Comic Book Review: Cable #2

Cable is one of the various titles that spun out of the conclusion of Messiah Complex. I will admit that I have never been a big Cable fan. I rarely like anything associated with Rob Liefeld. I have always viewed Cable as the epitome of everything that was wrong with the worst decade in comic book history. But, I have softened my view of Cable and have come to like him more and more over the past couple of years.

I decided to give this new Cable a try because it seemed that we were going to get a more Eastwood styled Cable. And I am a huge Eastwood junkie. I enjoyed Cable #1. I like the portrayal of Cable as an old and battle scarred gunslinger. We also got plenty of action. And I always take pleasure in the wonderful art of Ariel Olivetti. I’m pretty confident that Cable #2 will be a solid read. Let’s hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Duane Swierczynski
Artist: Ariel Olivetti

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Cable on the ground suffering from several gunshot wounds from Bishop. Bishop walks over to Cable and the two men begin brawling with each other. Suddenly, a bunch of locals arrive on the scene with their weapons drawn. The locals tells the two men to freeze or they will shoot. Bishop and Cable stop fighting. Bishop tells the locals that he is a cop. The locals reply that cops don’t ever come out here.

We cut back to the end of Messiah Complex after Bishop had his arm chomped off by Predator X. Evidently, while Bishop was bleeding from the wound, Sunfire crash landed next to Bishop. Bishop uses Sunfire’s flames to cauterize his wound. Bishop then grabs a gun and fires a shot at the baby just as Cable teleported away from the scene with the baby in tow.

Unfortunately, the shot misses Cable and the baby and hits Professor X in the head. Cyclops then blasts Bishop. Bishop then gets covered by rubble. Bishop then digs his way out and somehow manages to sneak away from the scene without the X-Men finding him.

Bishop then goes to Forge’s lab and knocks out Forge. Bishop then steals one of Forge’s huge cybernetic arms and attaches the arm to his body. Bishop then tinkers with the cybernetic arm for a few minutes and manages to integrate Forge’s time travel technology into the arm. (Wow, Bishop might be smarter than Reed Richards and more resourceful than MacGyver.)

Bishop then goes back to Muir Island where Cable teleported away and then begins to hop through time stopping at various intervals along the way in his quest to find Cable and the baby. In the year 2043, Bishop spies a can of baby formula. Bishop then finds the closest port figuring that Cable would want to get off Muir Island as quick as possible. The man running the ferry gives information to Bishop about a large man with a baby on his chest. Bishop looks at the ship’s log to find the exact date and time that Cable took the ferry.

Bishop then jumps to that time and arrives at a restaurant in the city where the ferry dropped off Cable. There the waitress tells Bishop that she saw a big man with a strange eye and a baby here a little while ago. The check the waitress had for Cable’s food was time stamped. Bishop then jumped to that exact time and waited to ambush Cable at the restaurant.

We then cut to the present with the locals standing around and pointing their guns at Bishop and Cable. Bishop attacks the locals. The locals begin firing at Bishop and Cable. Cable thinks that he has already taken a couple of bullets and is no shape to fight. Cable then frantically tries to time jump and suddenly realizes that his time travel device is damaged and will not work.

We see Bishop levitate a tractor trailer and throw it at Cable. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Cable #2 was an average read. I was glad that we learned how Bishop survived the monstrous wound inflicted on him by Predator X. And it was nice to see how Bishop made his escape from Muir Island and then “armed” himself in order to follow Cable through time.

I have never been a huge fan of Bishop, but I have to admit that I dig him in the role as a villain. Playing the bad guy seems to suit him rather well. Plus, the scene with Bishop using Sunfire to cauterize his massive wound was pretty bad-assed. Bishop displays plenty of nastiness, single minded determination and a willingness to plow through anyone who gets in his way which all serves to make him a pretty cool villain. Also, the obvious similarities between Bishop and Cable make Bishop a logical choice as Cable’s new archenemy.

The dialogue is nothing special, but it gets the job done. Cable talks with the appropriate Eastwoodian styled voice. Direct and to the point. Controlled and calculating. Bishop’s dialogue is also spot on for a tough ex-cop turned bad guy. The way that Bishop deals with the crowd of gun toting locals was consistent with his police background.

Ariel Olivetti supplies this issue with his usual quality artwork. I have always liked Olivetti’s painted style of art that has such wonderful texture and depth. Olivetti certainly can draw such rich musculature. Olivetti’s colors are cold, but that works well with a Spartan character like Cable.

The Bad: Cable #2 was a bit of a slow and boring issue. Also, for a title whose strength is supposed to be action, we really don’t get much of that at all. Unfortunately, a majority of this issue is framed in a passive fashion as we spend much of our time reading flashback panels. We get four pages recapping the recent ending to Messiah Complex. Then we get seven pages of Bishop tracking down Cable which were a little dull and dry. Also, the explanation of how Bishop escapes from Muir Island and then tracks down Cable takes several massive leaps of faith and some events that are just a bit too convenient.

This issue simply presents the reader with a thin read. There isn’t much meat on the bones to this story. We are now at the end of the second issue and we really only have one plotline to deal with. And that one plotline hasn’t hooked my interest to any large degree. Duane Swierczynski needs to start giving this story a bit more depth and a couple of other different subplots to beef up this story.

The scene between Cable and Bishop and the locals is eight pages in the beginning of the issue and five pages at the end of the issue. That scene is truly decompressed as we get 13 pages of the three parties basically standing around waiting for the other to flinch. 13 pages is really too long to accomplish basically nothing other than setting up a hook ending with Cable in a seemingly impossible predicament.

Overall: Cable #2 is a serviceable read. It isn’t bad, but at the same time, it isn’t anything special. I still feel that this title has the potential to be a neat read. I’m willing to stick it out for another two or three issues to see if this title can get going and make a compelling case to earn a spot on The Revolution’s permanent pull list.

I would think that readers who enjoy straight up action titles with stoic tough as nails characters will probably get a kick out of Cable. However, readers who desire a bit more substance and depth to their stories should steer clear of Cable.