Cable / Nathan Summers / The Askani’son Appreciation 2024

[K7P5V]

- The Casey/Ladronn run is great.

- I also liked the Tischman/Kordey and Macan/Kordey Cable and Soldier X runs myself. Interesting stuff.

- The Cable/Deadpool series is great, then the Mike Carey X-men run where Cable was a member of Rogue’s team was also really good.

- Followed by Messiah Complex and the Duane Swiercynski Cable series.

After that, though? Trying to remember if there’s anything memorable.

- Personally I enjoyed Spurrier’s X-Force run, where Cable did the mutant CIA concept waaay better than Logan and Beast did in Percy’s X-Force run during the Krakoan era.

- Oh, and Avengers: X-Sanction is a fun lead-in to Avengers vs. X-men. It’s basically Cable taking on the Avengers and kicking their asses, illustrated by Ed McGuinness who draws a spectacular Nathan Summers IMO.

For what it's worth, I still believe Larry Hama coulda been a contender had he been given more than one issue...

[Veni]

[Jackraow21]

Wow. That's pretty dope. Looks kind of Disney-fied.

[Havok83]

[whitecrown]

Has there ever been an explanation as to why Scott, Jean, and the rest of X-Factor went from calling him Chris to Nathan? I know Claremont preferred Nathan and used that but it always bugged me that he was always baby Christopher in Simonson's run but that name never gets referenced after that. Scott and Jean start to only refer to him as Nathan as well in the 90s. Did they forgot all those years they called him Chris?

[Havok83]

Has there ever been an explanation as to why Scott, Jean, and the rest of X-Factor went from calling him Chris to Nathan? I know Claremont preferred Nathan and used that but it always bugged me that he was always baby Christopher in Simonson's run but that name never gets referenced after that. Scott and Jean start to only refer to him as Nathan as well in the 90s. Did they forgot all those years they called him Chris?

You answered it. Claremont took over as writer towards the end of that run and leaned into referring to him as Nathan Christopher



By the time Cable was retconned as that kid, it was shortened to just Nathan.

[berserkerclaw]

Story wise they called him Nathan cause Sinister wanted it and left a hypnotic suggestion since his real name is Nathaniel Essex. And because his full name was Nathan Christopher Summers

[whitecrown]

You answered it. Claremont took over as writer towards the end of that run and leaned into referring to him as Nathan Christopher

By the time Cable was retconned as that kid, it was shortened to just Nathan.

Story-wise, there was little reason to meddle with the name change. Especially since Claremont was the one who had Scott reveal he disliked the name from the beginning.

Story wise they called him Nathan cause Sinister wanted it and left a hypnotic suggestion since his real name is Nathaniel Essex. And because his full name was Nathan Christopher Summers

And that was a Claremont reveal rather than a Simonson one to go with his backstory for Sinister that he was really the little boy Nathan who was Scott's only friend at the orphanage. Scott even says in Inferno that he didn't like the name because it was the name of his "bully," which makes it even more odd how he reverts to using the name Nathan again by the end of X-Factor.

[Thievery]

So, what's the verdict on the latest Cable miniseries. I found it to rotate between average and below average. I actually had to reread the previous issue every time I read the new one because I had forgotten so much of the previous story. It got that boring at times. There are still chunks that I don't entirely remember. It was nice to see Courier, I guess, but that shouldn't be the highlight of a Cable mini. I think that separating it from the main FoX as much as it did story hurt the comic. I get that the idea was to provide readers who didn't like FoX something different, but it kind of backfired a bit.

It's to bad that this comic wasn't as good as Children of the Vault. And I still wish that that comic had been called Cable and Bishop instead. We would likely have gotten a better sense of how well a well written series involving Cable and Bishop as leads could sell comics in todays market. Not that it matters, I guess, seeing as both Cable and Bishop will be sidelined at the start of From the Ashes for arbitrary reasons.