Issues
Cable: Blood and Metal # 1 - 2
Cable, Volume 2 # 1 - 4
Deadpool: The Circle Chase: # 1 - 4
Foreword
This should possibly be titled a Fabian Nicieza post as he partners with John Romita Jr., Joe Madureira, and Art Thibert for 3 separate solo series' based on Rob Leifeld's characters Cable and Deadpool. Blood and Metal technically should have been covered before X-Cutioner's Song, but I decided to keep it here for a more Cable-centric blog post. I also strongly considered diving deep into the origin of Cable (The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, Askani'son, etc.) but that content is so rich it can get it's own post, not to mention that it will fit better after Excalibur #75 (When Rachel disappears in the timestream), Cable # 8, and X-Men # 25 (the wedding of Scott and Jean).
Cable is a character that I've always been interested in. This series is making me realize that he's a real asshole, but not a big enough asshole to make me stop enjoying him. We learn a lot about his backstory, both from his native timeline (2000 years in the future) and in his time with the Six Pack in the past of the main Marvel 616 timeline. All 3 series further explore Tolliver, which I'm very happy to see because we was set up in X-Force as a big deal, but I still know very little about him. Actually, I still don't, but it's clear that Nicieza has big plans for him so I'm pumped to find out more.
Cable: Blood and Metal # 1 - 2
Writer - Fabian Nicieza
Pencils - John Romita Jr.
As mentioned, this limited series technically should have been covered prior to X-Cutioner's Song, but I choose to tie it into a Cable-Centric blog.
Most of Cable: Blood and Metal bounced back and forth between the present and filling in the gaps of what happened with his old gang, the Wild Pack (which officially changed to Six Pack since Silver Sable her her own gang called the Wild Pack that was being pushed at the time). The six pack consists of Cable, Domino, G.W. Bridge, Grizzly, Kane, and a new character (I think) named Hammer.
Starting in the past, we see the dynamic here hasn't changed much with Cable being the hardass leader and while his teammates grudgingly follow him, they don't fully trust him. We learn that the Six pack had been accepting mercenary contracts from Tolliver until one of them went bad, transforming the group into outlaws. We also check in with Stryfe and get confirmation that it was him who killed Rictor's dad (not surprised).
The story in the past reaches it's crescendo when Cable when Cable obtains intel on Stryfe and his operations, but the mission is interrupted by Stryfe (and the MLF) himself. Stryfe captures Kane and threatens to kill him if Cable doesn't turn over the intel. Cable decides the intel is worth more than Kane's life (dick move), but Hammer doesn't agree and sets out to swap the intel for Kane. Cable shoots Hammer in the back to stop him, leaving him paralyzed. This seems to be the primary reason why the other members of the 6 pack hate Cable and even formed "Weapon Prime" (covered in 87: X-Force # 6 - 15 (Externals, Domino, Brotherhood)) to take him down in the present. We learn that Kane was also injured during this mission and he needed to be turned into Weapon X in order to re-gain the use of his limbs.
The other half of the story takes place in the present where Kane has hooked back up with Cable. Kane is on a mission to get intel that would cure Hammer and Cable is just still after Stryfe. These two run into the Mutant Liberation Front and Reaper loses a hand (of course) and Cable actually snipes Sumo, killing him! I should probably create an updated graphic of the MLF showing Sumo as being killed...but that seems like an awful lot of work for a low impact character like Sumo. Sorry, I'm not sorry! I bet half of you reading this don't even know who Sumo is. This duo also crashes the Clan Yashido (Mariko's family) residence and has a little skirmish with Silver Samurai (because Mariko was recently killed).
This present story shows the past scenario being played out one more time. While on the final mission to get the intel to save Hammer, Stryfe and the MLF ambush them once again. This time, Stryfe wants access to Professor in exchange for Kane's life. To show that Cable has grown as a character, this time around Cable pays the price to protect Kane, however Kane is still hurt in the subsequent firefight. Cable brings Kane to the future as the only way to save his life, which is where the second Cable solo series (this one will get 118 issues) starts off.
Cable, Volume 2 # 1 - 4
Writer - Fabian Nicieza
Pencils - Art Thibert
This series picks up after X-Cutioner Song. We had been left to believe that Cable and Stryfe died, however no one was shocked that at least Cable is alive and well. He pops back up in his future timeline with Kane, who was left in the future after his last Limited Series.
While the entire first issue takes place in the future (Cable's normal timeline), we get to see some flashbacks from his past (which is still in the future) Are you following? So we see that Cable had a wife, Jen, who was killed by Stryfe in an explosion. His son, Tyler was also kidnapped. I'm pretty sure Cable told Cannonball that Tyler wasn't his real son, but it seems as though this is retconning that to make it look like it is his son? I'm not sure. Also, it looks as though Stryfe may have been brainwashing Tyler, so I am counting on him popping up somewhere, however it hasn't happened yet, nor have they dropped any related hints in the first four issues.
Some Cyborg dude (of course a Cyborg, since it's the 90's) shows up looking for Cable in the future, but then goes back in time and is looking for Tolliver and later Deadpool.
There is a mission in the future where Cable and his group of futuristic warriors set out to stop the controlling government (Canaanites) from turning on a timeloop machine (in Niagara Falls). During the raid, Cable is on brand, being a dick to his troops and they are clearly pissy with him. At one point he orders a synthetic warrior named Boak to sacrifice himself and his team gets pissy when Cable shows no remorse. We are supposed to like this guy, right!? In the end, Cable and Kane go back to the present (1993) before destroying the last time machine.
By the end of the 4th issue, the Six pack (Cable, Domino, Kane, GW, Hammer, Grizzly) plus Vanessa (Domino's imposter, also known as Copycat) comes back together. There is actually a pretty cool interaction where Vanessa is thrilled to see Cable alive, hinting that she truly loves him, but he cooly dismisses her. I'm realllllly curious to see if Cable and the real Domino spark a romantic connection or not. I stopped reading around this point in my childhood, so I always have this idea of them being together but I truly don't know if it happens or not.
Ultimately, the six pack decide that they want to stay together again, however they can't trust Cable so they want to be together without him. The issue ends with Cable sitting around waiting at X-Force's base. I haven't actually read the next X-Force issues, but I'm guessing this is when he re-emerges with the team.
Deadpool: The Circle Chase: # 1 - 4
Writer - Fabian Nicieza
Pencils - Joe Madureira
This is a pretty fun little series. I have a hard time taking Nicieza's tough guy, loud mouth scripting seriously considering how antiquated and PG13 his comments are, but other than that, I like it.
The premise of this series is that with Tolliver dead, his hidden will is believed to have the most powerful weapon on the planet. This sets all the mercenaries in overdrive looking for it.
We check in with Juggernaut and Black Tom, because they are always thrown into new series for some reason. I liked the continuity here with Black Tom recovering from being shot up by Cable. I don't quite understand what happened to him, as he appears to have a tree-like growth coming out of him. However I did get excited to see this because I've read a little of the current Krokoa era and never understood why he could control nature when up to this point that wasn't a part of his power set. Now I get it!
We also get a bunch of Vanessa (AKA Copycat or Fake Domino), who is also both looking for Deadpool and the Tolliver Will. There are other random mercenaries but I don't think any of them are worth mentioning other than Kane (who they really seem to be pushing in this era) and a new villain named Slayback. Slayback is a character who Deadpool supposedly killed ten years ago but has pieced himself together. He's some sort of half dead cyborg, or something. I got pretty excited about this because I remember collecting his super hero card but other than than, I had no idea who he was.
We get to learn a bit more about Deadpool. Some of this would be new to me if I hadn't seen the Deadpool movies. We learn that him and Vanessa's relationship went way back to their childhood. We learn that he had cancer and that his body is terribly deformed, however they don't directly explain the link between his powers, cancer, and deformed body. Or if they did, I missed it. We also meet Deadpool's trust sidekick, the sterotypical nerd named Weasel who does all the smart guy stuff for him.
In the end there is an all out battle between Vanessa, Kane, Slayback, Deadpool, and Weasel. The Tolliver Will ended up containing a Zero unit and I'm unsure if this is Stryfe's dude or something else. Zero kills Slayback (at least it looked that way) and Weasel and Deadpool seem to be hin possession of the Zero unit. Vanessa tells Deadpool that she no longer loves him, as she has fallen for someone else (must be Cable), and Kane takes an injured Vanessa back with him to get her healed.
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