It's a hectic weekend, so I'm keeping it short.  Luckily for me, there's not a great deal out this week.  So let's look at the final issue of Cable & Deadpool, and then have a glance at where the character heads next, in Wolverine: Origins.

Cable & Deadpool made it to issue #50.  That's really quite surprising, when you think about it.  Consider for a moment the publishing history of these characters.  Their heyday was back in the nineties, when they both got solo titles.  Times moved on, sales dwindled, and both books were relaunched as Agent X and Soldier X - only to tank anew.  So by the time Cable & Deadpool came along, both these characters had failed twice in rapid succession.  And they didn't have much excuse to appear in the same story, either.

So by rights, this should have been a disastrous comic which spiralled into rapid oblivion.  Instead, Fabian Nicieza managed to make it work, by building the series around Cable's utopian pretensions, and positioning Deadpool as a court jester, comic foil and uncertain acolyte.  It was Cable's story, but from Deadpool's perspective, leaving us a little uncertain about whether he really knew what he was doing.

And then, of course, they yanked Cable out of the book in order to stick him in a crossover and relaunch his solo series, and that was the end of that.  The stories since then have been hit and miss.  The book has effectively become Deadpool Team-Up, and that's a very difficult format to pull off without seeming incredibly contrived.  We've had some shaky stories, and without Cable to serve as an anchor, the book seemed rather directionless.

Nonetheless, it goes out on a high.  Artist Reilly Brown has taken over as plotter for the final two issues, with Nicieza contributing a script.  And it turns out that Brown is pretty darn good at this.  Faced with the thankless task of wrapping up a somewhat directionless series that got hopelessly derailed a year ago, he actually manages to give the book some resolution.

Instead of a straight team-up, this story has Deadpool teaming up with all the major New York heroes, as Venom-infected dinosaurs run wild in Manhattan.  It's a nicely judged premise for this book - absurd, yet still within the bounds of the Marvel Universe.  Deadpool gets to team up with the big names and prove himself by saving the day; supporting characters get their own little moments of resolution; Cable doesn't appear but still manages to help out; and everything wraps up with the cast gathering round the TV to hang out together.

Nicieza produces some of his best dialogue, with some genuinely funny one-liners and silliness that still let the story work.  (Deadpool insists that he must be a proper hero because he registered during Civil War: "I'm a loyal, goose-stepping vague analogy!")  And Brown is an excellent action artist with the light touch to carry off comedy.  Why he isn't working on a higher-profile comic, I have no idea.  Between this and the last issue, he's done some unexpectedly entertaining work, and shows real promise as a writer/artist.

This issue isn't a proper resolution to the series that came before.  That would be impossible without picking up Cable's storyline, which is apparently off limits.  But it's a worthy final issue that at least gives Deadpool a well-deserved send-off, and it's just plain good fun.  It's a real shame they're not continuing with the book with these creators, and on these lines.  On the strength of this issue, Brown could have done some great comics.

Rating: A

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