He’s back! The regenerative medicine (RM) field’s unofficial mascot – Deadpool – is back in theatres and all over media and social media due to what one must assume is a super(hero)-sized marketing budget.
Although some may disagree on his status as a mascot, you can’t ignore his regenerative abilities. Wade Wilson, aka Deadpool, can heal and regenerate as a result of an experimental cancer treatment that gives him mutant genes. I am fully in the Deadpool mascot camp and I will keep trying to lure people to my side. A rule of thumb is that you have to promote something seven times for people to pay attention and absorb it or, as is traditionally the case, make a purchase. With this post, I’m up to six! Blogger Cal Strode makes a convincing case for the axolotl, but did you even read his blog?
In Deadpool & Wolverine, we get two super-anti heroes with accelerated healing powers and, in Wolverine’s case, delayed aging. Someone call David Sinclair. With an opening weekend box office of $444.1 million, you may have already caught it in theatres, especially if you’re male (63 per cent of the moviegoers).
On the small screen
Another popular superhero show is Supacell on Netflix. With critics giving this show 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, you may want to check in on a bunch of normal people living in South London who suddenly develop superpowers and have to battle an evil enemy. It’s gritty and violent, and I needed to watch with closed captioning to follow the language – although technically it’s English. Early on there are clues that what ties them together is their family history of Sickle Cell disease. Despite the name of the show and the Sickle Cell disease angle, which had me watching to the end of the season so I could write this blog, we don’t learn much about mutant cells. Oh well, there is always season 2.
Over on Prime, you can watch The Boys and its spin-off Gen V but not with young kids! The “supes” in The Boys get their super strength by being injected with Compound V and the characters in Gen V were drugged with it as babies. “It is a blue serum that can give both humans and animals extraordinary abilities. Nazi scientist Frederick Vought created it during WWII to turn adult soldiers into supes (Yahoo Entertainment).” This show is not for everyone.
From fictional characters to real life
The excellent documentary Of Medicine and Miracles is now streaming on YouTube and Google Play Movies. The film follows the work of Dr. Carl June as he tries to find a cure for cancer. First to help his wife who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and then to save the life of five-year-old leukemia patient Emily Whitehead.
At CCRM we brought the film to Toronto for a private viewing for employees. Tom Whitehead, Emily’s father, was there in person to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards. This was my second time watching the film and it was just as inspiring and moving for me as the first time I watched it at Advanced Therapies Week in 2023. If you haven’t yet watched it, you need to.
Much has been written about Dr. Paolo Macchiarini and I’ve blogged about the show “True Lies” that aired in 2021. Now he’s the subject of a Netflix documentary series called Bad Surgeon: Love Under the Knife. Although Dr. Macchiarini was once revered for his ground-breaking work on synthetic organ transplants, The Guardian labels him a con man after he is found to be a fraud. As it turns out, he is equally fraudulent in his personal life. If you don’t yet know the sordid details, it makes for good television.
Also for consideration:
King of Clones, on Netflix, is a documentary about Hwang Woo-suk’s research on human cloning and his fall from grace. Trailer here.
My recommendation is to watch, or even re-watch, Of Medicine and Miracles – trailer below. What recommendations can you add below?
For fun, please vote in the Deadpool vs axolotl debate. Put your vote in the comments.
Stacey Johnson
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Though the case for Deadpool is compelling, my vote goes to the Axolotl.
I detect a certain bias.