Cable & Deadpool: Volume 1: If Looks Could Kill Review By Deffinition
Deadpool and Cable finally hit the screen together for the first time in Deadpool 2. If you’ve seen my Ending Explained video of the film then you know that I had a lot of fun with the movie and felt it did a great job of pairing the two up.
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But where did it all begin?
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Cable & Deadpool tells the tale of the duo’s first comic teamup and I’ve heard from many that is is a great graphic novel that kicks off an even better series.
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Throughout this review I will be discussing whether the book lives up to the hype to let you know if it’s worth checking out if. There will be heavy spoilers so it may be worth just skipping to the score for now if you want to remain unspoiled.
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With that out the way let’s dive into Cable & Deadpool: If Looks Could Kill.
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Tied up with Cable
Tasked with retrieving a mysterious Toxin by an even more mysterious colony, Deadpool travels to Germany. The synthetic virus allows the possessor to manipulate their appearance and in the wrong hands could prove deadly. Intercepted by Cable, who also seeks the toxin in order to destroy it, the two begin a comedic rivalry that spans the entire comic. The opener is awash with the usual off the wall Merc with a mouth humour and fans of the character will lap this up.
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However, it’s from this that I started to have problems with the book. With the two characters being polar opposites I found their segments to be quite jarring tonally and thus the story felt quite disjointed. Deadpool is hilarious but Cable borders so much on the banal that he could be described as boring. When moving back and forth between the two it causes the work to become uneven and I found it difficult to attach myself to the graphic novel.
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There are so many breakneck back and forth moments that its rather difficult to fully jive with the book and I would have preferred a focus on one character per issue instead of the constant jumping back and forth.
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Guinea Pig
Captured and experimented on by the Colony, Deadpool is changed in several ways. The Colony wish to use his healing power to mutate the virus and in doing so indoctrinate him into their cult. He seems to be under the influence but of course breaks free, learns that he must join forces with Cable in order to stop them and the two wreak havoc on the antagonists from the mid-point onwards. Which brings me to my next point.
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The villains seem rather one dimensional and it’s impossible to relate to them unless you have been in a cult yourself. This once more makes the book slightly under par and difficult to invest in. Of course the villains are more than capable of being killed off by the hundreds when the bullets do start flying which I suppose allows them to serve a purpose. However, for a first outing I wanted a bunch of villains that didn’t seem so shallow and actually provided some conflict.
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Their plot is rather predictable and simplistic and they just don’t elevate to the threat level that would require Deadpool and Cable to necessitate a team up. In the end the climax is the most interesting aspect of the book but it doesn’t manage to save the rote story that came before it. We are teased a more interesting villain for next time but even a hint at the next foe doesn’t make me clammer to see how this story plays out.
The Verdict
Deadpool and Cable’s first story together is extremely disappointing. Suffering from a lacklustre villain, plot and action the book feels completely by the numbers and lacks the creativity that one would expect to see in a story about the Merc with a mouth. After first read I found it difficult to imagine how this book has such a stellar reputation and thus I cannot really recommend it.
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Cable and Deadpool sorely let me down and for that reason it scores a…
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