When Deadpool debuted as the mercenary contracted to take out Cable and his team in New Mutants (Vol. 1) #98, he looked a little familiar. Then fans learned about his secret identity -- Wade Wilson. The evidence quickly piled up until there was no getting around it: Deadpool was a rip-off of DC's Deathstroke. Both were immortal mercenaries with similar names and costumes, both had marked battle scars on their faces and mastered gun and sword alike. It seemed as if Deadpool couldn't be more of a blatant copy of DC's stylish assassin. Fast forward to today, and it's easy to look past the obvious similarities between the two. Deathstroke has continued to grow as one of DC's scariest villains, while Deadpool's idiosyncrasies have launched him into cinematic success.
Turns out, there's more than first meets the eye with these two mercs. They may have some conspicuous commonalities, but their differences can't be ignored. While each may claim to be the best mercenary in their respective universe, either one is clearly better than the other in certain areas. For instance, their vastly different personalities result in different skills. We don't necessarily think of Deathstroke as a vulgarity-loving goofball. The tone of the Deadpool flicks would feel out of place in a Deathstroke film. Also, when it comes to strategic thinking, Deadpool can't touch Deathstroke. The latter's enhanced intellect and military experience make him a tactical mastermind. Here are ten things Deathstroke can do better than Deadpool, as well as ten that Deadpool has got Deathstroke beat at.
20 DEATHSTROKE: INTIMIDATION
In many ways, Deadpool is a parody of Deathstroke. It's hard to take Deadpool too seriously given his comedic bend and cartoonish nature. Deathstroke, on the other hand, demands to be taken seriously. From his name to his costume, to his origin story as a Vietnam vet, we know that this DC villain is the real deal.
And he's proven that he's more than just a scary mask on several occasions. During "Brightest Day", he organized his own team of Titans, and hunted down the Atom. Before that, he did the unthinkable and took Jericho's life -- his own son -- when Jericho begged that he do so.
19 DEADPOOL: SAVING LIVES
Deadpool may not be Marvel's most noble hero, but he's a hero nonetheless. Despite the laundry list of morally questionable acts he's committed throughout his chaotic career, Deadpool still manages to prevent innocents from dying. And he does so much more consistently than Deathstroke.
Of course, this is one of the major differences between the two mercenaries. Deathstroke typically only saves lives when it can benefit him in some way -- most of the time, he couldn't care less about who lives and who dies. Deadpool may not know when to stop joking around, but his heroics are proof that there's a heart beneath his ostensibly callous exterior.
18 DEATHSTROKE: HUNTING
Before Slade Wilson would become Deathstroke the Terminator, he was an incredible soldier. He flew through his training, learning various fighting styles with ease, and fearlessly entered into the conflict in Vietnam. Slade, wanting to be even more capable, signed up for an experiment that hoped to make him invulnerable to truth serums.
The experiment left Slade in a coma (and with his enhanced physiology). As a result, the Army wouldn't have him back. Slade had to find another outlet for his abilities. He settled on hunting and quickly rose to become one of the greatest safari hunters on the planet.
17 DEADPOOL: COMEDY
When Deadpool was introduced in New Mutants (Vol. 1) #98, Marvel finally received their Deathstroke. Albeit, Marvel's Deathstroke has a very, very big mouth -- Deadpool never stops talking. That may be irritating to the heroes that Deadpool works alongside, but it's also what makes him Marvel's funniest characters.
Due to Deadpool's unique combination of mental issues and mutant powers, he's the wackiest quipper in comics. His comedic creativity is unmatched, and his knowledge of pop culture is encyclopedic. He's like Spider-Man if Spider-Man appeared to lack a conscience. If fans want shocking and absurd comedy, they know what character to go to.
16 DEATHSTROKE: HAVING WORTHY ADVERSARIES
Before Deathstroke would branch out to indiscriminately take on DC's heroes, he only cared about the Teen Titans. Slade first appeared in New Teen Titans (Vol. 1) #2, after his son, the first Ravager, died during his attempt at taking out the Titans. Ravager had received physical enhancements to finish the job he'd been hired to do.
The enhancements ended up leading to his downfall, where Slade stepped in, vowing to complete his son's mission. From then on, Deathstroke has done everything within his power to destroy the Teen Titans, and the feud has only grown increasingly personal over the years.
15 DEADPOOL: MAKING FRIENDS
Throughout his storied history, Deadpool has had numerous unlikely team-ups, and has even managed to forge lasting friendships with other heroes. Of course, these friendships are often rife with rocky periods where Deadpool and company are aiming guns at one another. But, somehow, they remain friends. The perfect example of this is Deadpool's friendship with Cable.
The two have been through a lot together, including time travel, a conflict with Apocalypse, and, of course, turning on one another on several occasions. The same can't be said of Deathstroke, who's much more antisocial in nature. You'll only see him working with others if it's strictly business -- and even then, he's liable to betray his comrades.
14 DEATHSTROKE: SWORDPLAY
While it's difficult to say who the better marksman is between Deadpool and Deathstroke, we think Deathstroke has a leg up on his DC counterpart when it comes to swordplay. Our best evidence for this comes from the "God Killer" arc from Deathstroke (Vol. 3) #7-10. Slade is contracted by the Greek god, Hephaestus, to take out fellow Olympian deity, Lapetus.
To get the job done, Slade is armed with the God Killer -- a shapeshifting blade capable of slaying immortals. Throughout the story, Deathstroke uses the sword to slash through legions of enemies, ultimately using the blade to complete his mission.
13 DEADPOOL: UNPREDICTABILITY
Nobody does unpredictable like Deadpool does -- and nobody knows that better than Cable does. Despite always returning to a complicated friendship, Deadpool has betrayed his friend on multiple occasions. In fact, the first time the two met was when Deadpool had been contracted to take out Cable. But Deadpool's unpredictability goes far beyond being a bad friend.
Deadpool continually exceeds expectations -- such as when he saved the multiverse, became a valued member of X-Force, and defeated Thanos. If those achievements weren't stunning enough for someone as chaotic as Deadpool, he's also become a respected member of the Avengers Unity Division, which isn't to say that he became a predictable hero -- at around the same time, he founded a group called Mercs for Money.
12 DEATHSTROKE: PLAYING GAMES
Nothing is ever straightforward with Slade Wilson. He's no stranger to playing games with people -- even those he loves most. Deathstroke once put a hit on his daughter, Rose, as an excuse for spending more time with her. Despite how ill-conceived Slade's idea was, it did uncover something important: father and daughter discovered that Rose's boyfriend had accepted the hit.
At another time, rather than directly training his daughter in his ways as a mercenary, he hires someone to do the job. Unfortunately for Slade, this turned out to be an undercover Dick Grayson who undermined Slade's teachings and influenced her decision to become a Teen Titan.
11 DEADPOOL: SELF-TRANSFORMATION
Deadpool is a virtual chameleon. Whatever his goal is, Deadpool can find a way to adapt to the right course of action -- which is one of the reasons he's so unpredictable. Case in point was when Deadpool actually managed to secure a spot on the X-Men. The X-Men, who were well aware of how crazy Deadpool could be, were determined to reject him -- but they couldn't do so until after he'd tried-out.
Deadpool took down a man working for Norman Osborn, hired to discredit the X-Men. However, the Merc with a Mouth was able to turn the tables on Osborn and organized it so that the X-Men were publicly recognized as heroes in the case. As a result, the improbable happened and Deadpool became an X-Man.
10 DEATHSTROKE: ASSASSINATION
Around the time that Deathstroke was building his public reputation as a world-class safari hunter, he was also becoming more known in the underworld as a top-notch assassin. His achievements as an assassin include taking out the Atom, the Greek god Lapetus, and his own father, Odysseus. He's also been inducted into the illustrious League of Assassins by Ra's al Ghul.
If that wasn't enough, as further testament to Deathstroke's prowess as an assassin, he was offered a Yellow Lantern Ring by the Sinestro Corps. The bottom line is that if someone wants someone dead in the DCU, they contact Deathstroke.
9 DEADPOOL: PROTECTING HIS CHILDREN
Deathstroke has led his children into trouble time and time again, often shepherding them as they take up his highly dangerous profession. Thus, it doesn't take much to be a more protective father than Deathstroke -- which is why we can say that Wade Wilson is indeed better in this department. And, to be clear, only slightly better.
This is so because Deadpool has managed to save his daughter, Eleanor Camacho, on several occasions -- after a period of refusing to accept that the child was his. Notably, Deadpool protected Eleanor from U.L.T.I.M.A.T.U.M. agents, who sought revenge on the mercenary for the destruction of their helicarrier.
8 DEATHSTROKE: CORRUPTING THE YOUTH
Deathstroke masterminded the major Teen Titans story "The Judas Contract", which took place in New Teen Titans (Vol. 1) 42-44. The seeds for the story were sewn when Deathstroke's feud with the Titans was established early in the series, and Terra joined the team shortly after. Terra turned out to be a spy working for Slade, which was ultimately revealed during "The Judas Contract".
But this wouldn't be the last time that he'd feed the dark side of the youth. In the '00s, he formed the Titans East, a band of young superhumans that included Risk, Batgirl, and Inertia, among others.
7 DEADPOOL: SAVING THE MULTIVERSE
Not only does Deadpool save many more lives than Deathstroke, he's also saved the multiverse. The improbable event went down in Deadpool Corps #1-5. The story was kicked off with the Contemplator choosing Deadpool to stop a malignant cosmic entity known as the Awareness from consuming all of the consciousness in the multiverse.
In response, Deadpool formed the Deadpool Corps -- a team of Deadpools drafted from various universes. The Deadpool Corps eventually found and disposed of the extraterrestrial threatening the multiverse. The Corps would reassemble when evil Deadpool formed his own corps with the intent of wiping out every Deadpool in the Multiverse, leading the 616 version to save all of the Deadpools in the multiverse.
6 DEATHSTROKE: HOLDING GRUDGES
Deathstroke is prone to vendettas. If someone crosses him, you can be sure that Slade will not forget. Two of the best cases of this are with the grudges Deathstroke has held against Nightwing and Green Arrow. His feud with Dick Grayson, which had begun when Grayson led the Teen Titans as Robin, reached an all-time high during the mid-'00s.
Deathstroke helped to organize a massacre in Bludhaven -- the city that Nightwing protected. As for Green Arrow, his rivalry with Deathstroke was initiated during Identity Crisis. Green Arrow launched an arrow into Slade's eye-socket, leading to Deathstroke to hunt down the archer years later.
5 DEADPOOL: HEALING
When it comes to the healing factors of the two mercenaries, it's a no contest -- Deadpool's healing factor is ridiculous. Arguably, it's more impressive than the one possessed by Deadpool's Weapon X cousin, Wolverine. Deadpool can easily heal from detached limbs and even losing his head. In fact, this happens to appear to be a small problem for Wade because he can still walk around and act without a head.
In addition to his ability to regrow limbs, he can also regrow entire organs, to the extent that it's as if he can acquire a new body. Naturally, this leaves him in a condition of immortality; he's come across an alternate reality version of him that shows no signs of slowing down 800 years in the future.
4 DEATHSTROKE: KEEPING UP WITH HIS FAMILY
For better or worse, Deathstroke keeps up with his family much more than Deadpool does. Due to Deadpool's mental issues, he doesn't recognize his parents and often avoids his daughter for fear of bringing her trouble. The latter is no problem for Slade. No matter how much strife he brings into his children's lives, he keeps going back to them.
In fact, he's tried to bring them back from the dead on several occasions. Recently, he kidnapped Kid Flash in an effort to convince Wally West to travel back in time and prevent the death of his son Grant. When that didn't work, he stole some of Kid Flash's superspeed and attempted (but failed) to bring his son back.
3 DEADPOOL: TIME TRAVEL
Given that his best buddy is Cable, you can be sure that Deadpool has had some time travel experience. In the mini-series Cable & Deadpool: Split Second, Deadpool and his old friend (and sometimes enemy) teamed up against a time-traveling assassin known as Split Second.
The story follows Cable and Deadpool as they time travel to right their own mistakes, as well as the assassinations committed by Split Second. At another time, Deadpool went back in time with Bob, Agent of Hydra, to World War II to assist Bucky and Captain America in a battle with Arnim Zola and his forces.
2 DEATHSTROKE: STRATEGY
One of the results of the experiment that gave Deathstroke his powers was an enhanced intellect. Among his impressive cognitive capabilities are a photographic memory and the ability to process information nine times faster than the average human. Naturally, this makes him an adept problem solver and strategist.
Deathstroke often uses his long-term strategies to dismantle his foes, such as the Teen Titans. An example of this was when he sent Terra onto the Teen Titans, a ploy that resulted in Deathstroke finally capturing the Titans much later. His tactical mind is also on full display when he's leading others, such as when he formed his own Titans.
1 DEADPOOL: BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL
No mainstream comic book character breaks the fourth wall as often as Deadpool does. In fact, this has even become a superpower of his at one point. After Deadpool was dimensionally displaced by the Beyonder, he gained Medium Consciousness. In other words, he became aware that he was a comic book character. This helped to explain his occasional shout-outs to the reader, and other surreal occurrences.
For example, when asked by Bullseye when he and Deadpool last saw one another, Deadpool responded by a comic book issue number. The above picture is a less straightforward breaking of the fourth wall but references a movie where Ryan Reynolds is stuck in a coffin.