Deadpool FINALLY gets hired for a job! There's a missing hard drive, and whoever gets it could very well own the world! Naturally, our Merc With a Mouth is going to find it first, right? Well...only if he can outwit that superspy known as the CAT, and slide by the undulating charms of three gorgeous and deadly snake chicks. Plus: Cable sees the signs -- omens and portents -- characters gathering, moving across the board like chess pieces...can Apocalypse be resurrected? Can Cable and Deadpool stop it in time? And, with CIVIL WAR tearing the Marvel Universe apart, only one man can sew it back together: Deadpool!? Guest starring Domino and Captain America. Plus: this edition comes complete with all the hilarious letters pages!
Fabian Nicieza is a writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of DEADPOOL and for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, and Robin.
His first novel, the Edgar Award-nominated SUBURBAN DICKS, a sarcastic murder mystery, is on sale now from Putnam Books.
The Dicks will return in THE SELF-MADE WIDOW, coming June 21st.
About the Book: Cable’s quest for utopia on Earth continues. And so, Deadpool’s quest to disrupt Cable’s quest continues too. Luckily, there’s more, and more fractions willing to help him along, and fund this need to be a thorn. Nobody likes Mr. Know it All, for his past is our present and future. And that’s the main problem, isn’t it? How does one mess with a prick who literally knows what happens next?…
My Opinion: Real solid writing, as to be expected, I guess. But either Cable got his character’s arc lowered a bit, or it finally points downwards from the peak, because man, by the end I hated his guts, despite all the great things he did and all that. Must say, I do not like superhero or mutant stories at all, but Deadpool really works. It’s almost like reading a weird, crazy villain. Keep that in mind if it’s not your thing either. This was quality entertainment.
This series is easy to enjoy but hard to love. The Deadpool sections are fun--silly, annoying, full of comic-book violence and meta-jokes. There are some interesting mysteries and nice reveals. Occasionally, Cable cracks a joke, and those are always priceless.
Unfortunately, the author is completely in love with Cable, one of the worst comics characters ever. He is way too complicated, with a back story that would take pages to fully explain, but readers really just don't know much about him--his motivations and emotions are almost completely hidden. This volume further complicates his story by adding technological substitutes for his lost telepathy and telekinesis (a very cool idea, but anything that complicates the character is just annoying at this point.) But the REAL problem with Cable in this series is that the writer tries to impress us with his importance NOT by showing us why he's important, but by TELLING us that he's important. Cable, here, is supposed to be pompous, with a serious messiah complex; but it's the writer himself who comes off as pompous--WE should care about Cable because Nicieza says he's important, not because he ever has any lasting significance on continuity in the universe (he doesn't.)
So, like I said, this series is definitely worth reading--it's fun and at times hilarious (Deadpool vs. the Great Lakes Avengers). But it's flaws are ever-present. The writer is just fixated on making Cable into an icon like Spider-Man or Batman and he just will never be.
Major plotlines in this book:
Bosom Buddies - Issuse 19-23. A decent heist caper, with too many people hired to do the same job. The big reveal at the end is a letdown, though, as the man behind the curtain was some guy no one has ever heard of. (Maybe he was big in the '90s?)
Living Legends - Issue 25. This issue really gets directly to the problem with the series. The writer expects us to believe that Cable is some future analogue of Captain America. Unfortunately, at his best, Captain America is honorable and highly motivating, representative of the spirit of the nation (or at least one idealistic version of that spirit). He's a character who embodies an ideal, someone you just have to admire. Cable never really makes it past being a comic book character (and not a very interesting one, even). By trying to convince me that Cable is 'like' Captain America in some way, he just further reminds me that he's not--he's just a hollow placeholder--a constant enigma to make plotlines happen. Essentially, he's a huge, living MacGuffin, not a character. (For example, see Messiah Complex, the excellent X-event where Cable does his job perfectly--he makes things happen without having any human characteristics at all.)
Born Again (Blood of Apocalypse) - Issue 26-27. Here, it is revealed that Cable helped make Apocalypse the incredibly powerful being he is. This is a very cool twist. Does it make sense? No! (But it's time travel, so that can be forgiven.) This twist definitely adds some dramatic irony to the situation. Here, again, we have Cable doing things just to advance the plot. Why exactly is he bringing Apocalypse back? Not because it's in character, but because we need Apocalypse back. Despite all of that, I enjoyed this arc.
The Domino Principle - Issues 28-29. Cable takes over the fictional country of Rumekistan. Domino is somehow involved. Nothing significant really happens.
Civil War - Issues 30-32. Pretty funny stuff. Starts off with some excellent Deadpool moments as he tries to hunt down the Great Lakes Avengers (er, Champions) and the usual Avengers later on. Then Cable does some Cable-y things.
Issues 33-35. Various things happen, revolving around the fact that Cable and Deadpool aren't getting along. I'm sure you can imagine.
If it's not obvious from my review, I got pretty sick of Cable at exactly issue 25 and my interest in Deadpool started to battle with my fatigue at Cable.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
As Cable's plans to lead the world towards utopia become more complex and see him gathering ever more power to himself, a growing rift forms between him and Deadpool. Frequently they find their agendas at odds, no more so than amid the superhero civil war, in which Wade becomes an agent of the government tasked with hunting down rogue heroes.
If you've read the previous volume, you'll know what you're getting here, with Cable becoming ever-more messianic and Deadpool becoming increasingly chaotic, with various mercenaries and superheroes caught between them. There were two elements in particular that I liked more about this volume, however. The first of which is the bit where, in Deadpool's own words, the book turns serious for a bit and we see that the relationship between Cable and his arch-nemesis Apocalypse is far more complicated and personal than we every knew.
The second element I particularly liked here was Domino's role in the story. In many ways her relationship with Cable mirrors that between the title characters; once mercs together, a close personal bond, distrust of each other's intentions. It is that juxtaposition of the relationship between Wade and Nate with that of Domino and Nate that adds a surprisingly deep and introspective element to the book.
Also, not relevant to the review, but it is interesting that when these stories were originally in comics form the series was called 'Cable & Deadpool', but thanks to Ryan Reynolds they've had their billing swapped now.
This book was soo cool! First book was awesome but this one was like 2x better imo. The story was super interesting and kept me engaged even if following Cable's antics kind of felt like following a toddler that just keeps wandering off at the mall. This was such a great portrayal of DP, he was super funny and almost every panel with him was peak comedy. I thought the massage oil and yellow lady undie jokes were 10/10, and I appreciate him always acting like an idiot in the face of everyone else being all stoic and serious. I also really liked seeing the bit of backstory with his dad and him haunted by his past at the end. It was also great seeing the Weasel, Domino, and Spidey appearances (even tho already I read the latter in SM/DP vol 0), and DP and Cable's divorcee manipulator toxic yaoi friendship is a hard one to follow but that doesn't mean it's not fun. This is definitely one of my favorite Deadpool books and possibly one of my favorite comics I've read. One concern: Is Wade American in this series????
The first two arcs in this volume were good & show us Cable on a mission to reacquire his telekinesis & telepathy, using other means to replicate both of these as well as using Deadpool & others as his pawns to accomplish his goals. I enjoyed the initial stories, lots of action & heists. After these it all starts to fall apart rather rapidly though with Cable; not content in unifying people, religions & lifestyles on his own island (plus nearly convincing Captain America to take up residence there, go figure) then deciding to take control of a fictional European country. I was really ‘meh’ about all of this & as well as the story, the art and inking decrease in quality too. I was so bored with it all I really considered just dropping the series completely. Pretty p*ss poor and yawn some. As of writing this though I’m currently reading the ultimate collection volume 3 which is much better, so it’s not all bad!
Some of this wasn't bad, but the middle got distracted by the Civil War, which wasn't my favorite. I try to like Cable, I really do, but I just don't. DP is so much better.
When I was Your Age (19). The one-off that leads things off, with Wade and Nate getting to know each other, is fun [7/10].
Bosom Buddies (20-23). Not as good, primarily because the story feels like it doesn’t have enough scope and just revolves around fights. Everything opens up a bit at the very end, but it’s not enough to retroactively make it a great story [6/10].
Gratuitous Guest Stars (24-25). The Deadpool + Spider-Man story was kind of meh, but is saved by Nicieza’s great humor [6.5/10]. I was surprised to really love the Cable + Captain America story, but it does such a great job of pointing out their similarities and really exploring both their characters in unusual ways [8/10].
Born Again (26-27). A nice look at the relationship between Cable & Apocalypse. It’s not as exciting or clever as I’d like, but it’s very insightful [7/10].
The Domino Principle (28-29). This arc isn’t helped by making it all about Domino & Deadpool for the first issue; overall, I just don’t care enough for her. Still, there’s some humor, some nice characterization, and interesting plot movement [6/10].
Civil War (30-32). I found this story OK when I read it years ago as part of Civil War: X-Men Universe and better now, because I can see the context of the interesting character growth between Cable & Deadpool. The choice to confront the President over the Civil War is also pretty cool [7/10].
Finale (33-35). The pair of issues with the Six-Pack have more fun with Cables’ manipulations and also nicely tie his work with Rumikstan into his work with Providence. The final issue with Deadpool’s hallucinations is a nice coda to the story, and a surprisingly strong final for the volume.
The most complex of the Deadpool & Cable series. Cable wrangles politics and religion, attempting to unify the world under one peaceful flag, despite adversaries who would have otherwise, regarding Cable as a madman hellbent on world domination.
Where does Deadpool figure in all this?
He is a wrench in the works. A wild card. You can never be sure whether he's gonna be the good guy this time around, and you find yourself marveling at the turn of events. You didn't see that coming! But as you read on, you ask yourself... is Deadpool really screwing things up, or is it part of a greater plan?
A collection of the infamous duo stories far better than the previous book. Deadpool at last is funny enough to satisfy every DP hardcore fan like myself and the stories where brilliant. I REALLY love the re-cap pages in every issue which are hilarious and they also help you not to get lost with the story.