CABLE #5 – November 1993

Sinsearly Yours, Sincerely Mine…

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Darick Robertson (penciler), Jon Holdredge (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

In Cable’s future, he encounters a dying Canaanite solider. Refusing to mercy kill him, Cable sends a message to the Canaanites to collect their wounded and leaves. This wounded soldier is turned into the cyborg killer Sinsear. He’s sent to the past to kill a rogue Canaanite agent, Tolliver. He also plans to kill Cable for not putting him out of his misery years earlier. He kidnaps Cable, but is unable to defeat him. Sinsear teleports away, leaving Cable a computer chip detailing his orders. Cable learns that Tolliver, a man he only knew as an arms dealer, is actually a time traveler.

Creative Differences

There are a few poorly re-lettered balloons on the bottom of page 27, giving Cable some tough guy dialogue after Sinsear escapes.

Production Note

The last issue of this series was cover dated August 1993, making this at least the second issue of this series to ship late. This was fairly rare for Marvel at the time, and it makes me wonder why this series specifically was so hard to keep on schedule.

Review

After four issues of build-up, Sinsear finally faces Cable. He’s defeated by Cable’s admittedly weak telekinetic powers and a couple of punches. A pretty weak showing for the first member of Cable's rogues gallery to be introduced in his solo series. The script makes the connection between Cable and Sinsear explicit; both of them are cyborgs but Cable embraces humanity while Sinsear chooses to be a machine. That’s a fine starting point for a Cable villain, but Sinsear’s non-existent personality and mediocre design make it hard to take the character seriously. Cable is now five issues old, and it’s still lacking a purpose, direction, supporting cast, and credible villains. It’s hard to argue that this series is nothing more than a pointless spinoff at this point. The next story arc is dedicated to giving Cable a conclusive origin, which would have at least been a stronger starting point for the series.