Yes, yes, it's a day late.  Don't ask.  Christmas is a busy season.

So, anyway.  Cable & Deadpool #23 finishes off the "Bosom Buddies" four-parter.  This is an arc that improved as it went on.  Nicieza has always had a weakness for excessively complex macguffins, and it was in full effect during this arc.  The story involves Deadpool and a motley selection of characters such as the BAD Girls and the Cat racing around after something called the Dominus Objective.

What is the Dominus Objective, you may ask?  In fact, after several issues of characters attempting to explain it solely in fluent technobabble, you'd probably still have been asking.  It's only last issue that we finally got a vaguely understandable description of the thing, and only this issue that somebody finally gives us a plain, straightforward explanation of why anyone would want such a thing.  Basically, it sorts and organises information, and is thus very useful for the mastermind type who has access to far more data than he can personally wade through.

Quite why this wasn't explained at the outset, I'm not entirely sure.  In part it's been played for laughs, with Deadpool baffled by the gibberish explanations he's being given.  But it also means that it's only with this final part that we get a clear explanation of what's actually at stake in this story.  And without that, you've got various characters running around doing entertaining things, but a slight drama shortfall.

With the final issue, though, things get back on track.  Cable is back to being a deadpan manipulative schemer, tricking confused underlings into all sorts of helpful activities.  He's still firmly in messiah mode, which is by far the most interesting thing about the character.  And, now that Cable has been knocked down to a sensible power level, we've got a sensible rationale for why he's co-starring in a book with Deadpool.  In plot terms, Deadpool is a useful idiot who's easy to manipulate.  And for storytelling purposes, he's a good point of view character for the baffled reader, which helps to keep Cable's schemes more mysterious and suspicious.  It's a successful dynamic.

The other main development from this arc is, of all things, that Commcast gets added to the main cast.  Nicieza introduced this villain in the mid-1990s and then never got around to doing much with him, for assorted reasons.  He's pretty much been in limbo ever since.  Nonetheless, he fits in surprisingly well in this title.  Not only did he debut as a Deadpool villain in the first place, but as an information broker, he's got plenty of value to Cable.

The arc as a whole suffers from making the plot murkier than it really needed to be.  But the final issue pulls things together nicely, and the overall direction of the series remains interesting.

Rating: B+

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