CABLE (Nathan Christopher Charles Summers Dayspring Askani'son)
Created By: Rob Liefeld & Louise Simonson
First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men #201 (Jan. 1986) as Nathan/New Mutants #87 (March 1990) as Cable
Role: Captain Nineties, Gun Guy, The Dark Mentor, The Repentant Nineties Guy
Group Affiliations: The New Mutants, X-Force, Six Pack/Wild Pack, The X-Men, The Askani
PL 11 (233)
STRENGTH 5/7 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 8
INTELLIGENCE 4 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Athletics 1 (+8)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 1 (+12)
Deception 6 (+10)
Expertise (Soldier/Mercenary) 12 (+16)
Expertise (History) 6 (+10)
Expertise (Sciences) 4 (+8)
Insight 4 (+8)
Intimidation 8 (+12)
Investigation 4 (+8)
Perception 8 (+12)
Stealth 4 (+7)
Technology 9 (+13)
Vehicles 3 (+11)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Assessment, Beginner's Luck, Benefit 2 (Access to "Professor" A.I.), Diehard, Equipment 15 (Arsenal, Bodyslide Technology, Graymalkin), Fearless, Improved Aim, Improved Critical (Blaster Rifle), Interpose, Jack-of-All-Trades, Languages (Various), Last Stand, Leadership, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Ranged/Cover), Quick Draw, Ranged Attack 5, Skill Mastery (Soldier), Startle, Teamwork, Tracking, Ultimate Soldier Skill, Well-Informed
Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Telepathy & Telekinesis"
"Held Back By Techno-Organic Virus" Move Object 4 (Flaws: Distracting) [4]
Mind Reading 4 (Flaws: Touch Range -2) [2]
"Techno-Organic Fibre"
Enhanced Strength 2 (Quirk: Left Side Only -1) [3]
"Datalink" Communication (Computers) 2 [8]
Protection 2 [2]
"Conceals Metal Form Synth-Fibre" Morph 1 (Skin Over Body) [1]
"Cybernetic Eye" Senses 2 (Extended & Infra-Vision) [2]
"Armour" (Flaws: Removable) [24]
"Bodyslide Technology" Teleport 10 (Feats: Increased Mass 6- 3,200lbs.) (Extras: Extended Only +0) (26)
"Huge-Ass Shoulder Pads" Protection 2 (2) -- (28 points)
Equipment:
"Huge-Ass Arsenal"
"Power Gun" Blast 10 (Extras: Penetrating) (Quirks: Inaccurate -1) (29) -- (33)
- AE: "Automatic Rifle" Blast 9 (Extras: Multiattack) (27)
- AE: "Grenade Launcher" Blast 8 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (24)
- AE: "Vibro-Knife" Strength-Damage +2 (Feats: Improved Critical) (Extras: Penetrating 8) (11)
- AE: "Sniper Rifle" Blast 8 (Feats: Extended Range 4- 1,600 feet long range) (20)
"Assorted Spy/Break-In Stuff" (7)
"Graymalkin" Orbitting Satellite & Time Machine (33) -- (75 points)
Offense:
Unarmed +12 (+7 Damage, DC 21)
Vibro-Knife +11 (+9 Damage, DC 23)
Power Gun +12 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Automatic Rifle +13 (+9 Ranged Damage, DC 24)
Grenade Launcher +8 Area (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Sniper Rifle +13 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 22)
Initiative +3
Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +5 (+7 T-O Fibre, +9 Armour), Fortitude +10, Will +11
Complications:
Prejudice (Mutant)
Motivation (Save the Future)- Cable is obsessed with preventing his vile timeline from occurring.
Motivation (Hope Summers)- Cable has been charged with the protection of young Hope, the first new Mutant born since M-Day.
Motivation (The Closed Fist)- The polar opposite of Xavier's "Open Hand" approach, Cable believes in knocking down opposition and the path of violence, but has the same overall goals as Xavier.
Reputation (Hard-Ass)- Cable's leadership of the New Mutants came into question many times, and many of the older X-Men have trouble trusting him.
Relationship (Cyclops)- Cable's birth father is the leader of the X-Men, who is now younger than he is. There's a strange sense of comraderie and respect between the two of them, but they aren't really close as friends.
Relationship (Cannonball)- Sam was like a son to Cable (who originally came to the past to awaken Sam as an External "High Lord"), and the two had an uncomfortable relationship. Sam wanted to make the old man proud, and Cable often sought to emotionally distance himself from the young man.
Enemy (Apocalypse)- Cable was sent from his future, where his arch-nemesis was the dark overlord of all Earth. As a baby, he was infected with a Techno-Organic Virus by Apocalypse as well.
Enemy (Stryfe)- A vulgar clone of Cable, Stryfe came to believe that he was the original, and was obsessed with killing both Nathan and his parents (and Jean Grey by proxy).
Enemy (Tolliver)- Cable's son Tyler Dayspring eventually turned evil, becoming the crimeboss Tolliver, who challenged Cable and eventually turned into the villain "Genesis".
Weakness (Magnetic & Electrical Attacks)- As a cyborg comprised of nearly 50% metal, Cable is highly vulnerable to attacks that do more damage to metal substances.
Power Loss (Psionics)- Cable's psionic power moves with the winds- sometimes he's as powerful as Nate "X-Man" Grey, sometimes he has no power at all. It pretty much just depends.
Total: Abilities: 88 / Skills: 70--35 / Advantages: 44 / Powers: 46 / Defenses: 20 (233)
Cable: '90s Icon:
-Nobody, but NOBODY, defines the 1990s of comics moreso than Cable. He's got it all: Vague, mysterious origins. Giant shoulder pads. Cyborg. Glowing eyes (well, eye). Huge and muscular. Nasty-looking. Gruff. Military background. Mysterious backstory. Powers added as an afterthought. And guns. HOLY GOD THE GUNS!!
-Cable was created by Rob Liefeld with instructions to make a new mentor character to the New Mutants, this one "the opposite of Xavier" (Editor Bob Harras wanted to name him "Quinn". Louise Simonson suggested "Commander X"). Everyone liked the idea, and so Cable showed up- and he hit BIG. People forget in the modern age of poo-poohing the '90s, but this guy was EVERYWHERE. He was guest-starring in Wolverine and getting his own Limited Series within a couple years, in addition to taking over the New Mutants' book with an array of Liefeld-created bad guys (the Mutant Liberation Front, with Stryfe as their boss) as his own personal enemies. Half a dozen old-school characters met up with him and were like "Oh damn! It's Cable! This guy's tough!" By the time Liefeld left Marvel a couple years later, he'd created an absolute monster.
Cable's Debut:
-Cable debuted with a lot of fanfare and little explanation of his background, but quickly attached himself to the rudderless New Mutants (at that time, Xavier was busy/offworld, and Magneto had reverted back to his villainous ways, considering his "Face Turn" a failure). The kids gravitated him for lack of anything else to do, and he got into a quick scrap with Wolverine, who recognized him from operations way back in the day. Cable also carried baggage with him- the M.L.F. and a crime-boss named "Mr. Tolliver" both hated his guts, and the New Mutants would be subject to attacks from both- Tolliver's agent was a mysterious, smart-assed assassin named Deadpool. Cable's old friend Domino would soon join the New Mutants, the old members would leave without Cable ever seeming to care, and when an angry Cannonball confronted him over this, Cable finally came clean- he was building an army- soldiers for the war of tomorrow.
-The New Mutants became X-Force, in an all-new book for Liefeld's designs. The book was a mess at first- constant new characters debuting in outlandish costumes, no villains ever really gaining traction, but writer Fabian Nicieza tried to keep a handle on things. Cable's backstory would be revealed, bit-by-bit- he was a cyborg from the future, arrived in our past due to the "new High Lord", Sam Guthrie, awakening, and Cable wanted this seemingly-important person on his side. He entered Earth's timeline over a decade in the past, making him part of the Six Pack team with Garrison Kane, Domino, Grizzly, Hammer & G.W. Bridge (which made him MORE enemies, when he left most of his team for dead after a mission went south).
Cable Joins the Summers Family Tree:
-Rob Liefeld would leave Marvel soon after X-Force debuted, leaving Cable entirely in the hands of Nicieza. And so the man was humanized a bit- he would grow a father-son bond with Cannonball, growing attached when he didn't want to. He was also the central character of The X-Cutioner's Song, along with his villainous counterpart, Stryfe. The cross-over would pretty clearly reveal what would later be known for certain- that this sorta-telekinetic guy named "Nathan" was in fact NATHAN CHRISTOPHER SUMMERS, the natural-born son of Cyclops & Madelyne Pryor, who'd been sent into the future for his own good years before! Cable was thought-dead at the end of the story, but would return in less than a year, with a brand-new solo book and a relationship with his surviving parent (Cyke). And this was back when the Summers Family Tree was relatively simple: Mutant brothers Scott & Alex, Space Pirate father Corsair, Life Partner of Scott's Jean Grey, Jean's clone/demon sorceress Madelyne, Jean & Scott's daughter from a no-longer-existing future Rachel... and then Scott & Madelyne's son Nathan, returned from the future as a bad-ass with military experience. And eventually, it would get REALLY convoluted!
-Cable returned to X-Force a changed man, allowing himself to appear less dispassionate and militaristic, despite his hardware. Oh, and his "Cybernetics"? Actually the effects of the Techno-Organic Virus afflicted upon Baby Nathan by Apocalypse. Oh, and Cable's future was ruled by Apoc; Cable was the rebellion's leader, while his arch-nemesis was Stryfe- a clone of himself with full Telekinetic & Telepathic might (since Cable's was in remission thanks to the effort keeping his T-O Virus at bay). Oh, and the woman who sent him to the future (Askan'i) was actually the adult version of his half-sister Rachel, who then died.
Post-'90s Bust:
-Cable's book was popular enough to last 107 issues, going through the entire Comic Book Crash, despite being emblematic of that era's heroes (so emblematic that the character Magog, intentionally designed to represent "everything we hated about 1990s superhero design" according to Mark Waid & Alex Ross and a definitive "Kill All Your Enemies" kind of guy, is essentially just Cable in different armor). That said, his popularity had definitely waned- X-Force eventually had to go on without him, and became a low-selling book under Siryn, Moonstar & Domino, before eventually being cancelled. Cable himself joined one X-Men team, acting as a more mature "Psionic Warrior" with an energy weapon, but it went nowhere and wasn't popular- he would quickly drop that look entirely.
-Cable would vanish for a number of years, but would get the occasional Limited Series or something, like when Liefeld would be allowed back for a short while. Eventually, however, he would come roaring back- less fanfare than in his debut years, but he was still very present- he got a silly book with Deadpool, and appeared frequently when Hope Summers was born- he took the young girl into the future, adopted her and gave her a last name, and trained her into what she later became. "Cable the Father Figure" once more. However, Hope was kind of a bust as a character, and Cable would instead kind of just jump around different X-books, like the new "Black Ops" era of X-Force, or even on the Uncanny Avengers.
-As a whole, Cable is still seen as an icon of his era, and isn't anywhere near as "legit" as he used to be as a major star. But... I don't mind him that much. I'm no giant FAN, and he's certainly not enough to get me to read a book, but I kind of like the "old soldier" act, and he's not insufferable or a jerk like he used to be. He also doesn't win an excessive amount of the time.
Cable's Stats:
-Cable's an expensive guy, mainly thanks to all his stupid equipment. Giant flying Satellites, a massive arsenal of guns (some doing +10 damage!), tons of Skills, etc., add up to a really versatile Blaster who's pretty tough as well. He's PL 11 at Range, but not on Defense, as he's never really been a "Dodge"-happy kind of guy, relying on his pretty-high but not overly-strong Toughness. It's enough to about tie with Wolverine until the latter's Healing Factor kicks in and Cable starts feeling damage. Still, +11 Will and Last Stand make for a really hard guy to bring down and keep there with any type of attack. His actual Mutant Powers are at a REALLY low level, as it would take him years to become a "Psi-Mitar"-using guy. Later incarnations are so all over the place I couldn't possibly hope to stat them without actually having read those books (which I haven't)- you just kinda have to stick a random assortment to Telekinesis onto him sometimes.