Thanks to the success of his movie last year, Deadpool is more popular now than ever before. For fans who didn’t already know, the wise-cracking mercenary showed he could tickle some funny bones, and just flat out break some bones as well. And in true Deadpool fashion, his movie featured him teaming up with some of the X-Men to complete his adventure. Now, as we gear up for the sequel, now we’re left wondering not only what heroes could he fight alongside, but fight against.
Deadpool has had a lot of rivalries with other heroes over the years, particularly Wolverine and Spider-Man. You might not think he’s the most powerful guy around, but he’s certainly durable, something that has allowed him to come out on top on more than a few occasions. In case you’re not up on his many conflicts with the good guys, here are 15 Superheroes Deadpool Has Beaten.
15. THE FANTASTIC FOUR
Most superhero fights aren’t decisive, and it’s extremely rare for them to end with one of the characters dying. In a storyline that saw Deadpool seeking to up the ante on his murderous ways, we were given a non-canon comic where Deadpool killed not just one hero, but went after all the big names. Obviously the comic was just for fun and Deadpool would likely never fare as well as he did in a serious storyline, but it did provide an interesting look at how he’d go about finishing off Marvel’s heroes given the chance.
With the Fantastic Four, we only see the fight midway through. The Thing has already been demolished into a pile of rubble, and Mister Fantastic is dying with his body stretched out into a puddle of skin. Before there’s even a chance to wonder how the Fantastic Four could have been beaten, we see Deadpool finishing off Johnny Storm by slitting his throat. The Invisible Woman is the last one standing, and seems to put a stop to the bloodshed when she uses her powers to cause Deadpool’s head to burst. But Deadpool’s healing is so strong, he regenerates even from this and stabs Sue through the back to finish off the Fantastic Four.
14. SPIDER-MAN
Deadpool’s killing spree across the Marvel universe first started getting serious with this encounter. Deadpool had killed a few characters already, but this was Spider-Man, the poster boy for Marvel. Spidey and Deadpool have had so many crossovers where they have teamed up for fun times, so surely if anyone could talk some sense into Wade (as much of an oxymoron as that might sound), it would be Peter Parker.
The two heroes scuffle, but Spidey was more interested in getting his occasional friend to snap out of it than finishing him off. Unfortunately, Deadpool was already beyond help at this point, so as Spider-Man went on sarcastically asking if Wade was going to gut him with a sword, Deadpool hatched another plan. He promised he wouldn’t gut Peter, then pulled out his gun and shot Spidey point blank in the head, leaving Marvel’s most iconic hero dead in the streets.
13. STEVE ROGERS
This wasn’t the genuine Captain America, but rather a clone posing as the real deal. Still, he had the same appearance as the original, and since he was a clone, that presumably meant he had the same abilities as well. So even though this is just a copy of a superhero, it’s still pretty impressive that Deadpool was able to come out on top in this bloody fight with Steve Rogers.
The two fought in a fair bout at first, going one on one and snapping each other’s arms, trading head-butts, and letting the blood flow. The fight was broken up when Deadpool was on top, but there was no ambiguity about who won thanks to Deadpool finishing the job later. This Captain America clone didn’t have long to live, and soon left the Marvel universe with just the original after he was killed by a rifle shot from Deadpool.
12. BLACK WIDOW
Sometimes victory doesn’t come with violence, but with words. If you can resolve a conflict without anyone having to die, that’s certainly an admirable skill, and in this case it saved Deadpool’s life. He was being pursued by the Thunderbolts, which at the time counted Black Widow as a member. Deadpool wasn’t having much luck making friends with the male group members, but during a one-on-one encounter with Black Widow, Wade’s tactics changed once she unmasked and he realized he was fighting a woman. Suddenly Deadpool lost all interest in fighting, and his new battle was to get her to fall in love with him.
Utilizing an array of sexual innuendo, surprise kisses, and even love messages spelled out in the sky, Deadpool tried to win over Black Widow. Maybe the rest of the Thunderbolts were jealous, because the appropriately named Headsman soon lopped off Deadpool’s head and seemed to put an end to the battle.
But Deadpool had been playing the long game, and was revived when Black Widow sewed his head back on. All is fair in love and war, and Deadpool may have lost the war, but he did win Black Widow’s heart, causing her to concede fighting against him.
11. DOCTOR STRANGE
Of all the encounters Deadpool had while killing off the Marvel universe, this one was the most disappointing. The battle he could have had against Doctor Strange would have been some great action for readers, but unfortunately all we’re left to see is the aftermath. Seeing that Doctor Strange wound up dead, there is no question as to who won. But this was like hearing about the final score in a sports game instead of seeing what plays led to the win.
Regardless, Deadpool got a bit creative in the killing here and played up the Sorcerer Supreme’s magical side. He arranged Strange’s body and room in a ritualistic manner, leaving him spread out in a star shape on a table. Wade even killed off Strange’s assistant Wong in the process.
All in all, this was one of the more tame deaths at Deadpool’s hands. Strange died with just a dagger through his chest, while later characters would have far more gruesome fates to look forward to.
10. WOLVERINE
Wolverine is the guy everyone thinks of first when healing factors are brought up, but that ability has become less unique as the years have gone on. Daken and X-23 have both used it, but Deadpool arguably has the most powerful variant of the power of all.
As tough as Wolverine is, a lot of his fights are won by simply relying on his ability to sustain more damage than an opponent. Which makes Deadpool a really tough opponent for Logan to deal with, since that tactic doesn’t work on him.
Wolverine and Deadpool have fought numerous times over the years, and Wolverine has fared surprisingly poorly. In fact, Deadpool has beaten Logan on at least three separate occasions. One such battle actually gave Logan a taste of his own medicine, as Deadpool had his healing factor while Logan’s was still weakened due to recently enduring Magneto ripping the adamantium out of his body. Deadpool weathered Wolverine’s onslaught with lots of jokes, then left Logan beaten after impaling him through the heart and lungs.
9. UATU THE WATCHER
Uatu is already a character who exists outside the bounds of what the normal Marvel characters know. He observes the history of the Marvel universe, keeping the knowledge of it with him, but rarely ever taking it upon himself to interfere in history. In Deadpool’s non-canon slaughter of the Marvel universe, Uatu is just doing his thing as usual, taking note of Deadpool’s slaughter of the Fantastic Four. But Deadpool also exists outside the bounds of Marvel’s universe, and knows Uatu is observing the scene.
Uatu might be some big cosmic entity in Marvel, but that doesn’t make him prepared for a battle when it comes. Deadpool catches Uatu off guard with a taser, and Uatu is rendered nearly helpless as he wonders how something like this could even happen. Deadpool doesn’t give him much time to wonder, though, and swiftly decapitates one of the biggest forces in the Marvel universe.
8. THE HULK
The Hulk is one of the unlucky characters who actually has two losses to Deadpool, which may be surprising considering how pretty much everyone is outmatched against the Hulk. One incident is another fight courtesy of Deadpool’s killing spree against the Marvel universe, where Deadpool initially gets beaten down, but wins in the long run by finding Bruce Banner later when he’s not large, green, and angry. Wade then finishes Bruce off in his more vulnerable state.
A more canon example was when Deadpool challenged the Hulk to get some of his blood. Wade believed the only way to counteract the gamma radiation affecting him was using Banner’s blood, so he baited the Hulk into a battle. The Hulk jumped up, probably planning to squash Wade when he came down, but while he was in the air, Deadpool positioned a post on the ground so the Hulk wound up impaling himself right on it when he landed. It’s not often you see Deadpool outsmart his opponent.
7. THE AVENGERS
After killing Spider-Man, Deadpool decides to go fry even bigger fish by tackling some of the biggest names, all assembled under one team. He targets the Avengers, consisting at this time of Ant-Man, Thor, Captain America, Ms. Marvel, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, and Luke Cage. Deadpool kills off Ant-Man first, and then takes his shrinking powers to miniaturize a bunch of bombs. What the Avengers don’t realize as they meet to discuss how to deal with Deadpool is the bombs have already been planted.
The Avengers headquarters gets blown up, and the majority of the heroes are killed instantly. Thor and Luke Cage survive the initial attack, but not for long. Cage has an impervious exterior, but his interior isn’t quite so durable. And Deadpool also put mini bombs into the coffee Cage had drank earlier.
As for Thor, Deadpool also has access to Ant-Man’s ability to enlarge things. Even the mighty Thor can’t lift a gigantic Mjolnir, so once the hammer becomes huge, Thor is crushed and the Avengers are defeated.
6. DAREDEVIL
One of Deadpool’s less talked about victories is actually one of the cooler ones he’s had over the years because you made it happen. Or at least you did if you were alive, and able to read and vote when this story was going on. Harkening back to the days when voters got to choose the victors in battles between Marvel and DC, this storyline employed the same concept, except solely with Marvel characters. In a surprising turn, Deadpool got the vote to win over Daredevil in their battle. And bear in mind, this was before Deadpool was the internet’s walking meme machine that he is today.
The whole encounter is actually pretty funny. The fight involves lots of acrobatics between the two combatants, but it soon becomes clear Wade is getting the worse of the fight. That is, until Daredevil senses that Deadpool has a baby in his arms. A misstep sends Deadpool sprawling and the baby goes flying off a rooftop, so Daredevil leaps after it to save the child by taking the brunt of the fall into a dumpster. It’s only after the crash that Daredevil unwraps the bundle to find it’s not a baby at all, but a tiny doll of Deadpool. Before Daredevil can recover from his surprise, the real Deadpool appears behind him with a gun pressed to Daredevil’s skull. And Deadpool says it best: “guess who wins?!”
5. THE X-MEN
Of all the deaths Deadpool dishes out during his killing spree against Marvel, these are probably the worst of the bunch. Wade has a lot of history with the X-Men, counting Wolverine as an off-and-on friend, and even forming temporary alliances with them on teams like the X-Force.
Deadpool dispatches all of the X-Men ruthlessly, killing the majority by tampering with Cyclops’ laser vision to make him lose control and kill his own allies. Even Professor X is powerless to help, attempting to delve into Deadpool’s mind to put an end to the chaos, but instead being driven to his own death when he sees Deadpool’s truth that they’re all just in a comic book.
Even villains like Magneto don’t escape unscathed, with Eric being left to melt in a pool of acid. The more resistant mutants, like X-23 and Daken, are bound up and incinerated with flamethrowers every time their healing factor starts to kick in, subjecting them to some of the worst fates of the bunch. Almost all the prominent members are taken out, leaving Deadpool running low on opposition at this point in the story.
4. THE PUNISHER
When the heroes start dying from Deadpool’s rampage, word gets around quick what Wade is up to, and other heroes launch their own plans to eliminate Deadpool before it’s too late. Deadpool might be a one-man army, but he’s hardly the only Marvel character to be able to take down swathe of opponents. The Punisher has made a living doing just that, so you’d think he would have been a perfect counter to Deadpool at this time.
The Punisher tracked Deadpool down, came upon him unaware, and shot him with a sniper rifle from afar. Then, when Frank went to investigate his kill, he saw it was actually Puppet Master disguised as Deadpool that he had shot. The real Deadpool emerged, put a gun to Frank’s head, and got the last laugh against the mercenary. Wade Wilson might be off the wall, but he does put together some good plans every now and then.
3. DEADPOOL
There sure are a lot of comic characters who fought alternate versions of themselves. At least in the case of Deadpool it is pretty logical, since he’s self-aware and gets involved all kinds of other reality-altering business. It should be no surprise that Deadpool was forced to team up with versions of himself from other dimensions because they were also being attacked by versions of themselves. Yes, in the appropriately named “Deadpool Kills Deadpool”, Wade Wilson had to team up with himself to stop himself.
Fortunately things are differentiated a bit by the appearances of all the Deadpools, like the pretty self-descriptive Dogpool, Kidpool, and Lady Deadpool. They all consider themselves to simply be Deadpool when in their own universes, and simply go by these new monikers so things don’t get confusing. Regardless, this does mean that we have multiple instances of Deadpool killing Deadpool.
In just the very first issue of the storyline, Leather Deadpool kills off Dogpool, prompting the standard Deadpool to kill Leather Deadpool. Even Wade Wilson isn’t crazy enough to put up with people killing friendly animals.
2. THE TASKMASTER
The end of Deadpool’s crusade against Marvel comes when he encounters Taskmaster. The Taskmaster had just tracked Deadpool down in Man-Thing’s swamp, and the two fought until Taskmaster finally began to fear his opponent’s abilities. Since being scared around Man-Thing tends to make you a bit flammable, Taskmaster is soon ignited and killed by the swamp creature. You could chalk this up as a double-team since Deadpool had the wherewithal to utilize his environment to sway the fight, but Man-Thing finished things off.
The Taskmaster wouldn’t typically be described as a hero; more of a neutral figure in Marvel’s universe, but on this occasion, when the Taskmaster was the last remaining character to oppose Deadpool and prevent Wade from going on a killing spree in our world, it’s pretty hard not to call that heroic. So even if Taskmaster has done villainous acts, he played a hero at the end, even if it cost him his life.
1. DEATHSTROKE
Yes, you’re reading that right. Deadpool actually did have somewhat of a run-in with the guy he’s been parodying all these years. Unfortunately, it wasn’t an official encounter, but more of an Easter egg for readers who were paying attention. Regardless, who Deadpool was fighting is pretty clear when you see it.
We already mentioned the storyline where Deadpool winds up killing other Deadpools, and the insanity only grows as the story progresses. In a fitting crescendo, near the conclusion of all the chaos, the regular Deadpool is taking on numerous other alternate universe versions of himself. And who should show up but DC’s Deathstroke, wearing Deadpool’s color scheme. Obviously this character is never named to avoid copyrights and all those other not so fun legal issues, but it’s clearly meant to be an encounter between Wade and Slade. Sure, it’s not the true crossover that fans have waited so long for, but it’s still a fun little scene where Marvel gets to gloat that their guy got one over on Deathstroke.
What do you think was Deadpool’s best fight? Tell us what you thought, and who you’d like to see him tangle with next in the comments!
