Cable (Nathan Summers) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with X-Force and the X-Men. The character first appeared as a newborn infant in Uncanny X-Men #201 (Jan. 1986) created by writer Chris Claremont, while Cable's adult identity was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/co-writer Rob Liefeld, and first appeared in The New Mutants #87 (March 1990).
Nathan Summers is the biological son of the X-Men member Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey's clone), the half brother of Rachel Summers and Nate Grey, and the genetic template for Stryfe. He is from a possible future timeline, having been transported as an infant to the future, where he grew into a warrior, before returning to the present.
Josh Brolin portrays Cable in the X-Men film series, beginning with Deadpool 2.
Video Cable (comics)
Publication history
Creation
Nathan Christopher Charles Summers is the son of Scott Summers (aka Cyclops), and Madeline Pryor (who was later revealed to be a clone of Jean Grey). Writer Chris Claremont, who had written the series since issue #94 (August 1975), revealed Madeline to be pregnant in X-Men/Alpha Flight #1 (December 1985). The next depiction of her pregnancy was in The Uncanny X-Men #200, when she goes into premature labor. In the following issue, #201 (January 1986), Nathan first appears as a newborn infant.
The character's first appearance as the adult warrior Cable was at the end of The New Mutants #86 (Feb. 1990). He does not appear anywhere in the issue's story, but the "next issue" teaser. This was followed by a full appearance in The New Mutants #87 (March 1990). At first, Cable was not intended to be the adult version of Nathan Summers, but was created as a result of unrelated editorial concerns. Editor Bob Harras wanted to "shake things up" for the book, and felt a new leader was needed, one distinct from the perennial X-Men leader and the New Mutants' first mentor, Professor X. The book's writer, Louise Simonson, thought a military leader would be a good idea, and Harras tasked the book's artist, Rob Liefeld, to conceptualize the character. Harras may also have suggested the character's bionic eye. Both Simonson and Liefeld each separately conceived of the leader being a time traveler from the future. Liefeld chose the name Cable for the character. Liefeld explains the creation of the character:
I was given a directive to create a new leader for the New Mutants. There was no name, no description besides a 'man of action', the opposite of Xavier. I created the look, the name, much of the history of the character. After I named him Cable, Bob suggested Quinn and Louise had Commander X.
Harras and writer/artists Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio, who were writing the X-Men spinoff X-Factor that starred Cyclops and the other four original X-Men, decided that Nathan would be sent into the future and grow up to become Cable. Liefeld, who conceived of Cable and his archenemy Stryfe were one and the same, disliked this idea. (Eventually Stryfe was revealed to be a clone of Cable.) In the 1991 X-Factor storyline, Nathan is infected by the villain Apocalypse with a techno-organic virus. Because he can only be saved by the technology of the far-future, Scott reluctantly allows Sister Askani, a member of a clan of warriors dedicated to opposing Apocalypse, to take Nathan into the future so that he can be cured, a one-way trip from which she tells him she and Nathan will be unable to return.
New Mutants and X-Force
In his first adult appearance, Cable is seen in conflict with Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front, the United States government, and Freedom Force. The New Mutants intervened and he asked for their help against the Mutant Liberation Front. Cable saw them as potential soldiers in his war against Stryfe. He became their new teacher and leader, and outfitted them. He came into conflict with Wolverine, noting that the two had an old feud between them. Cable and the New Mutants teamed up with Wolverine and Sunfire against the MLF. Cable also led the New Mutants against the Genoshans.
With the aid of Domino, Cable reorganized the New Mutants into X-Force. The New Mutants ended with issue #100, with Cable and other characters then appearing the following month in X-Force #1. The X-Force series provided further detail for the character's back story revealing that he was from the future and that he had traveled to the past with the aim of stopping Stryfe's plans as well as preventing Apocalypse's rise to power. Cable traveled between the 1990s and his future with his ship Graymalkin, which contained a sentient computer program called Professor, the future version of the program built into X-Factor's Ship.
In 1992, the character had a two issue miniseries, titled Cable: Blood and Metal, written by Fabian Nicieza, pencilled by John Romita, Jr., and inked by Dan Green, published in October and November of that year. The series explored Cable and the villain Stryfe's ongoing battle with one another, and its effect on the people that surround Cable.
Cable (vol. 1) and Soldier X
Shortly after Blood and Metal, Cable was given his own ongoing series titled Cable. Issue #6 (Dec. 1993) confirmed the character to be Nathan Christopher Summers, the son of Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey's clone) who had been taken to the future in X-Factor #68 (July 1991), introduced by writer Chris Claremont, and appeared in Uncanny X-Men #201 (Jan. 1986). The series ran for 107 issues from May 1993 until September 2002 before being relaunched as Soldier X, which lasted 12 more issues until Aug. 2003.
The 1994 miniseries The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix provided further information on the character's back story. In the future, Mother Askani, a time-displaced Rachel Summers, pulled the minds of Scott and Jean into the future where, as "Slym" and "Redd", they raised Cable for twelve years. During their time together, the "family" prevented Apocalypse from transferring his essence into a new body, ending his reign of terror. It is furthermore established that Mister Sinister created Cyclops' son Nathan (who became the time-traveling soldier Cable) to destroy Apocalypse.
Cable and Deadpool, Cable (vol. 2)
After his solo series ended, he was paired with the mercenary Deadpool in a new ongoing series titled Cable & Deadpool. The series largely dealt with Cable's efforts to change the world for the better, including turning his old spaceship Greymalkin into the floating utopian island of Providence. The first story arc of the series features a Cable that has learned to suppress his techno-organic virus to a nearly effortless degree, allowing him to access the better part of his vast psionic powers. He gains a power level similar to his Nate Grey counterpart from The Age of Apocalypse reality and tries to use them to force the people of the world to live in peace. Using his powers at this magnitude also means that he will die due to the vast power being too much for his body to continuously maintain. He tries to carry out his plans quickly, defeating the X-Men, Six Pack and S.H.I.E.L.D. with little effort. They turn the tide of the battle on Cable by enlisting the aid of the Silver Surfer. Cable and the Silver Surfer battled, destroying buildings and other structures but were immediately rebuilt by Cable's vast telekinesis. All the while Cable tried to explain his good intentions to the Surfer with no avail. Although Cable destroyed his board and briefly held his own against the Surfer, he was ultimately defeated when the Surfer destroyed Cable's arm. Around the same time period, Cable becomes a member of a team of X-Men that consists of Rogue, Iceman, Cannonball, Sabretooth, Mystique, Lady Mastermind, and Omega Sentinel. In preparation for Messiah Complex, Cable seemingly died when he detonated Providence to prevent Gambit and Sunfire from stealing his database, causing the series to focus mostly on Deadpool for the next six or so issues. This series was canceled at the fiftieth issue and was replaced by two series starring each of the characters.
It is revealed that Cable survived, and has the mutant baby girl that the X-Men, Marauders, and Purifiers have been seeking during the Messiah Complex storyline. In 2008, Marvel Comics released Cable vol. 2, a new ongoing series by Duane Swierczynski and artist Ariel Olivetti. This new series directly follows the events of "Messiah Complex". The series features Cable, and the messianic child's time traveling adventures. The dangers of the future and pursuit by Bishop are balanced with the humor of "Cable the soldier" becoming "Cable the Nanny."
It is revealed that Cable and the mutant messiah have taken refuge in the future in the secluded safe haven of New Liberty. There, Cable gets married to a resident, Hope, who later dies defending the child. Cable decides to name her Hope, in honor of her deceased foster mother.
In 2009, Cable vol. 2 had a seven-issue crossover with X-Force, X-Force/Cable: Messiah War, which is the second story in a three-part storyline that began in X-Men: Messiah Complex.
After the events of the Messiah War, Hope and Cable are separated in time, appearing in the same spot but in different years. When Cable touches down from the spot, he appears two years after Hope, and is steadily losing control of his body due to the techno-organic virus within him. It alters his appearance so much that Hope doesn't register Cable's face. Eventually, Bishop, using his codename as a way to portray himself as a holy figure, gains on them, and Cable and Hope jettison themselves into space in the last ship the planet had. Bishop, armed with a thermonuclear device in the stump of his arm, states that he knows how to make his own ship and it'll only be a matter of time.
Cable was canceled in April 2010 with issue #25 (the final issue being called Deadpool and Cable #25).
In the 2010 storyline "Second Coming", Cable succumbs to the techno-organic virus in his bloodstream while holding open a time-portal that allowed other members of X-Force to escape from the future. The death was shown in X-Force #28 written by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost, who noted that, "For us, Cable was always a character whose death was something the character himself would put forward -- if that's what it took to complete his mission, he wouldn't think twice about it."
Avengers: X-Sanction
On July 27, 2011, Marvel announced at the San Diego Comic Con the return of Cable. The new project, originally titled as "Cable Reborn", was re-titled as Avengers: X-Sanction, written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Ed McGuinness. The miniseries served as a lead-in to the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline beginning in April 2012.
Having been teleported to the future during his last act, Cable learned from his old mentor, Blaquesmith, that Hope will apparently die in some future accident caused by the Avengers, prompting him to go back in time and try to use his last 24 hours of life before the techno-organic virus completely consumes his body to stop the Avengers before they can kill Hope.
Although he manages to defeat Captain America, Falcon, and Iron Man, he is caught off-guard when he is attacked by the Red Hulk, initially assuming that the Red Hulk is "Talbot," a foe from the future, before the Red Hulk informs him with grim satisfaction that he is actually someone who Cable has never fought before. With the aid of Blaquesmith - flashbacks revealing that they discovered various anti-mutant technologies in the Avengers Mansion - Cable manages to fight off the Red Hulk, partially infecting him with the techno-organic virus, only to be interrupted by Hope and Cyclops, who both denounce his actions as unnecessary, culminating in Wolverine and Spider-Man attacking him as they vow to take back the Avengers. During the fight with Wolverine, Spider-Man is taken out by Cyclops, and Blaquesmith convinces Hope to counter Cable's moves by freeing the Avengers, ripping out the bomb that Cable threatened would blow them up while Red Hulk burned the techno-organic virus out of his system.
The Avengers then proceeded to fight Cable until he was nearly dead from both the fight and the virus, and Cyclops asked to take his son home, with Captain America insisting the Avengers keep the weapons and ship. Back at Utopia, Blaquesmith helps Hope to realize that she can still save Cable, and she begins to absorb the techno-organic virus before fully manifesting the Phoenix Force raptor for the first time around herself. When it vanishes, Cable is cured not only of the advanced incursion of the virus, but apparently fully, as his left hand is shown to be fully organic along with his left eye, but he remains in a catatonic state. Afterwards, Cable and Cyclops speak telepathically, with Cable informing his father that Hope is indeed the Phoenix and is destined to save Earth from an unknown disaster. He goes on to say that a war will come with the Avengers and that he needs Cyclops to protect Hope. Cable promises to be there when he's needed in the future.
Cable and X-Force
Cable's next appearance was in a new series, Cable and X-Force by writer Dennis Hopeless and artist Salvador Larroca. The series debuted in December 2012 and features Cable and a new fugitive team, unofficially referred to by the Marvel Universe media as the new "X-Force". This version of X-Force initially consists of Cable, Colossus, Doctor Nemesis, Domino, and Forge. This series focuses on eliminating disasters based on mysterious visions that Cable is receiving, resorting to occasionally more brutal methods than the prime X-teams would use. After the events of "Avengers X-Sanction" Cable is forced to wear an eye patch and an advanced harness for his non-functioning left arm that was created by Forge. Although Hope healed his arm, it is useless because it is not his original arm as it has been destroyed a few times, notably in his battles with Silver Surfer and Bastion.
X-Force
Continuing from Cable and X-Force Cable puts together a new X-Force team with Psylocke, Dr. Nemesis, Fantomex and Marrow in order to track down and deal with mutant threats using lethal force. The story is written by X-Men: Legacy writer Simon Spurrier. Cable is infected with an extra-dimensional virus that provides super powers at the cost of killing them in around a year, however Cable is injected with an early version designed to kill him in a day. Cable's daughter Hope accidentally copies this virus, since it is based on super powers, and has to be placed into a coma in order to save her life. Cable cannot defeat the virus either, so he creates a new clone each day to replace himself but each clone still has only one day to live. Cable and X-Force eventually track down the man Volga who created the virus and defeat him. However, Fantomex goes insane from needing to "be the best" and betrays the team using new god-like powers derived from the Volga virus. Cable unleashes hundreds of his clones to fight him, with Hope eventually stopping Fantomex before the last clone is killed so Cable can live on. Hope then takes over as leader of X-Force and "fires" Cable for his morally questionable methods.
Cable and Deadpool: Split Second
After travelling through time and fixing several mistakes that a future Deadpool caused, Cable and present-Deadpool eventually fix the timeline. The effects on the timeline causes Cable to revert to his original "status quo", with his robotic arm and his original telekinesis and telepathic power set.
Uncanny Avengers
Cable is seen in the year 2087 dealing with some unidentified issue related to Stryfe, in the aftermath of an Inhuman attack that covers the city in sentient plant life. He eventually joins the rest of the Uncanny Avengers in the present and helps deal with the Inhuman causing the problems, before deciding to join the team when he learns the team's true mission is dealing with the Red Skull with Professor Xavier's brain and powers. After Captain America disbands the Uncanny Avengers in the aftermath of Civil War II, Rogue continues the team in their mission to stop the Red Skull.
Maps Cable (comics)
Powers and abilities
Cable was born with telepathic and telekinetic abilities. However, the extent to which he has been able to utilize these powers has varied dramatically throughout his appearances. Originally, both were limited by his need to restrain his techno-organic infection, and his powers were negligible compared to his more traditional fighting skills. However, following the subsidence of the infection, they gradually increased to the point where they were similar in magnitude to those of Nate Grey, to whom he is genetically identical. At their height, he demonstrated the ability to simultaneously levitate the floating city of Providence and combat the Silver Surfer. Following that story, his powers were burnt out and he replaced both with technological substitutes. He later states that both his telepathy and telekinesis have faded to nothing.
Cable has fought Wolverine to a stalemate, and defeated Captain America in hand-to-hand combat and defeated Falcon, Red Hulk and Iron Man using both brute force and wit, all while Cable was in severe pain and hours away from dying of his techno-organic infection.
When Professor Xavier's son Legion travels back in time to kill Magneto in the "Legion Quest" storyline, Beast notes that Cable possesses "latent time-travel abilities". With the assistance of Shi'ar technology, Professor Xavier "jump-starts" this ability while Jean Grey telekinetically holds Cable's body together, allowing Cable to send his consciousness into the past.
In the Messiah War storyline, during the fight with his clone, Stryfe, Cable demonstrates the ability to hide others from Stryfe's mental view, implying that at least he retains some of his telepathic powers. He also still possesses some of his telekinesis, but he is using it solely to keep the techno-organic virus in his body at bay.
His techno-organic body parts possess enhanced strength and durability, and his techno-organic left eye gives him enhanced eyesight, allowing him to see farther than a normal human and in the infrared spectrum. He is also able to interface his techno-organic body parts with machinery, using them to hack into computers, open electronic locks, and travel through time.
As of the end of Avengers: X-Sanction, Cable has apparently been fully cured of the techno-organic virus by the Phoenix Force (via Hope Summers), and appears to at least have his telepathy. As a result, his cybernetic eye and arm have been restored to flesh and blood, although almost nonfunctional and atrophied, forcing Cable to wear an eyepatch (hiding a psimitar like implant) and use an enhanced brace, made by Forge and laden with special weaponry. Due to a future Hope's tampering with his mind, he also gained the ability to see multiple possible future events before they unfolded.
In Deadpool & Cable: Split Second, Cable had once again lost most of his powers, still retaining precognition. However, he regained them along with his cybernetics as a result of Deadpool repairing Cable's personal timeline.
Cable also made use of a spear-like weapon called the Psi-Mitar, which was originally a long staff with a spear point on one end and a scythe blade on the other, used primarily by the Askani. It functions as a focus and amplifier for telepathic or telekinetic power, which it can project as powered blasts.
Other versions
In addition to his mainstream Marvel Universe incarnation, Cable has been depicted in other fictional universes.
In the Cable and Deadpool series storyline "Enema of State", Deadpool and the mutants Cannonball and Siryn discover several alternate versions of Cable as they traverse several alternate universes via "Bodyslide", searching for Cable after he disappears. They remain in each separate universe for only a brief time, while Deadpool searches for the Cable from "his" timeline/universe. They first encounter an evil incarnation of Cable who has become one of the four Horsemen of Apocalypse, War. Other versions include a guru-type Cable known as "Brother Nathan", on whose alternate earth all violence had been abolished, a Phalanx-Cable, consumed by the techno-organic virus within his body, and the Cable of the "House of M" reality, an infant in the care of a subdued Mister Sinister on a quiet Nebraska farm, which Deadpool eventually realizes was his Cable. Deadpool seized the infant, took him back to his home universe, and cared for Nathan, who grew rapidly after having been injected with Deadpool's DNA.
Cable appears in Marvel Zombies 2. Cable is uninfected, forced to work for the Acolytes in order for him to forever end the zombie virus. With the help of Forge, he constructs new artificial limbs for the Black Panther, after the zombie Henry Pym consumes the original ones.
In the setting of the Earth X storyline, the Techno-organic virus has overtaken Cable's body, who has become a blob of organic metal.
In the Deadpool Pulp timeline, Cable is now General Cable, who, along with Stryfe (also a General) and J. Edgar Hoover, hires former CIA man Wade Wilson to get back a stolen nuclear briefcase.
In the fantasy world depicted in the graphic novel Wolverine: Rahne of Terra, Cable's counterpart is a wizard called the Mage, who carried the Warlock Staff and a crossbow.
In Ultimate X-Men, Cable is a future version of Wolverine who goes back to the past to capture Professor Xavier, returning with him to the future in order to train him for the coming battle with Apocalypse. After Apocalypse's death, Cable fades out of existence.
A two-part storyline in What If... asks, "What If Cable Destroyed the X-Men?" In this story, Cable clashes with Professor X and the X-Men over their beliefs and differences in methods. Ultimately, Cable leads a faction of mutants loyal to him and assassinates the Professor, Cyclops, and Jean Grey before embarking on a violent crusade. Cable is ultimately killed by Wolverine, but his actions have already led to the further oppression of mutants. Magneto attempts to take control of America in the chaos, but is killed by a new model of plastic Sentinels, who decide that enslaving humanity is the best way to root out mutants. However, Wolverine assembles several surviving mutants to fight against the Sentinels as a new team of X-Men.
X-Men Forever is an alternate universe written by Chris Claremont that takes place after the events of X-Men vol. 2, #3. In it, it is revealed that X-Factor's confrontation with Apocalypse ended differently -- Nathan was saved, but aged somehow from a toddler into a child. Nathan lives with his great-grandmother and grandfather in Alaska. An attack by mysterious agents causes Nathan to be moved to the protective custody of the Starjammers. He is shown to possess telepathic powers. Cable appears in one panel of the series but no connection between Cable and Nathan is made.
In other media
Television
Cable made eight appearances in X-Men: The Animated Series in the episodes "Slave Island", "The Cure", "Time Fugitives, Parts 1-2" and "Beyond Good and Evil, Parts 1-4" voiced by Lawrence Bayne in the English version and by Tessh? Genda in the Japanese dub. This version of Cable possessed his trademark metal arm but it is said to be a bionic construct rather than a result of the techno-organic virus. He is never shown to be telepathic, though he does use telekinesis in one episode. He is also depicted as coming from the year 3999, where he leads an army in a desperate war against the forces of the immortal villain Apocalypse.
Film
Josh Brolin was cast in a four-picture deal with 20th Century Fox to play Nathan Summers / Cable in the X-Men film universe, with Deadpool 2 as his first appearance. In May 2017, producer Hutch Parker discussed the future of the franchise, stating that the introduction of Cable with his time-traveling abilities makes an interconnection between the upcoming New Mutants, Deadpool 2, and Dark Phoenix, as well as previous films a possibility. In his first appearance, Cable is depicted as a soldier from a devastated future with a cybernetic left arm and eye.
- In Deadpool 2, Cable goes back in time to assassinate the young mutant Russell Collins, as in the future Collins becomes a criminal and murders his wife and daughter, who is later identified as Hope. Deadpool forms the X-Force team to stop him, but both sides are at an impasse when Russell teams up with Juggernaut. Cable decides to team up with X-Force to take down the two threats, but allows Wade the chance to redeem Russell before the kid becomes a murderer. Wade sacrifices himself when Cable tries to shoot Russell, causing Russell to reject his future as a villain which saves Cable's family. In return, Cable uses his last charge on his time-traveling device to travel to the past to prevent himself from killing Wade while still allowing Russell to have his change of heart at the cost of Cable losing the chance to return home to his family, Cable concluding that he will remain in the present to create a better future for his family.
Video games
- Cable appears as a playable character in the fighting game Marvel vs. Capcom 2, voiced again by Lawrence Bayne. In the game, he has 3 modes: With his plasma cannon, uppercuts an enemy, or throwing a Stasis Grenade.
- Cable is an exclusive hidden character in the PSP version of the role-playing game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.
- Similarly, Cable was a hidden character in the Sega Game Gear platform game X-Men 2: Game Master's Legacy.
- Cable is seen in the X-Men: Reign of Apocalypse video game for the Game Boy Advance.
- Cable appears in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, voiced by Keith Ferguson. He is a non-player character and serves as a boss fight for the Pro-Registration side. In the Pro-Registration campaign, the heroes fight Cable at an Anti-Registration base in New Jersey. After his defeat, Cable is arrested. He and Hercules are later broken out by Captain America. In the Anti-Registration side, he commands the player during the New Jersey base mission. In the funeral scene following the Prison 42 incident, Cable is featured amongst the missing and presumed deceased heroes, indicating that he was absorbed into the Fold. Cable was later added as a playable character in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game via downloadable content, and was part of the initial roster of heroes in the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC versions.
- Cable makes a cameo appearance in Deadpool's ending in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Deadpool also received a "Cablepool" costume via downloadable content, which causes him to joke about Cable's lack of presence in the game.
- Cable is a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online.
- Cable appears as an unlockable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
- Cable appears as a supporting character in Deadpool, voiced by Fred Tatasciore. He occasionally assists Deadpool in dealing with enemies by providing support-fire with his massive futuristic cannon. In the game, Cable time-travels to Genosha to give Deadpool a dire warning, but bores Deadpool into killing himself. He later reprograms a Sentinel bot to take Deadpool to Magneto's citadel, which goes haywire. He later helps Deadpool recover the souls of dead mutants and deliver them to Death. He also appears in the final cutscene, confirming that Deadpool killed the correct Mr. Sinister.
- Cable was a playable character in the MMORPG Marvel Heroes voiced by James M. Connor.
- Cable is playable in the mobile game Marvel: Future Fight.
Influence
Artist Alex Ross drew upon his dislike of Liefeld's design of Cable when Ross designed the character Magog for the 1996 miniseries Kingdom Come. Following writer Mark Waid's instructions that the character's appearance be based on aspects of superhero design trends of the time that they disliked, Ross said of Cable, "That's a character that Mark Waid invented that was really just put to me like come up with the most God awful, Rob Liefeld sort of design that you can. What I was stealing from was - really only two key designs of Rob's - the design of Cable. I hated it. I felt like it looked like they just threw up everything on the character - the scars, the thing going on with his eye, the arm, and what's with all the guns? But the thing is, when I put those elements together with the helmet of Shatterstar - I think that was his name - well, the ram horns and the gold, suddenly it held together as one of the designs that I felt happiest with in the entire series."
Collected editions
The stories have been collected in a number of trade paperbacks.
Mini-series
First series (1993)
Second series (2008)
Third series (2017)
Cable and X-Force (2013 series)
References
External links
- Cable at Marvel.com
- Cable at the Comic Book DB
- Spotlight On...Cable at UncannyXmen.net
- Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards
Source of article : Wikipedia
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