Written by Duane Swierczynski
Illustrated by Leandro FernandezCable is dead, and no one’s more devastated than his old friend and partner, Deadpool (a.k.a. Wade Wilson, a.k.a. the Merc With the Mouth, a.k.a. the guy who’s in pretty much every other solicit this month). Sitting by Cable’s grave, Deadpool struggles to find the perfect way to honor his fallen mutant pal. Then… light bulb! Deadpool remembers Rumekistan, the troubled and totally fictional European country that Cable once tried to turn into a Utopia on earth. Deadpool travels there to establish up a Cable museum! A Cable amusement park! A Cable cable TV show! But Rumekistan isn’t quite what it used to be, and Deadpool’s appearance only makes things worse. To set things right, Deadpool will have to do more than just honor his old friend — he must become him!
It appears that rumors of this book’s demise have been severely exaggerated as Duane Swierczynski theoretically revives his former run on Cable. However, what we get this time around reads more like ANOTHER Cable-centric book that it makes me wonder why this isn’t “Cable and Deadpool #51” instead. Regardless, click below for more thought barbs!
In a nutshell, this book is effectively Deadpool’s eulogy for his long time friend and colleague Cable. That said, the first thing I really noticed was that this really is the only full eulogy issue we’ve seen for the character beyond the brief funeral seen at the tail end of Second Coming. Given the extensive history of the character, the fact that the only extensive impact of his death we’ve seen was from the character he was weirdly genetically linked to and not his father or adopted daughter is kind of shocking to me, but so it goes.
Another thing that became clear to me early on is how inextricably linked the dearly departed Cable & Deadpool series this issue was. Honestly, without reading that series, I’d be pretty surprised if any reader would have fully grasped any of the issue’s references or, even, its primary plot, despite how simplistic it happens to be. Simply put, Deadpool travels to what he thinks is the fictional eastern european nation of Rumekistan, which was briefly governed by Cable himself back in the aforementioned Cable & Deadpool. As it turns out, Wade is actually in the wrong country (New Rumekistan, as opposed to Rumekistan classic), a country that has no idea who Cable is or the great work he did for Rumekistan. The structure of the issue then becomes split between Wade dealing with the New Rumekistani military, who treats him like an enemy combatant (and understandably so) and flashbacks to some of the more “buddy-oriented” moments of Cable & Deadpool. The end of the issue, however, is tricky in that it’s unclear what, if anything, is resolved, and in true Deadpool fashion, we’re not even sure what of what we saw was even “real” as opposed to a figment of Wade’s deranged imagination. But thats actually not a bad thing, I feel. In this day and age, Deadpool is being written as a largely slapstick character, and its nice to see a story where the unpredictability comes on the mental plane, as opposed to the “physical” plane. (All of this is relative of course since it’s all fiction, but you catch my meaning.)
Ultimately, while you can read the issue itself to find all the references and nuances it contains, I do have to say this: this was the first truly human Deadpool story I’ve read in a while. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but Deadpool isn’t just the slapstick, bang bang, uber violent cash cow he is today. Previously, during his book’s original run and ESPECIALLY during Cable & Deadpool, there was actual DEPTH to Wade’s character. He came across not only as a fun loving, gun toting merc with a mouth, but as a deeply scarred individual trying immensely hard to find his place within not only the world around him, but within his own mind as well. That latter part has been lost in recent years, but the reflective nature of this issue was definitely an indication that SOMEONE remembers there can be more to the character than simple, violent comedy. In fact, this is not the first time Swierczynski has displayed this tendency with the character, and makes me curious what would happen if he had an extended stay in Wade’s head.
Continued belowOn the art end, Fernandez does an adequate job with it. Admittedly, despite this comic having more depth than your average Deadpool book these days, it was still a Deadpool book, which means the height of artistic interpretation and style is not really needed and, indeed, a bit of a cartoony feel is called for. With that said, Fernandez manages to channel other classic ‘pool artists like Ed McGuinness or Reily Brown pretty adequately and, I will admit, his interpretation of Wade’s late-story costume change is pretty damn hilarious. Does it stand up and make me take notice? No, but it does its job.
Overall, I’m not really sure whether I need to contextualize this book as a one-shot, or the long overdue continuation of a series (and even then, I’m not sure WHICH series it’s continuing, exactly.) As an autonomous unit though, it does it’s job. I couldn’t possibly foresee Wade mourning Cable any other way. My one gripe, honestly, is the fact that this came out NOW when Cable bit the big one last summer. However, poor timing or not, the issue is still quality work and a fitting tribute to both Cable AND “thoughtful” Deadpool stories. And for that it shall be commended.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
