A starring role in the upcoming Deadpool 2 will be boosting the reputation of Cable to new levels, but Marvel Comics is making sure fans can fall in love with the mutant long before that. Launching in April, the new Cable series will be putting the massive, metal armed, gun-toting mutant from the future into the spotlight as he takes on a mission so clearly intended to be a crowdpleasing romp, through so fantastic a variety of settings, it's guaranteed to be the perfect appetizer to his big screen film career. Especially with the writer pitching it as "a Cable movie" in comic form.
Those who know Cable at all know he's Marvel's resident time traveling enforcer/bodyguard, but the solo series coming from James Robinson and Carlos Pacheco is looking to strip Cable away from the paradox-filled mythology established around him. In Marvel's new Cable, he's as tough as ever... but now he's protecting the timestream itself. Protecting it from a new adversary that will send him in pursuit everywhere-- everywhen from feudal Japan to the Old American West and places well beyond.
The details come straight from Robinson himself, explaining to CBR that Cable's new mission begins when a new villain called 'Conquest' arrives from the future in pursuit of more power. He hails from a different future than Cable's making them something of a suited pair. Until Conquest runs face first into Cable, and establishes that he's every bit the villain that our techno-organic virus-infected friend is the hero. So when Conquest keeps on leaping through time, Cable has no choice but to follow... since that's kind of his thing:
Time travel has always been a part of his makeup. He comes and goes, from the present to the future and back again. Admittedly, sometimes he has more control over that then others. In this series, we’ve decided to make him become sort of Marvel’s mutant time cop. He’s traveling time and fixing problems in the past, and one of such problem comprises the first arc of the series... 'Doctor Who' meets 'Time Cop.' That’s very much what we’re doing. Imagine a Cable movie where you don’t need to know very much about the character in order to enjoy the story. That’s the approach we’re taking.
I want to help define Cable’s role in the Marvel Universe. So to make him this sort of time cop that has to fix these things is a nice, organic role for him that makes sense when you look at his history.
The first thing Cable will need to be policing is Conquest's mission to assemble an ancient weapon known as the Time Sword. As much as it may sound like a video game quest item, its powers are even more incredible: if Conquest can assemble it from its remaining shards, he'll be able to wield time and reality with godlike efficiency. The good news is that the sword has been broken and scattered through a few different time periods.
The bad news? Conquest has a head start.
The story will be taking Cable from the Old West to feudal Japan, battling wandering samurai who have been handed technology of the future from Conquest himself. Cable isn't outmatched by any means, but it poses a truly strange challenge. And that "strange" word seems an operative one by Robinson's comments, with he and Pacheco aware of, and eager to take advantage of Cable's anachronistic presence in the past for maximum enjoyment. Not to mention the promise of cliffhanger trips through time compared to "shows like 'Time Tunnel' and 'Quantum Leap'. That's part of the fun of the series."
A writer comparing this streamlined version of Cable as akin to a film following the hero for new audiences is wise, since anyone eager to familiarize themselves with the essential Cable facts ahead of Deadpool 2 is headed from some trouble. It's hard to look back through Cable's introduction and famous stories without diving into some of the weirder X-Men lore - making this new series one to look out for.
The idea of a Cable movie will be easier to picture once an actor is found, but before Deadpool 2, and before even an X-Force team-up film comes the comic books (as is always the case). Will you be reading it?
NEXT: Michael Shannon is Frontrunner For Cable
Cable #1 releases in April.
Source: CBR