The original Deadpool wasn’t used as a gateway for bringing in legacy characters, and it wasn’t seen as a fan-serving project meant to win back public support for the humbled Marvel universe. The stricter parameters of what a film of Deadpool’s scale could achieve made its connections to the broader Marvel universe more effective. Deadpool benefited from being on the edge of the universe, and not just because it could mock it from afar. Deadpool didn’t just benefit from the vulnerability Reynolds brought to the role, as he also contributed to the film’s cultural language. Compared to the army of variants in Deadpool & Wolverine, the third-act battle of Deadpool, which takes place in a parking lost, feels more than a little modest.