Cable to End in June

[Uncanny Mutie]

Surprised it lasted 12 issues. The book really had no purpose or true reason to exist, and didn't really add much on the whole to the rest of the Dawn of X book. It was just an excuse to see if "young" Cable---who NOBODY asked for---would catch on. Please bring the REAL Cable back now, thanks...

[Havok83]

Surprised it lasted 12 issues. The book really had no purpose or true reason to exist, and didn't really add much on the whole to the rest of the Dawn of X book. It was just an excuse to see if "young" Cable---who NOBODY asked for---would catch on. Please bring the REAL Cable back now, thanks...

That last part is the purpose of it

[Uncanny Mutie]

I know people want Excalibur to end because of Tini y'all realize she still got X-Corp right?

At least X-Corp is just a 6 issue mini, though.

[Uncanny Mutie]

That last part is the purpose of it

In the long run, that makes sense. But what I meant was UNTIL they got to the point of brining the real Cable back, the Kid Cable book just felt totally disconnected from the rest of the X-Books and featured stories that just did not feel relevant or neccesary. I actually liked the book though, because it was a good light, fun, action packed read. It's just that if I'm being honest, it just didn't feel important enough or relevant enough to stick around for TOO long; it didn't offer anything different, unique, or special to the Dawn of X line.

[Frobisher]

Lmao I’ve noticed people calmly drop that book without demanding for it’s cancellation like others.

There does seem to be a lot of people wishing doom upon the books they don't personally enjoy. Have they started putting rage hormones in the water supply or something?

[Uncanny Mutie]

dont be suprised to see a few more ending coming soon, and already hearing numbers are on the low end for both way of x and x -corp , our store is not even ordering 50 percent of x-men numbers for both books and other retailers ive talked too the same

The reason I came to the X-boards today is because I noticed there are no March solicits for Excalibur or X-Force, and I wanted to check to see if they are being canceled (Anyone know the status on those?). Instead, I found out that Cable is being canceled. So yeah, I definitely believe more X-Books will be canceled soon.

Also, they are starting to flood the X-Line with WAY too many books, which is watering down the line as a whole IMO. It's getting worse than the mid/late 90s when every mutant under the sun was being given a monthly title...

[Havok83]

In the long run, that makes sense. But what I meant was UNTIL they got to the point of brining the real Cable back, the Kid Cable book just felt totally disconnected from the rest of the X-Books and featured stories that just did not feel relevant or neccesary. I actually liked the book though, because it was a good light, fun, action packed read. It's just that if I'm being honest, it just didn't feel important enough or relevant enough to stick around for TOO long; it didn't offer anything different, unique, or special to the Dawn of X line.

The very first arc was about the X-cult which was introduced in Maruarders (and I think was used in X-Force too)

This book expanded on the Summer family motifs that Hickman is playing with in his book

The Cuckoos game which has been featured in X-Force and Wolverine was the backdrop of many of the issues

A third of this series was setup up for and involved in XoS.

The final stretch seems to be about getting old Cable back, which will likely have larger implications bc if he does come back, he isnt likely to sit off in limbo

I kinda disagree that its felt disconnected from the rest of the X-books. Its very much been connected to them in some fashion

[salarta]

Just to point out existing alternatives and examples, Riot Games made a comic for one of their properties (KDA) and it was entirely thought around digital market and mobile consumption. Stories like this could be made about Krakoa, and taking into account the unique visual aesthetics, it'd look great in this kind of media. Price-wise, it should be cheaper than comics if it's this long.

But I think Marvel should view comics a little bit more as an exploratory grounds for future stories for their movies/TAS, instead of a market that should viable for itself. Anyway, just a morning thought.

I think there are some pros and cons to the Riot Games example compared to current approach. It's definitely laid out better for scrolling and navigating with mobile devices, but it seems to me there's a lot of "empty space." Or maybe that only seems to be the case on PC, which is what I was using to look at the page. But that may be more of a creative choice issue rather than an actual design issue. It's definitely a step in the right direction but I think it needs some work, at least for PC reading. It also leads me to think digital comics would probably work best being designed to differ based on device, in the same way sites these days have different layouts depending on the device. Which presents its own challenge not to make the experience on one device fundamentally different from experience on another device.

Also, of what I've seen, I feel like a big part of the problem is no real collaboration effort between the big publishers and digital comics tech makers to optimize for digital. On the publisher side, I wonder if a lot of this may be down to caring a great deal more about the physical and not wanting to "draw people away" from it, or thinking they have to make a choice between prioritizing physical or digital design-wise and picking physical. Kinda goes hand-in-hand with comics companies sticking to selling primarily through comic book shops.

[Uncanny Mutie]

X-force is a lot better than Marauders

Maruraders and X-Force were EASILY the two best Dawn of X books to me in the beginning. But sadly, Mauraders has gone down quite a bit lately, and seems to be struggling with finding a new niche in the line. i would say it's average, at this point.

X-Force has been consistently great this whole time, though. It's definitely my favorite in the line right now. Especially since FORGE is getting some spotlight and is not just background wallpaper "fix-it guy" like he normally tends to be depicted.

[Uncanny Mutie]

The very first arc was about the X-cult which was introduced in Maruarders (and I think was used in X-Force too)

This book expanded on the Summer family motifs that Hickman is playing with in his book

The Cuckoos game which has been featured in X-Force and Wolverine was the backdrop of many of the issues

A third of this series was setup up for and involved in XoS.

The final stretch seems to be about getting old Cable back, which will likely have larger implications bc if he does come back, he isnt likely to sit off in limbo

I kinda disagree that its felt disconnected from the rest of the X-books. Its very much been connected to them in some fashion

Pretty much all the stuff you mentioned was VERY LOSELY depicted and VERY QUICKLY touched upon in the book, though. It mostly just felt like teen Cable hanging out with the Cuckoos, engaging in quick generic action scenes, and chatting with mom and dad here and there. Trust me, I get what Duggan was going for (or was TOLD to go for), but there was just not enough content in the book to make it feel super connected and super tied in with the rest of the books; each issue was so light on dialogue and so heavy on action that they literally took me like 2 minutes to read. I mean, they were fun issues, don't get me wrong, but you can't do much connecting to the rest of the line or add much depth to the franchise with stories THAT light and brief. The only issue that DID feel extremely connected and relevant to the rest of the books was the X of Swords chapter where they featured HIS sword fight, and with it being a chapter in a larger 22 Part story, that kind of goes without saying.

[Uncanny Mutie]

This pretty much. Duggan wasn't necessarily lying about the book ending because his story concluded, these days Marvel greenlights "ongoing" books 6-12 issues at a time so writers actually do write their stories with a specific conclusion in mind. Obviously if the book ends up being a smash-hit they will quickly find new material to write about, but that's rarely the case these days.

Yep. This is pretty much how it works these days. Gives them a built in excuse/out if the first 12 issues fail to catch on and sell poorly. Also, gives them just enough material to get 2 or 3 tight TPBs out of to squeeze more future sales out of.

[Vishop]

Somebody better tell Chris Hemsworth, Dwayne Johnson, and even Josh Brolin that muscles are no longer in style and basically you need to be skinny and about 17 to be an action star today. Sorry. I just don’t buy that. I personally wouldn’t enjoy the next John Wick movie as much if for some reason they digitally de-aged Keanu Reeves and decided he was going to be rebooted as a teenager who doesn’t yet have his skills. It would be pretty stupid honestly. Because that ain’t John Wick. It’s a fundamentally different character. And I can show you bad 90s art of Batman or Captain America too. And yet I don’t see people saying they need to be de-aged into some hapless kid to be successful.

Just like... well, every character ever, Cable evolved beyond his early Liefeld-ian appearances. Remember when Wolverine was originally a teenager and a mutated wolverine? Good thing Claremont came along and fleshed him out some. The same has happened with Cable under countless writers who made him more than just “gritted teeth, guns and pouches.”

I will say that I don’t disagree that his look could use some modernizing. I dig Kid Cable’s costume too. It’s rad. Put it on an adult Cable who’s more bulked up and I’m totally in for that. I’m all for someone streamlining Cable’s look, his purpose, etc., and doing new things with the character. Just don’t make him a totally different character. That’s all I’m asking. I felt the same about the Teen O5 when they were around. Fun concept... for about a story arc. They stayed way too long though. So has Kid Cable. Glad to see him going away so the grown up version... or a grown up version... can return.

Cable is a alpha male character whose preliminary designs are what we see today as in 21st Century. He is the cyberpunk OG that isn't suppose to be filled by some punk kid of 16 or 17. There are modern games like 2077 who were inspired by this take. Although I think he should have a new look like all other x-characters.

[Jackraow21]

No issues with modernizing/streamlining his look. I rather like Kid Cable’s costume, and honestly don’t think the adult version would look bad in it. Furthermore, I like the sword too and kind of hope the OG version gets to keep it when he returns.

Also, and I shared this in the Cable fans thread, but I wouldn’t mind if they brought back the “synth skin” feature that Cable used to have back in the day which allowed him to convert his T-O arm to looking like flesh and blood organic tissue. With his advanced technology and mastery of telekinesis, it seems like it would be easy for Nathan to do, altering the topical layer of T-O cells to appear as flesh and blood. And it would further streamline his look. The current version wears a long sleeved shirt, so you don’t see the T-O arm anyway. This way you’d only see his techno organics in the event of battle damage, which could be cool IMO. Just a thought.

[Askani's Flame]

The reason I came to the X-boards today is because I noticed there are no March solicits for Excalibur or X-Force, and I wanted to check to see if they are being canceled (Anyone know the status on those?). Instead, I found out that Cable is being canceled. So yeah, I definitely believe more X-Books will be canceled soon.

Also, they are starting to flood the X-Line with WAY too many books, which is watering down the line as a whole IMO. It's getting worse than the mid/late 90s when every mutant under the sun was being given a monthly title...

Both are still currently not cancelled. A bunch of books across Marvel are skipping months due to issues around COVID. So if a book doesn't appear one month that's because. Excalibur is just bringing back Betsy and still is intertwined with some of the other books so I think it's going to stay for awhile, even if the overall story of the series is floundering. I think X-Force is just ...fine...so it should likely stay.

[Rang10]

Yep. This is pretty much how it works these days. Gives them a built in excuse/out if the first 12 issues fail to catch on and sell poorly. Also, gives them just enough material to get 2 or 3 tight TPBs out of to squeeze more future sales out of.

You know sales are awful, but a 12 issue gives a better excuse for "the story I wanted to tell just ended" than just a 6 issues. Trade sales can help recover some of the costs

Pretty much all the stuff you mentioned was VERY LOSELY depicted and VERY QUICKLY touched upon in the book, though. It mostly just felt like teen Cable hanging out with the Cuckoos, engaging in quick generic action scenes, and chatting with mom and dad here and there. Trust me, I get what Duggan was going for (or was TOLD to go for), but there was just not enough content in the book to make it feel super connected and super tied in with the rest of the books; each issue was so light on dialogue and so heavy on action that they literally took me like 2 minutes to read. I mean, they were fun issues, don't get me wrong, but you can't do much connecting to the rest of the line or add much depth to the franchise with stories THAT light and brief. The only issue that DID feel extremely connected and relevant to the rest of the books was the X of Swords chapter where they featured HIS sword fight, and with it being a chapter in a larger 22 Part story, that kind of goes without saying.

I think the book felt connected, but never did something really important or interesting. Even the return of the old cable is given in very small drops teasers.