Deadpool 2’s X-Force members, um…ranked?
By Mike McNulty
Credit: 20th Century Fox/Marvel Entertainment; from Deadpool 2 (2018)
2. Cable
Like Dopinder, Cable (Josh Brolin) himself ends up as a late edition to X-Force during Deadpool 2, if you can even call him a member of the team. That’s because one of the film’s many ironies is that although this time-traveling mutant from a dystopian future founds X-Force in the comics, he doesn’t do so here. He’s actually the main antagonist for at least two-thirds of the movie. In fact, there’s a lot of disparages between Cable on-screen versus Cable on the page.
For starters, Cable’s reason for traveling back in time is very different. In the comics, he travels to the past to stop Apocalypse before he can take over the world. Here, Cable travels back in time to kill the young Russell before his adult future self kills Cable’s family. Moreover, Hope is Cable’s daughter instead of his adoptive daughter like in the comics. Nor is there any mention about Cable being the son of Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) and Jean Grey’s clone, Madelyne Pryor. Or about the fact that he’s telepathic and that his cybernetic parts are an actual virus. There’s not even a mention that Cable’s real name is Nathan Summers.
What Deadpool 2 does get right about Cable is his gruff, hard, cynical demeanor, which Brolin absolutely nails. It’s especially impressive when you compare his performance in this film with his equally excellent role as Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. It also illustrates how he’s an ideal foil for Deadpool, especially since he’s the most serious-minded person in the movie, even more so than Colossus (Stefan Kapičić).
On top of this, even though Cable and Deadpool are at odds when it comes to Russell, and although the movie does side with Wade, it never does so at Cable’s expense. Considering we’ve had hero vs. hero films such as Captain America: Civil War and Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, it’s the one time you walk away feeling unsympathetic towards either side. It also makes me more interesting in a potential X-Force movie, especially with Brolin reprising his role as Cable. Maybe then we can learn more about his familial connects with the X-Men.