History Comicbook / Cable

* ''Cable'' Vol. 5 (2024)

[[folder:Cable (2023)]]

Cable, or [[OverlyLongName Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Askani'son Summers]], is a time-traveling soldier from the future who is here to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent his apocalyptic timeline from coming to pass.]] He is biologically the son of [[Characters/MarvelComicsMadelynePryor Madelyne Pryor]] (a clone of ComicBook/JeanGrey) and Scott Summers, a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, and the stepson and genetic-proxy son of Jean Grey. As an infant, he first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #201 (October, 1985), though it took years for said infant and the time-traveling adult to be revealed as the same individual.

Thanks to the machinations of Mr. Sinister, he was born with a destiny--to kill ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}. Not being an idiot, Apocalypse took steps to prevent this at an early stage by infecting Nathan with a special "[[UnwillingRoboticisation techno-organic virus]]" which severely limited his powers and would have killed him if his loving father and step-mother hadn't sent him 2,000 years into the future to be raised by his [[TangledFamilyTree alternate-universe sort-of-half-sister's]] all-female psychic cult. Once he had grown into a grizzled old veteran, Nathan came back in time to the present in order to kill Apocalypse before he could conquer the world.

Now that Cable has accomplished his mission (repeatedly), he has become a man without a purpose; the character has been bounced around through a variety of new concepts. He's been a member of the X-Men more than once, [[ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool became a messiah figure]] and developed an OddFriendship with [[ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} a certain psychotic katana-wielding mercenary]], then adopted and raised Hope, the first mutant born after the mass depowering, while traveling through time. His powers have fluctuated as well, regaining and losing both his techno-organic symbiote and his mutant powers.

In the aftermath of ''ComicBook/Extermination2018'', a younger version of Cable dubbed '''"Kid Cable"''' and who murdered the original, stars in a new ''[[ComicBook/XForce2018 X-Force]]'' series that reunites the surviving members of the original X-Force team. Kid Cable then joined the ''ComicBook/{{Fallen Angels|2019}}'' alongside ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} ([[LegacyCharacter the second one]]) and ComicBook/{{X 23}} before getting his own series. Old Cable was later resurrected to defeat Stryfe and Kid Cable had to return to the future.

Cable is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. The character first fully appeared in ''"The ComicBook/NewMutants''" #87 (January 1990), and was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/co-writer Creator/RobLiefeld.

* ''[[ComicBook/Cable2020 Cable]]'' Vol. 4 (2020)

* AgeLift: Recently, he's been replaced by a teenaged version of himself, colloquially dubbed "Kid Cable".
* AlternateTimelineAncestry: He and ComicBook/XMan are considered the "same" person from two separate timelines, despite the fact that Cable's mother (Madelyne Pryor) was a clone of Nate's mother, ComicBook/JeanGrey.
* BodyHorror:
** While Cable's body was still infected with the TO virus, he could become [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cablecover.png hideously distorted]] if it was allowed to run unchecked. [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cabletohorror_4.png At one point in his childhood]] (as depicted in one issue of ''The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix''), he looked like something out of ''Film/TheThing1982''.
** One typical way of depicting him losing control of the virus was to have his left arm [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cablearm.png grotesquely deformed]].
* {{BFG}}: One of Cable's trademarks. Covers frequently just have him holding a gun.
* CainAndAbel:
** Cable and Stryfe, as Stryfe is Cable's clone.
** Cable also has an Absalom thing going on with his son Tyler... or at least, he did, until Wolverine killed him.
* CallingTheOldManOut: In the tie-in issue to ''The Wedding of Cyclops and Phoenix'', he calls out Scott for abandoning him by allowing him to be transported into the future as an infant. Cyclops says it was the only way to save Nathan's life, but Nate isn't particularly forgiving. Coincidentally, the follow-up to that series, ''The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix'', showed Scott and Jean on their honeymoon... where they were transported into said future and ''did'' raise Nate!
* {{Cyborg}}: Thanks to the techno-organic virus he was infected with.
* CockroachesWillRuleTheEarth: There's a storyline in Earth-80521 with a race of humanoid roaches; the Roach Soldiers, and they have their own president.
* ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: ''Cable (2020)'' is the first Cable series since ''Cable (2017)'', and starred Kid Cable rather than the original Cable. While ''Cable (2017)'' focused on the main character's time-hopping antics and had him as a stern protector of the timestream who was more than a little tortured because of his secrets, ''Cable (2020)'' has Kid Cable as a very happy and well-adjusted teenager who likes to fight and go on dates.
* ContinuityNod: The 2020 series says that Galador was destroyed by the Builders, which is a nod to the ''Infinity'' event that Jonathan Hickman wrote.
* CoversAlwaysLie: The first issue of the "Newer Mutants" arc featured what seemed to be the cast on the cover, including Cable, X-23, Armor, Doop, Shatterstar, Longshot and the Age of Apocalypse's Blink. Most of these characters are in fact the protagonists... except Blink. Not only is she working for the villains, but it's not even the same Blink -- the Blink present in the story is the mainstream Blink, while the Age of Apocalypse Blink is nowhere to be seen, and in fact returned later in a new ''Exiles'' series.
* EvilCounterpart: The 2008 series positions Bishop as one to Cable, being a time-travelling cyborg mutant from a post-apocalyptic future.
* EvilTwin: His clone Stryfe.
* FightsLikeANormal: He has powers (very strong ones) but they're largely ignored in favor of his really big guns and master hand to hand combat skills. Considering that they're mostly occupied with keeping him alive, this is unsurprising.
* {{Foil}}: His half-brother and alternate counterpart, [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]]. The two undergo share backgrounds (born to fight Apocalypse and are dedicated to that goal), share misfiring powers, undergo similar CharacterDevelopment, and even both take up the mantle of saviour, as Nate did as the Mutant Shaman and original Mutant Messiah, and Cable did during ''ComicBook/CableAndDeadpool''. They even both wore trenchcoats at the time. And both willingly gave up the mantle to Hope. However, speaking of that burden, Cable is generally better at handling it, thanks to experience, a surprisingly functional childhood all things considered (complete with loving parents), and a more patience.
%%* GoodIsNotNice
* HarmfulToMinors: Poor Hope lives in constant danger of this.

* LoveInterest: A couple of his most important relationships are with Domino and [[HotScoop Irene Merryweather]].
* ManlyTears: Despite Cable's hard, cold exterior most of the time, he has shed a few of them over the years. Examples include over the death of his wife Aliya in the first issue of his series, the first time he went back in time when he is found and taken by Moira Mactaggert to Muir Island and remembers his traumatic past, when he is transported forward in time and meets his younger wife when she was alive but is forced to let her go, when his mentor and friend Prosh is forced to leave Earth to save Nathan from the Techno Organic Virus, when he witnesses his parents wedding and in a Storm mini series when he believes that Ororo is dead.
* PapaWolf:
** Cable is very protective of the new mutant child Hope, raising her as his daughter.
** Takes a similar attitude towards Nate Grey who is... less than receptive, though he warms up to Cable eventually.
* PlotRelevantAgeUp: Hope Summers, with the frequent time skips in the 2008 series. In issue 1, she's a baby, by issue 24, she's a teenager.
* {{Polyamory}}: While on Krakoa, Kid Cable dates ''all'' of the Stepford Cuckoos simultaneously.

* StatusQuoIsGod: No matter what changes are made to Cable, be it killing his archenemy, getting a new power, curing himself of the techno-organic virus, getting weapons other than guns, etc. He always comes back to being a white haired, time tossed soldier with the {{BFG}} and metal arm.
* {{Tagline}}: "The man called Cable" is frequently associated with the character and his series, having appeared on the cover of his first appearance.
* TerminatorImpersonator: Some depictions play up his Terminator similarities (being a hulking, time-travelling, {{BFG}}-toting cyborg with a glowing eye).

* CloningBlues: Stryfe (Cable's clone) and his mother Madelyne Pryor (Jean Grey's clone) are both recurring antagonists for him.

* ReedRichardsIsUseless: The main theme of the David Tischman run was averting this trope, with Cable using his godlike powers to solve real-world problems like terrorism and ethnic conflicts (albeit with decidedly comic-booky twists like [[ThePlague super-plagues]] and [[CloningBlues clones]]).

Thanks to the machinations of Mr. Sinister, he was born with a destiny--to kill ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}}. Not being an idiot, Apocalypse took steps to prevent this at an early stage by infecting Nathan with a special "[[UnwillingRoboticisation techno-organic virus]]" which severely limited his powers and would have killed him if his loving father and, uh, step-mother hadn't sent him 2,000 years into the future to be raised by his [[TangledFamilyTree alternate-universe sort-of-half-sister's]] all-female psychic death cult. Once he had grown into a grizzled old veteran, Nathan came back in time to the present in order to kill Apocalypse before he could conquer the world.

In the aftermath of ''ComicBook/Extermination2018'', a younger version of Cable dubbed '''"Kid Cable"''' and who murdered the original, stars in a new ''[[ComicBook/XForce2018 X-Force]]'' series that reunites the surviving members of the original X-Force team. Kid Cable then joined the ''ComicBook/{{Fallen Angels|2019}}'' alongside ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} ([[LegacyCharacter the second one]]) and ComicBook/{{X 23}} before getting his own series. Old Cable was then resurrected to defeat Stryfe and Kid Cable had to return to the future.

In the aftermath of ''ComicBook/Extermination2018'', a younger version of Cable dubbed '''"Kid Cable"''' and who murdered the original, stars in a new ''[[ComicBook/XForce2018 X-Force]]'' series that reunites the surviving members of the original X-Force team. Kid Cable then joined the ''ComicBook/{{Fallen Angels|2019}}'' alongside ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} ([[LegacyCharacter the second one]]) and ComicBook/{{X 23}} before getting his own series.

** While Cable's body was still infected with the TO virus, he could become [[http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/0/77/204270-31903-cable_super.jpg hideously distorted]] if it was allowed to run unchecked. At one point in his childhood (as depicted in one issue of ''The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix''), he looked like something out of ''Film/TheThing1982''.
** One typical way of depicting him losing control of the virus was to have his left arm [[http://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/9/40/4bb5881d5c4c2/detail.jpg grotesquely]] [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cable17.jpg deformed]]

%%[[caption-width-right:330:some caption text here]]

In the aftermath of ''ComicBook/Extermination2018'', a younger version of Cable dubbed '''"Kid Cable"''' who murdered the original stars in a new ''[[ComicBook/XForce2018 X-Force]]'' series that reunites the surviving members of the original X-Force team. Kid Cable then joined the ''ComicBook/{{Fallen Angels|2019}}'' alongside ComicBook/{{Psylocke}} ([[LegacyCharacter the second one]]) and ComicBook/{{X 23}} before getting his own series.

Cable, or [[OverlyLongName Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Askani'son Summers]], is a time-traveling soldier from the future who is here to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent his apocalyptic timeline from coming to pass.]] He is biologically the son of Comicbook/XMen Madelyne Pryor (a clone of ComicBook/JeanGrey) and Scott Summers, a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, and the step-son and genetic proxy son of Jean Grey. As an infant, he first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #201 (October, 1985), though it took years for said infant and the time-traveling adult to be revealed as the same individual.

[[caption-width-right:330:''[[VideoGame/{{Deadpool}} Who the fuck is that? He's the man outta time!]]'']]

* ''[[WesternAnimation/XMen X-Men: The Animated Series]]'', voiced by Creator/LawrenceBayne (Japanese voice: Creator/TesshoGenda)

* ''[[ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen X-Men Vol. 5]]''

* AlternateTimelineAncestry: He and ComicBook/{{X Man}} are considered the "same" person from two separate timelines, despite the fact that Cable's mother (Madelyne Pryor) was a clone of Nate's mother, ComicBook/{{Jean Grey}}.

Cable is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics. The character first appeared in ''"The ComicBook/NewMutants''" #87 (March 1990), and was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/co-writer Creator/RobLiefeld.

Cable, or [[OverlyLongName Nathan Christopher Charles Dayspring Askani'son Summers]], is a time-traveling soldier from the future who is here to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong prevent his apocalyptic timeline from coming to pass.]] He is biologically the son of Comicbook/XMen Madelyne Pryor (a clone of ComicBook/JeanGrey) and Scott Summers, a.k.a. ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, and the step-son and genetic proxy son of Jean Grey. As an infant, he first appeared in ''Uncanny X-Men'' #201 (January, 1986), though it took years for said infant and the time-traveling adult to be revealed as the same individual.

* HypotheticalCasting: Watching ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' made Rob Liefeld wish on Twitter that Creator/StephenLang (Col. Quaritch) would play Cable in the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries''. Some of Cable's fans, and even Lang himself, wish the same.

* {{Polyamory}}: While on Krakoa, Kid Cable dates ''all'' of the ComicBook/StepfordCuckoos simultaneously.

[[quoteright:330:''[[VideoGame/{{Deadpool}} Who the fuck is that? He's the man outta time!]]''

* ''ComicBook/CableReloaded'' (2021)

->''"You'll be many things to many people... sometimes '''[[MessianicArchetype loved]]''' and '''[[FutureBadass respected]]'''. Other times '''[[GoodIsNotNice feared]]''' and '''[[HeroAntagonist hated]]'''... almost always [[HeroWithBadPublicity misunderstood]]. Someday, you'll be a '''[[MeaningfulName cable]]''' that unites the past with the present and future -- yesterday with today and tomorrow. You'll be all those things, Nathan Christopher... but know that you'll never be alone. Never."''

* FightsLikeANormal: He has powers (very strong ones) but they're largely ignored in favor of his really big guns and master hand to hand combat skills.

** Takes a similar attitude towards Nate who is... less than receptive.

* {{Retcon}}: Likely due to ScrewedByTheLawyers, the ''Dawn of X'' series has Kid Cable gain the Light of Galador, a sword that is said to belong to the Morn, the first Spaceknight. However, ''ROM'', where the Spaceknight mythos was created, established that ROM himself was the first of the Spaceknights. This is likely because ROM, in his Spaceknight form, is owned by Hasbro and the comic book license for him now belongs with IDW -- this is also what kept him from appearing in his Spaceknight form in other series and has kept any of his Marvel appearances from being reprinted.