The X-Men May Be Bringing Back The Classic Cable At Last
It looks as though the X-Men comics are bringing back the classic Cable at last. Everybody knows the iconic gun-toting superhero named Cable, the time traveling mutant retconned as Cyclops' son. He's typically portrayed as something of a grizzled badass, a man whose muscles are probably honed by lifting plasma cannons rather than weights. But the modern Cable is very different.
Cable is essentially a complex time-space event in his own right, and consequently there are all manner of different versions running through the timeline. Marvel's Extermination event saw the old Cable killed by his younger self, who objected to his decision not to send the original X-Men back to their own time. Kid Cable has become a major figure in the X-Men comics, spending quality time with his dad Cyclops, dating multiple members of the Stepford Cuckoos, and wielding a sword that proved powerful enough to reactivate an entire space station. But it looks as though Kid Cable's future is about to catch up with him.
Marvel Comics has revealed Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto's ongoing Cable run will come to an end in June, with the young Nathan Summers forced to "contend with his grizzled war veteran future self." Cable #12 is teased as the end of an era and the beginning of a new age for Cable, with Duggan insisting this story is not one to be missed. "On your feet, soldiers," he observed in a press release, "we have our most dangerous battle in the final chapter."
In truth, it had always seemed to be only a matter of time before the classic Cable returned. Although Marvel gave the current Cable run a top-tier creative team, it was hard to understand quite what the point of it was; before Duggan, writers had struggled to give Kid Cable a consistent character voice of his own, and many fans have been reluctant to embrace him, preferring the original version. Now it seems the purpose is to pick up on some elements Duggan has already teased; the return of the older Nathan Summers. It remains to be seen whether readers will get to see two versions of Cable working side by side, or even at odds, or whether Kid Cable will find himself replaced.
This will certainly shake up life on the mutant nation of Krakoa, though, where Kid Cable has been accepted as part of the Summers family. It will be fascinating to see how his family and fellow X-Men respond to another change in Cable's status quo, while Emma Frost will doubtless be angered if her precious Stepford Cuckoos wind up hurt.