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In the hallowed halls of San Diego Comic Con 2025, you'll likely find a great deal of people who know when Rob Liefeld created Deadpool. But how many of them know why he did it? Well, as Liefeld is want to do, he was only happy to dish out the uncensored answer to exactly that question, and as it turns out, that answer has everything to do with his contemporary and Image Comics co-founder Todd McFarlane.

More specifically, it's because Todd McFarlane wasn't making Spider-Man funny enough.

"You've got to go back to 1990," Liefeld begins during his Thursday night spotlight panel, "When Todd took over Spider-Man. Todd loved Frank Miller, as did the entire industry. You look at his Spider-Man, the evidence is there. He made Spider-Man much darker. He wanted shadows, he wanted nights, he wanted fangs, blood; Mary Jane and he were having marital problems. Show me one of Todd's books, as exciting as they were, that was funny... I'll be here the rest of my life. Todd's Spider-Man wasn't funny anymore."

"The Spider-Man I grew up with in the 1970s," the Youngblood creator continues, "He's jumping over cars, beating up bad guys, webbing their mouths, sticking them to the walls. He's having fun, and he's really funny. I thought that that had been lost, that funny part."

As a result, Liefeld decided to create a new character to make him laugh for the book he was currently drawing, the New Mutants. And right from the beginning, that character came with one requirement.

"I told Marvel I need one thing," Liefeld said, "He's tied to Wolverine. Wolverine is my favorite character; he'll come from the Weapon X program. I said to Marvel, you've established Weapon X, have you established Weapon 1 through 9? And the editor said, 'We have not.' I said, 'He's weapon 9.' He's before they perfected the process. And I said, he's an absolute asshole.

"He cracks jokes and he's an asshole; he's the R-rated version of Spider-Man. He's my own Spider-Man. And [Marvel was] like, whatever you want, Rob."

30+ years later "whatever you want, Rob," is a billion-dollar character and official member of the MCU. And to think it might never have happened had Todd McFarlane given him a couple more one-liners.  

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.