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Welcome back to another edition of Marvel Snapshot. This week’s Character Spotlight will focus on the warrior from the future- Cable! If you don’t know much about him besides his recent adventures, than you’re really missing out on a character with a very heavy back-story.

Ok, first of all, I’ll admit to having a man-crush on Cable back in the 90’s. He was so cool with his futuristic weapons, his own on-board computer and time travel device. Oh yeah, and his seemingly endless supply of big guns! I also have to admit I kind of forgot about him after he was sent to the future when he was a baby in X-Factor during the “Endgame” storyline (#65-68). Nathan is the child of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, so you can imagine that he didn’t have much of chance from the get-go to be even somewhat normal.
In any event, after being sent to the future to hopefully be cured of the techno-virus that Apocalypse had infected him with, Nathan was raised by a group of warriors known as Clan Askani. The woman named Mother Askani didn’t think Nathan was going to survive so she cloned him. This clone was stolen by Apocalypse and would one day become the evil despot named Stryfe. In this same future, Nathan learned to use his inherited telekinetic abilities to help keep his T-O virus in check. He also eventually took a wife and adopted a son whom they named Tyler.
Nathan eventually returned to the 20th century to help the people of that time stop Apocalypse; this was his sole reason for existing for quite sometime. He had been conditioned to think that his life was to be spent trying to rid the world of Apocalypse. Nathan gathered his own team together soon after coming to our universe, and they were called X-Force. X-Force was more of a proactive team compared to the X-Men; they fought many great battles including the events of X-Cutioners Song. This story would be pivotal in Nathan’s life due to the fact that initially, the world thought that Nathan tried to assassinate Charles Xavier. In truth, it was his clone Stryfe who was the perpetrator! This was one of the best X-stories in my opinion and still is a great read years later.
Cable, as he was referred to upon arriving in this time, had a long time relationship with the mutant Domino. The two were inseparable, and along with X-Force, they had many adventures together, but eventually it came down to Apocalypse and Cable against each other. In the story entitled The Twelve,  Apocalypse abducted mutants who were believed to be part of a puzzle that would grant him ultimate power. This particular story fell a little short for me personally, but it’s OK. The next really good story for me was the Messiah Complex storyline. Cable was believed to be dead from an explosion, but he actually survived and soon was the protector of the first mutant baby born since M-day. Cable called her Hope and was told by his son Cyclops to take her into the future for her protection. Little did they know that their one time teammate and friend, Bishop, would try to kill Hope. Bishop believes that her existence will bring about the awful future in which he was born. I’ve got to say that the most recent volume of Cable was for the most part a disappointment. Too much of the same thing from issue to issue really made it get stale rather quickly. Overall though, the story that has unfolded out of it, Second Coming, has been fantastic! If you haven’t checked it out yet, you’re really missing out on a good story.
In closing, I think of Cable as he was in the 90’s, but I do also like where his character is at now. A lot of the stuff in-between, well, maybe most of that can be chalked up to too many hands in the pot as far as writers go. Cable’s first ongoing series did have many good stories but also some that didn’t make a whole lot of sense too. Check out my reading list below for some of Cable’s greatest hits!
Recommended Reading
Cable Classic Vol. 1 & 2 Tpb’s
X-Force and Cable: The Legend Returns Tpb
X-Force: Shatterstar Tpb
X-Cutioners Song Tpb
X-Force vol. 1 (1-50, a couple of issues not appeared in)
X-Factor vol.1 #65-68
New Mutants vol. 1 #87-93





Be sure to check out where Cable ranked in our X-Men Power Rankings!!
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net