DEADPOOL: Page 10 of 18

Publication Date: 18th May 2018
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - page 10

In the country of Rumekistan, Deadpool assisted the Rumeki resistance on behalf of Cable against Flag-Smasher and ULTIMATUM, who had conquered the country in a bloodless coup months ago. Wade was reunited with Weasel on this job, who forgive Wilson for leaving him to the cops and they bonded over Battlestar Galactica. Cable's former friend and lover Domino shot Flag-Smasher and let Cable's resistance forces take over Rumekistan, but she was conflicted about leaving Nate in charge of a country. She even asked Deadpool of all people for advice, and while Wade trusted Cable, he told her she had to make her own decision about the man. [Cable & Deadpool #28-29]

When the Superhuman Registration Act passed through Congress, Deadpool saw an opportunity for big bucks and signed up as a hero-stalking bounty hunter. A badge, recognition from his government, and of course money was all Wade ever dreamed of having. He got overeager and went after his old sparring partners the Lightning Rods in order to show off his moves, only to be beaten by Squirrel Girl and learn the 'Rods had registered the very first day as the Great Lakes Initiative. Still, the government saw value in Deadpool as an agent and signed him up. Unfortunately, Cable's revolutionary mindset led him to aid Captain America and the unregistered vigilantes against the authorities. When Deadpool located their hideout, Cable, Captain America and the unregistered heroes caught him and tied Wade up with as much duct tape as they could find.

Cable came back for Wade later after Goliath was killed in a battle between two hero forces. Using their bodyslide, Cable jumped directly into the Oval Office to confront the President about the Registration Act. He failed to convince the Commander-in-Chief to drop it, and the President ordered Deadpool to do his duty and arrest the unregistered criminal in front of him. Deadpool and Cable fought through the White House before Nate bodyslid them to the One World Church in France. He got Wade agitated and pressed him that he had no authority to arrest Nate in another country. This prompted Deadpool to say something politically incorrect about the wide-ranging powers of an American with a badge in the world, while Nate broadcast it on the internet. As a result, the President was forced to publicly fire Wade and distance his administration from Deadpool.

Wade realized this had been Nate's plan all along and called him out on his manipulation. Cable told Deadpool he would just have to trust he was right about this, but Wade refused. He told Nate that, even without the badge and authority, he still believed Registration was right. Guys like him were dangerous, and deserved to be kept on a leash. Deadpool laid into Nate, saying that just because he acted like an idiot all the time didn't mean his friends could treat him like one. If Cable wasn't willing to accept their difference of opinion and had to force Wade into falling in line, then their friendship was bogus. With that, Wade and Nate split up their partnership, seemingly for good. [Cable & Deadpool #30-32]

Holding a grudge and needing work, Deadpool accepted a black ops commission to work for the Six Pack and United States government to besmirch Cable's reputation. Wade blew up the generators at Providence, causing a power outage but no casualties. Cable was forced to bodyslide to the scene from Rumekistan to contain the fallout, unaware that Deadpool was already there when they materialized together. Once Cable realized Rumekistan would be next in a smear campaign against him, he traveled back to his new country and Deadpool played along as if he were going to help. Instead, when Cable and Deadpool confronted Domino and the rest of the Six Pack setting bombs on Rumekistan's power lines, Wade shot Nate in the back of the head. [Cable & Deadpool #33]

Although the bullet creased off of Cable's techno-organic skull structure, he was knocked out for a time. Still, Nathan had apparently planned for all of this. He allowed his works to be temporarily disrupted in order to draw attention from the world, dramatically solve the problem and embarrass the United States by catching their mercenaries red-handed. The job also made Domino guilty enough to switch sides and begin helping Cable. But having orchestrated the entire affair wasn't enough to make Nate forgive Wade for turning on him. He launched Deadpool with ballistic force out of Rumekistan with a stern warning not to come back... and something extra. [Cable & Deadpool #34]

Over the next few days, Deadpool was at loose ends trying to find work and occupy himself. Things got even worse when he started hallucinating, experiencing visions of various people he had killed over the years haunting him. The visions provoked Wade by asking if he even remembered how many people he had killed, and why did he ever lose count in the first place? The pressure reached the point where Deadpool started shooting up a bar and was about to murder an innocent bystander when Cable finally stepped in. Nate had implanted the suggestion for the hallucinations in Wade's head before kicking him out of Rumekistan, hoping it would drive the two of them back together. Deadpool chastised Cable again for trying to manipulate their friendship, and forced Nate to remove the hallucinations. They parted on even worse terms than before, as Wade sat alone contemplating what the hallucinations forced him to confront. [Cable & Deadpool #35]

In the hopes of reigniting his mercenary career, Deadpool and Weasel arranged for a daring display of derring-do. Wade freed Taskmaster from imprisonment in exchange for his help putting on a show for potential clients. Deadpool kidnapped various military and private military figures to show off how good he was by beating Taskmaster even while manacled. Wade still didn't get any work out of the effort, though, because everyone pointed out it wasn't his skills they doubted, it was his professionalism. [Cable & Deadpool #36] Things got lower when the Rhino resurfaced looking for revenge for that time Deadpool turned him into a keychain. A burst of Pym Particles later and Deadpool was hanging from the Rhino's keys. After sending Deadpool to ride the urinal cakes at a bar, Wade admitted he was sorry to Rhino and congratulated him on having embarrassed Wade thoroughly. And then Wade beat him up while still only a few inches tall. [Cable & Deadpool #37]

Trapped at micro-size, Wade was still approached by Sandi and Outlaw of Agency X when Alex Hayden went missing on a job. Needing to infiltrate a Hydra base, Deadpool brought along Weasel to carry his gear. While Weasel was planning a complicated infiltration scheme, however, Deadpool demonstrated his impulsiveness hadn't shrunk with his body. Wade started an explosion for a distraction, beat up several Hydra agents despite his size, then wrangled a poor guy named Bob into being his transport. Bob, Agent of Hydra, carried Deadpool to where Agent X was being held, now morbidly obese after Hydra tested their morphogenic actuator on him. Wade got a supply of Pym Particles from the Hydra agents to restore himself to normal, then stole a Hydra jet to fly himself, Alex and Bob to safety. Wade, Alex, Bob... are we forgetting anybody? No? Okay. [Cable & Deadpool #38]

In Deadpool's absence, Agency X was attacked by T-Ray, who kidnapped Sandi and Outlaw to lure Wade into another fight over their shared identity. Despite T-Ray's black magic powers and fourth-wall breaking abilities that clearly marked him as the real Wade Wilson, Deadpool wasn't buying T-Ray's garbage this time around. Cable's efforts sorting out Deadpool's brain had cleared up his memories, and he now vividly remembered his own childhood as Wade Wilson, signing up for the military as Wade Wilson, joining Weapon X and becoming Deadpool as Wade Wilson, etc. He also spotted the flaws in the memories T-Ray showed him years ago, like how "Jack" was wearing a Deadpool costume when he met the Wilsons, even though he never became Deadpool until years later. T-Ray refused to admit his story was a ruse, but Deadpool was convinced he had proven his own identity. He rather easily rescued his friends and killed T-Ray, stabbing him through the brain with his katana. With Alex out of commission for the moment due to his obesity, Deadpool was hired on by Agency X to complete the jobs Agent X couldn't, and finally had steady work again. [Cable & Deadpool #39]

[Note: This was the final word on T-Ray's claims to be the original Wade Wilson. At the time, it seemed definitive -- Deadpool's brain had been stabilized by Cable, giving him a full and accurate recollection of his past. However, the revelations from the Butler Saga in Deadpool (4th series) #19 showed Wade was still operating under false memory implants, and specifically challenged memories he recovered after Cable & Deadpool #18. If the memories Cable restored were false, then Deadpool's ability to contradict T-Ray is shaken as well.]

Providence came under attack by an alien entity known as the Hecatomb, and Deadpool felt he couldn't leave Cable to deal with it alone. He chartered the Agency X private jet to fly out to the rescue. The Hecatomb was defeated before he got there, but Sabretooth was on the loose in the aftermath. Wade parachuted in to rescue Domino and Irene Merryweather from Creed. Cable arrived and, with his restored telekinesis, just launched Sabretooth off of the island and out of their hair. Wade and Nate had a handshake to put the past behind them, and went to work helping evacuate Providence.

Cable wanted to secure the memory core containing his records of the future, dangerous information in the wrong hands. He sent Deadpool out to retrieve his backup storage drive while he acquired the main server. Wade was forced to fight Senyaka of the Acolytes for possession of the drive, only to realize it was a ruse. Cable planned a sacrifice play to destroy the evacuated Providence and all his tech and data on site, keeping it away from the Marauders and Acolytes invading the island. Deadpool was sent after a non-existent backup in order to divert some of the opposition away from Nate. In fact, the backup drive was a bodyslide matrix that Cable used to teleport Wade to safety just before destroying the island and seemingly himself with it. A downtrodden Deadpool mourned his friend and promised to live up to Cable's faith in him. [Cable & Deadpool #40-42]

[Note: As Cable teleported Deadpool independently, their bodysliding connection was apparently resolved. The subplot was never mentioned again.]

A statue of Cable was erected in Rumekistan, and Wade visited it to pay his respects. Cyclops approached Deadpool at the statue and warned him Wolverine's vendetta against Hydra was leading him to the same section base Wade forgot Weasel at weeks earlier. Hoping to save his buddy from getting clawed to death, Deadpool and Bob returned to Hydra. Weasel had seemingly "gone native," becoming the new Hydra section chief under the totally non-suggestive name of the Penetrator. Weasel planned to outfit every agent of Hydra with his teleport technology, allowing them to... penetrate... the offices of power around the globe. Deadpool stood up for Weasel despite this, even getting decapitated for a few minutes by Wolverine while standing in his way. Weasel redeemed himself in the end, however, when he showed he had rigged all the teleport harnesses to deposit his Hydra followers in the Guantanamo detention facilities. [Cable & Deadpool #43-44]

After a short celebration, however, Deadpool and Bob were displaced in time due to some leaky tachyon particles from Weasel's Penetrator gear. They fought alongside Captain America and Bucky in World War II and met the original Fantastic Four before returning to the present. [Cable & Deadpool #45-46] When they returned, Deadpool and Agency X were hired by Doctor Strange to fix a problem caused by Deadpool's killing of T-Ray. The albino's unstable black magic was released at the moment of his death in such a way that it left a scar on the multiverse. Wade was reluctantly forced to work with Strange and Brother Voodoo to bring T-Ray back to life, undoing the damage caused by his death. Deadpool was temporarily misled into thinking he had no soul, but could claim T-Ray's if he defeated him in battle. Wade didn't take the bait and allowed T-Ray to be restored for the good of the multiverse, proving his soul was in better shape than he thought. [Cable & Deadpool #47-48]

On his final mission for Agency X, Deadpool was recruited by Irene Merryweather to recover technology from the Savage Land that would be used for the benefit of Rumekistan. Deadpool battled the Savage Land Mutates in order to retrieve the equipment, but in the process inadvertently teleported some dinosaurs into Manhattan, where they were in turn infected by a symbiote virus. Wade returned to New York and found himself fighting alongside the Avengers and the heroes of Manhattan to contain the problem. The respect and trust he received during the battle from established heroes was a heady experience for Wade. Deadpool received a psimitar lance from "someone" in the future to end the conflict, using it to neutralize the dinosaurs and absorb the symbiotes where they could do no harm: inside his own twisted brain. Deadpool was genuinely thanked for his efforts afterwards, and even scored an invitation to Ben Grimm's famous heroes' poker game. Nevertheless, Wade decided on a quiet night at home with his friends Irene, Bob, Weasel and the staff of Agency X. [Cable & Deadpool #49-50]