For much of his comic book history, the Marvel comic book character Deadpool has been connected to DC’s Deathstroke the Terminator character, but Deadpool has obviously long transcended the realm of being seen as a ‘rip-off character’ by fans, and has established himself as a fan favorite character in his own right, now being the star or not one, not two, but THREE blockbuster movies. What has been especially amusing is that as time has passed, DC has actually done parodies of Deadpool itself!

While most of these parodies were designed as one-off characters, they each successfully brought the maniacal chaos of the Merc With A Mouth into the DC Universe without actually infringinging any intellectual property laws. One of the aforementioned Deadpool knock-offs even established himself as a major part of Harley Quinn’s supporting cast.

How Deadpool Became a Deathstroke Parody

Before he tragically passed away in 2022, Deathstroke the Terminator creator George Perez drew the above piece, showing Deathstroke and Deadpool merged together into one character. This was obviously Perez acknowledging the widely held belief that Deadpool was created by Rob Liefeld as a Deathstroke the Terminator parody. However, the truth there appears a bit murkier than that, and it really seems like the reason Deadpool is specifically tied to Deathstroke lies with Deadpool’s official co-creator, Fabian Nicieza, who scripted Deadpool’s first appearance (and then developed the character after Rob Liefeld left Marvel).

As argued in this old Comic Book Legends Revealed, Liefeld has been very open about the fact that he based Deadpool on a NUMBER of established characters, citing Spider-Man (basically, Deadpool was intended as an “evil Spider-Man,” a wisecracking bad guy), Boba Fett (bounty hunter), and Snake Eyes (the faceless mask, and a lot of the design elements). Liefeld says that he wasn’t intentionally referencing Deathstroke initially.

Instead, it was Nicieza who looked at the new character and said, in effect, “Oh, this is Deathstroke.” Nicieza even noted years later:

I immediately recognized the undertones of Deathstroke in Deadpool’s look, mostly because I knew how Rob was thinking. But because I already had various character voices for that issue who were serious and grim, I decided to go in the opposite direction of the audience’s expectations and give Deadpool a sarcastic attitude, and though still deadly, not taking things so seriously. I gave him the name Wade Wilson as an absolute in-joke between Rob and myself, since Deathstroke’s name was Slade Wilson. We never revealed the joke for 20 YEARS, so you can hardly say his intent was to parody Deathstroke, nor can you even remotely claim that from his very first appearance, the two characters had many similarities whatsoever outside of being physically capable mercenaries. Deadpool’s Weapon X background, his cancer cure resulting in his fluctuating skin condition and his rapidly regenerating brain cells causing his insanity are all substantive character aspects of Deadpool himself, which have nothing to do with Deathstroke. He is his own character, has been from his first appearance and deserves the popularity he now claims because he is an interesting character in his own right

So it was Nicieza who named Deadpool Wade Wilson after Deathstroke the Terminator’s Slade Wilson, but the “Wade” part didn’t come until a year after Deadpool had debuted, and the Wilson part came a year or so after THAT, and it was the “Wade Wilson” part that really made fans assume he was intended as a Deathstroke parody. Otherwise, he seemed very much like Liefeld’s listed influences – a merge between Spider-Man, Boba Fett, and Snake Eyes. All of the design elements of Deadpool are included in those three characters. There is nothing about the character that exists only in Deathstroke.

Still, of course, due to the Wade Wilson thing, fans HAVE obviously connected the two together, and DC, in turn, has used that connection to cleverly work Deadpool into the DC Universe.

Deadpool Appeared as DC’s Merc With No Name

The unnamed interdimensional mercenary from Superman/Batman Annual 2006 (by Joe Kelly, Sean Murphy, Ed McGuinness, Ryan Ottley, Carlo Barberi, Guy Major, Dexter Vines, Cliff Rathburn, Don Hillsman, Andy Owens, Bob Petrecca, and Rodney Ramos) played on the idea of Deadpool being a copycat of Deathstroke (notably, the issue was written by Joe Kelly, the first writer to write Deadpool’s ongoing series). The unnamed mercenary was described as a bizarre multiversal doppelgänger of Deathstroke. While this mercenary wore a similar costume to Deathstroke, his healing-factor powers and his bombastic personality were all clear parodies of Deadpool’s characteristics.

The reoccurring gag with this character was that he would constantly try to introduce himself as ‘Deadpool’. However, he would always be interrupted before he could finish in order to avoid copyright infringement. Before being ripped from the New Earth dimension, this unnamed mercenary tried to yell out his name to Batman and Superman, but all he could manage was “I’M DEEAAAAA-“. Despite his one-shot appearance, the Merc With No Name captured the maniacal chaos of Deadpool and gave comic book fans a fleeting glimpse at what it would be like to have the Crimson Comedian interacting with the DC Universe.

Blood Pouch Is DC’s Newest Deadpool Doppelgänger

2022 saw the debut of another DC incarnation of Deadpool within Suicide Squad #11 & #12 (by Robbie Thompson, Dennis Hopeless, Dexter Soy, Julio Ferreira, Eduardo Pansica, Matt Herms, and Marcelo Maiolo) in the form of Blood Pouch, the fourth-wall-breaking member of Earth-8’s Lightning Strikers. While already possessing the same characteristics and katana swords as Deadpool, Suicide Squad #12 even went as far as to say that Blood Pouch sounds “like a sexy Canadian”. This is a reference to Ryan Reynolds, who famously plays Deadpool in the titular character’s movie trilogy.

Taking full advantage of their own Deadpool copycat, writers Robbie Thompson and Dennis Hopeless had Blood Pouch become fast friends with DC’s Ambush Bug, another meta-character with a history of breaking the fourth wall. When the Lighting Strikers came to blows with the Suicide Squad the two decided to watch as both of the teams fought each other to the death. The whole time they provide witty banter and meta-commentary in classic Deadpool fashion.

Harley Quinn’s Red Tool Has Become DC’s Most Popular Deadpool Copy

By far, the popular and successful attempt by DC to parody Marvel’s Deadpool came through 2016’s Harley Quinn comic book series (by Amanda Conner, Chad Hardin, Jimmy Palmiotti, Bret Blevins, Alex Sinclair, and John Timms). The series introduced Wayne Wilkins, the former hardware store owner turned vigilante under the guise of ‘Red Tool’. Alongside a name that is an obvious reduplication of Deadpool’s, Red Tool sported both a very similar costume and the same yellow speech bubbles as the Crimson Comedian. Red Tool’s one distinguishing gimmick that set him apart from Deadpool is his obsession with hardware tools, which he uses as his signature weapons.

Red Tool was partially created as a response to fans “shipping” Deadpool and Harley Quinn, in part because the two anti-heroes have very similar chaotic personalities. However, while Red Tool was initially obsessively infatuated with Harley, he quickly became one of her most prominent allies. Red Tool’s popularity has allowed him to make far more frequent appearances than his copycat contemporaries, appearing in the majority of Amanda Conner’s Harley Quinn series and most recently in 2023’s Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU (by Logan Faerber, Frank Tieri and Ferran Delgado). Although these replicas will likely never hold the same popularity as Deadpool himself, they successfully entertain the idea of the Merc With A Mouth within the DC Universe, providing no shortage of fan service in the process.