Deadpool has become a humungous hit with audiences everywhere since the film adaptation of his comics first came out in 2016. And it’s really easy to see why. Ryan Reynolds dove head first into the role of the snarky antihero we all can’t help but love and he did so with an excitement that shone right through the screen. So it’s no wonder that we’ve all been anxiously counting down the days until Deadpool 2 is in theaters, which luckily is happening in just a few short weeks.
But before Ryan Reynolds made Deadpool a character not to be trifled with, as well as a box office hit, Deadpool was a rough superhero with a filthy comment always at the ready. He’s also very aware that he is simply a work of fiction, and he owns that fact.
Deadpool, a.k.a. Wade Wilson, has always been a fan-favorite amongst comic book readers, but even the most obsessive Deadpool fans may not know every single power he possesses or even powers he is only known to have in the film versions of his character. Because of this, I have accumulated an entire list of all of the superpowers we know the Merc with a Mouth is known to have, this way we can all better prepare ourselves for the release of Deadpool 2.
So for all of you Deadpool fans, read up on all of his powers, including the lesser known ones, with the 25 Superpowers Only True Fans Know Deadpool Has.
25 Super-Healing Ability
In any comics to movie adaptations, there are bound to be changes made to certain characters, even if they are the main superhero of the story. And while that may have happened in Deadpool as well, there was still plenty of things that stayed the same. Case in point: his super-healing ability.
Deadpool - otherwise known as Wade Wilson - received his super-healing abilities in the comics when he joined the Weapon X program and was given an artificial healing factor based off of Wolverine’s which helped heal his cancer. All of that was courtesy of Dr. Emrys Killebrew who was one of the head scientists.
The film version tells a similar story where he goes to a facility, which he goes to in hopes of curing his cancer and giving him other new powers as an added bonus. Now he is literally able to have his head taken clean off and regenerate a brand new one shortly after. That’s quite the talent.
This superpower obviously makes it very difficult for another opponent to end Deadpool’s life for good. Plus, any time he is injured in any way, shape, or form, it barely even phases him at this point. I’d hate to be the guy (or girl) going up against him knowing all of that.
24 Deadpool’s Immortality
The first thing most people know about Deadpool is the fact that it’s extremely hard to end his life - permanently. Because of this, it makes him a very dangerous opponent. But there is something else to this Merc that makes it actually impossible to end him. And that is the fact that he was cursed to be immortal by none other than Thanos, the evil galactic warlord.
And yes, it is the same evil Thanos who is going to be terrorizing the Avengers in Infinity War. You see, Thanos and Deadpool have a bit of a rivalry going on thanks to their mutual love for Lady Death.
She is the actual personification of demise itself, but in female form, of course. Though she is mostly linked to Thanos in the Marvel Universe, she struck up a flirtatious relationship with Deadpool after his “failure” in Department K and was subsequently harmed.
This caused Deadpool to want to finally end his life and be with her, which is very Romeo and Juliet of him. But Thanos started to feel threatened by him and had none of that. So he did what any rational person would do and put a curse on him instead to live forever so they could never be together. Way harsh, Thanos.
23 Like An Agile Cat
Wade Wilson started out just being a “deeply disturbed” mercenary and life-taker who also was very quick-witted. But then he developed cancer, causing him to “volunteer” to be in a program (Weapon X) where he was experimented on frequently, eventually causing the genetic mutation that had him gain superpowers, while permanently deforming his outer appearance.
During Wade’s experimentation, he obviously gained a lot of powers. But one has come in handy time and time again that is very similar to other superheroes.
See, during the augmentation process, he gained the power of accelerated speed.
He has had the ability on more than one occasion to save himself from injury (even though he’d heal soon after) by simply running at an extreme speed no mortal could easily replicate. This power isn’t always at the forefront of fan’s minds when they think of Deadpool, seeing as he’s more known for his super-healing abilities as well as the mouth he has on him.
But clearly, he is also “adept at melee to short ranged combat” because of this and has also been able to deflect bullets multiple times.
Sure, he could just let himself get injured seeing as it won’t really hurt him for long, but where’s the fun in that?
22 Can’t Touch This
Once again, we have found a beneficial element to Deadpool’s typical craziness. And it seems there are just endless benefits to Deadpool’s altered psyche and multiple personalities at this point. In this case, he apparently, is unable to have a symbiotic alien completely take over him and his mind thanks to his “different” brain.
And yes, this means that those symbiotes that attached themselves to the likes of Venom and Carnage were unable to invade the mind of Deadpool.
Of course, that doesn’t mean they weren’t able to accomplish anything. In the “Deadpool: Back in Black” limited series, they were actually able to semi-attach themselves to Deadpool after the Venom symbiotic left Peter Parker and came back to Deadpool.
But instead of going full-psycho and ending everyone in site, he only received added strength, speed, and “tentacles of the symbiote along with the symbiote webbing that it picked up from Spider-Man.”
Even when he has a moment where he’s going to attack the brains of Machine Man, he quickly realizes what’s happening and remembers the fact that Machine Man is his “compadre”.
So his, erm, interesting, brain has once again saved him from himself by fighting off outside attacks. It pays to be crazy.
21 Resistance To Telepathy
There are times that Deadpool makes a totally hilarious but off the wall comment that we wonder how smart he is, or if he’s maybe a little crazy.
And the thing about Deadpool as a character is he’s, quite honestly, verifiably insane. At least, that’s how he comes across to us. But there are benefits to being “insane” and having multiple personalities - people with telepathic powers have a very difficult time getting into that slightly off brain of yours.
His thoughts are always so chaotic that it’s hard to make heads or tails of it.
He even was able to thwart off the telepathic abilities of Professor X as well as Emma Frost, which we can all agree, is quite the feat. Even Cable couldn’t get into his head. There were only two instances where he was susceptible to telepathic attacks, but it seemed it was more because some of his powers “come and go” depending on who’s writing at the time.
But even so, the power is still there (most of the time.) And on top of all of that, since his cancer was also accelerated during the experiments that ended up curing it and giving him his powers, they are constantly dying off and regenerating just as rapidly. So basically, it would be crazy - no pun intended - to even attempt to get in that brain of his.
20 Fluency In Several Different Languages
Whenever someone thinks of Deadpool, they probably initially think of his signature snarkiness, as well as his ability to be a seriously awesome albeit brutal fighter in any combat he finds himself in. The last thing they’d probably think of (unless they are a diehard fan of the comics) is that he’s actually fluent in multiple different languages.
In the Deadpool comics, for example, there are many, many different scenarios where Deadpool will just start speaking fluently in an entirely different language. For a second, you’re wondering if you are seeing that right, or if maybe he’s just going a little crazy (again), but it’s actually quite the contrary.
He’s been able to speak Spanish beautifully to his Mexican teammate, Massacre, who only speaks Spanish, in “Deadpool & The Mercs for Money” and has also spoken fluent Japanese in “Deadpool Team-Up #1” when he goes to Japan on a mission (because he had to infiltrate the Temple of a Thousand Buddhas). He even used American Sign Language in “Hawkeye vs. Deadpool” so he could communicate with Hawkeye during their team-up.
I guess it pays off to be alive for so long while traveling the world in the name of justice.
19 Optic Blasts
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “Why are we even discussing the version of Deadpool we saw in X-Men Origins: Wolverine?” While I know that seeing Deadpool portrayed as a totally different type of character in this movie is something we’d all rather forget, there is a reason it still made this list. So let me tell you why.
It is simply because even though this was far from the best iteration of Deadpool we’ve ever seen and/or read, this story did give him some pretty cool new powers we’ve never gotten to see before.
For instance, his optic blasts. See, Wade’s eyes gained a similar ability to Scott Summers, a.k.a. Cyclops. He was able to emit nearly identical optic blasts to Cyclops, but he only had limited control over the ability itself.
And when he did unleash his blasts, it would damage and burn the skin around his eyes which, in turn, created his “signature markings”.
It may not have been the best way to show Deadpool’s character, but it was interesting to see him with new powers that were able to create some serious damage if need be. But don’t worry, this iteration of Deadpool will never come to fruition in the new films. Probably.
18 4th-Wall-Breaker
There’s nothing better than a person, or “hero”, being completely self-aware and knowing exactly who they are and what they want out of life. Well, except for if that hero is also funny as heck and still able to kick serious behind whenever it calls for it. And that describes no one better than Deadpool himself.
He’s constantly breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience directly.
Whether he is describing the author’s life like he did in the prose novel, “Deadpool: Paws,” or he’s doing something far more subtle, he’s always showing that he knows all of this is just fiction and none of his antics are actually happening in the real world.
Even in the first Deadpool film, he addresses us, the audience, all throughout the film. During one scene, in particular, he actually breaks the fourth wall twice. Meaning, he did a “fourth wall break within a fourth wall break.” Even at the beginning of the film, he’s looking directly into the camera as he talks to us about why he’s there in the first place.
Some might say it is the ultimate power to have since he can go into any situation without an ounce of fear. Nothing bad will actually happen to him, after all.
17 Superpouch
Back in the 80’s and 90’s, it seemed that every superhero was getting his own version of a belt with pouches on his costume. Of course, Batman’s pouches all helped him time and time again with their uses, but most of the other heroes’ were just for show it seemed. The same was actually true for Deadpool as well, where we would never actually see him get any good use out of those pouches of his.
But in Deadpool cartoons, that all changed. Probably because the writers decided to justify the pouches being added to the costume in the first place, but at least they did give us plenty of comic relief moments in the end. I say that because every time Deadpool used his special pouches, he was able to pick objects out of them that were seemingly way too large to fit into them in the first place.
He may be a superhero, but he’d have to be a magician to make some of these objects fit into his teeny, tiny pouches.
So we may not really know if he actually would get any use out of them in reality, or even in the film, but if nothing else, we’ll always have the laughs thanks to his “super pouches”.
16 The Woes From Last Night Be Gone
This next superpower of Deadpool’s just might be the best one yet. But first, before I tell you, try and remember the last time you got so intoxicated that you immediately regretted it the following morning. Now imagine that was literally impossible to ever happen to you again. And that is exactly the unbelievable power he has.
See, he can never get intoxicated and therefore, can never get hungover the following day.
But let’s back up. His healing abilities go beyond just healing things such as gunshot wounds and the like. It also fights off other attacks on his system, including getting inebriated to any degree.
Sure, he can get a little tipsy but even then, it takes quite a lot of alcohol to even get him remotely affected. It would probably take a seriously dangerous amount to most humans to even get him a little intoxicated. But still, even when he drank an entire sack of booze in Deadpool #7, he woke up the next day hangover-free.
His extremely powerful immune system has quite the benefits, clearly. And yes, we may have already known that, but this ability of his is something I’m sure we wish we all had, am I right?
15 Super Human Strength (Sort Of)
While Deadpool may not be nearly a strong as other heroes in the Marvel Universe (I’m looking at you Hulk and Colossus), he’s still way stronger than the average human being. So let me tell you exactly why that is the case.
The thing about it is, Wade Wilson was already a strong person before he was experimented on during his Weapon X treatments.
So when he underwent all of these “procedures,” and in turn, mutated, he became inhumanly strong.
It’s all thanks to his super quick healing abilities since he can push himself beyond the threshold of “normal” strength and be as strong as possible.
We find out more details about his level of strength in X-Force #11, when a very strong warrior who was from the Mojoverse commented that they were “equally matched in strength”.
Furthermore, in Cable & Deadpool #13, we find out that this Merc with a Mouth is so strong that he is able to injure a someone just by using his thumb and forefinger.
Of course, his level of strength always depends on which writer is writing the Deadpool comics at that moment, but it’s still better than any human’s, that’s for sure. He just probably shouldn’t go up against The Hulk in an arm wrestling match.
14 Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Our favorite antihero has plenty of tricks up his sleeve when it comes to his fighting skills and his super-abilities, but some of his devices he has used over the years have been seriously awesome, and that includes his teleportation devices.
Though we may have seen Deadpool in his 2016 film only travel by walking or cab, he actually had the ability to transport there even faster according to classic comics of his. His “personal teleporters” were very handy, in fact, because they would always be sure to get him to his target’s doorstep right on time.
The only problem with that, at least for Deadpool, was that it was entirely too easy to complete his missions at that point. Because of that, he discontinued use of his handy devices.
Sure, we saw him in X-Men Origins: Wolverine teleporting without any use of devices at all, but just through his own personal abilities. But we don’t really count that version of Deadpool anyway, now do we?
But it seems that in “Deadpool & Cable,” when Deadpool is “swallowed up” by Cable after he had melted into a puddle and Cable, in turn, swallowed him, that it gave Wade some new genetic abilities, including the ability to teleport anywhere. Pretty incredible if you ask me.
13 His Instability
We all may love Deadpool for who he is, but we also have always noticed that he seems a little…off, at times. Which makes sense seeing as he’s not the most stable person, er, hero, we’ve ever seen.
But maybe his mental instability is what makes people gravitate towards him, and also enjoy his heroic antics even more.
He has been known to have more than one personality rolling around in that head of his, particularly the main two who pretty much represent the two different sides of him: order and chaos. But the further in his brain he goes, he’s able to find even more “Deadpools" lurking around.
Some may say that having that type of mental illness is a “weakness” but it’s actually far from it. Especially when we’re talking about someone who is a hero, of sorts. And that is because he ends up becoming an “army of one” thanks to his different personalities.
This actually allows him to powerfully look at any situation he’s in with several different points of view on how to proceed in the best tactical way. Plus, if one of his personalities has an idiotic game plan of how to attack the situation, he can just say something snarky and come up with something better.
This makes him quite the formidable opponent, wouldn’t you say?
12 Super Metabolism
I think it’s safe to say that most people wish they could have the ability to eat whatever they want in whatever quantities they want without any repercussions regarding their weight. Few people actually have that ability, and no one has that ability at the same level as Deadpool himself.
Everyone knows Deadpool has an obsession with food, specifically Mexican food. He’s constantly eating and talking about tacos and chimichangas. He also has been seen many a time sitting around in close to nothing with pizza boxes surrounding him as well as the not-so-occasional “mega size” sodas. Oh, and let’s not forget about his boxes of mini-donuts.
Then after seeing that, they’ll cut to the next page and he’s still just as jacked and fit as he has always been, junk food be darned. All of this points to an accelerated metabolism that is there due to the experimentations he went through that had him become Deadpool in the first place.
And of course, this is probably also connected to his inability to get drunk properly, which to some may be a bummer, but at least he’ll never have to worry about losing weight. If only that worked the same for us mere mortals.
11 His Image Inducer
One of the most helpful, not to mention coolest, devices Deadpool has in his arsenal is none other than the Holographic Image Inducer.
This device can completely alter your outer appearance and work as a disguise.
In Deadpool’s line of work, it comes in handy quite often, because it becomes way easier to sneak up on a target if they can’t even tell it’s you. And I’m sure it is also a fun way for Deadpool to prank and scare other people, should the mood arise.
The anonymity factor is also always a plus, but the other benefit for Deadpool is that it allows him to not have his noticeable cancer that causes a deformed look to his body to be at the forefront at all times. We all know that his deformities have been a sore subject for him for quite so time. So if he wants to look completely different, he just has to break out the holographic image inducer and look like someone else while hunting his target.
I guess the only real problem with it is the fact that he has a bit of a “fractured” psyche and it can cause the image inducer to flip between different looks every few seconds because of that.
10 Expert Marksman
Some may say this next one is more of a “skill” than a power, but maybe those people don’t fully realize that the way Deadpool executes this is quite nearly inhuman. No, strike that, it absolutely is inhuman.
And this “skill”/power is his expert marksmanship. He is quite talented with a firearm, but as I said, there’s something about it that just is not entirely human.
This antihero is able to hit precise targets with very minimal effort, as shown time and time again in comics, video games, and the comics, of course. Even in the 2016 Deadpool film, we see him use only one bullet to end the lives of three men that were standing in a line. He shot them all while falling through the air, mind you.
We’ve seen instances like the one just mentioned many times, too, and every time it leaves us wondering, “How was he able to do that!?” But it’s simply because Deadpool is otherworldly when it comes to his firearms skills.
Needless to say, if Deadpool has any form of a weapon in his hand, especially a firearm, his opponent is pretty much done for. That’s just the way it is, pal.
9 Super Stamina
Much like the insurmountable number of ways Deadpool’s mind tends to protect him from evil entities and the like, his super-healing powers also have a substantial amount of different benefits to him.
And some of these benefits of his ultra-fast healing abilities are more helpful than others, and that includes his ability to never get tired. This is all due to his muscular system producing “far fewer fatigue toxins than a normal human being."
This basically means that he could perform at peak capacity for days upon days without tiring, but once he finally does become fatigued, he is able to regenerate back to peak performance once again in a super short amount of time. He basically would only need a cat nap after going full Deadpool mode for days on end.
We’ve seen him do this time and time again when he’s faced with a fight against a foe, including Spider-Man, Carnage, and even The Hulk. He just never slows down.
It is believed he even has a higher stamina than Captain America. Sounds unbelievable, right? But in actuality Cap can only perform at peak performance for several hours, while Deadpool could go on for days.
That means that whenever he’s in a battle against an opponent with higher abilities, he just has to tire them out if he wants to win.
8 Immaculate Conception
It’s interesting to know that if Deadpool ever wanted to say, create a literal army consisting of just himself, he could do so without anyone else’s help, if you catch my drift. Basically, that means he has mastered the art of solo reproduction.
But let me back up. In “Deadpool” Vol. 2 #44, we see that Wade’s former therapist who is currently stalking him, Ella Whitby, had come up with quite the nefarious scheme. It seems that she was keeping a “collection of his dismembered body parts wrapped up in her fridge.” Of course, this completely “disgusts” Deadpool (which is understandable) to the point where he actually just throws them all out into a dumpster.
But due to his extreme healing powers, the parts healed completely back together and thus, created Evil Deadpool.
That may be a frightening thought to know that an “evil” version of Deadpool is now out there on the loose, but it is kind of cool to know that if he wanted to make multiple clones of himself, all he’d have to do his hack off some of his limbs and he’d have a clone (or multiple clones) in no time. An army of one, indeed.
7 Superhuman Reflexes
Deadpool, or Wade Wilson if you prefer, is one of the most incredible superheroes when it comes to skills he already had before he even became who we now know him as - Deadpool.
Of course, we also know that Wade is able to deflect bullets and other attacks pretty easily thanks to his new abilities, particularly his super speed. But it’s also because of his superhuman reflexes.
Deadpool has not only been able to dodge and deflect the aforementioned bullets but because of his reflexes that are unobtainable by any human, he can even cut one in half with his katana, as we’ve seen before in Deadpool, the film.
This can come in handy in so many different scenarios, and have, as we’ve seen previously. Of course, we know that he can heal himself if he gets attacked by someone or with a bullet, but that just means he’ll have to wait for his ability to heal itself to kick in before he can continue to go on with his own attack at peak performance levels.
So why wait for that, when he might as well just dodge that bullet…and maybe cut it in half while he’s at it.
6 Unpredictability
It’s been talked about a lot already that Deadpool doesn’t have the most stable mind, but we’ve also talked about how that has benefitted him in a lot of different ways.
But maybe one of the best benefits of his instability is the fact he’s utterly unpredictable.
Of course, some people may take that as he’s going to go insane and do something rash rather than think it out. And honestly, they’d be right, because that has happened plenty of times.
But this power also means that he can change his thought process and original attack plans while fighting an enemy in a matter of seconds. This also means whoever he’s fighting literally has no idea what his next move is ever going to be, and in turn, Wade is given the element of surprise. Always.
To be honest, even Wade has no idea most of the time what he’s going to do next, which makes the power even more magnificent when you think about it. His body almost works for him and comes up with the best possible plan without communicating with his slightly off brain to let him in on the “secret,” or tactical plan.
This obviously makes Deadpool an opponent most wouldn’t want to go up against, unless they’re feeling particularly lucky that day.
