10 Best Deadpool Comics in Marvel’s History

Ever since his debut in the early 1990s, Deadpool, also known as the Merc with a Mouth, has accumulated increasing popularity, culminating in multiple hit R-rated Deadpool films. Though he’s had his ups and downs as a comic book character, Deadpool’s silly nature enables writers to put him in various wacky adventures with widely different tones.

Often, Deadpool’s titles can get experimental or even dark and tragic, which may surprise fans who are mostly familiar with his goofy side. Through all his pop culture references and fourth wall breaking, Wade Wilson has endeared himself to readers over the years with his smart-alecky personality combined with a great deal of character depth.

10 Deadpool Solves a Murder Mystery With Other Comedic Marvel Characters

When Deadpool blackmails a bunch of Marvel’s funniest characters to take a Christmas card photo (in July), they are blindsided by the apparent murder of Forbush Man. As Deadpool tries to solve the case, more and more of his friends wind up murdered. This series features a fight with a fused clone of Deadpool and Squirrel Girl, and it has a number of chaotic elements thrown in.

Though this title shows Deadpool as immature and heavy on pop culture references, the comic also focuses on Wade’s friendships, even though most of the characters he considers his friends can’t stand him. There is a lot of fun with Deadpool bouncing off other comedic characters like Squirrel Girl, even as the series kills many of them.

This miniseries reunited Deadpool with his friend and foil, Cable. Cable attempted to stop Deadpool from committing an assassination that would destroy the universe. When a time-traveling individual from the future named Split Second appeared while Deadpool and Cable were protecting their target, the duo’s mission got quite complicated.

As usual, the interactions between Cable and Deadpool show off their contrasting personalities. Cable is committed to his mission but suffering from debilitating time-travel sickness and an existential crisis, while Deadpool is his typical goofy self. The series is a fun sci-fi romp featuring an entertaining Groundhog Day-like time loop in the third issue, as Deadpool tries to prevent any innocent deaths while stopping Split Second. Deadpool is only able to solve the time loop by memorizing all of its details and employing quick thinking and reflexes, showing off his clever side.

8 Choose Your Own Adventure as Deadpool

In a fun experiment that fully takes advantage of comics being a print medium, You Are Deadpool is a series that allows readers to choose which direction they want Deadpool’s story to go over several issues. After getting his hands on a time-travel helmet, Deadpool careened through time, bouncing around various decades.

In an extra twist, the comic even has the reader keep track of Deadpool’s “Badness” and “Sadness” scores when he commits a morally questionable act or suffers physically or emotionally. This interactive choice illustrates the multitudes of Deadpool’s character. The series ends on a poignant note, where Deadpool makes peace with recognizing that this version of him is not even the official “canon” Deadpool, as he doesn’t exist outside the confines of the pages of that particular series.

7 Deadpool Is Inserted Into the ’80s Secret Wars

In a new twist on the classic Marvel story from 1984, Secret Wars, this comic features the famous event storyline with Deadpool inserted into the action, even though the character was not even created until the 1990s. When the Beyonder summons various Marvel heroes and villains to Battleworld, Deadpool finds himself fighting alongside the heroes, none of whom recognize him.

Written by Cullen Bunn, the same person who wrote Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe, this story is a lighter, dubiously canon take on Deadpool that remains true to his character, capturing his funny and tragic sides. The premise can almost be likened to Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, exploring a side character and fleshing out his adventures, even if Deadpool was not a character in the original Secret Wars.

6 Deadpool Spites the Marvel Universe

After the fallout of the Secret Empire event, the goodwill Deadpool had built up with the world, the hero community, and his family all crumbles apart, resulting in Wade taking up a series of self-destructive actions. This fourteen-issue run shows off the self-hating side of Deadpool’s personality, culminating in the storyline The Marvel Universe Kills Deadpool, where Wade puts a bounty on his own head and makes himself a danger to society so that he can be hunted by villains and heroes alike, to finally get someone to kill him.

The story eventually caps off with yet another tragic ending for Wade, as he chooses to protect the few loved ones he has left. Even when cracking jokes, the pain Deadpool expresses deep down tends to surface and poison his life. The Despicable Deadpool also serves as Gerry Duggan’s finale for his six-year run writing Deadpool, even featuring a hilarious, self-deprecating cameo from Duggan himself.

5 Deadpool Takes Over Spider-Man’s Life

After a mishap with the Great Lakes Avengers, Deadpool and Blind Al travel backward through time, winding up in the story from The Amazing Spider-Man #47 from 1967. After accidentally knocking out Aunt May, Blind Al takes her place, while Deadpool pretends to be Peter Parker, eventually leading to a fight between Deadpool and Kraven the Hunter.

This story creatively utilizes Deadpool to create a wacky romp that makes fun of some of the tropes, design choices, and dialogue of 1960s Spider-Man comics. Though Deadpool lacks some of the hidden warmth he would later be established to possess in future appearances, being quick to irritable violence towards his friends and innocent strangers, his irreverence towards the Marvel universe is quite amusing, as he is baffled by the slang and personalities of the ’60s.

4 Deadpool Roasts the Marvel Universe

In a non-canon backup story in the milestone issue Deadpool #250, Wade finds himself outwitting Thanos and gaining possession of the Infinity Gauntlet. With his newfound power, Deadpool assembles the entire Marvel universe together for a roast. The result is a hilarious story with meta-commentary on Marvel’s characters, ultimately leading to Deadpool using the Infinity Gauntlet to make them all laugh uncontrollably as he has a depressive episode.

Setting itself up as a “lost story” from decades prior, “Deadpool Roasts the Marvel Universe” is an intriguing look at the sadder side of Deadpool, as he eventually makes a speech directly to the viewer where he reveals that his status as a fictional character is an endless source of depression for him. Adding the roast and many fandom in-jokes also elevates the material, with such amusing details as a cameo from the infamous “Thanos Copter.”

3 Deadpool Teams Up With Spider-Man

Running for fifty issues, Spider-Man/Deadpool is a funny, action-packed, and touching exploration of Spider-Man and Deadpool’s characters and their tense, up-and-down working relationship. One of the first arcs of the series features Deadpool and Spider-Man teaming up against a spider-like woman who has been embued with both of their powers. The two characters positively influence one another, with their relationship evolving from one of animosity to mutual respect.

As Deadpool sees Spider-Man as a role model, Wade goes out of his way to stop Spider-Man from violating his “no-kill” rule and crossing a line forever, which shows an interesting side to the usually violent Deadpool. Besides this series featuring the return of writer Joe Kelly to a Deadpool book, several one-off issues are written by celebrities, such as Scott Auckerman or Penn Jillette, who provide silly stories with plenty of meta-commentary.

2 Deadpool, Wolverine and Captain America Go Through a Dark Adventure in North Korea

When Deadpool is kidnapped and wakes up in North Korea under the authority of Dr. Butler, a man who experimented on Wade during the Weapon Plus program, he is forced to work together with Wolverine, Captain America, and many North Korean human experiments who have had various X-genes and Deadpool’s DNA grafted onto them. The story has a very violent, morose tone, and Deadpool spends much of it in a grim, serious mood.

Eventually, the comic leads to one of Deadpool’s most tragic moments: digging through a pile of corpses, searching desperately for his daughter while Captain America and Wolverine hold him back. While the day is saved, many lives are lost, and Deadpool’s daughter’s fate is left ambiguous by the story’s end. Overall, “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” is an excellent Deadpool story with shocking twists and turns.

1 Deadpool Saves a Woman From Attempting Suicide

In a twist on the classic trope of a superhero coming to aid a person in a mental health crisis, the story “The Never-Ending Struggle” sees Deadpool show up on a rooftop and attempt to convince a woman not to attempt suicide. However, being Deadpool, his primary way to help is by joking around and getting the two of them into trouble.

As one of the more emotionally stirring Deadpool issues, the story does not feature any fantastical elements and takes the concept of depression and suicide very seriously, even as Deadpool jokes around. The end of the issue even has Wade solemnly admit that the woman needs help, and he is not the person who can offer what she needs, choosing instead to drop her off at the hospital. This comic is one of Deadpool’s most affecting issues, showing that even someone like Wade cares about other people and their struggles.