What’s Covered?
Cable, Volume 1 # 5 - 14
#5: Duel w/ Sinsear
Writers - Fabian Nicieza
Pencils - Darick Robertson
This is a pretty straightforward issue that involves a battle between Cable and Sinsear. We get a little backstory and learn that Sinsear had been close to death after a Stryfe/Cable battle in the future and Cable refused to put him out of his misery. Sinsear is pissed off about that. Sinsear will make 1 other brief appearance in this series (I think in a flashback), but this character is officially retired as of this issue.
# 6 - 8: Fathers and Sons
Writers - Fabian Nicieza
Pencils - Dwayne Turner
Alright, here we go. This is a HUGE story arc that settles a LOT of crap once and for all.
In Issue # 6, Mr. Sinister shows up and starts dropping exposition bombs on Cable and Domino. We learn that Tolliver is actually Cable's son Tyler! In addition, Sinister tells Cable that he is the real Nathan, with Stryfe actually being the clone.
A woman from the future (just going by Askani), supposedly sent by Tyler, pops into the main timeline with a mission to protect the Chosen's parents, which is Scott and Jean(ish). Jean gets a psychic imprint from Askani and Cable about Stryfe being back. We learn that Styfe, last seen floating aimlessly and without a body through time at the conclusion of X-Cutioner's Song, has now taken over the body of Cable.
Everyone needs to learn the truth so in Issue # 7 Domino meets up with the X-Men folks and tells Scott, Jean, and Professor X the truth about Cable being the real Nathan.
Meanwhile, Tyler is also obsessed with learning the truth so he uses his weird psychic projection power on a capture Askani to learn more backstory for us. Apparently after baby Nathan was brought to the future, the mother Askani was worried that he wouldn't survived so he was cloned. That clone being Stryfe, a duplicate of Cable without the raging Techno organic virus. Before anything can go as planned, Apocalypse attacks and Mother Askani barely gets away with the real Nathan, however Apocalypse finds the clone (Stryfe) and assumes he is the real Nathan, not knowing about the cloning that transpired.
Issue # 8 shows us a bit more about Stryfe's upbringing, where he had a rough childhood under Apocalypse's control being groomed as his heir apparent. We'll learn more about that in the upcoming Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix.
At the conclusion of this story, all of the interested parties meet and battle. This conflict is concluded when Stryfe willingly agrees to leave Cable's body simply to make sure no one probes him to learn about the cure to the Legacy Virus. For the most part, this marks the end of Stryfe for a number of years.
# 9 - 11: Omega Red and the Acolytes
Plot - Fabian Nicieza (9 - 10), Glenn Herdling (11)
Script - Fabian Nicieza (9), Glenn Herdling (10, 11)
Pencils - M.C. Wyman
Omega Red is on a mission to find a way to cure himself from his Death spoor. Meanwhile, both the Acolytes and Cable is looking for him. The search for his cure brings Omega Red to Muir Island, where Cable was getting some diagnostics ran, and the two of them battle. This leads to the Acolytes offering to work in concert with Cable to help track down Omega Red.
Not surprisingly, the Acolytes betray Cable and it turns out they actually need to use his biology to turn on a former Magneto station in the arctic so they can return to Avalon. Since Avalon was built using
There is also some B plots with Cable talking to Rachel about how she was able to communicate with Professor. Later, Mother Askani begins speaking to Cable from the future.
# 12 - 13: Senyaka and Lee Forrester
Plotter - Scott Lobdell (12), Glenn Herdling (13)
Scripter - Glenn Herdling
Pencils - Mike Miller (12), Steve Skroce (13)
Senyaka, who I had pretty much considered dead twice now, is back again for some dumb reason and attacking good old Lee Forrester's ship. He explains that he's essentially a vampire and that when his body come in contact with a human, he was re-animated by absorbing their life force. Whatever.
Lee Forrester (first seen in UXM # 143 with Cyclops and then later with Magneto starting in UXM # 188) put out an SOS to the X-Men (since she's had multiple run ins with them). For some unexplained reason, Cable picked up the SOS call and decided to help out. There is an ongoing battle between Senyaka and Cable (of course), but eventually they escape.
Later, Cable and Lee battle the demon D'Spayre (Lee's father was killed by D'Spayre in UXM # 144), ultimately defeating him thanks to their horniness for each other. Yawn.
# 14: Limbo and Belasco
Writers - Glenn Herdling
Pencils - Steve Skroce
To make a long story short, Belasco enlists Cable's aid due to him being "the son of the Goblin Queen." Apparently good old S'ym (who first appeared in Magik's origin story), is still looking to recombine Earth with Limbo. The Nexus of all realities was expanding and would impact Earth if not dealt with. Cable battles S'ym and crisis averted.
A few thoughts here. First of all, woah, Belasco. We haven't see him in ages. Cool that he's back, but why does he care again about stopping S'ym? Second, wasn't it N'astirh who was trying to do this during Inferno, not S'ym or am I misremembering?
My Connections
First of all, this "Fathers and Sons" story is the epilogue to X-Cutioner's Song that we never got. We were led to believe that Stryfe was the real son for quite some time, but it's nice to know that this is laid out here clearly.
I am personally starting to get very confused about keeping this all straight. One of the benefits of this project for me is that I haven't read anything moving forward, so when something comes up I know EXACTLY what it's referencing and what this means in conjunction to other things we've learned. I'm messing myself up here because A) I got overly exciting and couldn't wait to read all of the Cable history (Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix, Askani'son, etc.) B) I've been re-watching the Animated story and they have their own spin on all of this.
Speaking of getting confused, there are a LOT of hints dropped about the connection between Rachel and Cable. I love that this is something that could be a retcon, but Rachel has been characterized as being very involved in the life of Nathan since the old X-Factor and Excalibur days. In these comics, Cable starts talking to Rachel about how she could step into his psychic connection with Professor. Also, Mother Askani starts speaking to him in random flashes. All of the hints are there for us and I wonder if I even would have caught it if I didn't read ahead.
Another point worth mentioning is the return of Lee Forrester. I like Lee, she's a good character, but boy does she fall for some interesting characters. She remarks on falling for Cable because he reminds her of someone, who is obviously his father (even though younger) Cyclops. In addition, Cable tells her about Magneto's recent events and she's shocked, probably feeling similar to how I felt when he had that character assassination.
Also...Oooooh, Belasco! I've always been super fascinated with Magik and her supporting cast in Limbo, but have felt disappointed that we never saw Belasco again. We got a lot of S'ym so it's great to see him back, and I think it's really clever to connect to the whole "Son of the Goblin Queen" angle, but it just makes me wish we had more of him with Illyana before she passed.
Creators
Fabian Nicieza continues plotting and scripting most of these issues with a bunch of various artists stepping in. I know that Rob Leifeld will get credit as Cable's creator, but Nicieza should get credit for making him a great and lasting character.
Glenn Herdlin steps in as scripter and even plotter for a few issues and I wonder if that's the precursor to Nicieza leaving the series. We'll have to see.
My Rating - 9/10
I've been desperate for answers and now I have some! Plus, I find Cable to be one of the ongoing comics that I look forward to coming back to, as opposed to the other main solo comic Wolverine which is like pulling teeth to get me to read.