Week three of Reload, and six titles this week.  Clearly this isn't nearly enough, which is why Marvel is launching even more over the next few months.  It really is the start of a new dark age, isn't it?

Still, to be fair, while Marvel is deluging the market with completely unnecessary X-books, at least individually they're not bad.  Cable & Deadpool is probably one of those superfluous titles that Marvel don't really need.  Nonetheless, it's proving to be perfectly enjoyable.

The One World Church are still pursuing their grand plan to achieve utopia by making everyone identical.  They've enlisted Deadpool to help out, and he's stolen a shapechanging virus which ought to do the job.  Deadpool's quite keen on the idea of looking the same as everyone else because, heck, it's got to be an improvement on the way he looks now.  Cable, meanwhile, decides to infiltrate the Church and starts to come round to their way of thinking.

The previous issue was mainly devoted to Cable running around after some extremely low-rent anarchist criminals.  At the time, that seemed like a diversion from the plot.  The point becomes a little clearer this issue - having spent the last few years doing not a great deal, Cable is inspired to wonder whether he should be using his power to do a bit more world-changing.

Of course, Authority and its ilk have hammered that point into the ground.  But Nicieza has a slightly different angle on it.  Cable, after all, came from an apocalyptic future where he spent decades not merely trying to reform his society, but to tear it down completely and start from scratch.  Why not apply the same approach here?  It's not like the world's going all that well.

It's an idea that steers Cable back into antihero territory.  It also has the potential to give him back some of the direction he's been lacking since Apocalypse disappeared from the scene (although no doubt Marvel are diligently working as we speak at reversing this terrible error where they actually resolved a plot).  Mind you, it still doesn't take us much further in terms of explaining why Cable and Deadpool would want to share a title in the long run.  But then we're only halfway through the first arc.

Mark Brooks, the series' launch artist, has been reassigned to Marvel Age: Spider-Man.  His replacement is Patrick Zircher, who worked with Nicieza before on Thunderbolts.  However, rather than work in his own style, Zircher seems to be attempting his best Udon impersonation, in the interests of consistency.  The results are pretty good.  It's a bit like Udon with a hint of early Steve Skroce, and the "exploded view" scene in Cable's house is very well realised. 

Nicieza seems to be slipping back into his habit of writing excessively technical macguffins.  Having started off as a relatively straightforward idea (it's a virus that gives you shapechanging powers), the Facade virus is becoming alarmingly fiddly by the end of the issue.  Not only is it now optically transmitted (what?!?), it's also able to block Cable's mutant abilities, which has nothing at all to do with the original idea.  All of this clutter usually ends up distracting from the core of Nicieza's stories.

Still, on the whole it's an enjoyable story, with some very nice art.

Rating: B+

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