CABLE #23 – September 1995

Family Secrets

Credits: Jeph Loeb (writer), Ian Churchill & Tim Sale (pencilers), Scott Hanna w/Mark Buckingham & Tim Sale (inkers), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering), Mike Thomas & Digital Chameleon (colors)

Summary

Unable to sleep, Cable tries an Askani meditation technique. Storm walks in to talk to him about Akkaba, the town his son, Genesis, slaughtered earlier. According to Storm, a darkness is approaching. Cable reveals to her that he recently received a mysterious postcard that might have been sent by Genesis. On Storm’s advice, he shows it to Professor Xavier. Due to a disturbance in the Astral Plane, Xavier is unable to psionically search for Genesis. Cable visits Blaquesmith for help, and he suggests searching Genesis’ former base since he’s monitored activity there. After he leaves, Blaquesmith meditates and speaks to Mother Askani, who tells him that Cable’s trials are only beginning. Meanwhile, Domino continues to search for the “bigfoot killer” in the Rockies. She enters a remote cabin and discovers several dead bodies in the attic. Her former teammate Grizzly approaches her from behind, saying that only one of them can survive. Cable returns to Genesis’ former headquarters, where he sees a female body lying out in the open. When he approaches her, he realizes that it’s his wife, Jenskot.

Continuity Notes

Loeb reveals some information during the various dialogue exchanges in this issue. Cable tells Storm that the Askani order is more of a philosophy or way of life than a religion. Xavier says that he still hasn’t heard from Rene Majcomb, who was supposed to contact him after the previous issue. Cable tells Blaquesmith, “Despite what happened in the past, I do trust you” and that he didn’t ask to be the “chosen one”. Blaquesmith knows that Tyler has changed his name to Genesis, although Cable isn’t sure how he could’ve known that. According to a narrative caption, Domino has few memories of her childhood and doesn’t know why.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Jenskot appears to be nude from a distance, but when Cable approaches her, her body’s colored green. Since the artist didn’t draw any lines indicating clothes, this is an obvious (and extreme) case of editorial swimwear.

Review

This issue mainly consists of conversation scenes, allowing Cable to interact with a few characters while slowly setting up a new Genesis storyline. Loeb has a decent enough grasp on the characterizations and is able to set up the new storyline gradually without making the issue feel too padded. He continues to move Cable further away from his initial characterization by having him do things like meditate and respectfully turn to other people for help. Loeb ties this in with the apprehension he has about his son (I’m assuming that’s why he can’t sleep, even if it’s not outright stated), which isn’t a bad angle to take. You could argue that Marvel’s taking the edge off the character and not really replacing it with anything, but I think Cable’s a more tolerable character at this point. The art alternates between Ian Churchill and Tim Sale, two artists with very different styles, but they’re at least given two separate story threads to draw. I liked Churchill’s work as a teen, and even if the ‘90s elements haven’t aged well, he does seem to be improving as an artist with this issue. Sale’s art is appropriate for the darker Domino story, and he certainly pulls of the eerie two-page spread of corpses in Grizzly’s attic. There’s not a lot in this issue to find fault with, even if this run still isn’t very memorable to me.