Cable
From Cassius Comics
| Cable | |
| |
| Real Name | Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, alias Nathan Dayspring Askani'Son, Nathan Winters |
| Base | Born in Salem Centerm New York. Based primarily out of Providence and Rumekistan. |
| Stats | 6'8", 350lbs. / Blue eyes, short white hair (originally brown). |
| Affiliations | Member of the "Secret Avengers". Former member of The Wild Pack/The Six Pack (leader), The New Mutants (leader), X-Force (leader), The X-Men and The Underground (leader). One of The Twelve. |
| First Appearance | Uncanny X-Men #201 (as a baby, January 1986), New Mutants #87 (as Cable, March 1990). |
| Created By | Chris Claremont and Louise Simonson (writers) and Rob Liefeld (writer and artist). |
See also Soldier X, The Traveler.
Contents |
Origin
From birth, Nathan was destined to live a life that was far from ordinary. The son of the leader of The X-Men, Scott Cyclops Summers, Nathan's mother was Madeline Pryor, a clone of Scott's then-thought-dead true love Jean Grey (Phoenix). Pryor was in fact created specifically to mate with Summers, as her creator Mister Sinister had tracked both of their bloodlines in an attempt to create a genetically ideal child with which to usurp with hated master Apocalypse. Though Pryor seemed to love her husband, Sinister may have ingrained a degree of hostility towards Scott within her; she named her son Nathan as a subtle dig against Scott, who had previously told her of a bully with the same name that had tormented him as a child.
While Nathan was still an infant, Jean Grey was found by the Avengers, alive in suspended animation; Scott almost immediately left his wife and child to reunite with his true love. Though he soon called Pryor to attempt reconciliation, it was too late; Madeline was attacked by Sinister's Marauders, who badly injured her before kidnapping Nathan. Though Pryor was rescued and hospitalized by the X-Men, her fury at her estranged husband and terror at losing her child pushed her beyond reason. She struck a deal with the demons S'ym and N'astirh for the power to hurt her husband as he had hurt her, and for the means to rescue her son. The two demons triggered Pryor's latent telepathic and telekinetic abilities, perverting her mind and recreating her as The Goblin Queen. S'ym and N'astirh brought Pryor to Sinister, who revealed to her that she was a clone. As the demons planned, this pushed her past the edge of sanity. She used her newfound power to rescue Nathan, but his life no longer mattered to her- rather, she planned to sacrifice the child to open the gates to limbo, the realm of S'ym and N'astirh's brethren. By hiding her Goblin Queen persona, Pryor initially pitted the X-Men against X-Factor, a new team that counted both Scott and Jean amongst their numbers, but her ruse was soon uncovered, and Nathan was rescued. Now suicidal, Pryor merged her mind with Grey's and willed herself to die, hoping to take her hated rival with her. Instead, Grey's indomitable willpower allowed her to cling to life, and she unexpectedly absorbed the memories of both Pryor and of the duplicate of her created by the Phoenix Force.
Jean Grey and Scott Summers rekindled their love, and Grey accepted Nathan as her own child; however, Apocalypse had learned of Sinister's plans to breed a usurper, and he launched a pre-emptive strike, infecting Nathan with a deadly techno-organic virus. X-Factor battled Apocalypse on the moon and fought him off, after which a woman identifying herself as Sister Askani appeared, traveling back from the far future. Explaining that she was Nathan's only hope for survival, Askani convinced Scott and Jean to turn their son over to her as she returned to her own time.
In the future, Nathan was taken in by the Askani themselves, a religious group of anti-Apocalypse rebels led by Mother Askani, who was in fact Rachel Summers, the time-displaced daughter of an alternate world's Scott and Jean. As a first step to protect Nathan, Rachel made a clone of him, in case the virus became terminal. This child was captured by forces of Apocalypse, who would come to raise the child as his heir, Stryfe. Askani soon stabilized the techno-organic virus, then brought the minds of Scott and Jean forward through time, allowing them to inhabit the bodies of a chose two, "Slym" and "Redd". In these forms, they remained in the future to raise Nathan for twelve years, during which time they finally unseated Apocalypse from his position of power, and went on to battle his successors, The New Caananites.
Some time after his parents' return to their own time, Nathan was captured by Apocalypse and left in a jail cell to rot. It was there that Nathan befriended Blaquesmith, a kindly mutant who had helped to found the Askani years before. Blaquesmith and Nathan freed themselves, and Nathan left to join the Askani resistance at the order's last remaining monastery. He found a new enemy almost immediately- Stryfe had now enacted plans to overthrow the New Caananites and install himself as Apocalypse's successor.
Stryfe soon traveled back in time hundreds of years to a time shortly before Nathan's death. Still ignorant of Stryfe's true identity, Nathan followed, hoping to stop Stryfe and disable Apocalypse's rise to power at the same time. Nathan chose to keep his real name a secret, calling himself Cable, a name that would stick with him for decades to come. Commuting between the centuries with the ship Graymalkin, Nathan formed a mercenary group initially called the Wild Pack (quickly renamed The Six pack, after Cable learnt that there already was a Wild Pack operated by Silver Sable. The Six Pack were eventually set up to go against Stryfe himself by the arms dealer Tolliver (secretly Nathan's son Tyler Dayspring, another time traveler who wouldn't be born for almost two decades). Though most of The Six Pack was unwilling to fight Stryfe, especially since they weren't being paid to do so, Cable refused to back down from his old enemy, even after the rest of the team's safety was threatened. When Stryfe teleported away, Cable gave chase, abandoning the team to the villain's self-destructing base of operations; Six Pack member Garrison Kane lost all four of his limbs, Hammer becoming paralyzed from the neck down, and the rest of the group disbanding.
Nathan was now an enemy to nearly anyone, and soon found himself in the crosshairs of both Stryfe's Mutant Liberation Front and the American government's Freedom Force. When The New Mutants came to his aid, Nathan recognized their potential and became the team's leader. Renaming the X-Force, Nathan led the group in a number of strikes against Apocalypse's forces, and in rescuing Six-Pack veteran Domino, who joined the new team and quickly became Nathan's lover.
Not long after, Garrison Kane resurfaced and informed Nathan that he and Stryfe were identical in appearance. As a way of saying thanks, Nathan brought Kan back with him to the future and had him outfitted with new cybernetic limbs. While Cable was away, Stryfe posed as him and attempted to assassinate the X-Men's leader, Professor X. Nathan returned to find most of the world's superhumans crying for his blood, including the X-Men and the new X-Factor. In another battle on the moon, Cable proved his innocence and engaged in a final climactic battle with Stryfe, resulting in a chronal explosion that seemingly killed them both; Nathan survived, and was thrown back to the future, with Stryfe's consciousness trapped in his own mind. He stayed just long enough to destroy a time travel device created by the New Caananites before returning to the twentieth century. Nathan also confirmed that Stryfe was a clone of Nathan himself, not the other way around, as Stryfe had claimed.
Years later, Nathan was captured by Apocalypse, who had determined that he was one of The Twelve, a dozen mutants with specific energies that Apocalypse planned to harness to give himself the powers of a God. Though reality was briefly altered, and Apocalypse escaped physical destruction by merging with Scott Summers, Nathan eventually caught up with his ancient enemy and slew him, using a psychic weapon known as a Psimitar. Nathan spent a time as a member of The X-Men before traveling through time again to rescue Rachel Summers from a divergent timeline. With all loose ends tied up, Nathan sought new direction in his life, returning to his mercenary career under the name Soldier X.
When Domino told Nathan of Neverland, a mutant concentration camp run by Malcolm Colcord's Weapon X Program, he formed a black ops team called The Underground, consisting of himself, Domino, Meltdown, Maverick (Chris Bradley) and the time-displaced Blaquesmith. The Underground quickly captured Weapon X operatives Wildside and Reaper, both former members of the Mutant Liberation Front. Nathan attempted to psychically interrogate him, but his powers malfunctioned, leaving the duo lobotomized. An alternative path soon presented itself when the Underground was approached by a high ranking Weapon X agent named Brent Jackson. Jackson struck offered Nathan all the info he would need to take out Colcord, an offer which was warily accepted.
The Underground made an assault on Colcord's base of operations where they were opposed by Garrison Kane, now more machine than man and having been programmed to serve Weapon X. Nathan quickly dispatched his old teammate, psychically turning off the organics in his brain. Proceeding into the installation, the Underground surprisingly found Colcord unconscious. Reading his mind, Nathan learned of a brutal campaign of murder and violent experimentation of mutants Colcord deemed to be weak, actions which bordered on genocide. Infuriated, Nathan attempted to kill the helpless man, but was stopped by the arrival of Madison Jeffries. Jeffries, who had also been brainwashed by the Weapon X Program, ordered his android "Boxbots" to destroy the instillation; The Underground was rescued by an unlikely ally- Garrison Kane, now clear of mind after his brain automatically rebooted itself. Kane artificially downloaded Jeffries' powers, destroying the Boxbots at the cost of his own life. In the aftermath of the battle, Jackson betrayed the Underground, brainwashing them into forgetting all that they had learned about Weapon X. The Underground was saved by Marrow, who used the team as the basis to reform Gene Nation. Nathan immediately left the group he had founded, and abandoned his Soldier X identity for good, returning to his well known identity as Cable.
Not long afterwards, Nathan achieved his second stage mutation, and his mutant abilities hit their peak potential, giving him almost god-like power. Recognizing that he wouldn't live long with so much energy coursing through him, Nathan vowed to do everything in his power to make the world a better place. His first act was to recreate his destroyed ship Graymalkin, transforming it into a flying city he dubbed Providence. While rebuilding the ship, a freak accident bound Nathan's teleportation system to his one-time enemy and recent ally Deadpool- whenever Cable transported himself, Deadpool was dragged along, and Deadpool could activate the device himself.
Nathan publicly preached moderation and the betterment of humanity, inviting the greatest thinkers of the world to move to Providence. At the same time, Cable intentionally gained the enmity of all the world's governments by threatening to throw all of their stockpiled bombs and missiles into the sun. This led to Nathan being attacked by both the X-Men and Deadpool, who had been hired to take the messianic hero down. After stymieing the attack, Nathan explained to Deadpool and his father that he had wanted to build world unity, even if that was a unity against himself as a common enemy. Meanwhile, the Silver Surfer arrived on Earth, summoned by the Fantastic Four. Disturbed by Nathan's zealous actions, the Surfer attacked him and forcibly ripped away Nathan's techno-organics. Providence immediately began to fall, as it had been supported by Cable's telekinesis. Facing burn out and death, Nathan ordered Deadpool to use their teleporter to lobotomize him, lowering his raging power levels long enough for him to use the last vestiges of his telekinesis to save Providence. Nathan fell into a coma, but in his absence many began to regard him as a savior to humanity. Masses of people flocked to Providence, which had stabilized as an island in the middle of the ocean. Perhaps due to a mixture of guilt and even affection, Deadpool took it upon himself to save Nathan's life by hiring The Fixer to rebuild his missing body parts with benign techno-organics. Nathan recovered, but his powers were at their lowest level in decades.
Following his recuperation, Nathan reformed X-Force to battle an arcane evil known as The Skornn. When Skornn was seemingly destroyed, so was Nathan. At about the same time, Deadpool was brainwashed by Black Box and sent to kill whomever he perceived to be the biggest threat to humanity. Deadpool soon arrived on Providence with the intention to kill Nathan, but his disappearance seemingly broke Black Box's control. Using his teleporter bond and wearing a harness that would allow X-Force members Cannonball and Siryn to follow him, Deadpool jumped from one alternate reality to another trying to find Nathan. The trio eventually landed back in their native reality, only to find it drastically altered by The Scarlet Witch (into what has come to be known as the House of M reality). Nathan was found as an infant in Mister Sinister's care. Though Sinister seemed to be benevolent, he soon showed his true nature by drugging Deadpool and the others and using a sample of Deadpool's artificial healing factor to drastically increase Nathan's natural body growth. This triggered Nathan's mutant powers, and he lashed out uncontrollably. Deadpool snatched him up and attempted to jump to Providence, just as the Scarlet Witch was defeated elsewhere and the House of M came to an end. Since reality was reordered while Deadpool and Nathan were in transit, they emerged unaltered, with Nathan still trapped in the body of an infant.
With Cable's identity confirmed, Black Box's brainwashing triggered again, and Deadpool tried to kill Nathan. During a struggle with Cannonball and Siryn, Deadpool shot himself in the head. Reading Deadpool's mind, Nathan (now an adolescent) dispatched X-Force to deal with Black Box, though they would find a Life Model Decoy in his place. Alone with Deadpool, Nathan used his powers to fix the mercenary's mangled brain, though this act burnt out Nathan's mutant powers permanently. This also halted the accelerated aging process, leaving Nathan roughly the same age as he had been to begin with.
Though his natural powers of telekinesis and telepathy were now gone, Cable soon found ways to duplicate or even improve on them. He developed the power to connect to "the Infonet", a connection of all the digitally recorded information on Earth as well as all information being digitally broadcast anywhere in the world. He also uses an altered prototype forcefield called the Cone of Silence to replicate his telekinesis.
Another after affect of the end of the House of M was the reduction of the mutant population from over a million to a mere 198. To reunite his devastated people, Nathan took an extraordinary measure- he resurrected Apocalypse to serve as a common enemy. It was at this time that Nathan also revealed that while crossing time in his youth (under the name "the Traveler"), he had encountered Apocalypse in his native for of En Sabah Nur, thousands of years in the past. It was then that Nathan exposed Apocalypse to the techno-organic virus for the first time, making Nathan paradoxically responsible for his own infection as a child.
Nathan has recently shown his ambition again by installing himself as the leader of Rumekistan, after manipulating Domino into assassinating the country's previous leader, the villainous Flag-Smasher. Though his plan came together perfectly, Nathan's resolve was uncharacteristically shaken when he realized that his former teammate and lover no longer trusted him.
Following the ratification of The Superhuman Registration Act, Nathan issued an open offer of amnesty for any anti-Registration heroes who sought sanctuary in Providence or Rumekistan. When Captain America and his "Secret Avengers" turned the offer down, Nathan joined them. This put him in direct conflict with Deadpool, who was trying to go legitimate by hunting down fugitive heroes for the American government. When Deadpool attempted a one-man assault on the rebel's base, he was defeated with relative ease, thanks in part to Nathan's intervention. Nathan then joined the group in a mission that ended up being a trap set by Iron Man and his pro-Registration forces; in a disastrous battle, Goliath (Bill Foster) was killed, and "The Secret Avengers" nearly fell apart. In retaliation, Nathan transported himself directly to the Oval Office of the White House, bringing Deadpool with him. Nathan and the President passionately debated their positions on the Registration Act, and Cable let slip that he knew of the new phase of the plan: "the Fifty States Initiative", which would see all superhumans in America forced to serve in military-controlled teams stationed throughout the country. Nathan warned the President that from his time in the past, he knew the idea would devastate the nation, but the President remained resolute, even ordering Deadpool to capture Nathan dead or alive.
Teleporting from Washington to a church in France, Cable fought Deadpool. When Deadpool reverted to his old strategies by taking innocent hostages to force Nathan to surrender, Nathan revealed that he had been broadcasting the fight all across the world, ensuring that Deadpool would lose his government job. Deadpool and Cable parted ways on bad terms, both solidly on opposite sides of what was quickly becoming a superhero civil war.
Powers
A mutant, Nathan Summers possesses the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. Though he had the potential for astronomical power levels for most of his life, Nathan was forced to devote much of his energy to suppressing the techno-organic virus he was infected with as a child. A slip of his concentration once allowed the virus to spread over his face, leaving an X-shaped scar over his right eye.
Nathan's telepathy gave him the power to read and control other people's minds, and to broadcast his thoughts silently and across great distances. He was also able to project powerful blasts of psionic energy that could easily incapacitate untrained minds. Nathan could use his telekinesis to create force fields fine enough to filter impurities from the air. He could also levitate himself, allowing him to fly for short distances. Nathan could also increase his powers drastically by linking with other telekinetics (like Jean Grey), allowing him to do things like rearrange matter at a molecular level. Nathan also possessed the potential for psionic time travel (and ability shared with Rachel Summers), though he was only able to do so once, and with help. At full power, Nathan was able to simultaneously hold an entire city aloft, link all human minds on Earth and battle the Silver Surfer, even shattering the Surfer's supposedly indestructible board into pieces.
Following recent events, Cable's natural mutant powers are now at negligible levels. He has compensated by replacing them through artificial means, using a variable-shaped forcefield to duplicate his telekinesis and replacing his telepathy with artificial cyberpathy. He can connect his mind to "the Infonet", comprised of all the digitally stored information on Earth and all information being digitally broadcast at any given time. Nathan can forcibly link other people to the Infonet, often using this as an offensive tactic, temporarily crashing an opponent's brain by downloading into it the entire contents of the library of congress, of The Backstreet Boys' complete catalogue.
The techno-organic virus infecting Nathan had some benefits; The left side of his torso and left arm were transformed into a metal stronger than steel, increasing his physical strength and durability. Though he could disguise these body parts as flesh, he generally chose not to. In addition, his left eye was taken over and augmented, giving him the power to see further than a normal human could, and boosting his range of vision to include the infrared spectrum. Most if not all of these benefits are duplicate by his new benign robotics.
Nathan's left eye glows with an intermittent white, yellow or blue light. This is apparently unrelated to either his won mutant powers or his techno-organics, and is most likely a vestigial mutation inherited from his father. Bearing this out, the feature of a glowing eye is shared by X-Man and Rachel Summers, both the children of the Scott Summers and Jean Grey of an alternate reality.
Nathan is an expert marksman and hand to hand combatant, trained in the use of numerous weapons. He is especially proficient in wielding a Psimitar, a spear-shaped Askani weapon designed to focus his telepathic and telekinetic powers. He also employs the use of a personal teleporter (which is currently bound to Deadpool's teleporter).
Nathan is unsurpassed in the art of guerrilla warfare. He is a capable leader with palpable charisma, often inspiring near-worship from his followers.
Trivia
- Cable has a degree in Law.
- Cable's original proposed name was "Commander X".
- Cable was a recurring character on the "X-Men" animated series that ran from 1992 to 1997. He was a playable character in the fighting game "Marvel vs. Capcom II". Cable was also a playable character in the PlayStation Portable version of the game "X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse", and an alternate version of him made an appearance in the Game Boy Advance version of the same game.
Affiliations
Nathan Summers is the son of Scott Summers ([{Cyclops]]) and Madeline Pryor, though Jean Grey (Phoenix) is generally considered to be his mother. He is Corsair (Christopher Summers)'s grandson, and the nephew of both Havok (Alex Summers) and Vulcan (Gabriel Summers), and possibly of X-Treme (Adam X). Though he is not technically related to either X-Man (Nate Grey) or Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers), the children of Scott Summers and Jean Grey from other realities, Nathan considers both to be siblings of sorts. Nathan is also Domino's former lover.
