Can Deadpool Feel Pain, Age, or Die? Is He Immortal?

Deadpool had mass success with the Ryan Reynolds adaption of 2016 but has been gracing Marvel comic books since 1991. His super-healing powers and smart mouth have endeared him to many, but can Deadpool feel pain, age, or die or is he immortal?

Deadpool has been basically immortal due to his healing powers and eventually was granted immortality to keep him away from Death. He feels pain but is able to withstand it and ages very slowly and can only die under very specific circumstances.

Let’s explore how Deadpool deals with pain, aging, and dying as well as consider some reasons why he is such an unkillable character.

Does Deadpool Feel Pain?

Deadpool does feel pain but through a combination of factors, it is likely a greatly diminished sensation.

Firstly it’s important to realize the transformation process of Deadpool. Having served in the US Army Special Forces and later on, as a mercenary, Deadpool is accustomed to putting aside fear and pain to get the job done.

This allows him to focus on other things and so put his mind off the pain, dulling it somewhat.

His development of over 30 inoperable cancers also tested his resolve, building up his pain tolerance as he continued to deal with his body rapidly deteriorating and dying. He eschewed chemotherapy in order to die quicker.

However, the superhuman enhancement project, the Weapon X Program meant that his cancer was counteracted by a healing factor derived from Wolverine. This meant his body started fighting cancer, but it still tends to form quicker than it can be completely healed.

This means that Deadpool is feeling the pain from cancer ravaging his body at all times.

After the healing agent began to wane, Deadpool was sent to be a guinea pig for Doctor Killebrew, being experimented on. The Doctor even ran a “Deadpool”, taking bets on who would live the longest. Killebrew used torturous experiments on Deadpool.

Eventually, this led to Deadpool seeking revenge on the Doctor and his assistant, Ajax, which led to Deadpool falling foul of them and having his heart ripped out. However, this only caused Deadpool’s resolve to kickstart his healing again, allowing him to escape.

Deadpool has then suffered various forms of damage in his appearances, such as being cut clean in two, severing his own body parts, getting arrow bolts in the head, breaking his own bones, and being shot many times.

Even while in these severely compromised states, he can still move around and have his body parts move despite being physically separated from them, almost like a zombie.

He will cry out in pain sometimes, but it’s not always clear whether he is joking or not. Deadpool does have one of the sickest and darkest senses of humor in all of fiction. Given that Deadpool does still remain slightly human, he does still feel something similar to pain.

Does Deadpool Age?

Determining whether Deadpool ages requires one first to establish when he was born. This is not such an easy task as the various mediums that he has appeared in are not in agreement.

However, some timeshifts have shown him thousands of years old, but still appearing much the same and speaking just like he was in his 30s.

Whatever the case may be, at some point Deadpool received the healing factor that helped reverse his cancer, and it was revealed that the healing factor has been adapted to better suit Deadpool’s recovery, so it likely affects his age as well.

In the very old versions, we see Deadpool like when he is hundreds or thousands of years old, his healing factor does seem quite decelerated, meaning that he is aging just very slowly.

His brain seems to have taken quite the battering, and Deadpool is easily one of the most insane characters out there. 

This has led to some hilarious and depressive moments as Deadpool fights his own demons, but it reveals that perhaps parts of his body cannot be healed. This manifests in his never-ending stream of jokes and non-sequiturs, as well as his patch memory.

Can Deadpool Die of Old Age?

Deadpool comes across as being immortal, as he can’t be killed or die of injuries despite being absolutely manhandled by almost everybody who comes across him.

While many points to the fact that Wolverine is aging and likely may die at some point, this is possibly due to the adamantium in his body. Deadpool doesn’t have this complicating factor, so he may outlast Wolverine.

The way the aging and injury recovery is treated throughout the various mediums of comic book and film reveal large inconsistencies, but it seems that Deadpool just ages extremely slowly while his healing factor counteracts most if not all of the normal signs of aging.

Can Deadpool Die?

Confirmation of Deadpool’s immortal status was revealed when Thanos cursed him with the punishment of immortality to prevent him from entering Death’s realm.

This episode revealed that Thanos was actually in love with Death, but due to Death’s feelings for Deadpool being too strong, Thanos realized he would never get Death, thus figuring the next best thing is to ban anyone else from getting her as well.

Can Deadpool Die if His Head Is Cut Off?

Deadpool will certainly survive decapitation and has had recoveries from similarly bad injuries.

Deadpool has been completely incinerated but then regenerated from the ashes, so the occasional head severance is not going to slow him down.

Deadpool is so unkillable, that in one of the Deadpool storylines he makes a deal with Mephisto, one of the arch-demons and King of Hell, to allow him to die and enter Death’s realm if he first kills his daughter, Ellie.

Through a convoluted process, he ends up doing this, becoming King of Hell. It does involve a neutrino bomb and a black hole, preventing any particle surviving from which to build back into Deadpool from.