That said, Remender knocked it out of the park. The first arc had Deadpool mostly play up the comedy with Wolverine regularly abusing him, both verbally and physically. It wasn’t until the first follow-up issue that we got what may be the most important – and arguably best – Deadpool moment of all time. Deadpool stood up as the team’s conscience, showing that he was disgusted with their actions and when Wolverine tried to act like he was the morally superior one – citing Deadpool as a no-good mercenary – he found out that Deadpool was actually working on the team for free, as he never cashed any of Angel’s paychecks.

If you weren’t reading Marvel around the time, then I can’t emphasize enough how major this was. For several years, Deadpool was all over the place with a bunch of ongoing comics and miniseries going on at the same time, but the quality didn’t match the quantity. For the most part, Deadpool was written as a two-dimensional joke machine. Jokes are great and all, but he felt flat and pointless. The fact that Daniel Way made him a raging asshole with few redeeming characteristics didn’t help.

Deadpool spent the rest of the run in the background, but he was always golden. Although it was never talked about, Wolverine started treating him with respect and would even – no pun intended – humor him. He verbally annihilated the Punisher so hard that even Garth Ennis had to feel it. Then it was his compassion amongst a team of extremist anti-heroes that saved everyone in the end.

2. JOE KELLY

Deadpool #1-33, #-1, #0, Daredevil/Deadpool Annual ’97, Deadpool/Death Annual #98, Deadpool & Widdle Wade Team-Up, Baby’s First Deadpool Book, Encyclopedia Deadpoolica

Artist Collaborations: Ed McGuinness, Kevin Lau, Bernard Chang, Shannon Denton, Pete Woods, Walter McDaniel, Steve Harris, James Felder, Anthony Williams, David Brewer

Joe Kelly is to Deadpool what Chris Claremont is to the X-Men. He didn’t create the character, but damn if he didn’t invent him. In the mid-90s, Kelly was given the opportunity to write the first Deadpool ongoing and he knocked it out of the park. He took the ideas introduced by Nicieza and Waid and built an amazing run that lasted 33 issues, plus a whole bunch of one-shots and tie-ins.

While it’s a little rough at times in the re-reading, Kelly’s run feels almost unfair to Christopher Priest, who took over in issue #34. Kelly’s time on the book was so character-defining that it felt self-contained. Like there wasn’t really anywhere else to go with him. Deadpool went through a major arc where he started as a creep, started becoming something better, faltered, revealed himself to be more of a monster than the readers realized, improved upon himself, became a hero, then had to deal with the fallout of all the horrible things he had done.

There are so many brilliant moments in under three years. The Spider-Man time-travel issue where he became one of the first Marvel characters to marvel over how weird Norman Osborn’s hair is. The way he defeated the Taskmaster by being far too unpredictable. The heartbreaking origin story where he had to kill Worm, the one man who believed in him. Watching as Dr. Killbrew – the horrible doctor that made him what he is – die a heroic death, spending his final moments trying to redeem himself as Deadpool looked on, overwhelming with emotion and confusion. The final issue, where he points out that he knows that he can never truly make up for his crimes, while explaining that he’s still trying and that’s worth more than giving up.

It can’t be overstated how important Kelly is to Deadpool’s existence. Nearly everyone who followed, including Nicieza, seemed to be trying to reinvent the wheel at best. But you know what? It’s possible to do so…

1. GERRY DUGGAN AND BRIAN POSEHN

Deadpool #1-45 (2012-2015), Deadpool: The Gauntlet #1-13, Hawkeye vs. Deadpool #0-4, Uncanny Avengers #1-present (2015)

Artist Collaborations: Tony Moore, Scott Koblish, Mike Hawthorne, Declan Shalvey, Reilly Brown, John Lucas, Salva Espin, Matteo Lolli, Ryan Stegman

The opening six issues of the last Deadpool volume doesn’t really hit as well as it should. Many decided to give it a shot and decided it wasn’t for them. I don’t blame them. The storyline about zombie US presidents (foreshadowed in Uncanny X-Force, funny enough) goes on too long and runs out of gas, even if it does introduce the much-needed supporting cast. But once that’s all done with? Man, you’re talking about one of the finest comic runs in recent memory. The Duggan/Posehn Deadpool run is SO GOOD.

It’s a total package of what makes him work. You got your humor. You got your fantastic supporting cast. You have pathos up the ass. You have great action and scenes of pure badassery. New villains. Deadpool moving forward in new ways. Expert uses of fourth wall-breaking. A wonderful gimmick where we’d get “flashback” issues in-between certain story arcs and see what Deadpool was up to back in the ’70s or ’80s. While Kelly’s take was about Deadpool overcoming what he’s done, this is more about Deadpool overcoming what’s been done to him.

One of the most fitting things in all of this is how we see Deadpool kill the villain Butler at one point. It’s one of the most cathartic kills in Marvel history and we don’t even know the full story of what Butler had done to him over the years. Through the flashbacks, we learn about Butler’s actions after the fact and it becomes apparent that revenge won’t make things better. What’s done is done and it will always haunt Deadpool, even if he doesn’t quite remember it.

Yet his innate goodness leads to those who try to help him overcome. He has the ghost of a good woman living inside his mind to bond with him and she’s able to see that he’s ultimately a decent man. He finds out he has a daughter and makes sure she’s well-protected. He continues to mentor Evan from Uncanny X-Force. Captain America learns to respect and befriend him. He even gets married to an anachronistic succubus who loves him for who he is. No matter how uncomfortable happiness makes him, he’s learning to accept the idea that he can love and be loved.

I was bummed when I discovered that the run was ending. Luckily, Duggan also wrote the incredibly charming Hawkeye vs. Deadpool miniseries and moved on to doing Shiklah (Mrs. Deadpool)’s Secret Wars tie-in series. While Posehn is gone, Duggan will not only continue writing Deadpool during the post-Secret Wars relaunch, but he’ll be including him in the pages of Uncanny Avengers. The run has been so fruitful that it’s essentially made Duggan one of the architects of the Marvel universe.

Not bad for a comic about a Deathstroke knockoff.

Agree with the list? Disagree? Sound off in the comments! But let’s be honest, you’re probably only going to comment if you disagree.

Gavin Jasper is wondering what Monty the skinless psychic is up to these days. That guy was great. Follow Gavin on Twitter!