Characters / Cable: Supporting Characters

Wild Pack / Six Pack

Tropes relating to the Six Pack in general

Wild Pack is the name of Cable's first mercenary group, the one he formed when he arrived in the present. They were eventually forced to change their name due to legal action from Silver Sable, and named themselves after a six pack of beer. While the group was effective, Cable left them for dead in order to chase down Stryfe.

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• Bounty Hunter: Hired to bring in Nomad (Jack Monroe) in that character's book.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Cable abandoning the group split them up more or less forever. G.W. founded a second incarnation of the group years later to take down Cable, but he and Hammer were the only returning members.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: They saw action in a lot of circa 80s era color revolutions but they never cared about the local politics, they were just there to get paid.
• Punch-Clock Hero: They took on some traditional villains like Stryfe and Hydra but they weren't really traditional heroes or activists, just mercenaries fighting for a paycheck.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Just three random humans and three random mutants, all of whom loved big guns and blowing stuff up.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Originally called the Wild Pack because Rob Liefeld didn't know the name was already in use. When he found out it was written into the story that Silver Sable brought a lawsuit against them and they were changing their name.
• The Team Benefactor: A lot of their jobs were for arms dealer Tolliver, who was in fact Cable's time-displaced son Tyler.
• Unwitting Pawn: For Tolliver/Tyler, who played them all for his own mad reasons, and Cable himself, who never let them know how high the stakes really were until it was too late.

G. W. Bridge

George Washington "G.W." Bridge

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: X-Force #1 (1991)

A former mercenary and member of Cable's Six Pack, now a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. After being left for dead by Cable, he frequently hunts his former teammate, although they eventually come to an uneasy truce.

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• Aborted Arc: 2020's Ravencroft sees him join the ranks of J.A.N.U.S., a mysterious new organization staffed by past villains such as Malcolm Colcord, Madame Viper, and Monica Rappaccini, but this group and its attendant villains disappeared after just two issues in favor of yet another new Nebulous Evil Organization, the unfortunately named Orchis.
• Action Politician: In the Marvel Comics 2 continuity he was Action President.
• Badass Normal: No powers to speak of, but very effective.
• The Cameo: Made a blink-and-you'll-miss-it one in the second season of X-Men: The Animated Series.
• Bash Brothers: When him and Cable aren't on the outs they have this relationship. Punisher also has mad respect for G.W. and teamed up with him happily, even calling him a legend.
• Crusading Widower: Subverted — he lost his wife to the Serpent Society, but it didn't deter him from his fixation on Cable. Later he would even work with members of the Serpent Society in a reformed Six Pack.
• Death Is Cheap: Killed off in 2009's The Punisher by Punisher supporting character turned villain Microchip but returned to life eleven years later in the pages of Absolute Carnage spinoff book Ravencroft.
• Elite Mooks: In X-Men Forever he's an ordinary S.H.I.E.L.D. agent still, with only his face to distinguish him from any other generic S.H.I.E.L.D. agent leader.
• Enemy Mine: As mentioned above, he allowed members of the villainous Serpent Society into the Six Pack's ranks.
• Formerly Fit: Fit and muscled for most of his history, in his Punisher appearances he was depicted as fat and out of shape. His resurrection in Ravencroft resets him back to his original fit self.
• Hero Antagonist: Not a bad guy at all, but his opposition to protagonist Cable for most of his history makes him one of these.
• Humiliation Conga: During the first Civil War, he tried to bring in the Punisher, having significantly less luck than he ever did chasing after Cable. After a number of failures, the newly-appointed Director Tony Stark dismissed him from S.H.I.E.L.D. G.W. had the last laugh, though, as Tony later begged him to return to S.H.I.E.L.D., a request he refused with pleasure.
• Human Sacrifice: Microchip used him as one in a bid to resurrect his and the Punisher's families.
• Implacable Man: His entire existence was just chasing after Cable for one reason or another.
• It's Personal: He's a very professional S.H.I.E.L.D. agent... until Cable gets involved.
• The Leader: Served this role in the Six-Pack.
• Mentor Archetype: He and Hammer adopted Garrison Kane and trained him to be a mercenary. Having his best friend and student both crippled by the irresponsibility of the same guy was why it was so personal between him and Cable.
• Punny Name: He's named for the George Washington Bridge, once joking that he was named that because his parents lost a bet.
• Red Is Heroic: Like his pupil Kane, he favors red in his wardrobe. And also like Kane, he switched from red to another color for his brief turn into villainy (blue in his case).
• Silver Fox: He's of an advanced age compared to the rest of the team but certainly doesn't look any worse for it.
• Unexplained Recovery: It's never explained in Ravencroft exactly how Bridge was resurrected from death. He just pops up as a token member of the book's Nebulous Evil Organization J.A.N.U.S.

Kane / Weapon X

Garrison Kane / Kane

Notable Aliases: Weapon X

Nationality: Canadian

Species: Human cyborg

First Appearance: X-Force #2 (1992)

A former member of Six Pack (and in all likelihood the group's namer) who was left for dead by Cable. He was "fixed" by the Weapon X program, which provided him with cybernetic arms and legs, and he went on to hunt Cable before the two reconciled.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: He tried to retire from mercenary work and settle down with Copycat but it didn't last very long.
• '90s Anti-Hero: Like Cable, but he ultimately wasn't as successful.
• Arm Cannon: Can transform either of his arms into one to fire blasts of plasma and/or electricity.
• Artificial Limbs: Both of his arms and both of his legs have been replaced with powerful cybernetic prostheses.
• Body Horror: Downloading the technomorphing power of Madison Jeffries caused his own cybernetic parts to consume him, killing him and making his body a horrific misshapen statue.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: The guy acts like a frat bro, but he's actually an extremely effective soldier.
• The Cameo: His name makes one in X2: X-Men United, being listed on Colonel Stryker's list of mutants. Unfortunately he is The Unseen and missed out on a chance to be in Deadpool (2016), meaning fans will probably never seen him on the silver screen. He also made a handful of background cameos in X-Men: The Animated Series.
• Claustrophobia: Like Storm, Kane is a certified claustrophobe, having developed the phobia after being left to die buried under a building.
• Conflicting Loyalty: Like Lady Deathstrike and a couple of other characters, Kane occupies an uneasy mean where he's torn between the human and mutant communities. Being an ordinary human turned into a cyborg, and later put to work by the mutant-hunting Weapon X, ties him strongly to the human (and specifically the mutant-hating) community, but his time with Six-Pack, travels to the future and relationship with the mutant Copycat give him ties to the mutant community as well. Like Deathstrike, he has been labeled a mutant at least once for the sake of Compressed Adaptation (ironically in the same work she was, even) and like Deathstrike he has fought for both sides. Odds are those two characters would have a very interesting discussion if ever they met...
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Not originally, but after receiving further cybernetic enhancements by Weapon X he played this very straight.
• Detachment Combat: He can fire off both of his arms and both of his legs to attack enemies, though usually he just sends out his hands rather than entire limbs.
• During the War: He spent a year or so stranded in Cable's war-torn timeline, joining the Askani in their fight against New Canaan.
• Electronic Eyes: Along with losing all of his limbs, he lost one of his eyes on the fateful mission in Uruguay. This allowed him to have the mechanical variant of Glowing Eyes, a popular comics trope during the 90's.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Cable supposedly saw him as a friend and protege but forgot all about him after his death. Hell, Deadpool remembered him more than Cable did, despite the two of them mostly being rivals.
• Glowing Mechanical Eyes: Well, eye, singular.
• Go Out with a Smile: Gave Cable an apologetic smile with his last words before committing the Heroic Sacrifice that led to him being Killed Off for Real.
• Handicapped Badass: Like Hammer below, he refused to let his injuries hold him back and acquired super-prosthetics to get back in the fight.
• Hero Antagonist: During the period of time when he was chasing Cable along with G.W.
• Kid Sidekick: Subverted — he was by far the Six Pack's youngest member, joining when he was just 13 years old, but be always pulled his weight and played in the same class as the rest of his teammates.
• Killed Off for Real: While half the Six Pack was dead at one point, G.W. and Grizzly have since been resurrected, leaving Kane the only Six Pack member to suffer this fate.
• Lightning Bruiser: His cybernetic enhancements make him 350 lbs but he's fast and very well trained, having hand-to-hand combat ability on par with Bucky Barnes and The Punisher.
• Logical Weakness: Kane's greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. His cyborg nature gives him an edge against mutants, since he can equip devices built in to counter their powers and can be upgraded to avoid the fate of Can't Catch Up. Unfortunately, he's still half metal, which makes him vulnerable to magnetism and electrical overloads. Also, his Power Copying upgrade is able to download but not perfectly control one power, technoforming, and attempting to use it can (and does) kill him.
• Mechanical Muscles: Like his mentor Cable, his cybernetic limbs are very jacked.
• Name of Cain: Originally a subversion, as despite his Rage Against the Mentor motivation he was still a hero, and frankly Cable kind of deserved it for leaving Kane and the rest of the Six Pack to die. Later after his original creators left he played his name very straight.
• Next Tier Power-Up: Gained three over the course of his life: his original cybernetic prosthetics provided to him by Department K, then a 40th century replacement set provided to him by Cable, and finally a complete system overhaul provided to him by the revived Weapon X.
• Poor Communication Kills: He and Cable were at each other's throats for years because Kane just Cannot Spit It Out that he thinks Cable and Stryfe are the same person.
• Power Copying: After rejoining the Weapon X program he was upgraded with the ability to upload and duplicate the powers of mutants Mega Man style.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He has nothing against mutants, and during the period when he was working against them as a member of Weapon X it wasn't out of any grudge but just because he had no purpose on his own and couldn't settle back into civilian life.
• Red Is Heroic: Red is the predominant color in his wardrobe. During his Face–Heel Turn phase it was duly switched to orange.
• Revenge: His motivation for hunting down Cable is that he still hates Cable for leaving Six Pack to die.
• Rocket Punch: His favorite move, and a bit of a Running Gag between him and Deadpool (who is thoroughly grossed-out by Kane's detachable hands).
• Sacrificial Lion: His death wasn't in vain, as it cost Colcord's Weapon X program their strongest enforcer and the organization quickly collapsed after a subsequent Enemy Civil War called the War of the Programs.
• Same Character, But Different: After reconciling with Cable he disappeared for a time, and when he next appeared he was very nearly a completely different character entirely, having transformed from a mouthy but good-hearted young man into a babykilling nutjob who was obsessed with Deadpool (originally he made fun of Deadpool, but had no serious issues with him) and a downright Sociopathic Soldier.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Kane is easily identified when he's a villain by his orange costume.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: Both of his arms and both of his legs are these, as he lost the originals and had them replaced with...
• Shape Shifter Weapon: His second set prosthetic arms and legs are capable of technomorphing into various weapons, due to being made from advanced 40th century tech.
• Sigil Spam: As seen in his profile pic, he sometimes wears the iconic X-Men X even though he's never been associated with them.
• Super-Strength: Thanks to his cybernetics. The first set of limbs allowed him to lift 10 tons, and after his upgrade he was able to lift 20 tons.
• Uncertain Doom: While he is officially listed as dead, he may still be alive or the Scarlet Witch may have revived him when she warped reality during the House of M event, as he was mentioned as a still living member of S.H.I.E.L.D. at one point.
• Walking Armory: His bionic limbs make him one.

Grizzly

Theodore Winchester / Grizzly

Nationality: Australian

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Force #8 (1992)

An Australian mutant with a hirsute appearance and Super-Strength who served as the Six-Pack's strongman. Sadly he would later fall prey to the schemes of Genesis and died in a confrontation with Domino.

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• 10-Minute Retirement: Like Kane, Grizzly tried to retire from the mercenary business. As with Kane, trouble found him anyway, though in his case the trouble was much more dangerous (and ultimately lethal).
• Animal-Themed Superbeing: He took his codename from the grizzly bear and has an appearance to match.
• Boss Battle: He appears as a boss in X-Men Legends II.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Genesis turned him into a crazed Serial Killer in one of his more incomprehensible plots.
• Combo Platter Powers: He had the powers and abilities one would expect from looking at him — Super Strength, Super-Senses, and so on. He also had a low-level Healing Factor.
• Deadpan Snarker: He took his work in stride and traded quips with his teammates.
• Death Is Cheap: Not so cheap, as Domino gave him a Mercy Kill in 1995's Cable #24 and he remained dead for almost 25 years before being revived in 2020's Krakoan era.
• Face–Heel Turn: In X-Men Legends II his heroic history is Adapted Out and he is reduced to a feral, growling lackey of Apocalypse (which is a Shout-Out to his Evil Counterpart from the Age of Apocalypse).
• Informed Ability: He's supposedly very durable (durability being the highest ranked stat on his power grid) but Domino was able to kill him with a simple firearm.
• Land Down Under: He's from Australia, though it doesn't come up much and he thankfully doesn't drop any trite Australian slang.
• One-Steve Limit: Shares his codename with the Spider-Man rogue Maxwell Markham.
• Out of Focus: Out of all the Six Pack members, Grizzly was easily the least developed, and even after being resurrected in House and Powers of X his only role has been to stand around and be a distinctive figure in massive mutant group panels.
• Red Is Heroic: A heroic (well, until he went crazy) mercenary covered in red fur.
• Redhead In Green: Hirsuite with red hair and wore a lot of green on his outfit.
• Strike Me Down: He knew how far gone he was at the end and begged Domino to kill him.
• Super-Strength: Wildly variable, as he was originally identified as being able to lift 75 tons but in his later Marvel Handbook entry it was stated he could only lift 5 tons.

Hammer

Eisenhower Canty / Hammer

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: X-Force #8 (1992)

A former member of Six Pack who Cable shot in the back and left for dead. The event left him quadriplegic, and he worked to hunt down Cable.

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• Badass Normal: Like G.W. Bridge, Hammer is a human with no special powers or abilities besides being a trained and effective soldier.
• Genius Bruiser: He's a huge guy and more than capable of holding his own in a firefight but he's also educated on a level with the likes of Forge. And actually, if you go by his Marvel Handbook entry he's smarter than Forge.
• Handicapped Badass: He refused to let his quadriplegia hold him back and built himself a battle-worthy hoverchair.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Cable offered him the chance to walk again via the advanced 40th century prosthetics he'd previously provided to Kane but Hammer refused, saying that he didn't "want to become a machine". While aimed at Cable, the barb was also a slap in the face to his old friend Kane, who never spoke to him again.
• Momma's Boy: A positive example, as after he is crippled he returns to his mother's home in the South Stickney suburb of Chicago to recuperate. Later he repays her for her kindness by stealing 3 million dollars for her from a Corrupt Church's bank accounts.
• Mission Control: After Cable shot him, he became this.
• Mysterious Past: It's never made clear how someone educated enough to have a Ph.D in Theoretical Engineering Design ended up as a gun for gire.
• One-Steve Limit: He sometimes uses the alias of 'Hammerhead', not to be confused with the Spider-Man rogue.
• Out of Focus: Along with Grizzly, he's one of the less developed Six Pack members, mostly being defined by his intense grudge against Cable which even surpasses that of his teammates.
• Photographic Memory: Has one of these and used it to acquire a doctorate in engineering.
• Revenge: Naturally, this was his motivation for hunting down Cable, and he notably held onto his grudge even after G.W. and Kane had buried that hatchet.
• Scary Black Man: He was a massive 6'9" and more intimidating than even the (very slightly) taller Grizzly.
• Shout-Out: When he appears in Cable and Deadpool, there's a poster of Morpheus from The Matrix in his room.
• Super Wheelchair: His custom-built hoverchair, which is "more like a personal tank" according to G.W.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Barring a one-off temporal jaunt by Deadpool, he hasn't been seen since the reformed Six-Pack's defeat in 2006.

Domino

Neena Thurman / Domino

Domino is also a mutant and one of the few members who didn't try to kill Cable. Possessing the ability to alter probability to suit her, she is also effective with weapons and a mercenary. Cable's first love interest in the present, she would also go on to become a founding member of his second outfit — X-Force... kind of (turns out she was being impersonated).

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Modern Day Allies

Irene Merryweather

Irene Merryweather

Aliases: Chronicler

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: Cable #48 (1997)

A reporter that Cable befriends asks to chronicle his journeys, as per the Askani tradition. Irene initially worked at a sleazy tabloid, but after the Hellfire Club sends assassins after her and Cable protects her as they uncover the Hellfire Club's plans, she publishes an expose on the group. This gets her noticed by J. Jonah Jameson, who offers her a job at the Daily Bugle, which she eventually takes, while still remaining Cable's chronicler and confidante. She later became the head administrator of Cable's island state of Providence.

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• Depending on the Artist: She's been colored with both red and brown hair (she originally had brown hair). It's not even like it's a mistake; whatever color the artist decides she has sticks for tens of issues at a time. Most of her appearances depict her with brown hair, however.
• Dropped a Bridge on Her: Offhandedly murdered by Wade in Despicable Deadpool under orders from Stryfe.
• Hidden Depths: By all accounts, she does an excellent job running Providence, despite having no formal training in governing.
• Hot Scoop: A very attractive reporter.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Mostly during Cable & Deadpool, where she was able to pick up running a sovereign nation incredibly quickly.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Described by Deadpool's dreams as "kittenishly sexy".
• Unfazed Everyman: After some time with Cable, her default setting is to, at worst, grown at the weird shit he gets up to. This later also applies to her relationship with Deadpool.
• Working with the Ex: She becomes Cable's chief of staff on Providence, remained his source of information and he still wrote her so she could chronicle his journeys.

Clarity

William Knoblach / Clarity

Nationality: American

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Cable #80 (2000)

A mysterious Knowledge Broker who lends his assistance to Cable for reasons of his own. Over time it's revealed that he is actually an immortal mutant from the 17th century, and has been helping Cable in order to prepare him for a confrontation with his supervillain sister Finality.

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• Awesomeness by Analysis: Or "Psionic Analyzation" in the Marvel parlance, but the end result is the same. He has the mutant ability to absorb and process information at a superhuman rate, somewhat akin to Ozymandias of Watchmen fame.
• Blessed with Suck: He's immortal and can process information like a computer, but he's also practically an invalid as he never gets up from his chair, doesn't even speak and is assisted at all times by two faithful assistants who attend to all his, ahem, needs so he can continue to process information 24/7.
• Cain and Abel: He's the Abel, Finality is the Cain. In a slight switch on this trope, however, he is the older sibling.
• Chrome Dome Psi: He's completely bald and while not a traditional telepath, has a psionic-based mutant ability.
• Combo Platter Powers: A rather oddball combo pairing Awesomeness by Analysis with Immortality.
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: He's superhumanly intelligent thanks to his mutation and spends most of his time alone in a room with hundreds of TVs and radios all blaring information at him.
• Knowledge Broker: How he makes his living in the modern day, and helped along by his mutation.
• Mysterious Backer: This is how he makes his introduction, helping Cable deal with other villains from a distance before being introduced to him properly.
• Put on a Bus: He hasn't been seen since Robert Weinberg's Cable run ended.
• Really 700 Years Old: He was born in 1675 and has survived through the centuries without aging due to his mutation.
• The Voiceless: He can speak (or at least could at one time) but in the modern day communicates through a computer screen printout due to constantly being bombarded by information (by his own choice).
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Has even less appearances than his evil sister. He's only appeared in half a dozen issues since his introduction, all of them part of creator Robert Weinberg's run on Cable.
• Zeerust: He's a product of what was considered cutting-edge during the '90s, and... well, it shows. His website in particular is laughable to anyone who's been on the Internet since the Web 1.0 days.

X-Man

Nathaniel "Nate" Grey / X-Man

AKA: The Mutant Shaman (not to be confused with the other Shaman)

First Appearance: X-Man #1 (1995)

Cable's alternate-self from the Age of Apocalypse, and technically his half-brother, Nathan "Nate" Grey was created from the genetic material of his universe's Cyclops and Jean Grey by Nathaniel Essex. Possessing no techno-organic virus, he is what would happen if Cable were at the peak of his powers and much, much younger - accordingly, Cable took a special interest in him, seeing him as having the potential to live the life that Cable himself could have had but for the T-O Virus and his destiny. Essentially Cable's "little brother", the two have met numerous times, and share an intense desire to change the world to prevent it becoming like the world of their past (Cable's Bad Future and the Age of Apocalypse, respectively). Despite initial reluctance on Nate's part, they always have each other's back.

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Deadpool

Deadpool

^{Click here to see Zenpool}

Alter Ego: Wade Winston Wilson

Notable Aliases: Merc with a Mouth, Regenerating Degenerate, Deady-Pool, Jack, Wade T. Wilson, Mithras, Johnny Silvini, Thom Cruz, Hulkpool, Wildcard, Zenpool, Weapon XI

Nationality: Canadian

Species: Human mutate

Team Affiliations: Astonishing Avengers (As Zenpool), Avengers Unity Squad, Great Lakes Avengers

First Appearance: The New Mutants #98 (February, 1991)

Wade Wilson is a former test subject of the Weapon X program, where he received his regenerative healing factor through the scientific experiments conducted upon him. Deadpool's powers and personality traits combine to make a wild, mentally unstable, and unpredictable mercenary. Deadpool has been a member of X-Force and the Thunderbolts, and a self-professed member of the X-Men and the Avengers. The "Merc with a Mouth" is infamous for breaking the fourth wall.

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See Deadpool for his tropes.

Stacey Kramer

Stacey Kramer

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: Cable #55 (1998)

A waitress at a diner that Cable frequented, she's the sole caregiver for her little brother, who has a developmental condition. She and Cable dated for a brief time.

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• Cool Big Sis: To her brother Kenny.
• Flat Character: Aside from being nice and sisterly, she's very... there.
• Girl of the Week: What she ended up being, when all was said and done.
• Nice Girl: Her defining trait. She's just... nice; she gives leftovers to the homeless and is friendly with all the patrons.
• Odd Couple: Being a waitress from Hell's Kitchen, one would expect Stacy to be a supporting character of Daredevil rather than Cable.
• Put on a Bus: After killing Apocalypse in The Twelve story (he got better), Cable took the opportunity to distance himself from Stacey. Despite her pleas for Cable not to shut her out forever, he went on to do exactly that (which was probably for the best, considering the lifestyle he leads).
• Service Sector Stereotypes: She's a stock Greasy Spoon waitress, sans gum.

X-Force

Cable's second mercenary group, formed from the remnants of the New Mutants team Cable led — at least that was the first incarnation of the group. After that, other X-Force teams would emerge, at times without any involvement from Cable; although the team usually serves the same purpose of being a more militant and dark version of the X-Men.

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For the various members and rosters, see X-Force.

Future Allies

Blaquesmith

Blaquesmith

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men Prime #1 (1995)

A deformed and diminutive mutant from the 37th century who considers it his job to advise Cable into making decisions he will regret later. Despite literally never being right about anything, Cable continues to listen to Blaquesmith and considers him a valuable ally.

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• Adventure Rebuff: In his youth he met a time-travelling Rachel Summers, who saved him from being sold as a slave but rejected his request to become her disciple. Given Blaquesmith's later track record, this was probably the correct decision on Rachel's part.
• Ambiguous Situation: Like Mimic, Blaquesmith's mutant status is a matter of dispute. Early on in his history he was emphatically stated not to be one, being given a genescan which pegged him as negative for the X-Factor and biotechs stating his appearance was the result of a "genetic defect" rather than mutation. Later he was given an entry in the All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, which went back on this and stated that he was in fact a mutant. As he has some degree of telepathy, he is most likely a mutant.
• Born into Slavery: Or close enough, as his own mother sold him to roving scavengers at a very young age.
• Cool Boat: When inhabiting the present day he usually hides out on one. Post sunk it, but Blaquesmith later raised it so Cable could have a hideout to hold the Avengers prisoner in.
• Cool Old Guy: While he has a track-record of giving extremely questionable advice, he can actually handle himself very well in a fight, being willing and able to go toe to toe with a young Nate Grey. Granted, his contribution mostly consisted of successfully avoiding being vaporised by 'stepping between moments' and being on the verge of pulling a Dangerous Forbidden Technique designed to take out someone like Nate at the cost of his own life (derailed by Conflict Killer Exodus), but considering that even as a teenager Nate was an Omega Class power-house with a general battle tactic of 'vaporise everything in sight, then vaporise it again to make sure', it's still impressive.
• Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: When he isn't giving Cable outright bad advice he's giving him these.
• Fish Eyes: Has a big bulging pair of these.
• He Knows Too Much: During the Onslaught storyline the titular villain declared Blaquesmith to be this and sent his minion Post to kill him. While Post managed to destroy his freighter hideout, Blaquesmith himself escaped. Why Onslaught felt the need to do this when Blaquesmith's tendency of steering Cable towards trouble served his purposes perfectly well, the world will never know.
• Horrible Judge of Character: As yet another of his terrible decisions Blaquesmith provided Psimitars and gave Askani training to the Straw Feminist villain Finality and her Dark Sisterhood, intending to create a new Clan Askani in the present day. Instead, Finality and her followers attempted to alter history by assassinating the President to create some sort of future matriarchy dictatorship. Whoops!
  • He also repeatedly tries to get Cable to kill Nate Grey and/or let him die on the grounds that he's too dangerous. This was a little better grounded than the above, owing to Nate's twitchy nature and vast and fundamentally unstable raw power (as well as some of the things he later went on to do), but Cable's decision to help him turned out to be justified each time.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: He's a wee little guy and is somewhere around a century old, as he was born in the late 37th century and lived to see his timeline's Apocalypse overthrown in the early 39th century.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: He agrees with Cable on this at all the wrong times. In particular Nate Grey being around is always sure to get his murder itch twitching.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He provokes a very twitchy Nate Grey at exactly the wrong moment, derailing Cable's attempt to talk Nate down and resulting in Nate going nuclear, which nearly gets Blaquesmith himself fried and wakes up Exodus, who was at that point a psychic vampire.
  • Undeterred, he topped himself on a grand scale in Extermination by recruiting Kid Cable and filling the kid's head with horrible visions of yet another Bad Future where Sentinels had exterminated mutantkind. This, along with providing Kid Cable the means to travel through time freely, set into motion a chain of events that led to Cable's death. That's right, Blaquesmith is such a terrible mentor that he actually got his charge killed.
• Non-Indicative Name: His name is something between this and Informed Ability, as he is often touted as an inventive genius on the degree of Forge but is hardly ever seen building anything (though, to be fair, his base has a lot of tech in it) and in battle he mostly relies on his Psychic Powers rather than gadgets. One notable subversion of this is when he uses his tech to track down Nate Grey.
• The Obi-Wannabe: He tries to play The Mentor with Cable but his advice usually causes more harm than good, often to an astonishing degree. For example, his advising Cable that the Avengers would go to war against the X-Men in an alternate timeline led him into attacking the Avengers in the present day, setting into motion a chain of events leading to Avengers vs. X-Men. Another time he demanded that Cable murder his genetic twin, X-Man, insisting that Nate would become a danger to the whole world (ironically, this prediction would not only be rejected but outright defied as Nate would go on to become a Messianic Archetype - though considering Uncanny X-Men (2018) and Age of X-Man, where Nate became a well-intentioned Anti-Villain whose actions triggered several disasters for the X-Men, he might have had a point). He told Cable that Exodus was a follower of Apocalypse, when in fact Exodus had rebelled against Apocalypse in the distant past. The list goes on and on. Despite batting zero over and over again, Cable inexplicably continues listening to him.
  • The 2018 Cable series indirectly acknowledges this, so far as Nate Grey is concerned: a flashback issue during the Metus arc has Cable respond to Blaquesmith's complaints about helping an injured Nate (who had nearly killed himself coming to warn Cable of Metus) and usual advice to murder him by telling Blaquesmith to shut up and keep making some wound-salve.
• Plot Device: Whenever Cable is making a bad decision, odds are pretty good this little jerk talked him into it.
• Telepathy: A potent mutant telepath, though he primarily uses the ability for confusion and misdirection (and possibly to convince Cable to keep listening to him despite being wrong all the time).
• Time Police: He started the idea of Cable being a time cop, as long before Cable himself considered the idea Blaquesmith considered it his own mission to preserve the timeline, to the degree of sabotaging Cable's efforts to destroy Apocalypse so that Apocalypse's rise to power would happen and their shared future would not be changed. While Cable himself rebelled against this idea at first, in recent years he has gone the other way and embraced it.
• Time Travel: Like Cable he comes from a far future and is capable of jumping between timelines at will.
• Undying Loyalty: Questionable advice aside, he is consistently loyal to Cable.

Ch'vayre

Ch'vayre

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix #1 (1994)

Ch'vayre is... complicated. Both enemy and ally to Cable, he was The Dragon to the 40th century version of Apocalypse, though prior to this he aided Cable in the present day. A Noble Demon who attempted to curb the excesses of his thoroughly-insane master, he played a pivotal role in the genesis of Cable's arch-nemesis Stryfe and was ultimately killed by the budding Chaos-Bringer.

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• Combo Platter Powers: Ch'vayre's a Sizeshifter, has Telepathy, and was enhanced into a Cyborg to boot.
• Defector from Decadence: He was born as one of Apocalypse's Chosen, but later turned his back on the mutant tyrant. Then he rejoined him. Then he turned his back on him again.
• The Dragon: To both future Apocalypse and, after his death, to Stryfe.
• Everyone Has Standards: Part of what made Ch'vayre turn against Apocalypse for good was his decision to accelerate the development of Stryfe's mutant powers, an act which Ch'vayre saw Apocalypse betraying his own beliefs (it was, and he was).
• Fountain of Youth: When he was sent back into the 20th century, he inexplicably regressed to boyhood and lost most of his memories, holding onto only the Askani teachings.
• Good Is Not Nice: As an ally of Cable, he was still a Manipulative Bastard who used Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce to attempt to awaken Apocalypse and so bring about the prophesied confrontation between him and the Askani'son.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Spent most of his history caught in one of these due to the conflict of being a follower of Apocalypse while also having standards. Rachel offered him a chance to join the Askani, but he refused. Then he joined them later anyway. Then he took The Slow Path back to his time, lost his memories of being a hero, and became The Dragon to Apocalypse upon his return. Then he turned on Apocalypse due to feeling that the latter no longer lived up to his own Social Darwinist principles. Then he tried to undo the damage Apocalypse did to Stryfe, but it was too late by that time, resulting in...
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: He tried to stop Stryfe from confronting Madame Sanctity, but Stryfe sensed his intentions and killed him for his betrayal.
• Killed Off for Real: By a teenage Stryfe.
• Large and in Charge: Even by the standards of the jacked-up 90's he was huge. How huge? Try almost 13 feet tall.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His previously mentioned attempt to awaken Apocalypse early accomplished nothing but giving the Hellfire Club access to advanced 40th century weaponry.
• Noble Demon: One of the few followers of Apocalypse to have any kind of morals or standards.
• Psychic Powers: As part of his Combo Power Platter. On to of telepathy, he was locked in a Psychic Link with Stryfe, which eventually proved to be his undoing.
• Shoulders of Doom: His armor evoked this look, as seen in his profile image above.
• Sizeshifter: His primary mutant power is this, with the odd addendum that every time he uses it to grow, he'll be a little larger than he was before when he reverts to normal.
• Skeletons in the Coat Closet: He sports a few skulls on his belt, apparently having picked up some fashion tips from Mystique during his time in the present day.
• The Slow Path: Twice. The Askani sent him back in time thirty years before Cable's arrival in the present day. He spent that time organizing an Askani cult in the Swiss Alps to aid him in his mission to help Cable. Then he was sealed into a hibernation pod by Sebastian Shaw and took a much, much longer Slow Path back to his present.
• The Social Darwinist: Being born and raised in a world ruled by Apocalypse, he buys into Big Blue's survival-of-the-fittest creed. This eventually bit Apocalypse in the butt, though, as he decided that Poccy wasn't living up to his own standards, leading him to help Cable destroy the ancient despot once and for all.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He delivered the infant baby to Apocalypse that would grow up to become Stryfe.
• Villainous Crush: In his youth he had one on Rachel Summers, although he didn't know who she really was.

Emil Spence

Emil Spence

Species: Human

First Appearance: Cable v2 #16 (2009)

The son of a high-ranking official in an apocalyptic future where the Earth's days are numbered. As a boy he befriends Hope Summers while Cable is gone, and by the time he shows up, both are teenagers and have feelings for each other. Events separate Emil and Hope, and Emil is tricked by Bishop into helping him hunt down Cable, who Bishop claims is trying to harm Hope. After hunting the two for several years, Emil and Hope are eventually reunited. In the end, Emil sacrifices himself to give Hope a chance to fulfill her destiny and Cable a chance to guide her.

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• Did Not Get the Girl: After all he went through, he decides to sacrifice himself to keep Hope and Cable safe.
• First Love: For Hope, she's the first boy she properly meets, and they grow close in the two years they have together before Cable shows up.
• Love Makes You Dumb: Bishop didn't have to try very hard to manipulate him.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Bishop's manly man.
• Took a Level in Badass: Bishop trained him during the years they were in space hunting Hope and Cable.

Hope

Hope Summers

Species: Human

First Appearance: Cable v2 #7 (2008)

No, not that one. Rather, the adoptive mother of the mutant messiah and Cable's second wife, who he married while in yet another apocalyptic future. She and Nathan raised the then-unnamed child until Mrs. Summers death, after which Nathan names the child Hope in honour of her mother and his wife.

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• Damsel in Distress: She's hardly Action Girl material, surprisingly enough.
• Friend to All Children: Despite not being able to stand Cable at first, with little baby Hope it was "love at first sight".
• Happily Married: To Cable. Sadly, it doesn't last.
• Hidden Elf Village: Her hometown of New Liberty is one of these, being described as "another Roanoke" that wasn't rediscovered until Cable's 40th century time. Naturally, it is also a Doomed Hometown for Hope and her family.
• Meaningful Echo: She goes out in the exact same way as Jenskot before her.
• Nonindicative Name: Despite her name, she's not related to the Summers clan other than being Cable's wife. It's possible that she adopted his surname when they married, but if she has a maiden name the writers never see fit to tell us.
• Second Love: Well, the one he saw fit to marry. He never had those intentions with his love interests since Aliya's death (Domino and Irene).
• Slap-Slap-Kiss: Apparently in the past, though they certainly aren't like this by the time we meet her.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears in four issues, but she's the reason why Hope Summers is named Hope and not, say, Aliya or Rachel or something.
• Walking the Earth: Spent a little while doing with this with Cable after fleeing her hometown, but it didn't end well.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: She's motherly and... that's it. She gets all of four issues in appearances before she's killed.

Jenskot

Aliya Dayspring / Jenskot

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Cable #1 (1993)

Cable's first wife and the mother of Tyler. A former member of the Clan Askani, she possesses telepathy and telekinesis. She was eventually killed by Stryfe.

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• Action Girl: She fought beside Cable in the Clan Chosen.
• Action Mom: After giving birth to Tyler.
• Badass Teacher: She was the one who taught Tyler how to use his powers.
• Badasses Wear Bandanas: She wears a green headband and is more than capable of holding her own in a fight.
• Church Militant: She's a member of the Clan Askani, a religious sisterhood that deified the X-Men of their distant past and awaited a prophesied "Dayspring" to be their messiah.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: How she goes out.
• Facial Markings: She sports triple markings on her right cheek.
• Good Parents: Regardless of the very real possibility that Tyler is the son of her rapist, she doesn't hold that against him and loves him dearly.
• La Résistance: As a member (a founding member, no less) of the Clan Chosen, she fought against Stryfe and his tyrannical New Canaan regime.
• Last Request: She asks Cable to take care of Tyler with her last words, unaware that Tyler has already been captured by Stryfe.
• Legacy Character: What her codename was meant to be, to honor the legendary X-Men of her time: Jean Grey and Scott Summers.
• Motherhood Is Superior: She loves Tyler so much that her last words to Cable are asking him to keep her safe. While Cable grieves over Tyler for some time (and holds a grudge against Wolverine for murdering him) he eventually gets over it, though he does name a stadium on Providence Island after Tyler.
• Psychic Powers: She has the usually potent combo of Telepathy and Telekinesis, though neither of these abilities are anywhere near Cable's levels of power.
• Rape as Drama: Stryfe claims to have raped her at one point, an event which is used to cloud the true parentage of her son Tyler beyond any way to conclusively settle (being clones, Stryfe and Cable have the same DNA).

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