Sunday Splash Page #100

"Cheaper Than Divorce Court", in Cable/Deadpool #33, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (penciler), Jeremy Freeman (inker), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Who doesn't enjoy seeing Cable get shot every once in a while? Be honest.

I actually started buying Cable/Deadpool during its Civil War tie-ins. The one and only time that trash fire got me to buy a comic. I had some space on the pull list since I'd hit my limit with Bendis' New Avengers and Adam Beechen's Robin the week before. 

This is when Cable's tendency to manipulate Wade finally hits the fan. Wade makes decisions Cable doesn't approve of - and even knowing why he's making them and why it's important to him - trips him up repeatedly. Humiliates him, actually. Which, rather than getting Deadpool to turn to Cable for help (because Nate couldn't just offer), gets Wade making more poor decisions. I'm not sure how Cable thought literally pantsing Deadpool on worldwide TV, then telekinetically launching him into another country would convince Wade to turn to him for help.

Then Mike Carey took Cable away to be part of his X-Men run (the one where some dumbass decided Mystique and Sabretooth were good people to have on the team). Then Carey destroyed Cable's floating island nation, with old time traveling metal arm guy seemingly going with it. 

At which point, Nicieza and Brown did the best they could, turning it into a rotating Deadpool team-up book. This is the point when Bob, Agent of HYDRA is introduced. Weasel pops up more often, Sandi, Outlaw, and Agent X become more frequent supporting characters. You do what you have to when it's supposed to be a buddy comedy book, and one of the buddies gets yoinked out from under you.

The low point of that stretch for me was Nicieza did a couple of stories involving T-Ray, who I don't care about one way or the other, because Joe Kelly's Deadpool run just doesn't matter that much to. Deadpool is Wade Wilson. Anything else is needlessly muddying the waters. Did people learn nothing useful from the Clone Saga?!

The book takes on a sillier tone minus Cable and his "save the future" gravitas. Bob presents a much different person for Wade to react to, since Bob's two settings are "confusion" and "terrified". There are a couple of issues of time travel hijinks, some matters of the soul with Dr. Strange and Brother Voodoo, a big fight with Wolverine that has several pages of Deadpool's severed head being kicked around while Bob tries to corral it.

Brown's art works for that. His Deadpool isn't nearly as muscular as Zircher or Brooks', to say nothing of Ed McGuinness'. He can still draw people scowling, can still draw violence, but his art seems to fit sillier moments like Wade being flung three blocks by a dinosaur covered in a symbiont.There's a looseness to the pencils that allows for more comic exaggeration.

Sunday Splash Page #99

"The Case of the Untrimmed Eyebrows", in Cable/Deadpool #13, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Patrick Zircher (penciler), M3TH (inker), Gotham (colorist), Cory Petit (letterer)

As hard as it might be to believe now, there was a time when Cable was a bigger draw than Deadpool, thus he got top billing in their dynamic duo. They start out at cross-purposes, both after the same prize, and wind up tied together through the magic of comic book science. Cable can't actually get rid of Deadpool, so they end up working together, and just like in all those movies, love blooms.

Well, not exactly, but by their standards, close enough. Wade supports Cable in his plan to try and improve the world, and helps bring him out of his coma. Cable gives Nate a place to stay, up to a point, and tries to help with the memory issues his constantly regenerating brain causes. Cable gives Wade someone to believe in - since Wade certainly isn't going to believe in himself - and Deadpool gets Cable to loosen up a bit. Cable has that tendency to stand a distance, observing humanity as like a giant Rubik's Cube. Little harder when one guy is standing next to you, muttering random shit constantly, and poking you like hyperactive five-year old.

Nicieza writes a lot of exposition and techno-babble at times, which when combined with Wade's non-stop chatter can fill up a page in a hurry. He trots out some of his pet characters - Gareb (Commcast), Shen Kuei (the Cat, who almost everyone treats as like the coolest guy evah) - but he only uses Apocalypse once, which is a heck of an achievement for a Cable book, I'd say. His Deadpool is very much the constant dated references type of humor, which is going to vary in its effectiveness depending on the reader. It mostly works for me, so infer from that what you will.

Mark Brooks drew the first few issues, then Patrick Zircher took over for most of the next two years. He's the one who drew the short straw and had to draw Wade wearing Jean Grey's old Marvel Girl costume (the green one with the short skirt she wore the first time she died). On the plus side, that probably ruined all of Cyclops' happy memories of Jean in that outfit.

Of course, Cable has a nasty habit of tricking people into doing things he wants, rather than simply asking them to do them, which ends up causing some problems for he and Wade. Which we'll look at next week. . .

Yes, I'm Still Thinking About The Deadpool Movie

It has to be some measure of how much I enjoyed the film that I'm actually excited at the prospect of Cable appearing in the sequel. Assuming that's actually something that's going to happen, and given there are actors actively campaigning for the role, I guess it is.

Admittedly, I only enjoy Cable when he's around Deadpool, but half the time I'm infuriated at his vaguely patronizing attitude towards Wade. But I'm curious to see what they'd do with him, how they'd get him into the movie in the first place. Will he already be in the present? Will he time travel in partway through? Will Wade travel into the future? How happy will Wade be to play with future weapons, like laser rifles that don't require ammo (that he would just forget anyway)?

I was wondering how they were going to build Wade and Nathan's peculiar friendship in one movie, considering how long those two were full-on antagonists, then grudging allies, then actual buddies and whatever else they might be. But movies pull off that antagonists to buddies stuff all the time, like Lethal Weapon, or Tommy Boy, so it's easily doable. Although Deadpool/Cable kind of runs a wider gamut, since they were actively trying to kill each other, and I'm not going to rule out them being presented as a couple in the film (certainly expecting Wade to make several suggestive remarks).

I'm assuming the X-Men defeated Apocalypse in the recently released X-Men film*, which is a bit of a shame, since he's frequently the reason Cable's running around in the present anyway. But I suppose it's always possible that Apocalypse didn't actually die**, and he's back causing trouble, and that's why Cable showed up, to finish the job.

* Which I might get around to seeing one of these days. I haven't really loved any of the X-Men films, and I still haven't seen Captain America: Civil War, even though I did love each of the first two Cap movies, so it isn't exactly a priority.

** I've come to expect superhero movies to kill their bad guys. I don't really like that they do it, but it does happen a lot. But maybe Apocalypse didn't die, even though Jean incinerated his physical and astral form, thank you Wikipedia.

What I Bought 3/8/2016 - Part 2

I was debating whether to try the new Power Man and Iron Fist series and ultimately decided not to. I kept seeing scans of it and not feeling any excitement for it. It felt like something I'd buy because I thought I should buy it, rather than because I wanted to. If that ends up being a mistake, I'm sure I'll learn about it online. On to books with time travel!

Deadpool and Cable: Split Second #3, by Fabian Nicieza (story/script), Reilly Brown (story/pencils), Jay Leisten and Jeremy Freeman (inkers), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - I can't make out what Wade's expression is. if he's taking aim, or just as befuddled by tween Cable's head covering as I am.

Wade is sent to different timelines to kill a bunch of Cables, because the TVA assures him this will solve the problem Cable's time-traveling has caused. Except Wade keeps saving Cable instead, and it turns out that works, too. Then he travels back in time to where the mess started and keeps Split-Second from accidentally killing what turns out to be his baby brother, only to have Cable show up, steal his suit, and try to save himself by killing all the other Cables. And Wade stops him again, and somehow all the Cables merge into sort of classic Cable, to the extent such a thing exists. Personally, I think the beard worked for him, even if it was a little implausible a child of Scott Summers could grow a beard that good. A mustache, sure. His grandfather's Corsair. A beard is another matter.

I think the story got away from Nicieza and Brown a little. Wasn't entirely clear what killing all these Cables, some of whom have clearly already time traveled, was going to accomplish. I mean, if the temporal stuff is the issue, you gotta kill him before Jean and Scott sent him to the damn future to save him, because that was the first instance! And Nicieza already gave Deadpool a chance to kill infant Cable once, and he didn't. And I have no idea why not killing him worked just as well.

But I don't care, because after like 9 years, Wade got Cable back to making him think his fly was down that one time! That's the important thing. Also, I like how much Brown has Wade really get into his sword swings. There's one, when he's trying to stop one Cable from killing another, where he cuts Cable's gun in two, and he it's like he jumped in the air, then swung down as hard as he could, so he almost folds himself in half. Gotta appreciate the effort. Also, during the battle in Wade's mind, I notice that among the statues of Shiklah, Siryn, Vanessa, and the patron Saint Bea herself, there was one of Cable. They still may not have kissed on panel, but for the people who care, Wade puts Cable in there with his love interests. So be happy! Or don't. I don't care.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #5, by Ryan North (writer), Erica Henderson (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (lettering and production) - Sometimes the squirrel in Doreen's logo reminds me of the Starfox logo. Not precisely, the legs are different, but the bushy tail flowing behind.

Old Squirrel Girl and Young Squirrel Girl try to fight Doom and his Doombots while Nancy and the other CS students convince all the New Yorkers of the '60s it's just a European film they're making. The battle moves into the Natural History Museum, and Doreen appears on the verge of defeat, until she speaks to Nancy in C++ to tell her to send Doreen into the past (using the gun the schlub responsible for all this had), so that Doreen can show up and help, and just keep doing that until there's like 40 Squirrel Girls beating up on Doom. I don't care what that text said, I'm not calling them Squirrels Girl, that doesn't make any sense at all. Doom is forced to surrender, send everyone home, and not try this stunt again. He tries to circumvent this by sending a Doombot back, but finds Old Lady Squirrel Girl trashed his time platform.

I think North and Henderson mostly closed the loop on the potential paradoxes, and I didn't get as lost as I did with Deadpool and Cable, so bravo team! It was nice Squirrel Girl had not lost her awful sense of humor with age, as demonstrated with her terrible "old" pun she did with her younger self. And that was a great, awful joke, especially because they took a panel to high five over it, during the fight. Also outstanding was Doreen's outrage at Doom sassing science, and the fact Doom actually listens when the heroes discuss their plan. Someone who monologues out loud as much as Doom would know to listen to other people providing handy expository dialogue. And the fact that apparently Doreen's really awkward attempts to maintain her secret identity actually work, because her other classmates didn't catch on for a good long time. If she'd been wearing the ears from her costume, they'd have never figured it out.

I think one of my favorite panels is the one right after Nancy tries to help by throwing a rock at a Doombot. Then we see things in profile as Nancy hustles away as the Doombot monotones, "Destroy all nerds". It's just a good beat, a classic form of humor, and it works.

So let's see. Doreen's handled Galactus, she's made Dr. Doom submit. Next on the list: Thanos. Or MODOK, I guess.

What I Bought 2/12/2016 - Part 1

The store I buy from online got my books here faster than usual, but I still took my time getting around to reviewing them. Maybe they were trying to beat any President's day-induced mail delays. We're going to start things off with a couple of mini-series, one that's wrapping up, and the other that's in the middle of its story.

Atomic Robo: The Ring of Fire #5, by Brian Clevinger (writer), Scott Wegener (artist), Anthony Clark (colorist), Jeff Powell (letterer/designer) - On the list of things you don't want to encounter in space, a multi-armed Nazi death machine piloted by a skull has to rank pretty high on the list. Probably between a Xenomorph and someone with bad flatulence.

Robo is able to trigger the space station's weapons before he and the aforementioned death machine start tearing the place apart in a fight that sends the station out of orbit and into the atmosphere. Robo is narrowly able to get into an escape pod before everything blows and/or burns up. Down on the surface, the lances succeed in tearing the Biomega island to pieces, before ULTRA can hit it with nukes and end all life on the planet, assuming that didn't happen because of the other countries that were ready to fire their own nukes because they didn't think ULTRA was using enough. After, there are congressional hearings! Which we only see briefly, but all the bullcrap laws that let ULTRA exist are repealed, and various science agencies around the world want to establish an organization of their own to share knowledge to better address problems. As it turns out, Broughton mission to visit ALAN's remains was to use it to devise a way to make Robo a new reactor core that would fit inside him, so I guess the Telluric Connector goes by the wayside for now. And Robo wants to get out of the Action Scientist business, and back into just science. Boooooo.

For all I wasn't enthused with the first issue, this wound up being really good, as usual. It drew together some prior stories - ALAN and Robo's struggles to live up to his father's hopes - kept a couple of other long-running subplots moving, with Majestic's leader still working behind the scenes. Gotta love a guy who sees accountability as hampering his goals. Always a good sign that the person in question knows they're going to fuck up, but wants to be able to do so as much and as badly as they please without consequences. And the story's set at least a few things up for down the line. What's the shift in priorities for Robo going to mean for Telsadyne? The Telluric Connector feels like something that can come back in a big way down the line, either as a solution, or a big problem. And there's still the question of where Jenkins is and what he's up to.

I like the whole fight between Robo and the station's watchdog outside the station, as it plummets. Especially that panel where the station is rushing towards Earth, but Earth is in the top two-thirds of the panel, so from our perspective everything is upside-down? Nice reminder of how disorienting it could be in space. Also, Clark's colors, so that everything starts glowing orange, then small flames start to appear, then everything's on fire. The brief bit where Robo's in the escape pod, but the death machine is holding the door open, and there's a silent panel of Robo just looking, and then in the next he's kicked it in the face to knock it away, and then slams the door. Wegener doesn't give Robo and particular expression. Not frustration or confidence, and Clevinger doesn't include any dialogue. But Robo's face is lit by that orange light of re-entry, so there's a sense he knows he's running against the clock. But he's very matter-of-fact about it. It's just another minor problem to be dealt with, I guess.

Deadpool and Cable: Split Second #2, by Fabian Nicieza (story/script), Reilly Brown (story/pencils/inks), Jay Leisten (inks), Jim Charalampidis (colors), Joe Sabino (letters) - Little surprised Cable still wears a watch. He must waste so much time setting it, with all his chronal travels. I know, I know, it's a Back to the Future homage, you don't have to tell me.

Wade and Cable's attempts to stop Split Second (the time traveler person) fail, repeatedly. But the traveler's plan isn't working either, so he keeps going back to a specific point and everyone tries again. Which just leads to total chaos, which Wade eventually is able to traverse and shoots Split Second in the back. Which causes a release of chronal energy which throws him and Cable into a future plagued by random time holes, caused by the work of the guy who was designing the time harness in the first place and apparently continued to work on it after his son was accidentally shot by Wade at the end of last issue. Cable's mind is completely breaking down, so Wade ventures into Timeverse's HQ, and fights some weirdo in another version of the time harness, who seems to be talking in reverse. Who turns out to be him, tasked by the Time Variance Authority to kill Cable so save time.

Right. That's why we're trying to kill Cable.

So it's silly. Not a surprise. I can't decide whether I can make heads or tails out of the time travel or not. The stuff going on with "Loop" as they were calling the Deadpool in the time harness took me awhile to follow, but as for what's going on with Cable, I'm pretty well lost. then again, I'm pretty sure the disembodied head claiming to be the head of the TVA is actually Digital Scientist Guy. And I feel like the TVA is bigger and more multiversal spanning than that. Not that Deadpool would know that.

I'm still curious how this reads as a digital comic. There's certain things to how panels are laid out that makes me think they were designed to take advantage of that. I feel like in panels where Split Second is popping in, you'd probably see the panel, then he'd appear in it a moment later. And I feel like that panel of Loop doing the mid-air spin with his energy sword to cut through the drones was probably animated, and looked pretty awesome. Heck, it looks awesome as a still image on paper. The shade of red Charalampidis used is really nice.

I'm clearly still a target audience for Nicieza's humor. Wade's solution to the problem being to just chuck an armful of grenades, while Cable exclaims, 'Are you insane?' That should have been the first sign something was wrong with Cable's brain, because he already knows something is wrong with Wade's. Also, 'Let go of my flaming scimitar of temporal cleavage now!' 'Better men than you have tried to make me let go of my cleavage!' Ha! I'd laugh harder, but I'm coming down with something and it makes me cough.

What I Bought 12/30/2015 - Part 3

Holiday over, back to the grindstone. In other news, Deadpool. Deadpool deadpool, deadpool. Deadpoooooool, Cable. Deadpool!

Deadpool #4, by Gerry Duggan (writer), Mike Hawthorne (penciler), Terry Pallot (inker), Guru eFx (colorists), Joe Sabino (letterer) - The first store I stopped at didn't have any copies, and said it had been a really popular issue because of the rainbow-colored Deadpools? I don't understand that myself. I mean, Stingray as Greed and Slapstick as Fear? This emotional spectrum makes no sense whatsoever.

Madcap is the person running around impersonating Deadpool, having grown obsessed with Deadpool after spending that time in Wade's mind. And he's upped the ante, making people nuts, then giving them Deadpool masks and weapons and sending them out to cause mayhem. So Wade, Steve Rogers, and the other Mercs for Money are going to have to find him, and then somehow stop someone who feels no pain and may be impossible to kill.

I keep thinking this whole Madcap thing is a false lead, but I guess not. I can't entirely explain the guy from issue 3 that Wade chased across the rooftops. We got a glimpse of his face beneath the mask, and he didn't look human or like Madcap. I think Shiklah's mixed up in this, since Duggan keeps having these brief scenes with her, where she's annoyed Wade is never around, and she's been unhappy with the change in his personality since at least Axis.

Hawthorne draws Terror as significantly larger than the other Mercs in this issue, so I guess he really is supposed to be larger (this is in reference to my comment about the cover to issue 3). I hadn't noticed it previously, but sure, OK. There is one screw-up. One the page where they first encounter the mass of "Deadpools", we see Steve Rogers, Stingray, and Wade fighting them. But in the next panel, Wade drives up in his motorcycle and enters the fray. So I don't know whether the Deadpool in red in the first panel (the "For Chimichangas!" panel) wasn't supposed to be there at all, or if it's supposed to be one of the other Mercs, and he just got colored wrong. I think it's the first option, because he doesn't speak or have any other characteristics that would show he's a different merc, nobody talks to him in that panel, and he doesn't show up anywhere on the rest of the page. 

Watching Deadpool and Steve Rogers interact is kind of neat. Rogers believes in Wade, but he hadn't spent that much time in close proximity to him before this. So he's constantly being confronted with how odd it is to work with Wade, in a way I'm sure the stories and reports he's read couldn't prepare him for. You can see him mentally gritting his teeth and reminding himself that Deadpool's really trying, and the team needs his financing, like when he learns about Bob. Which, c'mon Rogers, you're buddies with Nick Fury, and over the last 10 years he's been far more morally compromised than Bob. As for Wade, you can see how hard he's working to live up to it. He's completely serious when he's handing out orders to his mercs about searching for Madcap, it's kind of unnerving. Working with Rogers, hustling to show up whenever the guy calls, mostly deferring to the old man's wishes (how does Steve know Wade didn't legally buy that old Fantasticar? Maybe Peter Parker sold it off when he bought the old FF HQ.) It's a different dynamic from Deadpool and Wolverine, or Deadpool and Cable, where I think Wade resents the attitude the others have to him more, the sort of high-handedness they approach him with.

Deadpool and Cable: Split Second #1, by Fabian Nicieza (writer), Reilly Brown (artist), Jay Leisten (inker), Jim Charalampidis (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - 10 years ago, I'd never have expected to see Cable on the cover of a comic book and not roll my eyes, but here we are.

Deadpool and Agent Preston's SHIELD team rescue Dr. Carl Weathers from HYDRA. As it turns out, Dr. Weathers has developed a time harness for HYDRA, but then decided to sell it to the highest bidder. In the meantime, Cable's had a vision of the future of the doctor, and Deadpool shooting someone, so he concludes they're connected and tries to stop Wade. Except he doesn't really have the power to back that up any longer, and so they team up instead to watch the doctor. They see Weathers, Wade decides to just stab the guy instead, only to be interrupted by a time traveler out to kill Weathers, and during the fight, Wade accidentally shoots a kid.

Nicieza tries lampshading the fact that if Cable doesn't want Wade killing Weathers, it's really dumb to bring Deadpool along to watch Weathers, but I'm not sure you can lampshade it successfully. I can sort of argue with myself that Cable isn't strong enough to stop Wade on his own, and figured it was better to be with him where maybe he could control him, but I'm not sure even I can buy it entirely. Especially since Wade could just have left the surveillance to Preston's team. Kind of a plot hole there.

Plot issue aside, I like this just fine. There is an element of nostalgia in my buying this, but I generally enjoy Nicieza's writing, and Brown's art, so that works out nicely. Nicieza's Deadpool is more impulsive than Duggan's, but that could just be from being around Cable. Nate has that whole "I know better than you because I'm from the future" thing, and I could see how it would be worth doing questionable stuff just too annoy him.  Sometimes you have to tweak people like that. Preston telling HYDRA to hail her badonkadonk made me laugh, and so did the one HYDRA guy whispering, 'Please die,' while shooting Wade. Also that other HYDRA guy trying to say he's Bob so he doesn't die. Incompetent, frightened evil henchmen are funny, basically.

I couldn't help but notice Brown draws Wade's outfit as being form-fitting on his rear, which actually doesn't surprise me. Wade stays in shape, and he definitely seems the type who would want others to notice. Especially Cable. Even if Wade is done being on the bottom in their relationship. That whole sequence made me laugh, especially because Cable has this look on his face, like he can't figure out what Wade's going on about, and why he feels the need to get so close to Cable's face to talk about it.

There are certain panels I imagine work better in the comics original, digital format, though I'm just guessing that. But there are sequences in there were I could see some part of the panel appearing or disappearing as you read it. Maybe that's not how it went, though. It works fine in print, which is ultimately what I'm concerned about.

And I finally got to see Wade outright beat Cable up, which is something I'd been waiting on for awhile. Now if I can just get Spidey whupping Daredevil. . .

One Pair Overstocks Hair Products, The Other Pouches And Belts

As I was typing Saturday's post, and yammering on about how Angel's expression suggests someone suppressing the urge to smile, I realized it was reminding me of something. Namely, my favorite scene from Cable/Deadpool.

Issue 41, as Cable's island sinks because of something from Mike Carey's X-Men run I didn't read. Sabretooth's loose, and using Irene as a shield to keep Domino at bay. Cable and 'Pool haven't been speaking recently, but Wade parachutes in, blasting Creed so Domino can get Irene to safety. They reach the evacuation craft and Cable asks about what happened to Creed. Domino replies simply, 'Wilson.' Cable gets a huge smile on his face and looks back in that direction. 'Really? Just when you think you know everything the future has in store. . .' Something to that effect. I'm working from memory there.

I like that scene for a few reasons. That Cable can actually be surprised, since he spent most of the series up to then playing the "I know everything 'cause I'm from the future!" card. More importantly, that he's pleasantly surprised, because Deadpool came through. I think Deadpool comes through more than people think, but I can't deny he screws up a lot. He has the wrong goals, the wrong motivations, he doesn't think things through, and he lets people down a lot.

He's Spike, in other words. Which makes Cable, Angel. Which isn't too out there. They both seem to aim high, save the world, save the future, slay the seemingly unkillable foe (Apocalypse, Wolfram & Hart). They're reserved, secretive, moody. They both get so wrapped up in their missions, they forget what the point is. That's usually when they screw up, and then they alienate their friends. Angel pushed away his crew more than once, and Cable's wrecked multiple friendships with people (G.W. Bridge, Domino, the X-Force kids), only some of which he was able to fix. Angel lost a kid to another dimension only for him to return much older and crankier; Cable is a kid who vanished into the future and returned older and crankier.

Spike and Deadpool tend to focus on more personal goals: love, respect, revenge, but they're capable of selfless acts. Mostly though, they seize on what looks like the quickest path to get what they want, and it usually ends badly. Wade tried to be registered hero, Cable made him look like such a loser he got fired. He tried to get some work done on his brain, the Black Box/Comcast/Gareb turned him into a sleeper agent meant to kill Cable. Spike tried to get a soul so he'd be a better person , it let the First use him as a killing tool. They both hurt the people they care about. Spike with Dru and Buffy, Wade with Blind Al, Weasel, Siryn, probably some others.

The relationship between the two aren't quite the same, since Cable didn't have a hand in creating Deadpool. Unless someone's retconned Cable into helping start Weapon X. But it seems like William became Spike at least partially in response to Angelus (the other part begin to distance himself from who he was as a human). Angelus basically lorded his strength, experience, and the opportunity to shag Dru and Darla over William, daring him to do something about it. Spike kills a Slayer. When Angelus returned in Season 2, Spike teamed up with the Slayer at least in part to screw Angelus over (and get Dru back, and save the world). Throughout his attempted courtship of Buffy and helping the Scoobies, before and after the soul, he was constantly being measured against Angel. That had to be frustrating and tedious, to not be measured on his own successes or failures, but judged by someone else's as well. I think the two of them are different enough they'll never be chums, but at the same time, they lived closely together for 20 years. There are things they can discuss with each other that no one else would really understand.

Cable pushed, and poked, and prodded at Wade, trying to get him to do the right thing (as Cable defined it), through threats, hiring him for jobs on the sly, and in his most questionable move, hooking Wade's subconscious into the Infonet so he could be bombarded with visual representations of his innermost doubts nonstop (that nearly resulted in a bloodbath). Given that Wade did show up to help, and then continued to try and do the right thing after Cable's apparent death, it seems like it worked. And I think Wade encouraged Cale to loosen up some. There was never the level of hatred between them the two vampires have, because most of Wade's attacks on Cable were just business, and Cable spent enough time as a gun-for-hire to understand that. They're still annoying, still dangerous, but there's not as much heat there, except when Cable's attempts to play God screw Wade over somehow. Even so, there's a strong level of trust, especially considering Wade's unpredictable tendencies. Deadpool's tried hard to be better, partially for himself, partially for others, and Cable (depending on the writer) relies on and cares about Wade more heavily than he might have ever anticipated.

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.

International Boundaries Can't Deter My Enjoyment

So I read this post, and it got me thinking about manga. I do enjoy a few manga titles, and thinking about the "whys" of that got me thinking about what my favorite mangas have in common with the American comics I enjoy. For the record, I have no beef with people who don't like manga. Everybody has types of "entertainment" that do not, in fact, entertain them. It's all cool though, the differences are what make us cool, dig? *in the background, a beatnik taps on a bongo* So let's move on.

So I just wanted to look at some of the parallels between Japanese and American comics that I enjoy, beyond the fighting, and struggling with internal conflicts related to past actions.

Rurouni Kenshin is about a man, who during a civil war, worked as a highly successful assassin, until he accidentally killed someone he cared about deeply. When the series begins, he's spent the last decade wandering Japan, using a sword that is designed not to kill (the blade is set reversed in the hilt, so the leading edge is not sharp), and helping defend those who need help. Kind of like the A-Team, but without the getting paid part, or Mr. T. But, Kenshin is constantly forced to confront his past, in the form of people who wish to challenge one known as the greatest of all, or by people who hate him for what they feel he represents (the side that won, which he greatly aided) had some nasty skeletons in their closet. Kenshin has to deal with how far he's willing to go to stop them, and resist slipping back into his old, killing ways. Plus he runs into to people who lost loved ones to his blade, and want revenge, and how is he supposed to respond to that?

It reminds me of both Batgirl and recent developments in Cable/Deadpool, as each character has been trying to change their lives, and atone for past deeds. In some ways, both those titles could be considered like seeing Kenshin's early years as a wandering swordsman. Cassandra Cain seems to be constantly dealing with the fact she was raised to be a perfect killer, and trying to make up for it, and trying to move past it, find a better way. It's harder for Deadpool, because he's been even more deeply ingrained in killing for whatever reason for years, but now he's trying to change after Cable sacrificed his life (as far as he knows), to make sure Wade was OK. Wade's trying to change, trying to do better, but he's got to deal with the skepticism of all the established heroes who know him primarily as a violent, amoral goof, and so he's got to keep working to show he's not like that anymore.

Additionally, all those titles have a theme of characters trying to find a place to belong, although when Cassandra found a place where she seemed to be doing well (Bludhaven), DC proceeded to blow it up. Well, no one ever said finding a place to belong was easy. But Kenshin had been wandering for ten years before meeting Kaoru and helping her stop the person killing people in the name of her family's school, and Deadpool has just recently found a place at Agency X, where he can work with actual friends.

The other manga title I'm a big fan of is Hellsing, which I've decided reminds me of the current Punisher MAX series. Both characters kill lots and lots of people, and do so with no real hesitation, but each character has things about them that make them more than just killing machines. Ennis has gone to great lengths to demonstrate how it was more than just three tours in the 'Nam that made Frank Castle the Punisher, it's a culmination of his childhood neighborhood, his tours of duty, the loss of his parents, the kind of kid he was, just so many things that make him a truly unique being In the last few volumes of Hellsing, Kohta Hirano's started giving us glimpses of who Alucard was before he became a vampire that kills other vampires for the Hellsing Organization, and well, he's still not a sympathetic figure, but there is a sadness about him, that for all the power he's gained, all the destruction he can bring, he's lost some very important things, and he knows he won't ever get those back. Not unlike Frank Castle.

Some time, I need to sit down and see how similar some of these series are, and how much differences in Japanese and American culture contribute to differences between them. Are they paced differently, do they present different kinds of challenges to the protagonists, things like that. Uh, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for those posts, if I were you, seeing as how I never have started the "Spider-Man: Giant Slayer" posts.

Laying Tacks On The Road To Respectability

I mentioned on Thursday that I was a little disappointed in Wade's mission in this week's Deadpool and Co. On the one hand, it was good to see Wade put aside his extreme distaste for T-Ray and help the goof come back to life, on the other hand, it was to save the universe, so you wonder how much internal conflict that creates. Granted, this is Deadpool, and he has an unusual perspective on things, so there may have been a strong part of him that felt the universe's end was a small price to pay to keep T-Ray from annoying him. But it still felt somewhat lopsided.

I think Fabian Nicieza has Wade trying to reform, live up to the faith Cable showed in him, and just generally change his life, his way of doing things. It's reminiscent of Claremont making Magneto Headmaster of Xavier's school, though Magneto was a more serious threat than Deadpool. What I remember about that, and Dave "Dave's Long Box" Campbell brought this up when he reviewed New Mutants #40 (it's part of his "Earth Mightiest Guest Stars Week") was how Magneto kept getting placed in situations where he wanted to do the right thing, but it was hard for him, usually because of his past.

In New Mutants #40, he wants to rescue the New Mutants from Emma Frost's school, but she knows he's coming, calls the cops, the cops call the Avengers, and Mags is fighting the Avengers now. And they aren't going to believe what he says because he's Magneto, and why would you believe Magneto? Magneto really wants to rescue those students, because Xavier left them in his care, and he feels he let them down by sending them to Frost's school. But he has to get through the Avengers to do it, and that's hard when he holds himself in check, because as he puts it to Captain America he 'learned a better way'. Even though it might come back to bite him in the butt, he actually saves their lives when Warlock tries to defend him, because it's still what he figures Xavier would do, and he's trying to justify Chuck's faith in him.

To a certain extent, Wade is dealing with those issues, because most of the heroes act as though they can barely tolerate his presence, and that's probably at least partially because of the fact he's a mercenary who's maimed and killed people, and that makes them squeamish. Of course, it's also partially because Wade probably gets a bit annoying after awhile, and they just want him to go somewhere else, but still I think his past deeds aren't doing him any favors, besides helping him get a job and a home base of sorts at Agency X, but that's a different matter.

I think it would be interesting to see Deadpool, trying to do the right thing, but he's set against some of the more established heroes, at least initially. He really is trying to do some good, but they either don't buy it, or can't see what he's trying to achieve. So far, he's been helping them out, such as this week with Dr. Strange, or they've been helping him, such as Cyclops warning Deadpool that Wolverine was going to attack the HYDRA base Weasel was at. I don't have any sort of good story suggestion for how to accomplish that, but I'm sure there's some way it could work.

Use A Grandfather Clause Argument!

As much as I enjoyed seeing Deadpool and Bob interacting with the original Fantastic Four this week, it was missing something. No, not French toast! As Wade noted, the FF always have delicious French toast at the breakfast table (much better than Latverian toast, which is actually just a picture of Dr. Doom reminding his subjects to work hard, and to love their monarch).

No, what it was missing was Reed Richards' pipe. Back in the day, Reed frequently smoked a pipe, a was his right, being a scholar and all. It's as ingrained in him as the idea of wearing tweed jackets with leather patches on the elbow (I don't actually know that Reed wore those, but I'm sure he did). I mean really Marvel, why are you hating on the professors so much? You think all the kids reading Marvel comics (wait, kids are reading these comics?) would jump at the chance to puff on a pipe? Well, that would be kind of cool, and I don't even smoke.

But I believe Nicieza and Brown should have put the pipe in on the basis that even if Reed can't smoke now, he did smoke at that time in his history, and so it's reasonable to assume he was enjoying a smoke when our erstwhile time-travelers popped up on Doom's time-travel platform. Thus, it should not count as a violation of Marvel's (idiotic) "no smoking by the good guys" policy (When is that stupid policy going to be lifted?). We're going for period accuracy here, Marvel overlords! Do you want to disgrace Jack Kirby's memory even more? Do you?

Don't answer that. I'm not in the mood to be depressed. The other possibility is that Nicieza and Brown could have slipped it in simply because I really don't know how much the editors are paying attention, and the book's being canceled in a few months, so they might be paying even less attention than usual. You needed to go for it guys, Joey Q is busy sleeping, I mean, trying to catch up on his One More Day art! Then henhouse is unguarded, I repeat, the henhouse is unguarded!

Say, couldn't Dr. Doom demand Reed return the time machine? It's Doom's time-travel platform after all. I think that would really burn Reed if Doom got the American courts to make Reed return it. Not because Doom needs that one, I'm sure he can make others, just because it would probably piss Reed off to have to present it personally (that would be part of the ruling), and I imagine Doom would make a big deal of it, like Cartman does anytime he wins a bet with Kyle.

This Seems Backwards From Normal

I was re-reading Cable/Deadpool #41 last night, because I think the look on Cable's face when he hears Deadpool showed up to help is just swell.

Anyway, I'm reading it, and we get to the part where Nate says his goodbyes to Domino and Irene Merryweather. There's some hugging, and Irene thanks Cable for helping her to become someone who cares, and for some reason I thought, "Huh, that's not how it usually goes, is it?"

I kind of have this impression that in fiction, it's typically the guy who is the cynical one, doesn't believe in anything, and then he meets a lady that has a lot of ideals, and gradually it becomes infectious, and the next thing you know the guy is striving to make the world a better place right alongside. It seems like if a guy has an effect on a woman, it's to 'open her eyes', and get rid of some of that naivete. I don't know if that's how it actually is the majority of the time, but it's the impression I've got, so I thought it was kind of interesting that big, gruff Cable could be the idealist, and get all sorts of people believing that the world could be a better place after all.

He's Gonna Reattach It, Right?

I was wondering, when Wolverine cut off Deadpool's head, do you think that, had Bob, Agent of HYDRA, not been there, Logan would have put Wade's head back on his neck where it belongs?

I mean, on the one hand, Wolverine did know exactly how long Wade's head could be separated from the rest of his body before lethal brain damage would be achieved (or he knew how to act like he knew how long that takes). And he admitted that he really only wanted to keep Deadpool out of commission for a few minutes, until he could kill the Penatraitor (what a name, criminey). That sort of indicates that he didn't really want Deadpool to die, at least no more than all the other people who don't hate Wade and only sort of want him to die (so he'll shut up, you see).

On the other hand, this is Wolverine we're talking about. The guy doesn't exactly have the highest regard for human life, and can be a bit vindictive. And Wade has screwed Wolverine over a few times (I recall a Wolverine story drawn by Liefeld where Wade captured him so a weirdo could get ahold of Logan's blood to run experiments on it. At least that story gave Siryn the use of her vocal cords again, so not all bad), so Logan might just be inclined to figure Wade's done enough crap that he deserves death. He's kind of a jerk like that sometimes.

I'm pretty sure that even if Wolverine had put Wade's head back, he would have put it on backwards (like Bob did) and left it that way. Just because. Then he'd go smoke a cigarette off-panel, because Quesada can't control what Wolverine does when he's not actually in the picture.

What's He So Worried About?

Hey, just because Cable/Deadpool didn't make me laugh doesn't mean it can't make me think. I've been trying to figure out why Cable is so concerned about getting his powers back. I thought the whole point of being able to tap into the Infonet, and using the gravimetric sheath was a way for him to replicate his lost powers, and that seemed like something he was very interested in accomplishing. Now he's actually getting his powers back, and he's worried it's going to bollix up everything he's worked for. Why?

Having his powers shouldn't change the message he's been trying to spread, that if people stop struggling against each other and work together, they can achieve great things. After all, he had his powers when he started that mission, and it was going pretty well when he had his technological substitutes, so I can't see how getting his powers back is going to jeopardize this.

Best guess, the techno abilities he came up with, as nifty as they were, were extremely limited in what they could do compared to his true telepathic/telekinetic potential. With those old power levels restored, Cable's worried he's going to stop trying to show people there's a better way, and start trying to force them down the path he wants. He's going to be inside too many people's heads, "hear" their suffering, and decide there's no more time to waste waiting for the world powers to believe in him. Which is pretty much the opposite of what he wants, but with the power at his fingertips, it may be too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

Other thought: Cable doesn't want his powers back, because he thinks he's being manipulated right now. This is something he mentions himself in the issue, that it feels like his rejoining the X-Men was orchestrated so he'd have to regain his powers. Which seems a bit meta-textual; maybe Cable's picked up some of Wade's fourth-wall awareness? The question then becomes, who would want Cable to go back to being possibly the most powerful mutant on Earth? Possibly someone who wants people more scared of mutants again, in the hopes it could. . . cause. . . strife? Oh crap, they better not be bringing back Stryfe. Don't do it Marvel. No more clones! Ever!

Back on topic. So I'm thinking Cable is scared that having his powers back will make him much more forceful, less sneaky than he was being previously, which is gonna make his big plans go up in smoke. Personally, you'd think his awareness of these fears would defuse that problem, especially since he seems to think that it's going to cost him Domino somehow. I'm guessing that goes back to when Cable told Wade that Domino doesn't trust Cable because he's screwed up everything he's ever tried to do. But again, I'd think Domino would work to help keep Nate grounded, seeing as I don't think she actually wants to "lose" him, anymore than he wants to lose her. Come on Aksani-Son, believe in the power of love! Hmm, I've used that line before. Well, it's still a good line so to hell with it.

Anyway, it just seems to me that Cable needs to trust in the people who care about him to keep him grounded, to believe that they'll keep him from going too far, which shouldn't be that hard, seeing as his whole "messiah" shtick is predicated on the ideas that people can change and help each other. So forget the power of love, Cable just needs to believe in the inherent goodness of the human spirit! Hmm, this could be harder for him than I thought.

Those are my thoughts; what are yours? And is anyone else annoyed by this "autosaving" feature? It's just bugging the hell out of me for some reason. . .

Edit, 8:35 p.m.: I also updated the template layout, in case you're wondering why the blog looks a little different. I wouldn't have bothered, but this way you can actually get all the posts for a particular label, instead of just the 20 most recent, so that's something at least.

Break Down, Then Build Up

So, yeah, sorry about yesterday's post. it was one of those "If I don't spit this out on to my blog it's just going to keep ricocheting inside my skull until I go nuts" things. I'm better now. So let's talk about shrunken Deadpool!

I think that Deadpool being shrunk and not being able to immediately correct the problem is symbolic of where Wade's at in his life right now. Recent events have wrecked much of who he was, and now he's at a new starting line, trying to decide which way to go. Let's take a look see:

Wade, having perhaps taken to Cable's message of making the world a better place, tries to go legit, as a bounty hunter of unregistered superhumans. Cable disagreed with that approach, and took advantage of Wade's tendency to say things out loud he really shouldn't to make the U.S. look bad worldwide, leading to Wade's dismissal from his job. His attempt at superficial improvement thwarted, Wade falls back on what he does best: down and dirty merc gigs, actually working to mess up Cable's image. He's regressed to a "it's all about me, I trust now one, spare no one" attitude. Once again, Cable takes action, and Wade gets pantsed and unceremoniously launched out of Rumekistan. Now, not only can't Deadpool get legit work, he can't get the seedy stuff he used to, and Cable's done a Jedi/Vulcan mindscrew to try and force Wade to to confront things he'd rather not. But when you push an animal (or a person) up against a wall, they'll strike, and when the one striking is the Merc With a Mouth, the results can be... explosive (Get it? Because he had a grenade, and they explode and - forget it).

Anyhoo, Wade does decide to try and deal with his past. How? By doing what he does best, beating up Taskmaster so he can get some prospective employers (OK, so that isn't really dealing with it). Except that didn't work. This is the point when he finally stops to assess where's he's at in his life, and decides a different route is needed. Fortunately, we're dealing with Fabian Nicieza and Deadpool, not Bendis and Spider-Man, or the self-reflection would have lasted five issues before action would be taken. Not Wadey. He's stymied, but within a few pages he's made a decision about where to go. With all his old tricks having been closed to him, he embarks on the path of costumed do-gooder at the end of #36. When we first see Wade in #37, he's a tiny little man.

Wade has been systematically, by Cable and other circumstances, broken down to what seems to be his core elements: a wisecracker with a phenomenal capacity for violence. What direction that violence is aimed, and for what motives, is up in the air. I think Wade's going to spend the next couple of issues figuring that out, and possible growing slowly throughout, as he "grows" into whatever it is he's going to become.

Honestly, I think Wade's regenerative abilities could start to overwhelm the Pym Particles effects. Wade loses a limb or something, it grows back, but at normal size. Man, that would be awkward. And hilarious. But that's not the important part. I think the interesting part will be seeing the choices Deadpool continues to make, especially with his old buddy Agent X coming to town next month.

This Cuteness, However, Must Be Stopped

So, it's Wednesday in Marvels and Legends. I'm downstairs, chatting about this and that with Len and Jack. I think we were talking about how "Slade's hypos" are a better explanation for weird stuff than "Superboy-Prime punched a wall", and who might have been a better choice as the architect of Marvel's "No more mutants".

Somehow, we get to a point where Jack mentions a set of Marvel Legends figures that each come with a piece of Mojo, who Len very much dislikes. I don't have much of an opinion about Mojo one way or the other, only having read a couple of comics that prominently involved him. He's a character that sounds kind of interesting in theory, but may be lacking in execution. Whatever, not the point. So Jack mentions that along with the Mojo piece, there was originally going to be included something that would have really bugged Len - an X-Baby.

At this point, I was forced to cry ignorance, as I've understand the general concept when someone says X-Baby, but I've never really seen one. Except for one time, when Jean was telepathically linked with Dazzler, and there was an X-Baby version of Apocalypse, or something like that. It was the last story before Morrison and Casey started writing the X-books, so let's just forget it.

Anyway, Jack and Len explain the idea, Jack describing them as "chibi X-Men", I agree it sounds horrific, so on and so forth. Then, Len mentions something about how they certainly shouldn't try the X-Baby concept with the current X-Men roster. So we get a chuckle out of the idea of X-Baby Sabertooth, then I bring up the idea of chibi-Cable, with a gun bigger than he is. That got a laugh, especially when Len suggested Cable would take a page from Wade's book and just kill it as soon as he saw it. Or that Wade would pick it up and give it a big hug, until it blew a hole in his chest. Then he'd snap it's neck, all while babbling about how cute it was.

This tomfoolery lead to somehow a discussion of Wade with telepathy, with the theory that he'd slap on that Marvel Girl outfit he took from the X-Mansion (the one she was wearing when the X-Men tried to defend her from execution by the Shi'ar, the one with a skirt), and cruise around in a wheelchair, fingers to his temple shouting "To me, my X-Men!!!"

Yes, we're all completely insane. What of it?

How Much Does Intent Count For?

I've had this one on a backburner for awhile, so let's see how it goes. This arose from Cable/Deadpool #35 and Ms. Marvel #10, and it deals with a connection between the Rogue/Carol Danvers relationship and the Cable/Deadpool situation.

Carol made it pretty clear that she isn't over what Rogue did to her, however many years ago Marvel says it was. Rogue absorbed not only Carol's powers (though Rogue seemed stronger and more resistant to injury than Carol and lacked the energy powers. Weird), but her memories, and the emotions that went with them. Even after Xavier helped restore Carol's memories, she had no connection to them. Rogue effectively took away Carol's life up to that point. She did it because she heard Mystique and Destiny talking about how Carol would one day seriously harm Rogue, and so Rogue decided on a preemptive strike.

Then you've got Cable. He links Wade's subconscious to the infonet, in effect torturing Wade with visual and auditory imagery of the people he's killed. His reasoning was it would force Wade to examine his life, and eventually come running to Nate for help in reevaluating his life. In terms of psychological damage it doesn't even begin to compare with what Rogue did to Carol. On the other hand, Cable can't claim that he did it out of self-defense. He did it because he decided that Deadpool needed to examine his life, and that was that. It's kind of a dick move, you know?

I think my original intent was to ask which person you think did a worse thing, or made a greater transgression, Rogue or Cable, but I don't think that's much of a question. I suppose, I just found it interesting that these two situations of someone messing with another person's mind popped up in the same week.

Hmm, Could Be Fun

I wouldn't be too surprised if this had already happened, but I'd like to see Cable vs. Dr. Doom.

- Doom's one of the few people with technology that could even be in the same stratosphere as Cable's future tech.

- Consider that Cable had a role in the Inferno storyline (I talked about it a little here), and consider that Doom's a bit of a sorcerer himself (has Doom freed his mom from Hell, because that could be a hook if he hasn't).

- Consider that Rumekistan is an Eastern European country (or is it Middle Eastern? "Barjnov" screams Eastern Europe to me), and so is Latveria. I find it hard to believe that Doom didn't have a hand in the troubles in Rumekistan, or at least an interest. That's his backyard Cable is screwing around in.

- Consider that Cable would very much like to unite for peace, and Doom's not going to unite for anything that doesn't proclaim him Supreme Ruler of Earth. And why should he? He's DOOM.

- I haven't even thrown the hilarity of Deadpool badgering Dr. Doom about whether he's really a Doombot in disguise.

Savior or Satan?

This does have a point, so don't fret about that.

It may not be a good point, but there is one.


So I'm reading Cable/Deadpool this week, and I've reached the point where a few citizens of Rumekistan have found Cable lying facedown and shot in the street. Good thing Wade felt bad about leaving him in the sewer or they'd have never found him, huh? Not that would have mattered much.

The people start carrying Cable to a hospital, hoping that someone will be able to aid their fallen leader, and I start getting an odd sense of deja vu. The whole thing reminded me of that Superman episode "Legacy" where Supes having gotten free from the mind control Darkseid placed him under proceeds, as Chris Sims might say, to wreck Darkseid's shit. At the end Darkseid is lying beaten before the people who he's crushed for so long. Rather than rejoice that they're, as Superman says "free", the people rush to help their dark god, carrying him to someone who can help.

Given Cable's tendency to come off as being damn near all-knowing, and seemingly always being fifteen goddamned steps ahead of everyone else, while simultaneously possessing ludicrous power, and his attempts to unify people, it was kind of a weird moment.

Then yesterday another comparison came to me, that being the elevated train scene in Spider-Man 2. Spidey saves the train from going off the rails, and then the people save him from falling off himself, passing him back above them to a safe place to lay him down. It matches the emotional aspect more accurately, with the people showing concern and gratitude for someone who saved them, but Spidey's never really been a member of the "I know better than you" camp, so character-wise, it kind of falters.

I think the two things neatly encapsulate Cable. Is he a hero, someone who's going to save Earth from all the death and hate that he's seen in his life? Or is he a greater monster (or just misguided) bringing people together, making it that much easier for them to be crushed under one heel?

Because He's The Only One Who Can

We need Cable and the Black Panther to meet up. This should happen naturally within Black Panther, seeing as T'Challa is on his "visit important rulers" field trip, and Cable runs two countries now. And they should very naturally fight, since that's happened pretty much everywhere the rulers of Wakanda have gone. I haven't heard about that happening in Black Panther anytime soon, so I guess it falls upon Cable/Deadpool to do it. And honestly, that would make it so much better.

That way, when the inevitable fight starts, Deadpool can say something about how "nobody can beat the Black Panther." From there, it can go two ways:

1) As Cable is losing - because even technology from centuries in the future is no match for the Black Panther - Deadpool can amuse himself by hitting on Storm, who will cause a huge distraction by making Lightning Roasted Deadpool, allowing Cable to get in a cheap shot and win the day.

2) Cable and Black Panther don't fight. They are, after all, reasonable men. But on the way out, Deadpool - probably out of boredom - picks a fight with T'Challa, shouting "Reginald Hudlin's not here to save you now!" The fourth wall breaking will confuse the Panther long enough for Deadpool to get in some shots, before Storm - with a look of extreme annoyance - creates a whirlwind to toss Wade up in the air, and dump him unceremoniously in Providence's waste areas several miles away.

Ah, Deadpool, you're such a useful outlet for fan frustration.