I have to wonder... is the audience that clamored for Rob Liefeld's art in the early 1990s still looking for his work today? One would have to assume readers' tastes would develop and grow over the course of a decade or more. I know mine have. Will the teen readers of today -- who might show an interest in Liefeld's Kewl style -- care about two of creations coming together in one title? Will they care about Liefeld's minor contribution of a cover (which does little to hide his shortcomings when it comes to the depiction of human anatomy)? I'll be honest... I'm not a fan of Liefeld's work, but I do enjoy some of what Fabian Nicieza has had to offer in the past. Sadly, that strength is not to be found here. It was nice to see the goofiness of Deadpool once again, but the generic plot and new character designs just don't grab me.
A cult that has embraced equality above everything else by eradicating identity through cosmetic alteration hires Deadpool to infiltrate a German pharmaceutical corporation. The firm has apparently devised a synthetic virus that can threaten the planet, and that the cult believes had be harnessed for what it deems to be a good cause. Meanwhile, Cable -- while on his mission to befriend emerging mutants and bring them over to Charles Xavier's cause -- learns of the German company's unusual activities as well, and he decides to pay them a visit.
Not surprisingly, Udon members Brooks and Law offer up artwork that is highly reminiscent of the Gail Simone runs on Deadpool and Agent X, which were illustrated by Alvin Lee and other Udon Studio artists. There's energy and fun in the lightness of the colors here. The heavy manga influence isn't really to my taste this time around, though, and the blue-skinned cultists make for a surprisingly dull visual.
There are a couple of little plot points that poked at my brain here. Nicieza has Deadpool wearing a plastic mask in order to travel, but he makes no mention of the holographic device he used to use. As a former Deadpool reader, I was wondering what prompted the change in approach. Furthermore, the character's first scene shows him refusing to do business without his mask on, even if it's to deal with a phone call, but he fails to do so for a face-to-face meeting later in the book. That inconsistency stood out as a significant gaffe. Perhaps there are explanations for these inconsistencies, but they're not to be found in this book.
It was nice to revisit the zany antics of Marvel's merc for hire, but the pairing of the two title characters is a bit puzzling. The overall tone of this issue is a farcical one, and Cable just doesn't seem to fit in, at least not as a permanent, core element in the book. Overall, the issue reads as a Deadpool comic with Cable "guest-starring" as the straight man for a short time.
