6 Times Deadpool Was The Hero (And 7 He Was A Straight-Up Villain)

Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson, is a funny guy. In both comics and movies, he runs his mouth almost all the time, and a lot of what he has to say is hilarious. But don't let the motor mouth fool you. He's a superpowered guy, but he's not a hero in the traditional sense — and perhaps more often, he's a straight-up villain. In fact, the powers at work within him are constantly warring. He tries to be good — helping kids, giving his friends work, and saving the world from various baddies — but even when he's doing his best, he still ends up occasionally doing the wrong thing, such as setting an elephant on fire, shooting a random bystander, using his own daughter as bait, and killing all of Marvel's heroes and villains.

Deadpool is beloved because of his cracked — and often controversial — take on things but he's still an assassin who's willing to sell his services to the highest bidder. As a result, he's almost always willing to bend — or outright ignore — his moral compass if the situation calls for it. So while he's done some truly heroic things, he's also done some heinous, violent things. Ah, the duality of man.

Deadpool isn't exactly known for his altruistic ways, as seven things on this list can attest to. But in the "Deadpool & the Mercs for Money" arc in the comics, he forms a team of heroes most people have never heard of. In fact, these heroes are all Marvel D-listers, but despite not having a lot of time in the pages of Marvel comics, Deadpool decides they're all perfect.

The team, made up of Stingray, Solo, Foolkiller, Terror, Slapstick, and the new guy, Massacre — the Deadpool of Mexico — aren't household names, but Deadpool still attempts to make them (and himself) more popular ... by hiring them out to anyone who can pay. Sure, his motivations aren't entirely selfless, and the missions he sends them on aren't entirely on the up and up, but at least the Mercs for Money made sure these so-called heroes got some extra time in the spotlight, and that they could make rent. After all, these D-listers will take any help they can get.

Unlike its short-lived time in the movie "Deadpool 2," X-Force in the comics has a longer life. So when X-Force is dispatched to deal with a younger version of Apocalypse, the mutant who believes that only the strong survive, they kill him. But then the mutant Fantomex, feeling bad about killing him, takes some of the younger Apocalypse's blood and clones him. In the "Uncanny X-Force: Final Execution," when goons take this clone — known as Kid Apocalypse or Evan, depending on who you ask — to ensure he meets his fate as one of the worst mutant villains in the world, X-Force pursues, determined not to let Evan fall prey to them.

The main character who takes that on happens to be Deadpool. When they're in the bad guys' lair, he tells Evan he feels badly about killing his predecessor and does his best to protect him until others from X-Force can join them. Moreover, when Evan goes back to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Deadpool sneaks into Evan's room and has a touching heart-to-heart with him where he tells him he'll always be there for him, seemingly sealing the deal that Evan will never go evil like Apocalypse.

Despite Deadpool's actions toward the elephant in the "Dead Presidents" arc in "Deadpool Vol. 1 #1-6," he still manages to stop the undead presidents from destroying America, which is no small feat. The presidents decide it would be better to destroy the country and start over, and they do everything in their power to make it happen. Deadpool is the lone superhero — sorry, anti-hero — standing between us and total destruction because the people at S.H.I.E.L.D., his employer for this mission, want to keep the whole thing hush-hush.

So Deadpool not only takes down Teddy Roosevelt at the zoo, he also takes out Teddy's fifth cousin Franklin in New York's subway; tricks J.F.K. on the docks; goes up against some not-as-famous presidents like Polk and Tyler on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge as well as Harding and Hoover at the Hoover Dam; brawls with Lincoln in a boxing match in Las Vegas; goes to space to take on Reagan; and finally decapitates Washington in Washington, D.C. Considering all of this takes maximum effort, it's hard not to wonder why he does all this. Well, Deadpool is Canadian, so he doesn't really care about the presidents. But he does care about money, and the people at S.H.I.E.L.D. promised him a boatload of it if he could take them down.

In the "Deadpool" movies, Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is decidedly more PC than in the comics. Don't misunderstand; he's still a miscreant, and his movies get R-ratings, but he's not nearly as morally compromised. A lot of this is because of Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), his girlfriend and the love of his life. So although he lets her think he's dead when he goes to get the cancer treatment that turns him into Deadpool, he never stops caring for her. So much so that when Ajax (Ed Skrein) wants to hurt him, he takes Vanessa and holds her hostage.

Needless to say, Deadpool goes after Ajax and the pair fight, but when the helicarrier they're fighting on top of starts to collapse, Deadpool forgets about Ajax and goes to save Vanessa. He even manages to do it, putting her in the airtight chamber that was used to torture him and sending her flying over the side of the helicarrier into the scrapyard below. Of course, Vanessa may be the only person he'd do this for, but still, he saves her life, and even ends up reconciling with her too.

In "The Uncanny Avengers: Red Skull," the Avengers are reeling from the revelation that Red Skull has gained Charles Xavier's powers by putting Xavier's brain in his head. But the Avengers quickly lose control of the situation when they realize that having Xavier's powers means Red Skull can control the minds of almost anyone — including pretty much the entire Avengers roster. The exception, of course, is Deadpool, whose mind is too fractured for such treatment. So when Deadpool enters Avengers Mansion, where the malevolent villain is holed up, Red Skull is surprised when Deadpool doesn't immediately fall prey to his telepathic control.

Of course, Red Skull's surprise doesn't last long, as Rogue, who is under Red Skull's mind control, quickly attacks Deadpool. It turns out, though, that this is all part of Deadpool's plan, because Rogue beating him allows Deadpool to get close enough to get Xavier's helmet, which blocks telepathic powers, out of his bag and on her head. While it's just the first step, with Rogue's mind now clear, Rogue is able to regain control and ultimately defeat Red Skull.

Deadpool isn't exactly ideal parental material. However, when he (Ryan Reynolds) and Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) decide to put a bun in her oven in "Deadpool 2," he seems genuinely excited. Of course, then Vanessa dies and all Deadpool's dreams are crushed, so when he's put in the Icebox, a prison for mutants, with 14-year-old Russell Collins (Julian Dennison) aka Firefist, he doesn't exactly bond with the boy. Besides, with the collars they put around each mutant's neck dampening Wade's powers, he's more focused on trying to avoid dying from cancer.

That is, until Cable (Josh Brolin) breaks into the prison and starts taking shots at him and Russell. At first, Deadpool wonders what he did to piss Cable off, but when it becomes clear he's hunting Russell, not him, he immediately jumps into action on the boy's behalf, stopping Cable from shooting Russell and coming after him in his cell. Of course, this leads to the collar coming off and Deadpool getting his powers back, but his initial decision was made to protect Russell — despite Deadpool's protests to the contrary.