One Pair Overstocks Hair Products, The Other Pouches And Belts

As I was typing Saturday's post, and yammering on about how Angel's expression suggests someone suppressing the urge to smile, I realized it was reminding me of something. Namely, my favorite scene from Cable/Deadpool.

Issue 41, as Cable's island sinks because of something from Mike Carey's X-Men run I didn't read. Sabretooth's loose, and using Irene as a shield to keep Domino at bay. Cable and 'Pool haven't been speaking recently, but Wade parachutes in, blasting Creed so Domino can get Irene to safety. They reach the evacuation craft and Cable asks about what happened to Creed. Domino replies simply, 'Wilson.' Cable gets a huge smile on his face and looks back in that direction. 'Really? Just when you think you know everything the future has in store. . .' Something to that effect. I'm working from memory there.

I like that scene for a few reasons. That Cable can actually be surprised, since he spent most of the series up to then playing the "I know everything 'cause I'm from the future!" card. More importantly, that he's pleasantly surprised, because Deadpool came through. I think Deadpool comes through more than people think, but I can't deny he screws up a lot. He has the wrong goals, the wrong motivations, he doesn't think things through, and he lets people down a lot.

He's Spike, in other words. Which makes Cable, Angel. Which isn't too out there. They both seem to aim high, save the world, save the future, slay the seemingly unkillable foe (Apocalypse, Wolfram & Hart). They're reserved, secretive, moody. They both get so wrapped up in their missions, they forget what the point is. That's usually when they screw up, and then they alienate their friends. Angel pushed away his crew more than once, and Cable's wrecked multiple friendships with people (G.W. Bridge, Domino, the X-Force kids), only some of which he was able to fix. Angel lost a kid to another dimension only for him to return much older and crankier; Cable is a kid who vanished into the future and returned older and crankier.

Spike and Deadpool tend to focus on more personal goals: love, respect, revenge, but they're capable of selfless acts. Mostly though, they seize on what looks like the quickest path to get what they want, and it usually ends badly. Wade tried to be registered hero, Cable made him look like such a loser he got fired. He tried to get some work done on his brain, the Black Box/Comcast/Gareb turned him into a sleeper agent meant to kill Cable. Spike tried to get a soul so he'd be a better person , it let the First use him as a killing tool. They both hurt the people they care about. Spike with Dru and Buffy, Wade with Blind Al, Weasel, Siryn, probably some others.

The relationship between the two aren't quite the same, since Cable didn't have a hand in creating Deadpool. Unless someone's retconned Cable into helping start Weapon X. But it seems like William became Spike at least partially in response to Angelus (the other part begin to distance himself from who he was as a human). Angelus basically lorded his strength, experience, and the opportunity to shag Dru and Darla over William, daring him to do something about it. Spike kills a Slayer. When Angelus returned in Season 2, Spike teamed up with the Slayer at least in part to screw Angelus over (and get Dru back, and save the world). Throughout his attempted courtship of Buffy and helping the Scoobies, before and after the soul, he was constantly being measured against Angel. That had to be frustrating and tedious, to not be measured on his own successes or failures, but judged by someone else's as well. I think the two of them are different enough they'll never be chums, but at the same time, they lived closely together for 20 years. There are things they can discuss with each other that no one else would really understand.

Cable pushed, and poked, and prodded at Wade, trying to get him to do the right thing (as Cable defined it), through threats, hiring him for jobs on the sly, and in his most questionable move, hooking Wade's subconscious into the Infonet so he could be bombarded with visual representations of his innermost doubts nonstop (that nearly resulted in a bloodbath). Given that Wade did show up to help, and then continued to try and do the right thing after Cable's apparent death, it seems like it worked. And I think Wade encouraged Cale to loosen up some. There was never the level of hatred between them the two vampires have, because most of Wade's attacks on Cable were just business, and Cable spent enough time as a gun-for-hire to understand that. They're still annoying, still dangerous, but there's not as much heat there, except when Cable's attempts to play God screw Wade over somehow. Even so, there's a strong level of trust, especially considering Wade's unpredictable tendencies. Deadpool's tried hard to be better, partially for himself, partially for others, and Cable (depending on the writer) relies on and cares about Wade more heavily than he might have ever anticipated.