Cable, Vol. 1: Messiah War

Cable (2008)

by Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Ariel Olivetti (Illustrator)

Spinning out of the decade's biggest X-Men event! The future of mutantkind starts here! Messiah CompleX changed the X-Men forever. But no one's world has been rocked as hard as Cable, the time-traveling mutant from the future. He's been charged with the one mission that could save all of mutantkind - or, if he fails, damn it to extinction. And hot on his trail is a relentless enemy who won't stop until blood is spilled. No matter where... or when... Cable runs.

Collecting: Cable 1-5

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, X Men, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

120 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2008

About the author

Duane Swierczynski is an American crime writer who has written a number of non-fiction books, novels and also writes for comic books.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Minimalist text and art, and so far it really works for the chase across time between Cable, with the mutant Messiah baby, and the now one-armed Bishop who needs to kill the baby to avert the mutant genocide he grew up in. The huge downside is Marvels move to allow the hands-down best black male mutant character to essentially become a villain :( Firm 8 out of 12, Four Star read nonetheless.

2018 read

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars for the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey story, 4 stars for the lovely, painted artwork, averaging out to a 3.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty fun little chase comic.

Cable jumps to a time period he finds somewhat safe and decides to get some food. Little hope attached to his chest they are trying to survive. Bishop, that crazy fucker, comes straight for the child trying to kill her. Cable is on the run throughout this whole volume, trying to get away from the crazy Bishop. However, at the end, he decides to not run anymore. This becomes a showdown!

Good: The actual internal thoughts of Bishop and Cable is pretty great. It's kind of like seeing the same story in two very different viewpoints, yet it somehow works. Cable is a fun dad-like character and he works well with hope being the baby. Bishop is also a entertaining villain.

Bad: The art is really odd at times. Sometimes looking great, sometimes the fights look terrible. I also think some of bishop dialog is awful.

Overall this is a fun little series. I wanted to read this series after Messiah Complex and I'm not too dissapointed. A fun little action romp. A 3 out of 5.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
Fun story about two men shooting the crap out of each other over a baby.

[Travis Duke · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) its no secret, Cable is one of my favorite heroes. So this book was cool for me. First off the art is incredible, its has a painterly style that is really really good. The story is pretty good as well, it focuses on Cable taking care of the young mutant that is later known as Hope summers (the last mutant). Some really cool action between Cable and Bishop. Check the book out at least for the art.

[Roman Colombo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when it first came out, but definitely didn't appreciate Ariel Olivetti's art as much as I should have. While Swierczynski crafts a good opening story for Cable and Hope, Olivetti makes it just brutal enough so that strangely tender moments are just that.

Also, they should have just titled the volume "War Baby," as the arc is called that anyway.

[Valentin Derevlean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cred că unele dintre primele momente în care m-am întâlnit cu Cable a fost o revistă din run-ul ăsta al lui Swierczynski cu arta lui Olivetti. Povestea distopică cu bătrânul care colindă prin pustietățile viitorului pentru a o salva pe micuța Hope. A fost, cum se spune, dragoste la prima vedere.

Așa că acum că am pus mâna pe toate numerele (cred) din această serie, mi-am făcut pofta și m-am pus pe recitit. Și nu regret deloc. Povestea de aici vine după House of M și împuținarea numărului de mutanți, de fapt nimicirea lor. Au mai rămas puțini mutanți în lume și după o bună bucată de timp doar un singur mutant s-a născut pe Pământ, o fetiță care a declanșat un întreg război între cei care și-ar dori să pună mâna pe ea pentru a o ucide (vezi Messia Complex) și cei care o vor salvată. Cable reușește să o salveze și cu ajutorul unei tehnologii obținute de la Forge se strecoară în fluxul temporal pentru a se ascunde. Pe urmele lor se află Bishop, un alt mutant cu puteri de cyborg, care e convins că dacă o ucide pe Hope, va schimba viitorul din care vine el și în care Hope se pare că se află la originea unui genocid ce a dus printre altele la enclavizarea ultimilor mutanți în tabare de concentrare. Urmează un joc de-a șoarecele și pisica prin diverse variante de viitor, care mai de care mai post-apocaliptic posibil.

Stilul de scriere al lui Swierczynski e destul de minimalist. Replici atât cât trebuie, cât mai puține. Context, la fel. Arta lui Olivetti, stilul său de a picta cadrele, duce povestea la un nivel și mai bun. Sunt aici în revistele astea câteva imagini grozave, poate unele dintre cele mai bune portrete ale lui Cable din istoria personală a personajului.

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, from a series I never expected to enjoy.

I went into this book with very low (even a bit negative) expectations. X-Men: Messiah CompleX wasn't my favourite event, and Cable was one of the least interesting elements from that story. So you can imagine my trepidation coming into a series that only has him and the baby Hope.

Thankfully, this was a wonderful volume. Following Cable as he attempts to juggle taking care of Hope in the dystopian future while being chased by a homicidal Bishop.

Perhaps what made this book such a smooth ride was the lack of unnecessary dialogue. Pages were filled with a few lines of text at most, letting the beautiful art tell the story. That doesn't always work, but it did here, making the book a breeze to get through.

Highly recommended if you are interested in following the events after Messiah CompleX. If not you can probably miss it.

[salomé · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suite directe au complexe du messie, perso j’adore ce récit donc ça me convient
L’art style est très épuré, j’aime le fait qu’on ait les pensées de nathan directement
C’est une bonne lecture

Maintenant je comprends rien à l’ordre de lecture de la saga du messie, je sais pas ce que je suis sensée lire après ça et ça commence a vraiment me saouler, your girl needs help

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following Cable out of the events of Messiah Complex, Messiah War is definitely a step down in scale, pacing, and character count, but that's mostly a good thing. Basically, Cable jumped to the future with Bishop hot on his heels. Expectedly, most of the volume is a drawn-out battle between the two.

The storytelling is gritty, which sometimes doesn't match up with the photorealistic/painted artwork. The author has captured grumpy Old Man Cable pretty well, though. Hopefully somewhere in this series we get a definitive answer for why Bishop is so dead set on killing this baby.

[guanaeps · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ariel Olivetti's art is insane, but somethings not really working in this book...it keeps "missing". The pacing feels somewhat jagged, like panels or pieces are missing.

As the two stars suggests, its all-around just ok.

[Odo · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10

[Adam Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly fine beginning to a time travel/chase comic. We see that every major character believes they're doing things for noble reasons, thus ensuring a long term conflict.

From a plot perspective this comic is straight-forward and could be fun, but there's not much personality to the characters.

I enjoy Olivetti's art for covers, and for limited series with characters I'm unfamiliar with, but both Cable, Bishop, and the other X-Men characters who appears feel static.

If you're super invested in Cable, Hope, Bishop, or just following the events out of Messiah Complex, then you should check this out. Otherwise, it's just an okay outlier title.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read! Transcends stupid black and white (hehe no pun intended.. Bishop vs Cable) good and evil storytelling, as the main characters pitted against each other are each thinking that what they are doing is right and good! Contains a subtle hint about this last mutant baby, since decimation ... very cool! Could Ariel Olivetti's painted art be more perfect? No, no it could not! The art is absolutely amazing! Really truly mind-blowing work!

[Reed · Rating 3 out of 5]

more of a 2.5 stars – i LOVE cable's voice in this, but the art is insufferable

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I become more and more well-read in comics, I'm finding that there are some characters that look cooler than they are fun to read about. I've been wondering if Cable falls into that camp as I've always thought he looks really cool but never found him interesting enough to check out a book he's in. That brought me to this series which I remember being praised when it was coming out and seems to have high reviews here on Goodreads.

The intro certainly got my attention with the cool post-apocalyptic setting and the unique art (more on that in a bit). However, once Bishop shows up (who looks way cooler with dreads and minus the M scar), it becomes less interesting. The plot is kind of thin and not all that interesting. I think a lot of this is because not much really happens over the course of five issues. Sure, there's fighting but very little is revealed about the characters and neither Cable nor Bishop seem especially likable or interesting. There's so little text that it really takes no time to breeze through these five issues too.

Finally, that brings us to the art. The art is odd in that the characters generally look great but the backgrounds have a bad computer generated quality to them. Not all backgrounds are bad but many standout as looking outdated. I don't think this book is aging well but it has an interesting look if nothing else. As you can probably tell, I was not as impressed by this first volume as I hoped to be but I'm willing to give the second volume a shot to see if it gets any better and to figure out if I truly like Cable as a character or not.

[C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing the great x-read of 2017/18...

I am completely uncertain as to how to rate this one.

The good:
-The art is fan-freaking-tastic for the most part. There are some odd panels but most of it is beautiful.
- The basic plot is classic X-Men goodness (though it is basic... More on that in a bit.)
- An old friend makes a particularly cool appearance.

The bad:
- Well, the plot doesn't give you a lot to go on. What's there so far is pretty paper thin.
- Bishop doesn't particularly feel in character (although I was coming around on him by the end).
- There are some odd statements in it... Not sure how to explain them, but there were a few things that left me a little unsettled.
- Almost all of the characters feel particularly one dimensional so far.

It was enough to make me want to read the next volume but I don't think that would have been the case if I weren't already invested in the characters and story leading into this story.

[Mouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty kickass story! I never knew about this book till recently. I figured I'd brush up on some Cable since he was in the Deadpool 2 movie. I always thought Cable was kind of cool but never really used that well in the comics. Not to mention all the future storylines and such that made it hard to keep up with him.
This book is pretty simple and straightforward with the exception of the beginning where it feels like something is missing and it's sort of a jumble of confusion. Once that's all done it's a fun read especially when the story narrative changes from Cable to Bishop.
This story really makes you feel conflicted as to who is right and who is wrong.
The whole thing has a very Terminator dystopian vibe going on that's a bit bleak, yet interesting.

[jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following right after Messiah CompleX, Cable journeys to the future to safeguard the mutant baby and by extension, the future of mutantdom. They arrive in a post-apocalyptic future ruled over by bandits and rich people. Upon arriving at the island, trouble ensues as the bandits require payment for using the bridge, even though Cable didn't use it. They later reveal that mutants haven't existed for a long time, which speaks to the gravity of the situation with the mutant baby. They're also soon followed by a rage-filled Bishop who believes that to save mutant-kind, he must kill the baby to avert disaster. What follows is a wild goose chase through time as Cable continuously flees forward in time with Bishop hot on his tail.
The art is really nice and there is minimal text which is a welcome change from other X-Men comics!

[Matthew Meade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decently fun Terminator-type beefy-cyborgs-chase-each-other-through-time-while-one-protects-a-child type of story. Cable and Bishop are cool characters and putting them against one another has potential for interesting stories. Unfortunately, none of the ideas are explored in any meaningful or interesting way and most of the plot points are lazily trotted out one after the next in a rush to get to the end. Cable being really big and the baby being small is leaned on too heavily, and Bishop’s potentially interesting motivation is ignored. Ultimately a disappointment, especially considering this is a continuation of the very well done Messiah Complex storyline.

[vk chompooming · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid story about the 1st mutant baby named Hope, born after the events of M-Day. The entire series is about the early life of Hope as she is raised by her adopted father Nathan Summers, Cable. They r escaping along the timestream from the 2nd worst mutant Judas since Mystique, Bishop! The art of Ariel Olivetti is decent yet original. The story by Swierczenski is good and action packed if a little derivative of every sci-fi trope. If u love Cable, Hope, or Bishop give this series a try.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't believe that this can happen very often, but the art in this book is its true claim. While the story isn't dull by any measure, Olivetti's pencils are incredible, and gis panrls are clean and tell a story even without the words. I'll keep reading, and see if future issues, possibly with a different artist, are as phenomenal as this collection was.

[Michael T. Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not sure it needs to be 5 issues, and some of the art could be more dynamic, but other than that I’ve got no complaints. Turning Bishop and Cable into counterparts basically allows this series to replicate Terminator but with more timeline shenanigans. While this story mostly stays in one setting, it still gets some nice mileage out of the characters, the premise, and the potential.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kinda annoying to be kept in the dark about why Bishop is being crazy, but this story went from okay to damn good because Sam is the fucking best he is at what he does, and what does is very fucking nice.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cable is taking Hope through time, Bishop is in persuit. Simple enough premise, simple execution. There's not a lot of meat on the bone here, nothing special. Art is kinda cool for panted photorealism. Hope theres more depth going forward

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

Art looks good though.

[Marco vitiello · Rating 5 out of 5]

Savoureux


Pas de mots la saga des x men est la meilleure jusque là pour évidemment les vrais marvellophilles ,x men pour mavel,c ce qu' est superman pour dc.

[Trevor Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love me some post-apocalyptic scenery. A man and his baby. ❤️

[Judith Groen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the premise of Cable being stuck in the future with Bishop on his heels. The artwork kinda put off for me though.

[Kamil Zawiślak · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 3,5/5. Solid opening to the Swierczynski short-lived run.