Forcing Myself To Give Cable Credit

So several examples of powerlessness, eh? If I'd been thinking clearly, I'd have remembered Asimov did a story that was similar. There were elves, or fairies, that look insectile, and one of them was a mutant, who could use human mental energy to power electrical devices. It planned to use a writer of mystical stories as a power source, and was drawing off his mind to use the writer's wife as a hostage. When it sent the writer to get some books on engineering, it tried to sue his son to maintain control. Except kids apparently no longer believe in fairies, so it didn't work, and the kid killed the fairy/elf thing with a book. Whoops.

Couple of years back, there was Cable/Deadpool #35. You might recall that as the issue where Cable had hooked Deadpool's subconscious to the Infonet, so that Wade was being tormented by all the people he killed. The plan, as Cable explained it, was that it would put Wade in a state of mind to come ask Cable for help. Given that Cable wasn't even sure what was going to get tapped into, I'm not certain what sort of help he was planning to provide. I'm guessing guidance as Wade tries to find a new path.

Much to my glee, the plan appeared to backfire. Wade got sick of the voices, and started shooting up his favorite bar. Fortunately for the bar, Cable showed up before Wade had to throw his grenade at something less worthwhile, like the pools tables. At the end of the issue, Wade is not making any steps to ask Cable for help, which was fine and dandy by me. Cable had been playing up the "I'm from the future, so I know what's coming down the pike, I've got the answers" a bit much in previous months, usually at Wade's expense*. Seeing something not go as he planned it was a welcome change, and so I chortled at Cable.

Except, it seems to have worked. Considering what happened afterwards, Wade fumbled about trying to revive his merc career by abducting potential employers, got shrunk by the Rhino, rescued Agent X (and try to find more Pym Particles), and then had to save Sandi and Outlaw from T-Ray**. After that, he gets into situations where no one is necessarily forcing him to act, but he still opts to help. He wants to rush to Providence and help Cable, he goes back to that HYDRA base to rescue Weasel, but tries to do so without getting into a pointless scrap with Wolverine. It doesn't really work, but he made the effort. Wade even agrees to share his soul with T-Ray. Or he agreed to share T-Ray's soul with T-Ray, one of the two.

So I guess Cable's scheme actually sort of worked, though his country being attacked really pushed things along. Still, I guess that means I can't chuckle at Cable for this after all. Curses.

* The fight in France where Wade was a bit overzealous in trying to arrest Cable, and ultimately got fired from the CSA, for one, and the Rumekistan sabotage attempt where Wade basically got tossed out of the country for another.

** I could not get into T-Ray. Every issue he showed up, it was as though the book was a runner that got shot in the knee. Just one knee, so it was still limping along, but impaired.