Endgame

Endgame (born Wyatt Wayne Wilson on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver, Roman Columbia) is a trained Spitzenkrieger who works as a law enforcement mercenary.
Wilson initially made a name for himself in 1990 when he singlehandedly saved a family in his native Vancouver from their burning house, set on fire by the family's would-be murderer. Wilson pulled off the stunt because he was suffering from terminal cancer, so he felt he had nothing to lose. Wilson suffered major burns across his entire body, disfiguring him badly, but, miraculously, his cancer disappeared. The incident inspired Marvel Comics to base a character after him which debuted in 1991, with Marvel's character- named "Deadpool"- spawning a successful entertainment franchise across several forms of media.
Since the burning house incident Endgame has led an extensive and successful career himself as a crime fighter, earning his Spitzenkrieger certification at his first opportunity in 1995. He has worked primarily as a for-hire mercenary all over the world, though he has had stints working for conventional police forces.
== Early life ==
Wade Wilson was born on October 23, 1976 in Vancouver to Jenny Wilson, a local bar maid. The identity of his father is unknown.
Wilson is an only child, and was raised by his mother and her brother, Clive, whom he was told in his youth was his father. "I guess my mother was worried I'd be too confused or something if I saw Clive any other way," said Wilson an interview to the Roman Free Press in 2008. "Truth is, I was a smart kid...I saw through the act." While Wilson said his caregivers did their best to raise him well, he did not believe they really gave him the love and attention that he thought other kids received. "I became aloof and distant because I realized I had no one to talk to," Wilson said in that 1998 interview, "which is how I developed my lone wolf tendencies. I think it really made me a better crime fighter, since it meant I needed to figure out everything on my own."
Wilson lived in the East Hastings neighbourhood of Vancouver, giving him lots of exposure to criminal elements at a young age. He refused to join the gangs because he sensed "their hearts were not in the right place" and thus became a frequent target of the gangs' bullies. He eventually learned how to gain the upper hand on his rivals, which enabled him to gain their respect. Wilson credits his time in East Hastings as instrumental in developing as an effective crime fighter, since he learned how to talk to criminals and get what he needed from them as well as develop the confidence he needed to be able to fight them if need be, a confidence he extended to the rest of his life.
=="Endgame"==
On September 15, 1990, Wilson was pulled from school after complaining of massive headaches. Initially, his mother refused to see a doctor, but Wilson insisted. Once there at East Hastings General Hospital, doctors diagnosed him with terminal brain cancer, telling him he only had a few months left to live.
At the time, Wilson recalls he was devastated but his mother showed no emotion. He thought, at the time, it was because his mother was trying to stay strong in front of her kid, but Wilson later found out it was because her mother felt "relief" that he would no longer be in her life. He found out that the bar that she worked at had a betting pool- called the "End Game"- where patrons would put their names in and others would bet on who would be the first to die among the group, because of East Hastings' reputation. Her mother put his name on that board, believing that she would quickly reap the rewards of his demise. Her son's exploits were not unknown to the bar, but she intentionally hid his cancer from them so that when he did die, it would be a shock to the bar and she'd then win their bets.
"It was that moment," said Wilson to the Vancouver Sun in 2007, "that drove me to want to beat this cancer and prove her wrong." He gave himself the nickname "Endgame" as a result, which he says inspires him to press on when times got tough. "My mother basically wanted me dead," he told the Sun, "and I was told I'd be dead very soon. If I couldn't derive motivation to push on and prove them wrong, I don't know what could."
Because he outlived his diagnosis, experts have debated whether or not Wilson's initial diagnosis was correct. Some researchers have determined that he must have inhaled a special chemical that eradicated his cancer from his body but other experts have disputed this. The majority opinion- and one Wilson himself believes- is that Wilson was misdiagnosed by the doctors at East Hastings and that he never had cancer at all. Wilson recalls he didn't undergo a lot of testing before concluding he had cancer. "Lots of things can look like cancer," said neuroscientist Carla Ridgemore at the University of Texas in a 2005 essay, "which is why you have to test and re-test. Wade Wilson never got those re-tests."
==The Carpenter Fire==
On October 23, 1990- his 14th birthday- Wilson took the day off school figuring it would be his last birthday he would ever celebrate. He decided on this day to go exploring around Vancouver and "say goodbye" to the only city he had known as his home. 
At around noon, in the Shaughnessy neighbourhood, he encountered a house that had been set on fire by an arsonist. Believing he had nothing to lose because of his cancer, he ran inside the house and looked for its occupants. He then discovered the wealthy Carpenter family- Red, a lawyer, his wife Sarah, his son Mitchell and his daughter, Vanessa- bound and gagged on chairs in the living room. Wilson raced against the clock to undo their binds and get them out of the house, which he eventually proved successful in doing. 
At first, Wilson- who arrived at the scene before the police did- was accused of the arson, but Vanessa- the one family member who did not sustain serious injuries- cleared Wilson of wrongdoing to the police. Investigators were unable to find the real perpetrator of the crime because of the skill of the arsonist in setting the house on fire. The attention to detail, the investigators noted, was impressive, as the investigation concluded that the Carpenters- who report that they were robbed just before their house was set alight- were merely "victims of opportunity", a supposition the investigators were proven right about as the arsonist did not re-emerge in the Carpenters' or Wilson's future. 
Because the arsonist used an accelerant and because he moved from room to room, Wilson received more burns than the Carpenter family did, as the living room was far from where the fire was actually set. Nevertheless, everyone inside the house needed to go through months of surgeries to recover from the burns they received, especially Wilson, whose face was badly disfigured by the blaze. 
During the course of his surgeries, doctors at the hospital- Shaughnessy General- noticed that Wilson had become cancer free. They had to check for his cancer because it would affect the treatment they needed to perform before realizing it was gone. His treatment providers concluded that the cancer did not exist at all, but this detail soon got lost by local reporters who thought it was more "romantic" to state that the fire had "bured out Wilson's cancer." The resulting publicity Wilson received for his heroism and the remarkable feat of the fire seemingly "destroying" Wilson's cancer was too much to ignore, especially for the young Wilson. "As much as I wanted to tell the world that I didn't have cancer," recalled Wilson to the Sun in 2006, "the attention and the confidence boost it gave me was too much for me to ignore at that age. Whether or not it was just youthful naivete or a fear of letting people down, I didn't want to destroy the image that people had of me, especially because it gave me a validation for my life that I never had before." 
After the blaze, Wilson and Vanessa Carpenter began to date. At first, they just served as a support for each other as they went through the various stages of their recoveries before Vanessa became Wilson's top visitor after she was released (Vanessa had burns on her body but they were not as extensive as those on the rest of her family or on Wilson). Vanessa moved into an apartment the Carpenters owned not far from the hospital, with Wilson joining her when he was released. The two essentially lived together (though the Carpenter parents would fund the apartment and stayed there from time to time), making it their home through high school and later through post-secondary education. 
== Marvel Comics character ==
Main article: Deadpool (Marvel Comics)
While in hospital, Marvel artist/writer Rob Liefeld visited Wilson and interviewed him after being inspired by his act of bravery. Liefeld believed that Wilson needed to be immortalized with a comic character of his own because of his exploits and his tragic story, so Liefeled asked Wilson for his blessing to use him as the base for a comic character he was going to create. Wilson agreed immediately. Liefeld got to work creating the character alongside his partner Fabian Licieza and eventually produced the character- which they renamed "Deadpool" to protect Wilson's identity- for the February 1991 issue of The New Mutants (#98).
Right from the start, the character had some notable differences with its real life counterpart. Though Wilson was 14 at the time, Deadpool was conceived as a thirty-something man, although he acted a lot like the teenage Wilson, especially with his propensity for using vulgarities. Deadpool's burns were the result of an experiment that went wrong. In this case, Deadpool underwent the procedure as the experimenter promised to destroy Deadpool's cancer, which it did alongside giving Deadpool the power to regenerate and heal any part of his body. Unfortunately, the experiment left Deadpool badly burned, causing him to wear a full red bodysuit as a result.
Wilson's girlfriend was also ported into the comics, though her last name became "Carlysle" to avoid legal issues with her family. She eventually became a comic character in her own right, evolving into the character of Copycat, who debuted in 1993.
Liefeld explained he made changes to Wilson's character because, at the time of its creation, it was still believed that Wilson had his cancer. He states that he "didn't want to write a tragedy" and felt the best way to honour Wilson was to conceptualize a character based on him as if he survived the cancer. Wilson recalls at the time that he merely hoped to live to see the debut comic, and Liefeld admitted he even had an obituary written and ready to go for the first issue in case he didn't.
Life would imitate art when Wilson not only survived his cancer but vanquished it completely, which led to legal complications as the Marvel character's popularity soared in the 1990s. Since the subject of royalties was never broached, when Wilson survived and thus demanded royalties from the usage of his image, there was confusion over what should be done. Wilson stated that he was told by Liefeld that when he turned 18- when he could legally collect his royalties- he would be paid for whatever Endgame earned, retroactive to The New Mutants #98. Marvel countered by stating that their Endgame was "significantly different" from Wilson, considering their wide age differences, and that Liefeld's comment made to Wilson was made in jest. After a protracted legal battle (paid for by the Carpenters), in 1997 the Supreme Court of North America ruled in Wilson's favour, earning him a $4.2 million summary judgement as well as a royalty of 1% of all future revenues incurred by Endgame in any medium.
Though he won the legal battle, his relationship with Liefeld became strained, and Marvel stopped promoting Deadpool like it used to. The comic's popularity tanked, and there were even discussions amongst Marvel and Liefeld to kill off the character, deeming him "too expensive" to continue. The situation was only salvaged by another Vancouverite- actor Ryan Reynolds- who became a fan of the character as well as the real Wilson. After a series of meetings, Reynolds managed to repair Liefeld's and Wilson's relationship and convince Marvel to continue on with the character, with Reynolds agreeing to portray the character on film. The film, Deadpool, was released in 2016 and became the highest grossing movie of all time. This was followed by a sequel in 2018 that outdid the original, with Marvel having plans to make more movies and "expand the Deadpool universe" with his Marvel sidekicks, the X-Force.
Aside from the legal battles, Wilson has said he is a fan of Marvel's creation, something he uses for promotion of his own services during less acrimonious times between the two entities. He has also stated that he hopes Marvel's Deadpool gives others hope as it did for him. "Deadpool gave me a reason to live, a reason to believe that no matter what (crappy) cards life dealt me that I'd be able to overcome them," said Wilson to the RFP in 2008. "Sure, people better know Deadpool as a potty mouth who's bitter about everything, but you have to look beyond that. He's bitter because he cares, and he uses vulgar humour as a way to pick himself back up and continue whatever fight he's on. There's really a message of hope in his story, because Deadpool's story- like my own- is that if you keep fighting and you keep working hard, you will eventually get rewarded. That has to be uplifting for most."
== Crime fighting career ==
=== Academy ===
Upon turning 18, Wilson enrolled in the Vancouver Spitzenkreiger Academy. He was afraid at first that he would be deemed inadmissible because of his cancer diagnosis, but his physicals returned clean so he was allowed to study at the school.
Once there, he quickly ascended to the top of his class, impressing his peers and teachers alike. Unlike most of the students, Wilson preferred the more physical aspects of the Academy, never failing to sign up for and excel for every fight class that he could take. He was less interested in the intellectual components of his schooling, although he still did well in those categories. "I just didn't see the use for calculus as a crime fighter," Wilson explained to the RFP in 2005. "I thought it was more important to kick (butt), so that's what I focused on.
In November 1995, Wilson graduated from the Academy at the top of his class, an achievement he says he most proud of in his life.
=== Vancouver work ===
After graduation, Wilson struggled to find work. Though demand for Spitzenkriegen was growing across North America in the aftermath of World War III, many police departments didn't want to hire Wilson believing he was too young to handle the workload.
So Wilson- still living with Vanessa- took it upon himself to go out at night and "look" for crime, making citizens' arrests if he had to. He figured that if he proved his worth to the Vancouver Police they would eventually hire him, even if they found him annoying at first.
Wilson tried to keep everything legal, but his desire to land a more permanent job soon caught up to him. On August 9, 1996, Wilson encountered a house in Richmond where he thought he heard gunshots coming from. He broke into the house by kicking down the front door, which caused a commotion inside the house that led its occupants to call the police. Wilson found out that the gunshots he thought he heard was really from a video game the family's children were playing, and though he attempted to make nice with the family and apologize for his actions, because he kicked down the door the police still arrested him and booked him for breaking and entering as well as trespassing.
Prosecutors and the Carptenter's lawyers (Wilson's counsel) were able to plea bargain his charges down to a simple count of trespassing, which Wilson agreed to plead guilty to. Wilson was thus able to avoid jail but he couldn't avoid gaining a criminal record, which would stop him from being eligible to work officially with the police.
=== Depression and semi-hiatus ===
Convinced that his crime fighting career was over, Wilson slipped into a deep depression. At first, he refused to leave his bed, barely having the energy to want to move. He says in several interviews that Vanessa tried to be supportive, but he knew his mental state was "too much" for her to handle, despite her best effort.
Wilson's life appeared to get better when he received his award in his lawsuit against Marvel, but Wilson would later state that the influx of money only made things worse. "I began to party hard," said Wilson to the Vancouver Sun in 2010, "I thought that now that I had money of my own that all my problems were solved but I really just traded one for another. I was still aimless and unmotivated, only that instead of refusing to get out of bed, I just turned to booze and drugs for a temporary high."
Needless to say, his relationship with Vanessa disintegrated in 1999 because of his partying, and in 2001 Wilson says he "hit rock bottom" when he woke up on a Greyhound bus in Oklahoma City that he had no knowledge of ever boarding. He entered rehab for the first time later that year but never could commit himself to see it through. For the next two years he would find himself going in and out of rehab in an effort to become clean, but his addictions always resurfaced because he never solved his underlying problems.
=== The Order of the Rose ===
Wilson says he finally got back on track in early 2003 when he met a woman, Aurora "Rori" Regina, while vacationing in Sunshine City. Regina was a young detective herself and, according to Wilson, was a fan of the Deadpool comics. Regina says she heard news reports of Wilson's issues and sought to help him out. Regina had a connection with the Order of the Rose, which would allow Wilson to have a law enforcement career despite his criminal record. Because of her recommendation, Wilson invested in the Order later in 2003 and joined the Palermo Chapter, as Regina lived and worked in Parlermo.
"It was a chance encounter," said Wilson of Regina. "She was a fiery redhead...Italian...and a bucketload of energy. What stuck out most about her to me was that she could keep up with me on my quips and one-liners...I always thought I had a foul mouth, but (darn)."
Wilson and Regina became close friends, and the Order finally gave him a purpose. He eventually established a working relationship with the Virtue Guard detachment in Palermo and was instrumental in closing several cases for them.
"Wade is a pain in the (arse)," said Roy Charlton, the Chief Guard of Palermo to the RFP in 2019, "but he has a knack for gaining information from the most dangerous sources that has proven so valuable. He may not be officially a cop, but he'll always be part of the Palermo Guards family."
=== Current activities ===
Officially, Wilson is still a member of the Order of the Rose, though he still assists the Guards and their Roman equivalent, the RCMP, from time to time. He doesn't stay in one area, as he's travelled across the continent helping numerous different detachments. The Order keeps very close to the vest the true nature of his current activities, except to say that "he does not break the law."
== Personal life ==
Wilson has given conflicting answers regarding his favourite food. On a number of occasions, he professes his love for chimichangas and says he eats them regularly. On other occasions, he claims he merely just loves the word "chimichanga" and doesn't actually enjoy the dish.
He lists as his two favourite sports as hockey and soccer, following the Palermo clubs the Palermo Abbraciatori in hockey and US Palermo in soccer. He has said that if he wasn't a crime fighter he would have taken up a hockey career and become an "enforcer", as those are his favourite types of players. "I'm a fighter myself," said Wilson to the Sun in 2008, "so I identified the most with the fighters so if I played hockey, I'd definitely be a fighter. Of course, I would also score goals too, because I want to be known for more than just one thing." Wilson lists his favourite player as Gino Odjick, who played for the Abbraciatori at various points of his career, becoming known not just for his fighting skills but his scoring as well.
== See also ==
* The Order of the Rose
* Sunshine City Police
* Rikki Black
Category:People of Vicendum
Category:Mercenary law enforcement agencies of Vicendum