Meet Cable, Marvel’s Time-Traveling Mutant

If a curious comic book movie fan were to take a look at Cable’s comic history, it wouldn’t take long to realize that it’s… complicated. And ‘complicated’ in the way that only time-traveling mutants of the Marvel Universe can be. To make a long story short, Cable’s comic book origin is important in the larger X-Men mythology, both past and present. And whether or not it’s all adhered to in Deadpool 2, the early hints - again, that teddy bear on Cable’s waist - prove that some of the most important story points are being kept in play.

In an effort to keep things simple, and explain why Josh Brolin’s role may lead to a major villain part in future X-Men sequels, here’s the key story. Cable is actually Nathan Summers, born of his father Cyclops and a clone of Jean Grey. His birth was a plan cooked up entirely by the villain Mr. Sinister, hoping to create a mutant powerful enough to kill Apocalypse - the villain still fresh in fans’ memories from Oscar Isaac’s portrayal in X-Men: Apocalypse. And that’s where the time travel comes into the story.

When Apocalypse learned of the plan to have this mutant baby grow to kill him, he sought to kill it first. All he managed to do was infect Nathan with a techno-organic virus that turned his arm and neck into metal, but it put the baby’s life in jeopardy. When a friend of the X-Men offered to carry the baby 2,000 years into the future where he could be saved from the virus, his parents agreed. The plan worked, setting the stage for Nathan– under the guise of Cable, to return from the future as a full-grown badass.

For those looking to wager on where Cable’s story will begin in Deadpool 2, that seems the most likely candidate. Wade Wilson may have questions about the source of his powers or his parents, but the reason that Cable has come back to our time will be the top priority. And considering what waits in Cable’s comic book future, he may be followed by one of his own worst enemies from that same distant future…

Get Ready For Stryfe, Cable’s Evil Clone

No hero is created in the world of comic books without their archvillain being born alongside them, and Cable is no exception. You see, that “friend of the X-Men” who offered to save Nathan’s life in the future didn’t give his parents the entire story. That mastermind was actually Rachel Summers - yes, the daughter of Scott and Jean from an alternate future - who needed Cable’s powers to… well, do the same thing that Mr. Sinister had actually wanted to. Apocalypse had won his war on mutants in Rachel’s future, so she needed Nathan’s powers to defeat him and save the planet.

For all her talk, Rachel wasn’t sure that the techno-organic virus actually could be cured. Nathan ended up being a strong enough psychic/telekinetic subject to keep the virus contained to his arm and neck, but before he managed it, Rachel cloned his genetic material as a backup plan. A backup plan that was soon kidnapped by Apocalypse of the future, believing the clone to be the real Nathan Summers. Apocalypse then raised the boy to one day take over his body and claim his powers for himself… only the boy - named Stryfe - didn’t know about his kidnapper’s ultimate plan.

So when Nathan grew up and actually did manage to kill Apocalypse, he won a new enemy in the clone he never knew he had. Cable eventually headed back to the era he had come from, and Stryfe followed closely behind on a mission to avenge his father’s death. Well, avenge his father’s death AND continue the war he had spent years waging against his own nemesis.

A nemesis he never knew was the real son of Cyclops… beginning a story calling on all the major players of the X-Men movies so far.

The Villain The X-Men Universe Has Been Waiting For

From there the story seems ripe for selective adaptation into Fox’s X-Men movie universe. Following the comics, Cable heads to the past to defeat Apocalypse before he can destroy the world, and Stryfe follows to commit his own brand of mischief. Specifically: uniting mutants into his own army, trying to assassinate Professor Xavier dressed as Cable, and even waking up a sleeping Apocalypse in Egypt just to kill him and claim his mission as his own (a feat he tried more than once).

All kinds of family drama then occurred, with Stryfe believing - for good reason - that he was the true child of Scott Summers, and also set out to exact revenge on his parents for abandoning him. The villain’s origin story actually made him as sympathetic as the writers wished him to be, and the ability to have both Cable and Stryfe masquerade as the other made for plenty of twists. Cable could play the villain to unite Earth’s mutants against him, and Stryfe could infiltrate X-Men facilities without anyone the wiser.

That’s all a promising setup for future X-Men movies, and comic fans already know that Josh Brolin can play the villain Thanos as chilling and imposing. His version of Cable seems to be someone that even Deadpool shouldn’t mess with, so it seems too good an opportunity to pass up. Let Cable win over fans fighting evil with Deadpool… and have a clone step in as one of the most powerful mutant enemies the X-Men movie universe has known. Plus, if there’s any Marvel franchise where an ’evil twin’ storyline would actually sing, it’s Deadpool.

But the real reason to introduce Stryfe has as much to do with Cable as it does with that stuffed animal slung on his hip. Well, more accurately, the little girl it once belonged to.

Cable & Stryfe Unite The X-Men Movie Universe

We could go on and on about just how miraculous the arrival of Cable seems, if Stryfe is to follow soon after. As Bryan Singer’s rebooted, younger generation of mutants approach X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Scott and Jean now stand as the heart of the films - with the event that kicked the entire story off finally being adapted. Then there’s Mr. Sinister, the mastermind behind the creation of Cable introduced in X-Men: Apocalypse’s post-credits scene. And that just about covers all the necessary foundations to begin the era of Cable and Stryfe.

There’s also the impact that Cable and Stryfe’s arrival had on the world of X-Men comics, which the movie universe has been looking to achieve already. To stand against Stryfe’s coalition of radical mutants, Cable took over leadership of the New Mutants - and wouldn’t you know it, Fox’s New Mutants movie is now filming. Eventually, that team evolved into a honed mutant strike team known as X-Force. And with rumors of an R-Rated X-Force movie connected to Deadpool getting fans excited for years now, the path from Josh Brolin’s cable to that franchise seems straighter than ever.

But as we mentioned before, it’s the stuffed bear that may be the sign of how Deadpool and the X-Men universe will finally connect. That’s assuming that the teddy bear belongs to Hope Summers, the adopted daughter of Cable who holds the future of humankind in her tiny hands. It was this story that largely cemented Cable’s place in the X-Men mythology, with his guarding of Hope kicking off Messiah Complex, Messiah War, and Second Coming. All major storylines that united disparate corners of the X-Men universe - in all the ways the movies could sorely need.

Judging by the… lukewarm reception the world had to Oscar Isaac’s Apocalypse - and the fact that he was apparently wiped out at the film’s conclusion, as is usually the case - Fox’s movie universe is in need of a villain for these major arcs. Assuming that Mr. Sinister is coming, the X-Men heroes are climbing their way to the modern day, and the studio needs something, or someone to change the status quo… Stryfe is quickly becoming a prime candidate.

With an actor like Josh Brolin in the role, it could be the villain Fox needs to cement fan excitement years in advance, especially with Stryfe, Cable, and the X-Force’s role in the darker, more brutally adult events and storylines of the 2000s. If Deadpool and Logan both turned into box office hits by leaving family-friendly content to Marvel and targeting older audiences, then they would be wise to realize that, at present… it’s a market they have to themselves.

Will Fox embrace a more mature approach to the X-Men universe, led by crowd-pleasing characters like Deadpool and - hopefully - Cable? If Brolin’s turn as the hero gets the ball rolling, perhaps with a mention of an old enemy who shared his face, or a young girl he’s looking for, it may just be the kind of twist to set the X-Men shared universe apart from the competition. Assuming they hope to make more than just Deadpool 2 a home run, of course.

  • Deadpool 2 Release Date: 2018-05-18 X-Men: Dark Phoenix Release Date: 2019-06-07 New Mutants Release Date: 2020-08-28