Cable senses a disruption in the timestream and locates its source with billionaire Francis Talbot, a man obsessed with time-travel. At the grief of losing his grandson in the Gulf War (this story is set in the early ‘90s before Deadpool and Cable meet), he’s hired the Merc with a Mouth to go back in time, alter history and save him from death. But Deadpool being the maniac that he is, has gone too far, jumping back to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and beyond, changing everything and causing untold chaos. It’s up to Cable and X-Force to stop him!
It’s amazing that in 2014 we’re still getting comics that wouldn’t be out of place in 1994. Those two Rob Liefeld characters, Deadpool and Cable, in a quintessentially ‘90s comic book format, the Vs comic, with Marvel’s favourite overused narrative trope, the time-travel story, shouldn’t still work - but it kinda does.
Not to say that Deadpool Vs X-Force is this ground-breaking comic that’s doing fresh new things - because it’s not - but it’s also not boring or unreadable. The story and Duane Swierczynski’s writing is just ok - it’s your average time-travel story with some fun moments that Deadpool fans will enjoy - and Pepe Larraz’s art is fine. The pages look decent but not remarkable.
The story does sort of deliver on the title with Deadpool momentarily fighting X-Force in 1777, but then he jumps into another time period and from there on out it’s the Deadpool and Cable show with X-Force futzing about til the end with little to do. And for X-Force fans, the lineup in this book is Warpath, Boom Boom, Domino and Cannonball - Shatterstar and Feral are left out, just because.
The fights are decent. There are some interesting surprises like how Deadpool’s actions in 1777 affect what 1863 looks like, and then how his actions in that time affect how 1900 looks, and so on, but it’s your standard time-travel hoohah that ends predictably well for everyone with no major lasting changes to any established continuity.
Deadpool fans will probably like Deadpool Vs X-Force the most, but it’s basically the comic book version of a chimichanga - junk food you can eat quickly and enjoy while it lasts but it’s soon gone and forgotten.
Deadpool Vs X-Force
No comments:
Post a Comment