With the release of Deadpool 2 this past year, a whole new range of audiences were introduced to Wade Wilson’s grumpy-Gus soldier from the future buddy, Nathan Christopher Askani Summers, aka Cable. Consequently, Marvel also put out a new Cable book, with a mid-volume shift in the numbering to line up with Cable Vol. 1’s numbering. However, what it was not was a buddy-book with Deadpool, Cable was at the fore of this story. So, the question is, what kind of story does the book tell?
In short, the story for this run starts kind of rough, before getting really interesting. The initial arc of this run has Cable fighting some sort of time-traveling conqueror named “Conquest” who didn’t exist prior to this arc and quite possibly will never be seen again (unless he’s retconned into another incarnation of Kang). It’s an arc that has some fun moments (such as Cable sending an army of dinosaurs against Conquest’s time-traveling minions.
The next arc has Cable teaming up with a variety of members of X-Force, from Doop and Armor to original members like Shatterstar, to take on someone who has been murdering Externals. Again, this arc is okay, but this arc feels more like the writers wanted to do an X-Force All-Stars story, instead of a Cable specific story. Again, it’s fun, but it’s not something I feel like grabbing the Trade for and putting on the shelf.
And then there’s the third arc, and here the third time is definitely the charm. The third arc has a clear Cable-specific narrative focus – what scares the hard-ass tough as nails cyborg soldier from the future? The answer is – himself, or rather the techno-organic virus that is a part of him. While Deadpool isn’t particularly present in this arc, this is also the arc that he’d probably be the best fit for, as it gets to a point that the two characters have in common – they both are afflicted by things that would be killing them if it was not for their powers – Wade’s healing factor holding his cancer in check/the cancer being redirected into being a healing factor instead of just killing him and the majority of Nathan’s psychic powers being used to hold his techno-organic virus in check.
Why is this the thing that scared him? Well, because as a kid Nathan lost control of the virus and it hurt someone close to him – in a sequence that is pretty freaky in a body horror sense, and we learn that this incident has been literally and metaphorically haunting him ever since. It’s the most personal story of this run for Cable, and it does a pretty good job of explaining almost everything that’s going on for new readers. In particular, anything that comes up in the story is stuff is explained in the volumes and has been covered at least in passing on Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men as well.
It’s an incredibly solid story and, if nothing else, this part is worth picking up in the trade.
Cable Vol. 3 is available from Amazon.com in Kindle/Comixology versions and in print editions. You should also check out your Friendly Local Comic Shop to see if the trade is available.
