Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Penciler: Patrick Zircher
Inker: Udon’s M3th
(Great, now artists are signing in l33t sp34k. Ugh)
Cover Colorist: Frank D’Armata
Colorist: Gotham
Letters: Cory Petit
Editor: Nicole Wiley
Publisher: Dan Buckley
The fourth wall is a very sensitive thing. It is that line between fiction and reality that only we perceive. Historically, when the fourth wall is broken, like with The Neverending Story, it had a dramatic effect on the world that you are dealing with. Other stories, like She-Hulk, use the mythic fourth wall to be able to tell you jokes that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to tell.
With Cable/Deadpool, the characters begin each story openly interacting with their audience, their publisher, assistant editor, and writers. It usually doesn’t run any longer than that first page, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the characters are well aware of our existence and continue to do what they do to make us laugh.
Because that is what this book is about. Laughing at our heroes.
STORY!
Deadpool has been hired to steal some technological mumbojumbo. The tech stuff was being used in Iron Fist’s company. The B.A.D. Girls (former members of the Serpent Society) have been hired by someone else to thwart Deadpool, and Weasel is somehow involved now too.
All of this should make sense, but the writing of this book is done in such a way that nobody knows the full intentions of the mission, and that includes the reader. Most of this story is the fight between Iron Fist, Luke Cage, ‘pool, and Cable – while Weasel watches on, and the B.A.D. girls giggle from the sidelines.
The writing isn’t bad at all, as it recognizes that the plot is completely interwoven upon itself, and that you really should be having a problem understanding what’s going on. It counters that with making you laugh every panel. Whether it’s Luke Cage and Deadpool saying the same things at the same time – or Cable trying to explain why he exactly showed up – or the B.A.D. Girls making the boys all pass out to have, what we can only assume, was a disgusting visage of human sexuality…. you laugh a lot.
The plot? Meh, the plot can be explained later – and if it isn’t, you won’t feel bad about it like you would with a more continuity driven book.
ART!
Artistically speaking, this book is fine. It’s bright and colorful, and makes no pretentions about being artsy. This is a comic for the sake of being a comic, and it is entertaining. In the history of the universe, nobody will look back upon Cable/Deadpool and be able to sit and compare it to great works of comic art.
It is a comedy book, made for sheer entertainment. What more do you want, really?
Overall!
I will admit, that I really have a hard time reading Cable/Deadpool in single issue form – and I’ve learned that it reads even more hysterically in trade. Mainly because the plotting is so incestuous, and when the final endgame is presented, I won’t remember what happened four issues ago.
This book is a passing amusement, and doesn’t make me walk away from it pondering my existance, or questioning the reality for superheroes, or any other such hard-hitting questions that someone like Busiek or Gaiman might throw out at you during their stories. This book is solely created so that when I am suggesting it to someone, I can say, “Ok, so there’s Deadpool, standing in the old Marvel Girl costume… with the skirt, yeah.”
Always fun.
