The Untold Truth Of Cable

Brace yourselves — the Cable guy is coming. 

Deadpool knows him as Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Summers Cable Soldier X, but your general audience member knows this hero as... "who?" Played by Josh Brolin, Cable is making his entrance to the X-Men cinematic universe as part of the series' 11th movie, Deadpool 2 (or whatever they end up calling it). But outside of comic book fandom, not a lot of people know what they're supposed to expect from the character. Maybe you know that Deadpool and Cable had a successful comic book series together where they served as the Marvel's Odd Couple, but that still doesn't mean you know who Cable actually is. Is he a cyborg, like that Cyborg guy? Is he a time traveler?  Hero or villain? What's going on here?

Introduced in the early '90s, Cable doesn't have the lengthy history of many of his fellow mutants, but he makes up for it by having a very involved and very confusing backstory. Just remember one thing: When it comes to Cable, it's all about family. Or, it's mostly about family. His story's also got a lot to do with time travel, clones, "chosen one" stuff, techno-viruses...the mutant villain Apocalypse is involved somehow...but mostly, he's all about family. Now follow along as we dig down deep into the untold truth of Cable.

Every superhero needs a weakness. Cable's peculiar vulnerability is a virus unlike anything you'd ever see in the real world. It's called the techno-organic virus, and Cable was afflicted with it from a very young age. 

Essentially, the virus spreads by turning organic material into techno-organic material, meaning that it would, if left unchecked, turn a normal human being into a tin man. This could be a good or bad thing, depending on who's writing the story. Unsurprisingly, Marvel's techno-organic virus has many different strains, purposes, and uses, generally serving as a piece of plot magic that can do just about anything.

Cable's specific situation with the virus defines his early story arc. As an infant, he was infected with it by the mutant Apocalypse, and had to devote most of his energies toward battling back its effects and maintaining his humanity, which consistently kept him from operating at full strength. Imagine if your heartbeat and your breath required your constant attention to work properly, and you'll get the idea.

Eventually, Cable managed to get the virus cured, unlocking his full potential as a mutant of truly immense power. But what are those powers specifically? Read on for the rundown.

The first iteration of the New Mutants aren't what you'd call an all-star team. Ten issues after Cable's first appearance, the slightly subpar squad was in tatters. "The only way to make this work is to build it up from the ground up," he said, in one of the final issues of New Mutants' original run. "The right way. My way." 

So Cable set to work with the remaining members on starting a new team, X-Force, to continue the battle against Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front. 

The series became immensely popular. The initial team was almost a New Mutants rebrand, and the lineup soon included the propulsive Cannonball, the solar-energy manipulating Sunspot, the illusion-weaving Danielle Moonstar, and the luck-manipulating Domino. 

Compared to the relatively pacifist X-Men, X-Force's distinguishing characteristic was its take-no-prisoners style. If they weren't quite brutal, they were brutally effective. Cable laid out his philosophy for the force in one of the final issues of New Mutants. "There are five kinds of mutants," he said. "The mollifiers. The abusers. The used. The hunted. The hidden. I am trying to create a sixth kind. The survivors. I am trying to prepare you all for a very bleak future." 

It's a future — and for Cable, a past — that readers would soon be introduced to. They would also soon discover that Cable, mysterious as he seems, is no stranger to the world of the X-Men. As a matter of fact, he's family.

Cable's first nemesis, Stryfe, was introduced in New Mutants shortly after Cable arrived, and they continued fighting in the pages of X-Force and beyond. His past was initially just as murky as Cable's, but it turns out they have quite a bit in common.

On Earth-4935, the Clan Askani — which means "Family of Outsiders" — made a clone of the young Nathan, under the leadership of the mysterious Mother Askani. The clone was meant to be an insurance policy, in case the techno-virus ravaging Nathan couldn't actually be cured. 

The Askani needed Nathan's immense powers to defeat Apocalypse, who had taken control of this far-future world, once and for all — and Apocalypse needed Nathan, too. The seemingly immortal mutant stayed alive indefinitely by passing his essence into new host bodies, and he'd infected Nathan with the techno-organic virus to see if the boy would survive. When he did, Apocalypse knew he'd found his most powerful host yet — if he could catch him, that is.

The clone did keep Nathan safe, in the sense that Apocalypse ended up kidnapping the clone instead of Nathan. Taking the boy under his tutelage, Apocalypse named the child...Stryfe.

With Apocalypse as his parent, Stryfe became evil, murderous, feckless, and vain. He also ended up being useless to Apocalypse; when the immortal mutant finally went to transfer his essence into Stryfe's body, the genetic decoy couldn't accept him. Only the real Nathan could.

After the defeat of Apocalypse, a young Nathan Dayspring finally learned the truth of his destiny — and the identity of the Mother Askani. The immensely powerful telepath revealed herself to be Rachel Summers, the time-displaced, biological daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey — in other words, Nathan's half-sister.  It turns out that these 12 years on Earth-4935 were the universe's most complicated family reunion ever.

With Apocalypse destroyed, Nathan begged his parents to stay, but they were unable. As Cyclops faded back into his own time, he left his son with parting words that would define him for the rest of his life — and give him his name.

"You'll be many things to many people," the disguised Cyclops said, saying goodbye. "Sometimes loved and respected, sometimes feared and hated...almost always misunderstood. Someday, you'll be a cable that unites the past with the present and future — yesterday with today and tomorrow. You'll be all those things, Nathan Christopher...but know that you'll never be alone."

So began Cable's transformation from Nathan Dayspring to the Askani'son — the chosen one.

After The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix established the complete backstory of Cable, it became impossible to look at the hulking mix of man and machine that he grew into and not see the terrified teen lost in time that he once was. Turns out, there's a deep sadness to the character — even if it doesn't look like it.

After the conclusion of Cable & Deadpool saw Cable presumed dead, the two split off into their own stories once again — but Cable didn't stay alone for long.

In 2007, the X-Men storyline Messiah Complex introduced the birth of a remarkably powerful mutant girl — the first child born with the X-gene since the Decimation event vastly reduced the number of mutants. 

Mass hysteria erupted over the existence of the child. Some groups prophesied she would destroy the world, while others believed she would save it. Cable, whose travels through time should suggest he knows a thing or two, saw the girl as a messiah figure who would unite humans and mutants. To keep her safe, he fled into the future with her, where he started a family with a woman named Hope. The baby would eventually be named for her adoptive mother, finally receiving the name Hope Summers.

While the story will surely be changed for the Deadpool sequel, the teddy bear that's been seen with Cable in promo pictures and film footage means it's a good bet that keeping young Hope safe will be a major part of his arc. Our bet is that he'll spend most of the movie trying to find his surrogate daughter before any of the dozen-odd teams that want to kill her, doing everything he can to keep Hope alive — literally. 

Cable went back to team sport with the 2012 series Cable and X-Force, which brought the time traveler together with a new team of rough-around-the-edges heroes, including Domino, Colossus, Dr. Nemesis, and Forge. 

After years of utterly insane time travel shenanigans, Cable and X-Force hearkened back to the good old days, when the team was just a gaggle of mercenary types out doing dirty work. Specifically, they do a lot of work to stop disasters Cable had seen premonitions of.

Interestingly, it looks like something close to this iteration of the team just might be what's coming in the Deadpool sequel, as well as the upcoming X-Force movie. The Deadpool sequel's trailer certainly shows a cadre of mostly-hidden mutants standing behind Deadpool and Domino, but we don't know who they are yet. Reportedly, the Deadpool sequel will introduce three new, yet-to-be-announced characters for the squad. Considering the tone of the Deadpool series so far, our money is on a roster of the zaniest and craziest.

Everyone who stuck around for the credits of Deadpool left the theater knowing Cable would show up in movie number two. What they didn't know was who would play him.

Internet chatter initially unified around Stephen Lang, who played the villain in Avatar. While the actor does have a striking physical resemblance to a more human-sized version of Cable, it doesn't appear he was given much consideration by the people in charge. Despite the fan enthusiasm, the production looked elsewhere, courting the likes of Brad Pitt, David Harbour, and Michael Shannon, who was reportedly the frontrunner for a while. 

The casting process proved surprisingly dramatic, too, directly leading to the breakup of the creative duo of Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller, depending on which account you're reading. Apparently, Miller was gunning hard for casting Kyle Chandler in the role of the time-displaced father figure — the sort of bonkers, seemingly against-type idea that's so crazy it just might work. 

Chandler gained a devoted following for his remarkably charismatic performance as Friday Night Lights' Coach Taylor, and if you've seen a decent amount of that classic series, you just might be able to see the appeal of the actor in the role. He can play strong, he can play stern, he can play funny, and he can definitely play a father who would tear through time to keep his daughter safe. Alas, it wasn't to be.