THE VILE TAPEWORM

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Unrevealed

Occupation: Adventurer

Group Membership: None;
    briefly the Grandmaster's Contest of Champions bonus team (Frog-Man/Eugene Patilio, Rocket Racer/Robert Farrell, She-Man-Thing)

Affiliations: Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Death, Doop, Frog-Man (Eugene Patilio), Grandmaster (En Dwi Gast), Howard the Duck, the Pink Sphinx, Rocket Racer (Robert Farrell), She-Man-Thing;
    possibly also Captain America (Steve Rogers), Colossus (Piotr Rasputin), Defensor (Gabriel Carlos Dantes Sepulveda), Devil-Slayer (Eric Payne), Hulk (Bruce Banner), Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Medusa (Medusalith Amaquelin), Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff), Shamrock (Molly Fitzgerald), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Sprite (Kitty Pryde), Storm (Ororo Munroe), Thing (Ben Grimm), Vision, Wolverine (James Howlett) and various other unidentified heroes in the crowd at the Contest of Champions

Enemies: None (see comments)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed 

First Appearance: Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars#1 (July, 2015)

Powers/Abilities: The Vile Tapeworm had a tall and lanky humanoid form but his exact nature is unrevealed. He could project some manner of bile or digestive juices from his mouth and did so in combat. He also had two antennae, the function of which is unrevealed, if any.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'4")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 180 lbs.)
Eyes: Black (no visible irises)
Hair: None

History:
(Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars#1/2) - When the cosmic entities the Grandmaster and Death summoned all the superheroes on Earth for a contest, the Vile Tapeworm was among them. The powerful beings each chose champions to serve them in their contest but Deadpool was offended for not being picked so he argued with them until they agreed to have a bonus round where some "B-listers" would get a chance to compete for a hidden prize.
   
    The Vile Tapeworm was chosen to be on Grandmaster's team, alongside the Rocket Racer, Frog-Man and She-Man-Thing, against a group playing for Death consisting of Deadpool, Howard the Duck, the Pink Sphinx and Doop. The groups were teleported to East St. Louis for the match and the Vile Tapeworm wound up fighting Howard the Duck while Frog-Man fought Doop and the others went off in search of the prize that determined the winner. In the end, the Vile Tapeworm's team lost.

Comments: Created by Cullen Bunn and Jacopo Camagni.

    We're not given a very big glimpse of the Vile Tapeworm's personality but given that he apparently calls himself "the Vile Tapeworm" even though he's ostensibly a superhero, it'd be interesting to learn what his deal is. His origin is also completely unrevealed so we can't even be sure if he's human.

    I've listed the competitors in the contest as "Affiliations" rather than "Enemies" because it was just a game.

    The canonicity of this story is suspect, as it is a Deadpool story intended to parody old stories. So, for now at least, this character's actual existence in the Marvel Universe is suspect. It's unlikely anyone would care enough to clear it up one way or the other.
It's also possible (even likely) that the entire story was a delusion the not-quite-100%-sane Deadpool was having, much like the main story in the Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars mini-series in which Deadpool participates in the original 1984 Secret Wars, only to have his presence there forgotten. While that story could very well fit into Earth-616 continuity, it was later deemed as nothing more than a delusion Deadpool-616 was having. Given that several of the characters here are seen in their modern costumes, I could see the whole thing being a Deadpool delusion. Of course, in an infinite Omniverse, those events still occurred on some alternate reality out there...--Proto-Man

    For more discussion as to whether or not the Pink Sphinx and the backup story in Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars#1 is canon on Earth-616, check out the Book of PDR's web article about the story at http://www.bookofpdr.com/2023/09/07/was-rocket-racer-in-the-contest-of-champions/.

Profile by Patrick D Ryall.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Vile Tapeworm should be distinguished from:

• The Painter of 1000 Perils (Wilhelm Van Vile) - Human Torch/Spider-Man foe--Strange Tales I#108
• Vermin the Vile - Planet Terry foe--Planet Terry I#2
• any other characters who are "vile"
  

Appearances:
Deadpool's Secret Secret Wars#1/2 (July, 2015) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Jacopo Camagni (artist), Jordan D. White (editor)

First posted: 09/15/2023
Last updated: 09/15/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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