Hoping against Deus X-Machina
THE GOOD
When I read the 5-page preview for this issue that was included with most new Marvel books, I was excited to see a bunch of good guys fighting a bunch of bad guys. Those 5 pages were in this issue, so there was that. Then it diverged to a 1:1 between Cap and Cable (as depicted by the non-variant cover). The story was "ok", but at times was hard to follow. I thought it did serve the "setup" well for the series and ended with a pretty interesting cliffhanger. I know it was pretty interesting, because even now, a few days after I read the issue, I am wondering what deus ex machina will come to the rescue...
We do see that the next issue is all about Iron Man's bout with Cable, so hopefully some time will be taken to explain the fates of Cap and Falcon.
THE BAD
The art is weird. The cover for the non-variant gives Cap a very strange "look". This "look" is carried out through the entire issue... though at times it does get better. Maybe it was rushed?
The writing was "ok". Maybe it was due the "Timeslide" stuff, but it felt hard to follow. As a new reader to this "Cable" situation, I felt a bit lost, so I will take that as a lesson learned to do a bit of homework to catch-up. In general, this is not a great jumping on point for this story line (even though it is a #1), because it is really picking up after "the death of Cable" arc...
Character development was a bit off. It just feels like Cable is complaining about being a "bread by war" and Cap is falling into overly simplistic traps.
THE VERDICT
Recommended with Cautious Optimism. Mostly because you are going to want to see how the entire story unfolds. I am not one to start with the second issue of a series - especially if it is only a 4 issue mini. This is also the jumping off point for the Avengers vs. X-Men Event... so there may be something to this part of the story arc. It may have not had the best art, or the easiest to follow script, but FWIW, I recommend picking it up so you are not confused why the Falcon and Cap may be out of commission.
My concern with this series will be that Cable kills everyone, his time runs out, saves his daughter (again), leaving someone to travel through time and put everything back the way it was (or an acceptable facsimile).
This is why I am holding out Hope that the story goes a bit deeper than the same old rinse and repeat.
