcap headsculpt to be included with the Deadpool in X-Men outfit, which was featured in Deadpool Vol 2 #17. To my knowledge Madcap had no connection with that suit. It may be Hasbro wasn't willing to do a full on Madcap figure and decided this would make for a cool nod to the character. I applaud the effort and like that they made Madcap's hat removable, but I hope Hasbro does decide to do the character justice sometime down the road and give him his own unique figure featuring Madcap's classic look.
Look for the second wave of Deadpool themed Marvel Legends with the Madcap altenrate head to be released in late July/August.
