Warning: contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #2!
Being a fan of Marvel Comics can mean waiting a long time to see your favorite character again - especially when you love the X-Men. Whether it's Colossus dying for the good of mutantkind or Nightcrawler shuffling off to Heaven, Marvel has a habit of allowing its second-tier mutants to languish in the grave before their inevitable return, and few fans have had a worse time of things lately than those who love Cable, aka Nathan Summers, the time-traveling mutant badass with a cybernetic arm and a glowing eye.
Killed by his younger self in Marvel's Extermination, the classic '90s character created by Chris Claremont, Louise Simonson, and Rob Liefeld is an icon of what comics used to be; all big guns, pouches, and vast shoulder pads. But with Cable dead and replaced by his younger self (a rare occasion where the X-Men won't bring him back to life,) fans of the original worried they'd never see the character now known as Old Man Cable again. At least, they worried until recent previews of Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti S.W.O.R.D. #2, which depicted a shadowy figure many took as the original Askani'son back in action amidst the ruined New York of King in Black.
It was a theory many Cable fans were truly invested in, especially after Marvel's King In Black #1 seemed to depict Old Man Cable in the thick of the action - a fact which, given Covid's disruption of the comic industry, could have implied the X-Force leader would soon be making a comeback over in the X-Men comics. Sadly for those fans, S.W.O.R.D. #2's final pages seem to put paid to this fan theory, as a character who certainly appears to be Young Cable emerges from a Krakoan gate after an issue which gave no sign at all that Marvel had considered the return of his older self.
It's perhaps unsurprising that Marvel didn't take the opportunity of King in Black to bring back the original Cable, but that doesn't mean things are beyond hope. While the fan theory that Old Man Cable would be resurrected in the next few months is well and truly dead, Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto's Cable series does seem to be setting the scene for the adult Cable's return, albeit over a much longer stretch of time.
Cable #4 confirmed that Cable knew his child self was pursuing him with murder on his mind, revealing that he'd always planned to allow Kid Cable to kill him and take his place; even leaving behind weaponry for his later confrontation with the Galadorian Spaceknights. With foreknowledge and the ability to travel anywhere in time, it's possible that the original Cable planned for his own resurrection, faked his death, or just spent a few decades tooling around time before accepting the bullet.
While the shadowy figure shown in S.W.O.R.D. #2 wasn't the OG Cable, and Marvel are likely to keep him out of the modern-day continuity a while longer so Kid Cable can gather his own fanbase, it is likely that the '90s hero will eventually return to the comics. Sadly, as if invading Earth and taking control of the Avengers wasn't enough, the King in Black did just confirm it won't be happening anywhere near as quickly as many fans hoped.