Once again, Marvel have seven X-books coming out in one week.  Which bit of "too much" do they not understand?  Again, it's not that they're bad - most of them are perfectly okay - but this continued deluging of the market makes everything seem utterly meaningless.  I pray for mass cancellations.  The whole line needs a chainsaw taken to it.  Things have become completely ridiculous.

Anyway, let's slog through the dead trees and see if there's anything worth flagging up.  Since almost all of this week's books are halfway through lengthy storylines, it's not exactly a selection that lends itself to fascinating new opinions which I haven't already been voicing for the last two months, but I'll see what I can do.  On the bright side, there's always X-Men #164, a truly happy event.

First up, Cable & Deadpool #9, and the third part of "The Burnt Offering."  I still think it's a shame they didn't stick with the original title, "The Passion of the Cable", which is much better on several levels.  Aside from the fact that it would annoy all sorts of people whom it's always good fun to irritate, it's also genuinely relevant to the story.  The point finally becomes clear this issue, as we establish that Cable isn't seriously expecting to succeed in his "remake the world" routine at all.  Rather, he's trying to crash and burn so that he'll be a martyr to the cause and inspire people.

Admittedly, the mechanics of this plot are a little ropey.  Cable tells us that his increased powers won't last much longer, which is why he needs to do this now.  It's not very clear why his power levels are going to drop, besides which, the story would be much more effective if he was actually planning to get himself killed.  I realise he can't really die, but he could at least plan for it.  There's also some very questionable stuff with Cable claiming that he knows it'll work from his knowledge of the future.  Granted, that leads to a knowingly tongue-in-cheek exchange about the incomprehensibility of Marvel timeline rules, but it doesn't make an awful lot of sense anyway - Cable's timeline was, literally, an apocalyptic nightmare, so his plan can't have turned out all that well.

Still, I do like the central idea.  Cable's been presented as a messiah figure for years, ever since the infant Nathan was established as the Most Important Child Ever, and it makes sense to follow through on that idea with this sort of story.  Even though it's an unconventional sort of superhero story (the protagonists seem to be the villains here, if anyone is), Nicieza and Zircher play nicely with the trappings of the Marvel Universe and give it the sort of technicolor feel that works well here.  Taking superheroes too literally is usually a mistake; I like seeing this sort of story done with minor league supervillains and the X-Men hanging around.  It's gloriously nuts.  It also helps that while everyone else seems determined to place their solo titles in some sort of "real world" environment, Cable & Deadpool is drifting happily off into flights of demented fancy - while still retaining an actual point.

The downside - well, on top of the plot glitches mentioned above - is that this is really a Cable story.  It's meant to be Deadpool's title as well, but in practice he seems to have been nailed onto the plot in order to try and justify the title.  He's used quite effectively as comic relief (his choice of makeshift X-Men uniform is wonderfully awful), and admittedly, that's a much-needed role when you have a character like Cable driving the story.  But Deadpool really doesn't have anything to do with the plot, and his presence feels a bit superfluous.

Still, it may not be perfect, but I'm still finding this unlikely title surprisingly enjoyable.  It's fun, and it actually knows what it's trying to achieve.  And that does make it stand out, in the current line.

Rating: B+

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