Deadpool: the pansexual superhero who has never had a non-heterosexual experience

Movies don’t come any more self-satisfied than Deadpool. From the air of smugness that pervades this Marvel adventure, you would think it was the first picture to break the fourth wall or feature a profane, badly behaved hero. In another sense, though, it has earned the right to be pleased with itself: it does break a small amount of new ground in the area of its hero’s sexual identity. In the comics from which the movie is adapted, Deadpool is pansexual – he makes no distinction between genders or gender identity in his choice of partners. The term “bisexual” would be too narrow for Deadpool, who has flirted with Thor, propositioned Spider-Man and wouldn’t rule out, say, unicorns. A pendulum moves in just two directions; he is more like a sexual swingball.