Cable and Deadpool #3

May 16, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: If Looks Could Kill Part Three

As Cable reflects on is failure, Deadpool finds himself a captive of the One World Church.

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Pencils: Patrick Zircher
Inks: Rob Ross & Alan Tam
Colors: Shane Law & Kevin Yan
Letters: Cory Petit & Rus Wooton
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Rob Liefeld
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The One World Church plans to release a virus that will turn everyone in the world blue, planning to bring about unity by eliminating racial boundaries. Deadpool is their captive, while Cable turns to Professor X for a little guidance.

We’ve got to assume that this story takes place before the “Planet X” storyline in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, because the professor is still walking around and wearing a uniform. That minor continuity glitch aside, the conversation between the two characters is the strong point of the issue. Cable shows off the degree to which his powers have been amplified, and the prof gives him a little advice that sends him off to take down the church and bust out Deadpool.

I’m not really a fan of either one of these characters, but people who read Deadpool comics for the humor that usually follows him won’t be wowed by this issue. There’s a nice little exchange where Deadpool thinks he’s talking to God, but the rest of the book is pretty straightforward action. The villains’ plot isn’t the world’s most original either, and Nicieza never really explains why the plot to change people’s skin tone would eliminate religious or national boundaries the way they seem to think it would.

I am a fan of Patrick Zircher’s art, though. He’s doing a fine job on Nightwing, but the color and art team on this book show he’s perfectly capable of brighter comics as well, stuff that’s not immersed in shadow. This is just about as good as Cable, Deadpool or Professor X have ever looked.

This issue isn’t going to convert me into a fan of the characters or the title, but people who’ve been reading and enjoying it won’t find anything to complain about here.

Rating: 6/10

(2010 Note: I later warmed to this title considerably, mostly after Cable more or less vanished. Deadpool has become a character I enjoy a lot more than I used to.)