I went back and skimmed through the issues to refresh myself on what's going in (it can be a little hard to follow) so. Gambit and Deadpool, it turns out, have worked together before, for Chalmers (Loki) who double crossed them back in the day, and he wants their help again. They are skeptical but he throws a ton of money at them to sway them. And looking back at the first issue, I see now that Chalmers is wearing a green and gold ring, so a teeny tiny little clue beyond him being generally untrustworthy. He wants them to steal a magical artifact called the Dragon's Tongue from a crime boss, Fat Cobra. This artifact basically gives it's owner a lot of power, makes them very tough to kill. Chalmers tries to steal it without actually paying them though, but Deadpool interrupts him. reading this the first time, it was easy to understand why a middle aged perfectly ordinary man may want this talisman, especially after he says (now revealed to be a lie) that he has cancer, and this artifact can save him from dying but... Loki is already immortal, so I dunno why HE would want it. (... may need it for Jane...? but I do not have much faith remaining that it will actually tie into anything going on with Loki in Mighty Thor) anyway, they steal it, and Deadpool takes Chalmers back to the safehouse to get his money, but they are interrupted by the crime boss they stole it from and Chalmers disappears somehow (at the time it didn't make sense how he could just vanish into thin air, but I guess it does now) and so Fat Cobra beats the shit out of Deadpool, who as we will learn next issue has had his powers fucked with by Scrambler, formerly of the Reavers, who is in the employ of 'Chalmers'. Gambit's powers have also gone haywire for the same reason, which delayed him from getting to the safehouse on time. And this is where the land comes in. Gambit, Deadpool and Chalmers back in the day had conned him out of some money selling him worthless swampland. anyway, Gambit and Deadpool go after him to fix their powers, and there is a villain BBQ and they fight and Fat Cobra seems to have gained some respect for them due to their tenacity and... somehow, gives Deadpool Iron Fist powers. Then issue 4 is mostly flashback with Scrambler who it turns out that after he had his hands lopped off by Wolverine during the Mutant Massacre tried to go straight, and was pretty much successful. He got married, had a normal life, used his powers to animate some prosthetic hands so he was doing pretty good. and then the swampland thing happened, and the Reavers kept coming after him, and basically things went all wrong for him. and then a couple years later, Loki/Kahn/Chalmers contacts him. In hindsight, his specific words to get Scrambler back on his side may be relevant to Agent of Asgard/JIM (keep in mind he's 'in character' here so no Asgard talk "I don't expect you to believe me, but I'm sorry. I'm not responsible for what happened. I don't expect you to believe that either, but it's true." so that may be some sort of reference to Loki believing himself to be a different person now not responsible for his past misdeeds. BUT... then he lies and tries to pin it all on Gambit, Deadpool and Fat Cobra. Turns out that he did all this to Deadpool and Gambit at Loki's request and in return for the worthless swamp land they conned him into buying in the first place, Loki gives him his happy life back. And then we get back to Deadpool and Gambit who are out to find 'Chalmers' for double crossing them, and... end of issue. |