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The Ones That Seek to Shut The Merc With A Mouth Up For Good
Deadpool has become one of the most popular superheroes in the world pretty much out of nowhere in the past few years. Because of this, I want to take a look at Deadpools villains, if you could call them that. Deadpool tends to crossover with many other superheroes and doesn’t have a ton of villains to himself. Still, the ones that he does are the same unique brand of crazy that Deadpool himself encapsulates.
I was a fan of Deadpool far before finding out just how crazy of a character he truly is. His costume is awesome but suggests a more serious character than the 4th wall-breaking, completely over-the-top nut job that Deadpool really is. Once I discovered the extra crazy on top of bloodthirsty mercenary, that pretty much sold me, and I’ve been a huge Deadpool fan ever since.
Deadpool having villains is a bit of an oxymoron as he himself has been a villain many times, and the closest he ever gets to being a hero is when he’s toeing the anti-hero, villain line. This is what makes him such a fascinating character, though, as nothing is obvious with him, right down to his motivations.
Quick Run Down
- Comic characters who crossed Deadpool at some point
- Both heroes and villains
- Abilities of each character
- Where they first encountered Deadpool and what the confrontation is like
- Whether or not they were successful in fighting Deadpool
- What their motivations are for fighting Deadpool
Ajax
In the first Deadpool movie, Ajax is the villain who took center stage. In the comics, he fills the same role as the torturer who releases Deadpools latent mutant abilities. Wade grew a particular hatred for him compared to other patients there, though, and it grew into a heated rivalry. Deadpool has fought Ajax several times. One of the fights ended in Deadpool blasting Ajax at point-blank with several guns, seemingly killing him.
Ajax can’t feel pain, though, and was later turned into a cyborg who is hell-bent on getting his revenge on Deadpool. Ajax was the first villain to pop up in the Deadpool movie, and although he seemed to meet a grizzly end there if the comics are any indication, I’m betting he comes back sometime in another installment of the franchise.
Bullseye
Bullseye has traditionally been one of the main opponents of Daredevil in the comics. Still, due to Deadpool doing a whole lot of his killing business in New York, he has encountered Deadpool on a few occasions as well. Recently, Bullseye has been a villain of Deadpool’s lately, as their fights together have usually resulted in Deadpool wiping the floor with them. They also happen to be best friends who try to kill each other, so yes, the story gets even juicier between them. It turns out they have been friends since childhood and burnt down their school together.
They regularly face off against each other, and even when the other’s survival directly opposes a mission either of them is on, they retain their great friendship regardless. In a fight with Deadpool, one of Bulleye’s plans involved him putting Deadpool in a woodchipper, feeding the remains to the piranhas, setting the piranhas on fire, and then snorting the ashes. Thankfully, this plan never came to pass as Bullseye discovered that Deadpool put a hit out on himself and instead recommended he seek professional help. It was a friendship built on attempted murder, and I don’t think Deadpool would want it any other way.
Carnage
Carnage is a common enemy to Spider-Man and Venom. Still, in one wild instance, Deadpool took on the maniac Cletus Kassady in a battle between two ruthless killers with wildly differing ideologies. Their battle is one of the bloodiest you can find, and it’s a rare show of Deadpool explaining his morals to an enemy as he truly detests Carnage’s remorseless rampage. Deadpool has the upper hand throughout much of the fight until Shriek shows up to even the odds.
Killebrew
Deadpool isn’t a natural mutant, and it was Dr. Killebrew who made sure of that. As an experiment, Wade Wilson was exposed to harsh torture and his actual Death before his powers were activated. The result was Deadpool’s healing ability to become activated, healing him of his torture wounds instantly as well as granting him super strength, which allowed him to escape.
Deadpool has encountered Dr. Killebrew many times, each providing him the opportunity to kill him. Each time though, he lets him go. The reason why? I don’t know, but it likely stems from the fact that Dr. Killebrew essentially granted him his superhero lifestyle. After all, Deadpool’s taste for murder would be tougher to pull off if Dr. Killebrew hadn’t turned him into a near-immortal.
Dreadpool
The leader of the Evil Deadpool Corps, Dreadpool, is a terrifying villain in Earth 12101 who, after being haunted by a whisper in his head that tells him the universe is false and a lie, he begins to systematically murder everyone and everything in it. During this insane reign of terror, he kills every single hero and villain in the Marvel Universe. That’s not hyperbole, he literally kills every single one without remorse, and the murders are so brutal that some even jump to their deaths instead of facing Dreadpool. He then leaps to other realities and slaughters characters from famous books like Sherlock Holmes.
Then, when he gets the brilliant idea to kill all versions of himself. All-out chaos unfolds with tons of different Deadpools fighting against each other in a battle for the ages that left almost every Deadpool in existence either dead or MIA. The original Deadpool manages to kill Deadpool once and for all in a one-on-one fight, though, ending the rise of the Dreadpool. I love this iteration of Deadpool as he’s a truly terrifying character that harnesses all of the crazy that Deadpool has always had into the worst way possible, making for a chilling villain that fits Deadpool perfectly.
Evil Deadpool Corps
It wouldn’t be a Deadpool villain without some over-the-top insanity, which comes full force with the Evil Deadpool Corps. During a storyline where Deadpool convinces every Deadpool from different realities to kill every Deadpool in every reality, the full force of craziness comes in the form of a team of many different Deadpools, which includes Deadpool, Deathlokpool, Cesspool, Evil Deadpool, Wolverinepool, Spiralpool, Galactipool, Deadpool the Duck, Deadpool Dinosaur, D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L and yeah, you get the picture. It was complete insanity and resulted in many of the above deaths, as there is truly only one merc with a mouth.
Evil Deadpool
Are you starting to see a pattern here? Deadpool is so dangerous of a character that often, his biggest adversary to himself is…himself. You have an extremely weird and unique version of Deadpool with Evil Deadpool. He was created by Ella Whitby, a psychiatrist who had taken a fascination with the merc with a mouth. As a result, she’d been collecting body parts that Deadpool had lost over the years, and some of those belonged to Deadpool as well.
Deadpool discovered the parts and threw them out, but as they dethawed after being kept in Deadpool’s freezer, they retained their healing ability and combined to create Evil Deadpool, which is a powerful amalgamation that has two lower right arms. Evil Deadpool is extremely similar to Deadpool, except he lacks any sort of moral code. His sole mission is to take Deadpool or Deadpool’s full body for his own, mostly due to the two-right arms thing.
Ella Whitby
Being completely insane, it would make sense that Deadpool would see a psychiatrist at some point during his run. Sure enough, Ella Whitby would be that psychiatrist, and she would become obsessed with Deadpool to the point of insanity. Ella initially broke Deadpool out of confinement in the Cross, more Institution of England. Still, shortly after, she professed her love for him, which Deadpool declined to say back. In her grief, she began to collect Deadpool’s limbs after each fight.
She collected many from both Deadpool and Deadpool, and the two combined to become Evil Deadpool. She intended to make a clone of him that would be hers to love, but the results went horribly wrong. After asking Deadpool to be hers one more time, Deadpool declined and told her that he was in love with the embodiment of Death, who was infatuated with him due to his inability to ever die. Ella’s position in the Deadpool lore is thankless, even though she had a major impact on it.
Headsman
Headsman is usually one an adversary of Spider-Man. Still, in a couple of instances, he has fought with Deadpool, and it has been one of his most challenging fights to date. The Headsman actually took down Deadpool in battle; while fighting him as a member of the Thunderbolts, he landed the killing blow, taking Deadpool’s head clear off. It would’ve successfully killed Deadpool, this time for good, except for Black Widow intervening and ruining the party by attaching Deadpool’s head back on. Deadpool would reattach himself from there and then compare Headsman to The Executioner, a long-gone X-Men villain, only pouring salt in the wounds of Headsman and leading his hate to grow for Deadpool from there.
Hulk
Deadpool is known as one of the most powerful and hardest to kill characters in all of the Marvel Universe, so it makes sense that he would clash with some of the other most powerful that Marvel has to offer. One of those would be The Incredible Hulk. Hulk has, in turn, beaten the holy hell out of Deadpool on more than one occasion, with his incomparable strength being a massive problem for Wade Wilson. In fact, Hulk remains the one Marvel character that Deadpool hasn’t successfully killed. He has, however, killed Bruce Banner.
In Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, Deadpool realizes he couldn’t kill the Hulk, so instead, he waited till the Hulk turned back into Bruce Banner to go to sleep and cut his head off. Wade Wilson is smarter than he looks and also completely insane. This Deadpool, however, ended up being Deadpool, feeling he must kill off the entire Marvel Universe, and shockingly he managed to do it.
The Hulk has always been one of the most indestructible characters in the Marvel universe, so for Deadpool, albeit an alternate version of Deadpool to even pull this off was completely shocking to me and a showing of just how dangerous Deadpool could really be if he wanted to.
Id The Selfish Moon
One of the absolute strongest characters in the Marvel Universe, Id, is a cosmic being that developed consciousness as well as a superintelligence. It is a being of curiosity and destruction, scouring the galaxy for excitement, but was unable to find anything of its interest in the Black Galaxy. Because of this and its experience as a singular entity with no equal, Id began to hate those that could enjoy life.
Of course, this puts him right in the way of Deadpool, who is as fun-loving as a homicidal maniac could possibly be. Deadpool was sent to kill Id, where he eventually succeeded by planting a nuclear fission bomb inside him. I think Id and Deadpool should’ve had more time together as I don’t think anything is crazier than a homicidal maniac mercenary being friends with an equally homicidal moon that’s gained consciousness. Two peas in a pod if ask me.
Madcap
The only thing that can defeat crazy is with crazy. When it comes to Madcap, Deadpool meets his match in his fighting and healing abilities and incomplete insanity. MadCap has the ability to transfer his insanity onto people, making him an incredibly dangerous foe. Mad Cap’s encounters with Deadpool usually involve some funny back and forth about the similarity of each other’s powers and with Deadpool battling with MadCap inside his mind.
Specifically, a situation where MadCap attempted to take over Deadpool’s mind exposed him to paint for the first time, which was something he was not familiar with. It left him shattered because of it. Madcap has been a consistent foil to Deadpool throughout the years and matches him in both powers as well as lack of sanity, making him the perfect counterpart to the merc with a mouth. In terms of villains who should make their way to big screen Deadpool showdowns, I think Madcap is the obvious next choice as he’s a mirror image but so much more dangerous because of his complete disregard for life.
Norman Osborn
Norman Osborn started as strictly a Spider-Man villain. Still, he’s seen his villainy stretch far and wide, taking on many different Superheros in the process. Deadpool has always been a mercenary, worrying less about who he’s working for and more about when he’s going to get paid. In the scenario that pit the two against each other, Deadpool was on a mission to secure valuable Skyrull data to Nick Fury when Osborn intercepted him and tricked him, causing Deadpool to not get paid. Much like most scenarios where someone screws over Deadpool, it put him on a warpath that was only strengthened when Norman Osborn also put out a hit on Deadpool.
Deadpool showed a rare bit of compassion here, offering Norman freedom if he paid 100,000,000 to him. Still, unsurprisingly, Norman did not back down. I know that Norman Osborn is normally a Spider-Man villain and even one of the Avengers. Still, his petty feud with Deadpool is so hilarious that I think think it should be expanded upon, considering the two characters could not be any more opposite. Yet, both manage to sit on similar sides of the Marvel universe.
Tombstone
Tombstone finds himself on the wrong side of a few different villains in the Marvel Universe and is commonly seen on Spidermans Villain list. Despite that, he’s fought with Deadpool on multiple occasions. They both possess superhuman strength, with Tombstone adding the ability of not being able to feel pain alongside it. He also has diamond skin, making it hard to damage him at all. During one of their encounters, Tombstone framed Deadpool as a terrorist.
This all spawned after Tombstone lost a basketball game against Conrad O’Shea. Tombstone presented him with a double or nothing bet that involved Deadpool, and Conrad took it, leading to Tombstone framing Deadpool and then just letting him attempt to survive for 24 hours.
During this period of time, Wade Wilson is hunted by characters such as The Punisher and even Spider-Man. The duo eventually realizes he’s been framed, and then slowly, they learn about Tombstone being behind everything. I don’t think Tombstone is anyone’s main villain. Still, he tends to make a ton of trouble for the characters in the Marvel universe from time to time, and Deadpool manages to be no exception here.
T-Ray
T-Ray takes the cakes as Deadpool’s longest-running villain, appearing in the very first Deadpool comic. Their feud stems over T-Ray’s claim that he is the real Wade Wilson. Their feud has had multiple views to it. Still, T-Ray maintains that Deadpool stole his identity after he killed his wife and assaulted the real Wade Wilson while on the run from people he was working for. In his rage, T-Ray sought out dark sorcery in Japan and sold his soul for the terrifying, muscular form he maintains today.
T-Ray has dedicated his life since to ruining Deadpool’s and even went so far as to resurrect his dead wife just to torture the current owner of the Wade Wilson persona. To make things even more complicated between the two, they currently share a soul, making their struggle against each other both eternal and permanent. T-Ray is a mercenary as well, often taking up the same jobs as Deadpool and running into him on many occasions when they are tasked with the same mission.
I feel for T-Ray, as his side of the story portrays Wade Wilson as a monster who might not even be named Wade Wilson. The truth between these two doesn’t seem to exist, and their rivalry has been a constant since Deadpool’s creation.
The Punisher
When it comes to seriousness in comics, few take themselves more seriously than The Punisher. An often anti-hero, The Punisher has found his crosshairs set on Deadpool on more than one occasion. With Deadpool being the least serious Marvel character imaginable, the two naturally clash constantly throughout their crossover arc together. Both are incredible combatants, and their body count combined rivals that of some of the biggest comic book villains of all time.
Their battles are brutal and bloody, with Deadpool zinging one-liners while Frank Castle tries to do everything in his power to shut up the merc with a mouth once and for all. I think these two are a perfect pair because they’re both morally gray characters, often killing when it’s unneeded just for their love.
Thunderbolts
The Thunderbolts are a group of superheroes that often act as mercenaries and, on one occasion, even involved Deadpool himself. Before that would happen, though, the Thunderbolts would be sent on a hit of their own to kill Deadpool via the request of Norman Osborn. The Thunderbolts were made up of Ghost, Headsman, Paladin, Ant-Man, and Black Widow, making them quite the collection of a gray area heroes.
The group actually seemed to have killed Deadpool, managing to decapitate him. Still, Black Widow, without the group knowing, sewed Deadpool’s head back on after realizing she was in love with him. From there, Deadpool’s healing factor took over. Eventually, Deadpool was back to himself, this time with a would-be lover. However, the romance wouldn’t ever come to fruition despite a kiss shared between the two.
Tiger Shark
Tiger Shark is a literal human shark hybrid and having that assumed advantage over Deadpool and many other mutants, such as his long-time nemesis, Namor; he is one of the few Deadpool villains that Deadpool is actually terrified of. During their fight, the vicious nature of Tiger Shark managed to shake a man who has had his own head sawed off and turned to liquid before, so yeah, safe to say we’ve found out that Deadpool is afraid of sharks. It turned out that Norman Osborn sent Tiger Shark to kill him as well, adding to the lengthy list of people that he sent to take out the merc with a mouth.
Taskmaster
Taskmaster is a mysterious character in the Marvel Universe that has a ton of adversaries. While he isn’t necessarily evil, he’s always searching for the next challenge. A purveyor of physical combat, Taskmaster, is naturally fascinated with Deadpool’s considerable combat abilities. Taskmaster and Deadpool actually co-existed as partners together with Agency X.
Taskmaster is a master of combat and has the power to mirror any fighter he faces. This has caused him tons of problems with Deadpool due to the random nature in which he acts. They have fought on several occasions, with each time ending with Taskmaster’s astonishment that he can’t figure out how to mirror Deadpool in battle, leading to several hilarious defeats at his own expense.
Thanos
Much like most of the Marvel Universe, Deadpool is also one to have taken up the fight against Thanos. Weirdly enough, though, it wasn’t any heroic fight that Deadpool had with Thanos but rather one over the hand of the embodiment of Death. Confused? Well, Thanos became obsessed with Death itself, falling in love with it and Death happened to turn her attention to Deadpool instead. In a jealous rage, Thanos dedicated himself to figuring out how to destroy Deadpool without killing him.
Thus began a really strange battle that involved Deadpool being turned into a liquid after Thanos literally beats him to a pulp. Deadpool has actually managed to kill Thanos twice, once with his own Infinity Gauntlet. The two have an awesome rivalry that is completely absurd but nonetheless fun to follow. It’s a shame that Deadpool didn’t make it into any of the Avengers movies facing off against Thanos. I think his inclusion would’ve been both hilarious and an interesting part of the storyline.
William Stryker
Although he’s commonly seen as one of the primary enemies of the X-Men, William Stryker has proven to be a villain to quite a few characters in the Marvel Universe, with Deadpool being one of them. Deadpool’s encounters with him have been pretty bizarre. In recent comics, Deadpool has faced off against Stryker in a rare physical confrontation, fighting his robotic form after he had his body altered to do battle.
The two also paired up in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. It tells that Deadpool was created by Stryker and was part of his military unit, although this is greatly altered from their comic book relationship. In terms of versions of Deadpool, this is the worst one ever, and I’m so glad that it was erased from the history of Marvel through the clever use of time travel in Deadpool 2.
Wolverine
Deadpool loves to be a pain in the ass, but to many, a hero in the Marvel Universe, but if there is one that he just can’t help himself around, it’s Wolverine. Deadpool and Wolverine share similar origins, as they were both parts of the Weapon X Program. Throughout their relationship, they have fought and been allies. At one point, Wolverine even vouched for Deadpool to join the X-Men. However, Colussus ended up shutting this thought process down pretty quickly.
Their encounters usually involve Deadpool annoying Wolverine. The two have a brief but savage battle that usually ends with both bloodied and exhausted. Still, neither one ever comes out worse for the wear due to their extensive healing abilities. Deadpool actually joins up with Wolverine’s subdivision of the X-Men, the X-Force, becoming their leader. They have a love-hate relationship and, despite many fights, are generally on pretty good terms.
Top Picks
Deadpool- Deadpool is an incredibly dark look at what Deadpool could become capable of if he wasn’t enjoying the comedy side of being completely nuts. His arc where he kills every superhero and villain in the known universe is incredibly dark and interesting, and the finale where Deadpool clashes with him is among the best Deadpool has to offer.
Taskmaster- The fact that Deadpool and Taskmaster have fought so many times and the result has never ended in either one dying shows the respect that the two have for each other. Deadpool appears to be the only foe that Taskmaster can’t ever defeat. The respect he has for Deadpool shows in every encounter they have.
Thanos- To make the Mad Titan have a personal grudge with you is quite the talent. Thanos hates Deadpool because Lady Death is in love with him, and Thanos wants her for himself. Because of this, he curses Deadpool with Immortality, so he can never be with her. Deadpool was already tough to kill, and now, thanks to Thanos, he never will.
FAQs
Question: Who is Deadpool’s strongest foe?
Answer: Considering that Thanos has cursed Deadpool to be immortal just so he can destroy him over and over, I’d say that Thanos wins this prestigious award.
Question: Have there been other Deadpools besides Wade Wilson?
Answer: There are many different Deadpools across different universes, including a character known as Birdpool, which is literally a bird with Deadpool’s fighting ability. Yes, friends, it gets weird when it comes to Deadpool comics.
Question: Is Deadpool immortal?
Answer: Deadpool has always been very tough to kill, but it wasn’t until Thanos used the Infinity Gauntlet to curse him with Immortality so he couldn’t be with Death that he truly became one of the few immortal Marvel Characters
Conclusion
Deadpool has a shocking number of conflicts throughout the Marvel Universe. It makes sense when you consider his nature as a mercenary that often plays both sides of the coin on a fairly consistent basis. With that, he’s accumulated enemies from both the hero and villain parts of the Marvel Universe and has actually managed to murder them all at some point in time, making him the only character in Marvel history with that kind of impressive resume. We’re in Deadpool world here, so yes, mass murder of all the mutant heroes and villains to ever live is impressive; just accept it.
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