Deadpool may be the biggest success story of 2016. The Merc with a Mouth had a tricky journey to the big screen with his own solo movie. Since his disasterous appearance in 2009’s X Men Origins: Wolverine, where he was played by Ryan Reynolds who has been guarding this character with his life since then, a Deadpool movie seemed like a no-brainer. His Meta structure, and fourth wall breaking, in the comics lent itself to the medium of cinema, and promised a unique take on the superhero movie.

Deadpool delivers all that was promised, Ryan Reynolds finally gets to play the proper version of the character, it has a rating that fits its ultra-violence and potty mouthed humour, and delivers a fresh take on the genre, whilst poking fun at it.

Ryan Reynolds is Wade Wilson, a mercenary with a heart (well, almost), who agrees to a series of crazy experiments, run by the suitably smarmy English villain Ajax (Ed Skrein) in order to cure his terminal cancer and return to his girlfriend, played by Homeland star Morena Baccarin, who does a lot with the thankless role of hero love interest. Instead of being cured, the experiments unlock Wade’s hidden mutant abilities, while also disfiguring him from head to toe. Taking his new situation with good humour, and violent insanity, Wilson vows revenge on Ajax and become the titular Deadpool.

Like the character himself, the film is a strange hybrid of other films in other genres. You have the typical superhero origin story, which it gleefully makes fun of, the meta commentary (highlights include Wade disparaging Reynolds acting talent, which timeline of X Men he’s going to meet, and that Colossus, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead are the only X Men the film could afford. It does for the superhero movie what Scream did for the Horror genre, showing you the rules and devices used to tell this kind of story while still being a great example of it.

The movie it most resembles though is Birdman. Ryan Reynolds is in a similar situation to Michael Keaton: he’s remembered fondly for playing a particularly popular hero (let’s just forget about Green Lantern), while his career came to a standstill afterwards. Reynolds is, deservedly a bona fide star again thanks to his perfect realisation of Deadpool, just like Keaton in Birdman. He has revitalised his career, and Deadpool has revitalised the market for R rated comic book movies.

Deadpool is a blast, and with the so-so reception of X Men Apocalypse, and the DC debacle, the best comic book movie of the year.