The Marvel Universe is full of superheroes that are widely known. With the succes of the movies based on these comics, Marvel has a chance to experiment with characters that are relatively unknown to the general public. As such, last year we got the first Marvel R-rated superhero movie based on the anti-hero Deadpool. The movie was absolutely hilarious and became an enormous boxoffice success. Strangely enough, before the movie I had not even heard of this character before. Despite the fact that he is now one of the most popular Marvel heroes.

I love comics, and after seeing the movie I decided to catch up a bit on Deadpool. I bought a couple of collected editions, but also a massive tome called the Deadpool & Cable omnibus. And oh boy is this last book a treat. Those of you that stayed for the after credits scene of the Deadpool movie know that (minor spoiler upcoming) Cable will be making an entrance in the sequel. Cable is an X-man from the future with incredible telepathic and telekinetic powers. This omnibus contains all 50 issues of the Cable & Deadpool comic book series,  that ran from 2004-2008.

Where to begin? Well let’s start with the humour. Deadpool is nuts, no let me rephrase that, he is completely insane. Having him paired up with the serious Cable makes for some incredibly funny situations. There are so many things in these comics that are absolutely hilarious that I can not describe them all. But to name a few: In later issues, we get a recap page in which Deadpool talks to the reader of the comic what happened in a previous issue, together with other heroes that are going to appear later on in the story. This gag becomes even more hilarious when Deadpool gets his own talkshow, and recaps what came before. The book is full of crazy one-liners, and in almost every issue something happens that will make you laugh.

The stories themselves are great and offer a wide range of variety. We ofcourse get great battles, some more serious issues, a story that will occasionally bring a tear to your eye, but above all it is just a delight to read. Also included are numerous guest appearances from other Marvel Heroes, ranging from Spiderman to Wolverine. Last but definitely not least is the art, which except for a couple of comics, is seriously well drawn. And that last part is ofcourse very important when reading comics.

If you are a fan of Deadpool, or comics in general this is an absolute must buy. Yes, it has a hefty price tag, but in my opinion it was definitely worth it. This book is a great introduction to Deadpool, but also to Cable, and if you want to catch up on this great duo, this is the place to start. I myself could not find any negative points, and that means that the score I am going to give will not be much of a surprise.

I give this book a 10 out of 10 score.