That is what makes Deadpool more than a gimmick. He is not just Marvel’s “Merc with a Mouth.” He is the man behind the mask who uses humor like armor, chaos like camouflage and madness like a survival strategy. His story may be bloody, bizarre and inappropriate in all kinds of ways, but at the center of it is something very human: a damaged man trying to live with himself.

The hard part is that some doors stay open simply because we are afraid to shut them. We know something has ended, but we keep revisiting it. We know something is hurting us, but we keep making excuses for it. We know a cycle needs to stop, but familiarity keeps pulling us back.

Long before I became a journalist, novelist or creator of S.O.L.A.D.™: Soldiers of Light Against Darkness™, I was a kid absorbing stories and quietly learning what heroes, villains, families, sacrifice, fear, courage, humor and hope could look like.