Well, here's something I never expected to see.  Cable & Deadpool #25.

It's worth flagging up that the book has achieved something here.  Sure, it's a marginal seller, but it's actually lasted into a third year with relatively stable sales.  What was the last X-book to make it to issue #25?  Not Rogue.  Or Nightcrawler.  Or Jubilee or NYX or Gambit or Emma Frost or Mystique.  Not Agent X or Soldier X, the titles that were cancelled to make way for this book.  Not Excalibur.  New X-Men, perhaps, if you're willing to count the preceding run of New Mutants comics - but the book itself has only reached #22.  Wolverine?  Technically, perhaps, but that was just a renumbering stunt, so it doesn't really count.

In fact, the answer is Weapon X.  Which kind of spoils my point, because it got cancelled at issue #28.  But you see where I'm coming from.  By the standards of recent X-Men launches, almost all of which have collapsed within a year, Cable & Deadpool is doing remarkably well.

This week's issue isn't actually an anniversary story, but it is another self-contained one before the book goes into crossover mode for a while - something else we haven't seen for a while, come to think of it.  Deadpool gets pushed to the sidelines while Cable spends the issue meeting up with Captain America.

The main story of this book has been Cable finally trying to live up to his reputation and change the world.  Normally, characters who meet up with Captain America either bow down in awe or reject everything he stands for.  Rather unusually, Cable does neither.  He certainly sees himself as following in the tradition of Captain America.  But, politely and firmly, he makes clear that he thinks he's better.  After all, he's led entire armies. Where he comes from, he was a symbol of hope for the entire plant.  And Captain America's great and all, but a bit further down the pecking order.

It's rare for any comic to bring on Captain America for the express purpose of claiming that the title character is superior to him.  When Cap finishes off wondering whether Cable might be right, you've got a very unusual use of the character.  But it works, because it plays off the central theme: is Cable really a visionary who's going to make the world a better place, or is he just delusionally arrogant?  Because if he's everything he believes himself to be, then sure, he's unquestionably better than Captain America.  Hell, he's practically the messiah. 

Using Cap like this works neatly to flag up just how astronomically inflated Cable's sense of self-worth is.  He's allowed to be unsettling, while at the same time, all the actual on-panel evidence seems to support him.  It's a nice balance that ensures we doubt him just enough.

Lan Medina makes a solid debut with his first issue on art.  It's a traditional superhero style, which is fine for this title.  His Cable needs a bit of tweaking - he looks a bit young, and a touch bland.  To be honest, the whole thing looks a bit subdued when it gets into action sequences, and could afford to cut loose a little more.  Does the job perfectly well, though.

It's good to see Nicieza doing such an effective job with his long-term storyline, and hopefully the upcoming raft of crossovers won't drag the book too far off course.

Rating: B+

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