CABLE #10 – April 1994

The Killing Field Part II – Like Lambs to the Slaughter

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (plot), Glenn Herdling (script), M. C. Wyman (penciler), Conrad & Milgrom (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Omega Red attacks the Tyuratam Space Center to get information on how to cure his Death Spore Virus. After he leaves with a disc, Cable and the Acolytes arrive. They discern that in order to cure himself, Omega Red must undergo a procedure that can only be conducted in the vacuum of space, and that he plans on getting there by teleporting from Magneto’s arctic base to the Acolytes’ headquarters in space. Cable and the Acolytes search Magneto’s arctic headquarters and find that Omega Red is already there, unconscious and badly beaten. Cable figures out that the Acolytes are double-crossing him, when Colossus suddenly appears with more of the Acolytes.

Continuity Notes

The Acolytes imply that Magneto’s arctic base is actually a living alien.

The Acolyte Katu describes the day Russian troops invaded his home in the Siberian tundra with Omega Red, killing his family and maiming him because his mutant ability was disrupting satellite transmissions.

I Love the ‘90s

There’s an ad for “Wolverine Blues”, an actual album from the band Entombed. Marvel even packaged a free Wolverine comic with the CD, and let their label use a painting of Wolverine in the ad and video. The ad copy reads, “Wake up and smell the ‘90s!” So...the ‘90s smelled like Wolverine? What do we smell like today?

Review

Fabian Nicieza already has one foot out of the door as the Omega Red storyline continues. Glenn Herdling does an adequate scripting job that gives the characters plausible dialogue, but doesn’t really give them much of a personality. The first part of this story at least tied into Cable’s familial connections to the other X-characters, but he could’ve been replaced by any generic X-character in this issue. I’m not one of those people who think that every story featuring a character has to tie in to their “big picture” theme (like Spider-Man learning a lesson about responsibility in every story, for example), but having a story that veers from a character’s core concept usually only works if the character has a strong personality. The original “ends justify the means” Cable was annoying, but he at least had personality. The more sympathetic interpretation of the character just comes across as a generic superhero in this issue. He’s also not given anything interesting to do, as he just follows Omega Red around and listens to an Acolyte tell a story. I will say that the art has improved since the last issue, and there’s nothing particularly terrible about the story, there’s just an overall blandness to it all.