Cover Story - Top 15 Deadpool Covers

Edited by Robert Beach 

Last Friday marked the premiere of the Deadpool movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but the early buzz is very positive, and it’s apparently on track to be one of the biggest hits of the year. Personally, I’ve never been a huge Deadpool fan, though I’m not going to begrudge anyone who does enjoy the merc with a mouth’s antics.  

He’s a hyper-active, unkillable lunatic with complex relationship with self-awareness. Having seen Freakazoid, Bugs Bunny, and the Mask, I get why that would be popular.  Given that Deadpool’s had a number of comics through the years, and I run a cover blog, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Deadpool comic covers.

15.

We start with a cover to set the mood going forward. I mentioned above that Deadpool is cut from the same cloth as folks like Bugs Bunny and Freakazoid, and this cover is directly in that particular wheelhouse. In fact, the “joke” of Deadpool being so incredibly secure in his own masculinity that he can break all kinds of gender norms has become a pretty bog standard Deadpool gag all around. And this is as pure a visualization of that joke as you can get.  

This cover also does a good job summing up the kind of whackiness that Deadpool sells: a simplistic, almost classical, approach to basic and instant visual gags that appropriate a childish sensibility to counterbalance Deadpool’s hyper-violent nature. Add on the element of the now semi-dated pop culture reference, and this is about as pure and simple a Deadpool cover as you can get.

14.

First things first: points for giving us a cover that features speech balloons. I remain an absolute sucker for that kind of thing. Now, let’s talk about why this cover is absolutely delightful. That giant moon face thing Deadpool is carrying on his back is Ego, the living planet, one of the crazier aspects of the Marvel cosmic universe and allegedly the central threat in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.  

That obscure reference blended with the incredibly irreverent style here is another example of classic Deadpool. Incidentally, in case you think that face is an affectation limited to Deadpool’s whack-y world don’t, Ego actually does have a giant face; it’s just he doesn’t normally drool on people. All of that combined with the absurdist cartoon-y nature of Deadpool holding up the planet like he’s Atlas make for a very fun nod to the classic stuff. 

13.

So obviously these will not all be comedic comic covers as some, like this Axis tie-in cover. Some are pretty excellent as simple cover art.  Axis is a forgotten 2014 event wherein a bunch of heroes and villains had their moral compasses inverted; good guys became bad guys and vice versa.  In the case of Deadpool, he morphed from whack-y cartoon murderer to thoughtful Zen pacifist.  

For its many terrible aspects, Deadpool as a Zen master was a brilliant idea, and this cover is the perfect visual metaphor for that dichotomy, showcasing the two competing Deadpool costumes between classic and meditative as back dropped by that great blood splattered Yin Yang symbol. I really love the way peaceful Deadpool wields a rock garden rake. That’s hilarious. The only real problem with this cover is the titles. That Axis title in the upper corner is really out of place and in no way balances out the shrunk-down Deadpool title in the left-hand corner. It's still a great cover though. 

12.

Jumping from one forgotten event to a relatively forgotten branding exercise, this cover ties in to Marvel’s Dark Reign emblem. This was a several month period in which all Marvel heroes became illegal, and Norman Osborn and several fellow villains took over the role of America’s protectors. It was a weird concept that we don’t have time for. Just take my word when I say this cover is spoofing on Daredevil's villain Bullseye. Now that we’ve covered the reoccurring trope of Deadpool’s connection to crappy event comics. Let’s move on to the reoccurring trope of Deadpool suffering horrendous injury.

The idea of Deadpool as a sponge for pain is fundamental to his character and the base comedic identity that’s formed around it.  The fact he can endure so much punishment but keep coming is what led writers to start using physical injury as more of a slapstick gag than an actual obstacle in the first place. This cover is that idea taken right to the logical extreme. I think my favorite part of the cover is the arrow sticking out of his eyebrow as it looks the most irritating. Add in Bullseye had to try really hard to cover that target in arrows and NOT hit the apple and this is a pretty amusing bit of super villain shenanigans to pop up. 

11.

This one is extra funny given that Ryan Reynolds’ twin starring roles in Deadpool and Buried. Deadpool and Death have a weird relationship quite literally later on in the characters history when he started dating death. This cover does a good job combing the standard absurdist imagery of the character with his non-chalant attitudes towards his own unkillable nature. That’s something that’s always set Deadpool apart from fellow immortal characters; how okay he is with probably living forever.  

Folks like Wolverine or the like tend to moan on and on about how they outlive everyone they love and so forth and so on. It gets incredibly taxing. Deadpool, on the other hand, is SO into this whole immortality thing he’s going to set-up his own coffin like a damn camping trip, probably just to rub it in everyone else’s face.  This cover also gets special points for the excellent use of negative space in highlighting the coffin and the really fun headstone vision for the title. 

10.

Like I said, Deadpool and Death: best friends forever. Firstly, drunken Deadpool is absolutely delightful whenever he pops up, so having him meet-up with father death himself is an absolute delight. The whole situation is thoroughly reminiscent of Bill and Ted in the best way possible. I especially like the line work on realizing death; the way he’s created through this flowing pencil lines and this creepy shrouded skull in the style of Mike Mignola are all very horror comic-y.  

Then, on top of all that creepy and well-produced evilness, then BOOM: drunken, splayed Deadpool complete with martini, sign, and an unnervingly outlined crotch area. It’s also charming as all hell that the background to this is a ton of cartoon skull and crossbones splattered across the white void. Finally, this cover features a speech balloon, making it the superior vision of Deadpool and Death hanging out. 

9.

Last cover from the ‘Dead’ storyline I swear, this story just brings out the best in the character. In all honesty, this really is the best interconnection of serious and comedic elements to spawn from this particular exploration of Deadpool and symbols of death. The pose he’s in is a reference to Kali, the Hindu deity of destruction, which I’m fine with given Deadpool’s whole thing is irreverent mockery of everything anyone holds sacred. What’s more, I like the parody idea of that particular pose by having him apply all the different methods of destruction to himself.  

That might seem a tad morbid. Given, again, Deadpool can’t be hurt, it’s got more in common with Daffy Duck freaking out than anything else. Finally, his methods of self destruction range from morbidly realistic to hilarious in that giant cartoon bomb or the world’s greasiest hamburgers. I’m not exactly sure why Deadpool has yellow eyes in this cover, but I’m willing to let that slide because this cover is great. 

8.

It’s normally stated that the only way to kill Deadpool is decapitation. It's not exactly true. He doesn’t grow a new body like Lobo, though his head remains alive after removal. If you were to sew his head back to his body, he’d come back good as new. That’s what this cover is in reference to, making it one of the most reserved and passive covers about dismemberment and surgery I’ve ever seen.  

In all honesty, the sedate nature of Deadpool in this situation is what really sells this situation. His expression toward the reader is just a mild perplexity more than anything else, like he’s genuinely confused and concerned by their decision to chop his head off.  Actually, the dismemberment aspect reminds me of Daffy Duck again, the way he can often remove his bill at will. This is also just a genius way of fitting your entire character on the cover regardless of how big you want to make him. In fact, I tend to wonder if that’s how this cover got started: the artist was tired of shrinking Deadpool to make him fit on the cover so just chopped his head off to get him on there. 

7.

Even though I don’t showcase them here, there are a lot of Deadpool covers that run pretty heavily off of pop culture references. The big reason those covers don’t make it to this list is that most of their references end up pretty dated, and the “jokes” aren’t funny when the reference isn’t topical. This Alien riff is a major exception as it perfectly captures that timeless, MAD Magazine style of comedy cover that tends to be very funny no matter when you look at it.  

I really love the visual of Deadpool’s emblem forced onto the xenomorph egg, especially how irritated he seems by the whole situation. They even changed the title colors to match the Alien motif. Throw in the exchange between the inter-titles and Deadpool’s speech balloon, and this is decidedly absurdist in the best way possible. 

6.

This cover jumps right back to that Ego cover from #14. The absurdity actively spoofs the sillier elements of the Marvel universe. Those three beekeeper-looking guys Deadpool is playing like a kettledrum are AIM agents. You might remember AIM as the evil organization from Iron Man 3 that were behind that whole Mandarin situation. In the movies, they ended up looking like military lava people, but in the comics, they sport lemon yellow beekeeper outfits that look amazingly ridiculous in the best way imaginable. Fans have always agreed to just not bring up the silliness of the AIM outfits, so Deadpool bringing it front and center is pretty great and speaks to his role as an in-universe satirist of his own reality.

I also get a delightful kick out of the speech balloons here about how this scene doesn’t happen in the comic. A big issue with classic comic covers built around making the reader stop and say “this is so weird I must read it” was most of the time the cover didn’t actually portray the events of the comic. This cover is Deadpool mercilessly mocking that tradition along with the inherent goofiness of the universe in the most cartoonish way possible. 

5.

How much more overtly cartoonish can you get then having actual tweety birds circling a knocked out person? Seriously, this is the peak of Deadpool as a human cartoon character within the Marvel universe, but it’s still pretty lovable regardless. A big part of this is that I’m a major sucker for covers that do clever things with the titles, so the idea of the main character actually being crushed under his own logo is absolutely hysterical to me.  

What’s more, it’s a clever metaphor for Deadpool as a whole: a whack-y character crushed under the weight of expectations his name brings with it. There’s become this major expectation from Deadpool that he’ll be full of overt swearing, sexuality, and violence, the trifecta of middle school comedy, even though none of that has ever been a really big part of Deadpool’s comedy shtick.  Underneath all the expectations there’s just a very silly cartoon character looking to do Looney Tunes shtick in a superhero universe. Who knows, either way I dig it.

4.

If you’re new to the Lido Shuffle, consider this a law: apes on comics sell comics. There was a time in the ‘50s when there was an editorial mandate that once a month there had to be a comic featuring a gorilla of some kind, and it was actually backed up by sales data. In any event, gorilla covers still hold a special place for me. Add in this cover also featured speech balloons, and it was pretty much always assured a place on this list.  

This is a pretty great realization of what Deadpool as a gorilla might look like as far as blending his costume with the design of an ape. Aside from that, what I really like about the cover is the incredulous look on gorilla-pool’s face. He just seems so mildly annoyed and uninterested by this situation. It’s a perfect summation of the character’s nonchalant attitude towards pretty much any major injury or calamity that might befall him. 

3.

This is your brain on Deadpool. I legitimately can’t think of a better visual metaphor for the intended purpose of Deadpool than him riding a brain and injecting it with what looks like an atom-bomb/syringe. Actually, here's a fun fact about this cover: if you look under Deadpool’s shin, the gray matter of the brain spells out “Wade.” That’s a bizarre allusion to an issue of All-New X-Men that had no dialogue but the word “sex” was present on every page constructed out of background materials. I don’t know why the allusion is being made in this whack-y Deadpool comic, but I’m not one to question the random free association that goes into making most Deadpool-related media.  

Something I haven’t really touched on here is the way these covers feature block color backgrounds like just a plane white, black, or blue void. I think that set-up actually works for Deadpool as the covers are more intended to be single-panel comedy comics rather than enticing previews for what’s inside the comic. The black background accentuates the idea of this taking place in a comedic void where all things are Deadpool.

2.

Not going to lie: this is my favorite Deadpool cover. Yes, I know it’s not overtly funny or whack-y. It's actually creepy, But damn does it stick with you. I originally saw this cover when it came out as part of the dopey and forgotten 2014 event comic Original Sin, and it became instantly lodged in my memory. The main reason it sticks with me is how easy it is to forget that before all the experiments and craziness and self-aware humor, Wade Wilson was a person with a life and identity.  

Wilson’s life as a human being is generally glossed over when it comes to his comic appearances, so having it right front and center here is very chilling. There’s no where to hide from the eerie truth that someone died to give us the hyper-active murderer we all love.  What seems to be a pretty clear and creepy indication is Deadpool’s parents are dead, and the whole “murdered for comedy” angle that tends to make Deadpool funny ends up terrifyingly inverted. I wouldn’t begrudge anyone for not liking the seriousness of this cover, but I guarantee you aren’t going to forget it any time soon. 

1.

As far as I’m concerned, this cover IS Deadpool. Every aspect of this cover serves to convey the unique niche of comic culture that Deadpool has climbed into and dominated since the time of his inception. There’s a level of whackiness so domineering it’s borderline forced. It's an irreverent tone that walks the thin line between playful and immature; the most cartoon-y violence imaginable punctuated by the most bloody depictions they can muster and a massive audience of spectators cheering him on regardless of action.  

Some folks actually didn’t much care for this cover when it first came out but I really don’t see why; it’s just being honest about who and what Deadpool is within the Marvel canon. He’s the guy who beats up zombie presidents in gory fashion while winking to the camera about how crazy the whole thing is, That is the platonic essence of Deadpool. Also, props for resurrecting zombie Lincoln complete with his stove pipe hat. That’s pretty nifty. 

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