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The top 3 deadliest Marvel characters

Let's just say we're really glad Deadpool and Wolverine have kept their rivalry on a low simmer.

 

Aja Romano

Internet Culture

Posted on May 20, 2015   Updated on May 28, 2021, 7:09 pm CDT

All this time, we have may been asking the wrong question. Forget facing off a single horse-sized duck versus 100 duck-sized horses. As this intimidating new infographic shows, we’d be no match against a single duck-sized Deadpool.

Cosplayers and comics fans in the U.K. are probably familiar with Morph Costumes, the high-end costume maker that creates everything from simple face masks to giant animatronic killer robots. Now, in honor of this week’s London Comic Con, the website has created a special infographic examining which of Marvel‘s superheroes spend as much time wreaking havoc as they spend saving the Earth.

Morph Costumes’ Mark Porter explained the project:

[W]e combed through the entire Marvel database, to find out which characters are the most deadly according to the number of people they’ve killed… A lot of research went into making the piece, and we’re really proud of it.

On the site’s blog, he added, “We’ve had furious debates over this in the MorphCostumes office, pitting characters against one another in imaginary fights to the death.”

But the stats don’t lie: WolverineDeadpool, and The Punisher have the most kills to their names according to their research. Meanwhile wholesome heroes like Captain America have only racked up a paltry six kills, while Daredevil has probably killed more people in the TV show based on his exploits than he has in his entire comic book history—he doesn’t even make it onto the list.

As the “notable kills” section highlights, Wolverine not only has significantly more blood on his hands than anyone else in the Marvel universe—he has more personally traumatic deaths on his hands, most notably his former girlfriend and fellow Jean Grey. And apart from the Collective, who’s less a character than a wayward collection of powers, only Iron Man comes close to Wolverine when it comes to killing other heroes. Only one of Tony Stark’s 11 kills, Mallen, has actually been evil. Geez, guys. Whose side are you on, again?

Oddly enough, if we subtract Wolverine’s 13 “good” and “neutral” kills from his total, he’s only downed a few more villains than his anti-hero counterparts, Deadpool and The Punisher.

Superheroing is a messy business.

Illustration by leofiger/deviantART (CC BY 3.0)

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*First Published: May 20, 2015, 4:06 pm CDT