Lesser Known Joe Casey Comics: Wolverine/Cable: Guts 'n' Glory

[Yet another comic I bet you didn't even know existed let alone that Joe Casey wrote it. As always, at the end of the post, I'll tell you if this book should remain forgotten. Posts in this series on Monday, Wednesday and Friday normally, but this week was kind of messed up... and this book ties into Joe Casey's Cable run, so it gets a lovely Saturday post. But, starting Monday, I'll do an extended "Lesser Known Joe Casey Comics" series when I look at his run on The Incredible Hulk. Yeah, he did one. Who knew.]

Holy shit is this a bad comic. I'm just going to skip right to Should this book remain forgotten and say, yes, OH MY GOD YES! It's a Wolverine/Cable team-up book with art by Stephen Platt. I don't think this book is forgotten, I think it's been blocked out by the collective memory of comic fandom, particularly Joe Casey fans. If you took this book to Casey at a convention, I wouldn't be surprised if he set it on fire, said "What comic?" and then beat you right there on the convention floor with the help of his fellow Mans of Action.

...okay, I'm going a little overboard, but this really is a seriously bad comic. It attempts to tell a story about Cable's early days in New York, and involves Canadian-government-employee Wolverine... and it's bad. On the first page, we have long-haired Cable walking the streets of New York in some weird fucking outfit that has shoulder pads. He's also apparently eight feet tall.

But, I shouldn't harp on the art... it's Stephen Platt. What does anyone expect?

I'll focus on the writing: Casey tries to give us some interesting bits, but they all fall flat. Cable gets taken in by a veteran who recognises that Cable has also fought in some wars; one of Cable's enemies travels back in time to kill him (and lands in Canada, which is how Wolverine gets involved); and Cable fights the Vulture (again, Casey placing him within the Marvel universe, not the X-verse). These plot elements could make for a good story, but they don't here. There's little characterisation--except for horrible cliches--and the story is difficult to read because of the art.

I can't believe I spent money on this book and that, because of my weird completist obsession, it will remain in my collection.

Later today, I may post the first of two or three posts looking at the books I bought this week.