The Illustrated X-Lapsed - Powers of X #1 (2019)

Powers of X #1 (September, 2019)
“The Last Dream of Professor X”
Writer - Jonathan Hickman
Art - R.B. Silva
Colors - Marte Gracia
Letters - VC’s Clayton Cowles
Design - Tom Muller
Edits - Bissa, White, Cebulski
Cover Price: $5.99 US
Release Date: July 31, 2019

Here we are again... my attempt at making X-Lapsed a "multimedia" endeavor, to which you might say: Surely, this is a waste of your time.

To which I'd reply: Yes, you're probably right -- and don't call me Sh... waitasec, actually, maybe DO call me Shirley -- I bet more people (or people at all) would give a rat's ass about this place if I went by that!

IXL Disclaimer: These bits are straight outta my original X-Lapsed scripts... which is to say, they're chock-full of theories on stuff that's already been long answered, proven or disproven. Please keep that in mind when reading that these were my original hot-takes and thoughts. Still feel free to send in your "ackshully"s though, I need all the engagement I can get!

--

We open with a page featuring four “ages” of sorts. X to the 0th Power is YEAR ONE - The Dream. X to the 1st Power is YEAR TEN - The World. X to the 2nd Power is YEAR 100 - The War. X to the 3rd Power is YEAR 1,000 - Ascension. So… these are the “Powers of X” then? I gotta say, I may diverge a bit from the wide X-Base here, but… when we start getting into the wayyy far flung future… I kinda check out. Gimme not so distant future… or not so distant past, and I’m down.  But, 100 and 1000 years into the future?  This is gonna be a toughie.

We pop back to X to the 0th… Year One. We’re in the middle of that festival from the beginning of Chrono Trigger… when a familiar young woman approaches Charles Xavier, who is lounging on a park bench watching the festivities. They share some sorta flirtatious conversation. She talks about a fortune teller she’d just seen… and we can see three tarot-esque cards. One is the Magician, featuring a sword-wielding intangible girl stepping through a wall. One is the Tower, which depicts… well, a tower. The third is The Devil, with what looks like a red-skinned Nightcrawler.

Moira notes Charles’ happiness, and he reveals that he’d just had the most wonderful dream… about a better world, and what part he will play in it. Moira tells him that dreams ain’t dreams… if they’re real. This triggers a bit of suspicion in the Prof… and he asks if they’ve ever met. She invites him to read her mind.

After the credits page...s, because we need two, we shift to X to the 1st Power, which is evidently Year Ten. So… everything that’s happened to this point since X-Men #1 in 1963 has occurred in a single decade?  Hmm… I’m never a fan of pin-pointing dates inside a clustered chronology… regardless of how good a story might be, I worry that something like THIS will be a sticking point for me. I’m a weird dude, remember… I’m easily lost in the weeds.

Anyhoo, it’s X to the one-th, and we’re on Krakoa. Mystique and Toad are here to deliver that data they’d stolen from Damage Control in House of X #1... Before handing the goods over to Magneto, however, she tries holding him up to make some more demands. This is overheard by Charles, who kinda calls her out for it… suggesting that helping her fellow mutant should be all the reward she needs. He gets it though… because, even he has more demands... ya see, everyone involved in this new better mutant world has gotta do their part, and pull their weight, “pay dues” and what not. He takes the thumbdrive and… uh, sticks it into some Krakoan vegetation?

Next stop, X to the 2nd… Year 100. Annnnnd, looking at this Evangelion-looking thing on this page, I’m already beginning to glaze over. We’re in the midst of a war, it seems… between mutants and something called the Man-Machine Supremacy. This is… gonna be tough… I already don’t care. EVA Unit 1 and an associate who looks like a future Hellfire Club soldier are stood over what I can only assume is a dead mutant… who looks a lot like Elixir from the New X-Men. We found out that Elixir is an Omega Level Mutant last issue… so, maybe he could live 100 years?  I dunno...

It’s a good thing we’re living in the age of the Marvel Wiki! I find out this fella is actually called Percival… and yeah, he dead. We’ve got the remaining three of this foursome of X-Men: Rasputin IV… who I believe is the sword-wielding intangible girl from that first tarot card. Her skin looks metallic, and she’s got the Soul Sword… so, perhaps she’s an amalgamation of Kitty, Colossus, and Magik? We are going to find out that these X-Men were “bred” by Mr. Sinister on Mars… so, it might stand to reason there was some genetic tinkering. There’s Cardinal, who is the red Nightcrawler-looking character from the third tarot card.  Looks to be a blend of Kurt and maybe Rachel? Finally, there’s Cylobel… a machine who joined the mutant resistance, I guess?  She’s got a “black brain” which renders her unreadable. She kind of looks like a female version of the Teen Titans baddie Psimon.

While EVA Unit one and the Future Hellfire Soldier acost Cylobel, Cardinal plants a black seed of Krakoa in the ground. Rasputin unleashes the Soul Sword and attempts to save Cylobel -- unfortunately for her… machines ain’t got no souls. Backup baddies arrive, which makes the odds rather insurmountable for Rasputin. Cylobel demands Rasputin leave her behind and save herself... begrudgingly, she does just that.

We get an info page that is actually helpful in explaining the Sinister Breeding Program “Chimera”. Turns out, I wasn’t too far off in my assumption of Rasputin’s Chimera-makeup... she’s part Kitty and either Colossus or Magik (it just says Rasputin)… but, also Quentin Quire, Unus the Untouchable, and X-23. Now, there are multiple generations of this Breeding dealie… which feels like three too many… because, man, this is a lot of info to dump on us. There’s talk of suicide and singularity… which, I dunno… feels like maybe that Evangelion we just saw wasn’t an accident?  Feels a little End of Evangelion here…

Cylobel is taken to the Tower of Nimrod the Lesser… whiiiiiich looks a whole heckuva lot like the Tower on the Tarot card. Nimrod is seated on a throne looking like a great big marshmallow. Next to him is a woman he refers to as Omega… who might be Karima Whatsherface?  I dunno. Nimrod glibly apologizes to Cylobel… who, was originally a “hound” created to track down mutants, Cylobel defected and went against her programming. Nimrod refers to her as a “bad idea” and suggests that bad ideas die a bad death. Cylobel swears that she’ll win out in the end… which Nimrod finds pretty adorable. He actually says “That’s the spirit!”

Cylobel is prepared for questioning… or a “bath”, I guess. She is going to be dipped into a chamber of something called Femtofluid, where she will basically be rendered down to nothing more than raw data… which Nimrod can use to continue fighting against the mutants. More Evangelion sorta stuff, no?  It’s not quite LCL… but, it’s also not… not LCL! Cylobel is stuffed on in… and, I’m going to assume, dies.

Another info page… this time, it’s for the SalCen Khennil, “Sentinel Mutant Breeding Camps”. It’s here we learn a bit about the black-brained Hounds... the last of which were, for whatever reason, conditioned to be duplicitous?  Seems counter-productive, but what do I know? I guess that’s why Nimrod referred to Cylobel and her ilk as “bad ideas”?

We next pop over to the No-Place Hub… where Rasputin IV and Cardinal emerge from a Krakoan gateway. Does this mean that we’re going to be dealing with Krakoan Gateways forever more in X-Men comics?  I’m not sure how I feel about that. Anyway, they are greeted by… some familiar faces: Magneto, Xorn, Wolverine, and… Swamp Thing?  Maybe it’s Groot?  I hope it’s not Groot. Wolverine asks if Cylobel and Percival died for nothing… to which, Cardinal responds that “they’ve got it”... what “it” is, I dunno. Wolverine tells them that the “Old Man” is waiting… and, it looks like he will be until we get to the next issue…

Another info-page! The mutants are now living on something called Asteroid K… so, maybe Krakoa as an Asteroid? There are only eight of them left here… there are plenty more flung about the Shi’ar Space though.

Now… X to the Third - one-friggin-thousand years later. Ya know, it’s this kinda stuff that keeps me from reading the Legion of Super-Heroes… and these few pages feel like something that could very easily be in a Legion comic! I remember hearing rumors throughout the years that Hickman was going to do Legion for DC… I wonder, if that was true in the slightest, if he repurposed some of his ideas for this? Anyway, it’s here we meet… The Librarian. Hey, that’s the character Marv Wolfman created as a kid, right?  Well, no… this is a blue-skinned Legion reject who is wearing a sort of Cerebro helmet.

Looks like they data they are trying to retrieve is corrupted or just fading away. Worth noting, they’re in the archives of Nimrod the GREATER… so, uh… evolution or somethin’. The Librarian’s little Skeets-lookin' buddy pops in to take the blame for the loss of data… claiming that the integrity of those files was their responsibility. Looks like humanity and the like are no more in this far-flung future… but there is a sort of domed preserve nearby. The Librarian… maybe compares what they keep inside with dinosaur bones… like, as a reminder of what came before?

We wrap up with a look inside… and we see a pair of figures standing in the lush foliage. Now, lemme get lost in the scenery here… is this an Adam and Eve thing? Whoever they are, the Librarian is hopeful they never have dominion over the planet again…

--

I've pretty much stated all my thoughts about the issue during the synopsis, but for whatever's sake, I'll try and sum up my thoughts here:

Not a huge fan of stories taking place too far off from the present day. I feel like we lose touch with a lot of the "rules" of storytelling at that point... insofar as things feeling like they actually matter. If we can write about anywhen... why should we necessarily care about the present? Especially when so many things could be changed without really affecting much. I dunno, I'm sure I could better explain that sensation if I were a better writer. Fact is, I ain't.

Looking back, I'd forgotten that the Moira/Charles mindreading scene took place in this issue... I'd have bet money that it had occurred in House of X #2 -- the first of our big shoe-drop issues... but no! It actually happened here.

Let's briefly chat up some happenings:

In the present, Mystique and Toad arrive back to Krakoa with the data they'd retrieved from Damage Control. This scene is our first indication that Xavier has something Mystique wants... and, how she's going to be repeatedly used as a pawn while he dangles that carrot. Of course, out the other end of the Hickman run, we know what that is -- but, it's neat to see the seeds planted this early on.

The Chimera scenes were... ehh. I know by the end of our time in X-to-the-Second-Power, I do come around on the Chimeras, but -- then and now, this was kinda just there. The designs are pretty cool... and I dig the sassier Nimrod, but it still feels like something's missing. Also, the Evangelion units are a bit too derivative.

X-to-the-Third-Power -- still bores me to tears. This is the high-concept Hickmanny stuff I really couldn't care less about. These are the pages that, had I not been creating content (which, in hindsight probably would'a been for the best), I'd have skimmed or skipped these pages completely. They're dull, but are crammed full with enough impressive sounding words that I'm sure I'm in the minority in thinking this is anything but "genius".

Overall, Powers of X is definitely the lesser miniseries (in my opinion)... but, to get the full-picture of the status quo moving forward, it's still necessary. Maybe not required reading, as I think you could do well enough by just reading HoX... but, like I said - if you're interested in the bigger picture, ya need it.

X-Men (v.2) #2 (1991)

 

X-Men (vol.2) #2 (November, 1991)
"Firestorm!"
By Chris Claremont & Jim Lee
Inks - Scott Williams
Colors - Joe Rosas
Letters - Tom Orzechowski
Edits - Bob Harras
Chief - Tom DeFalco
Cover Price: $1.00

Another day... another dip into the ol' From Claremont to Claremont Archives... strangely enough, folks seem to dig these more than my usual stuff! Maybe it's not so strange after all... who knows? In my six and a half years of doin' this every day, you'd think I'd have figured something out. Oh well.

Here's to happy accidents...

--

We open with Magneto's big ol' head.  He informs the X-Men that the Acolytes have pledged themselves to him, and he does not intend on abandoning them... and he will decide how to deal with their rather extreme actions.  Ya know, like destroying a city and leveling a hospital last issue.  Cyclops realizes that Magneto's so far gone... sort of stuck in his own head at this point, that he cares very little about what happens to "ordinary human beings"... and well, he's right.  Magneto goes so far as to suggest that Genosha had it coming for being "Mutant Slavers" during that whole X-Tinction Agenda thing.

Magneto is attacked by a Genoshan helicopter... that is mostly made of plastic and other non-ferrous materials.  Magneto just shrugs it off... and plays a little "cause and effect" with the whirlybird.  Just because he can't manipulate it, doesn't mean he can't ram big ol' beams of metal through it!

After Magneto deflects another X-Men attack, we shift scenes to meet up with Fabian Cortez.  Psylocke confronts him, but is easily overwhelmed... and smooched upon by the ginger geek.

Meanwhile, at the United Nations... they're still talkin' about the situation.  A man named Alexyev, who looks like a beta-version of Jacob Marlowe from WildC.A.T.S (he's either very short, or the perspective is all sorts of wonky here), chats up Nick Fury about implementing the aforementioned Magneto Protocols.

Back in Genosha, we rejoin Psylocke.  Her mind is bombarded with the thoughts of the nearby citizens (courtesy of Cortez's kiss)... and boy are they hateful toward mutants.  She actually winds up circled by a bunch, and beaten... until Beast hops in to save the day.  Worth noting, Gambit gives Fabes a whack in da noggin with his quarterstaff.

Then... Magneto returns to pontificate s'more.  He tells the X-Men that they should all be fighting for the same cause... and implores them to join up with him.  Same ol', same ol'.

Back at the Xavier School, Forge is making a frantic call to Storm's Gold Strike Force to assist with the events in Genosha.  Banshee is also there, and is wondering just what these Magneto Protocols might include.  Forge is clueless... and, actually so is Professor X!  We learn that Moira MacTaggert bolted out the place when the alarms started to sound, which gives Charles a bit of a pause.

Back to Genosha... where it's more of the same.  Psylocke is able to pierce into Magneto's head with her psychic knife... again, courtesy of Cortez's kiss.  This victory is rather short-lived, however... as it's here that the patron mutant of 90's comics makes his presence felt!  That's right... this is Chrome!  And he, well... coats the good guys in... chrome!  Now they're worth a few bucks more...

Magneto and the gang retreat back to Asteroid M.  Fabian Cortez reveals to Magnus that when he healed him last issue, he noticed a strange anomaly in his DNA.  Some... genetic engineering, if you wee'll.  Magneto has a sneaking suspicion how it might've gotten there... and we'll soon find out ourselves.  Like... really soon.

But first, the Magneto Protocols!  The Soviet's launch a Plasma Cannon into space... and it's headed toward Asteroid M.

Then, back on Earth, Professor Xavier happens across Moira getting sloshed at the Mansion's boathouse.  They chat briefly, before they are joined by the Master of Magnetism, and whisked away Wizard of Oz style... house and all.

While hovering in Orbit, Magneto demands some answers... or at least validation on his hunch.  Turns out, while he was de-aged into infancy, following a weird issue of the Defenders... 

Here's Magneto's recollection of the event...

... Moira took it upon herself to tinker with Baby Mags' genetic code.  He was just an innocent as a babe... and she intended to keep him that way.  After some prodding, Moira comes clean and cops to the deed.  Magneto... isn't pleased.  Though, this is a really interesting way to kind of handwave his babyface turn of the mid-80s.  It's also a pretty great way of bringing him back to the dark side.

While Magneto has Moira "chromed up" for her misdeeds, we take a brief aside to the Sakhalin Islands just East of the Soviet Union and North of Japan.  We join Matsuo Tsurayaba as he takes advantage of last issue's EM Pulse to swipe something called "Omega".  This ain't Weapon Omega who we'll be meeting in this month's issue of Alpha Flight... but someone else, who we'll meet in the flesh and coils in two-months time.

Back on Asteroid M, Cyclops and his Blue Team chat up Professor X... in order to inform him that, get this, they've joined up with Magneto!  C'mon, get with the 90's old man... "Magneto was right" and all that jazz.

Back at the Mansion, word has traveled fast... Storm's Gold Team is running a simulation of them fighting the Blue Team... and, just like in sales and popularity... they get their butts kicked.

We wrap up with the Goldies geting a holographic visit from Nick Fury.  He informs them of the Magneto Protocol being enacted... and warns that, when it hits... da whole thing's gonna go boom.  So, if they wanna save their Blue buds, it's now or never!

Weird Comics History - Cable Eats a Bagel

 

Weird Comics History - Cable Eats a Bagel

Or... the de-Imagification of Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Summers

Should I start this piece by doing that sarky internet writer thing, by reminding you all that it's been thirty years since Image Comics launched? Ya know, to remind us all how dreadfully oooooooold we are? Nah, I won't put'cha through that...

Actually, rather than talk at all about the launch of Image Comics... which, I've already done... several times, and if I'm being completely honest -- I'm kinda "over" it, I want to discuss how the original "Image attitude" kinda fell out of the comics zeitgeist during the latter half of the decade, and in particular, the surprising "de-Imagification" of a character who I never thought I'd enjoy reading about.

If you're more interested in partying like it's 1992... well: pouches, advantageous, shoulder pads, no-feet. Cool? Cool.

For my bit, we're gonna hop to the other end of the decade. It's 1998, and I was newly back into the comics hobby after... a little while away. I've told this story before, though I'm not sure if I've ever actually written about it. Assuming I have (I do write and talk a lot), I'll spare you the deep dive and just share the quick 'n dirty of it. Basically, I found myself fed up with the gimmicks. I clearly had more sense at 15 than I do today, because back then I actually did walk away. For a bit. It was the week that X-Men (vol.2) #45 hit the shelves... and, as I did every month, I hobbled my way down to the comic shop with a couple'a bucks in my pocket to pick up my latest fix. Upon arrival, I was intensely annoyed that... rather than being a regular-sized/regular-covered $1.99 "X-Men Deluxe" issue... it was a $3.95 cardstock-n-foil gimmick cover issue -- one which I didn't have near enough repurposed lunch money to leave the store with! I asked the owner why this was a "special issue", as it wasn't a "divisible by 25" issue -- turns out, it was the 20th anniversary of Giant-Size... and, boy, it was like a veil was lifted.

I realized that, any given month... Marvel could decide to celebrate, ya know, anything -- and tart up and double the cost of our monthlies. See? I definitely had more sense back then. I put the ish back on the shelf -- proclaimed to anybody who'd listen that I was "done" with the hobby. I was leaving... and never coming back. The shop owner, Bob Nastasi of Amazing Comics in Sayville, New York assured me that I'd be back -- and that we always come back. Damned if he wasn't right.

A cross-country move, and the realization that I wasn't the most personable young fellow in the world, led me back to my comics comfort food. This move, ironically enough, almost resulted in me leaving my two longbox collection of comics behind! I thought I was done with 'em... and that phase in my life was over. I actually only took 'em with me as an afterthought... there just happened to be room on the truck!

This was mid-1997, and while I was enjoying revisiting the comics I had... ones I'd already read, seemingly dozens of times before already -- I wasn't quite prepared to venture into the wilds of my new stomping grounds in order to add to my collection. I still thought I was done. I figured that the industry would still be using the same gimmicks that ran me outta dodge in the first place... after all, it had only been a couple of years. This changed when I went to a nearby mall in order to apply for a job in every single store within it. There was a comic shop there... and, as I was already there to hand in an application... I decided to have a goo at the current offerings on the shelves. Picked up some X-Stuff... and, though it wasn't part of the "plan" -- I was back.

Not only was I back... but, I was completely back. Anyone who has the misfortune of knowing me, will know that I'm very much an "all or nothing" kinda idjit. If I'm in for one X-Book... then, dammit, I'm in for them all. Especially considering, this was around the time I became more active on USENET. When I first saw things like Paul O'Brien's X-Axis -- and sites like X-Fan being linked to. In seeing Paul's work, impressionable goof that I was, I found myself inspired... and decided that I wanted to do what he did. I wanted to share my thoughts on comics... though, likely in a far less enlightened and intelligent sort of way. Then as now, I wanted to be viewed as someone who had something worthwhile to say about the things I was passionate about. In order to do that (which, I never actually did -- even though I'm sure I was a far better writer back in the long ago than I am now), I'd definitely have to buy 'em all!

Now, the one book out of the entire X-Family of books circa 1997 that I was absolutely dreading having to buy, read, and think up clever things to say about was... Cable. In retrospect, that's saying something... since X-Men Unlimited, Howard Mackie's X-Factor, and Larry Hama's "pookafied" Generation X were still very much things. Cable to me was a relic, even in ye old 1997. He was the embodiment (or harbinger of) the Image Comics archetype. Big guns, shadowy past, constantly gritted teeth, nonsense "tough guy" talk, the whole thing. I held off on "committing" to Cable for as long as I could... mostly because, when I came back, his book was in the middle of a (then-rare) six-issue story arc, which I had no interest in jumping in on during its third or fourth chapter. At least that's what I told myself... I didn't seem to have any problem starting in the middle-issues of some of the other X-Books.

Cable, and by extension Image Comics, was emblematic to me of the ridiculous 90s comics excess that drove me outta the hobby to begin with. In hindsight, that might be an unfair conflation -- as Marvel was certainly no slouch when it came to "excess" (or x-cess, as the case may be). Perhaps, as I was just rediscovering my love of comics again, I wasn't quite ready to be reminded of all that? To me, I simply had to resign myself to the fact that... if I was going to go all-in, Cable was very much going to be a part of deal. Kind of a "You take the good, you take the bad..." situation.

And so I braced myself... and picked up my first issue of Cable since the series was in the single-digits, Cable #55 (June, 1998). I almost didn't... as, not only did this issue's cover prominently feature our man Nate... but also, Domino. Another "relic" from a time I didn't wanna revisit. Then... I sat down with the issue, which prompted a bit of an eyebrow raise. First off, the art in this book, by the... do we call him "underrated" (?), Jose Ladronn... wasn't like anything I'd seen on a "current-year" book -- especially not something out of Marvel and the X-Office. It was something of a modern take on classic Kirby... something that probably shouldn't have worked... and yet, did! The writer, Joe Casey, was another new name for me. Frankly, at this point in my collecting "career", most names would'a been. If you weren't one of the Image guys, the Pinis, Stan Lee, or Scott Lobdell, I wouldn't have a clue!

The title of this issue is "Wiser Times", and it couldn't be more appropriate... at least to the young Chris who was reading it. This was a Cable who, while still gristled... still battle-hardened -- felt more like a man who was learning from his future-past than being distilled down and defined by it. So many, if not all, of the early Cable stories were predicated on the fact that he was a mysterious man from the future... rather than being a character, Cable was a collection of mysteries given four-color flesh. And, ya know... great big guns. He was the archetypal early 90s (anti)hero. The more we seemed to learn about him... the less we actually knew. For every answer we got... five new questions sprang up. Add to that how "continuity copping" was becoming far less strict, and what we're left with is a recipe for disinterest.

Joe Casey came onto the title during the middle of that aforementioned six-issue arc, Hellfire Hunt. Between that and "Wiser Times" was a one-off in Wakanda with T'Challa. Straightforward and generic superheroics wherein Cable felt more like a placeholder than anything. The heroes teamed up to beat up Klaw... which, I feel like was the only thing anybody ever did when they hooked up with the Black Panther back then. It was with Wiser Times that Casey was able to try and give our Nate as fresh a start as possible.

Late in the James Robinson run on the title (which proceeded Casey), a character named Irene Merryweather was introduced. Irene was a reporter who would wind up traveling with Cable... acting as his chronicler and biographer. This addition gave me (and I'm sure at least a couple'a other readers) hope that... maybe we were working toward a "definitive" understanding of Cable. Not the soldier, not the messiah-figure, not the dude with the pointy-headed doppelganger... but Cable the man. Surely we're all affected by our life experiences in a multitude of ways. There's a lot to that nurture element that PSY101 students love to spend entire class periods debating. However, with this new addition to Cable's cast -- we may start taking those experiences and paying them forward... rather than stagnating within them.

Cable #55 was an issue that, when I was done reading it, I was kind of left flabbergasted (it doesn't take much). It wasn't at all what I expected from a Cable book. Judging from comments around USENET at the time, I wasn't alone. This issue was met with, ya know, mixed reviews. Some people (like me) loved it, and considered it a tremendous improvement on what had come before. Others, well... not so much. Here's a smattering of takes from the long ago:

USENET reviews Cable #55

We range from "It's a great read" to "Not Recommended". Good or bad, people are talking about it. And, after a couple thousand words of pre-ramble, maybe I ought to as well... in brief.

The issue is kind of a sandwich of the stuff you'd sorta-kinda expect on either end of the stuff you wouldn't. It's quite well done, and a fun way to set the tone for what the Casey/Ladronn Cable was going to be. It's the fluffy middle section of the book that I want to focus on. It'll be these (and subsequent) "fluffy" bits that the rest of this piece will be focusing on. Cable is now operating out of Daredevil's backyard, Hell's Kitchen... and stops in the Babel Diner for both a bite to eat and a respite from the rain. Speaking of DD, Matt Murdock's actually here grabbing a bite himself... but, our hero doesn't even acknowledge him.

Cable plops down at a booth... and, spends an entire page drinking a cup of coffee. This is the kind of page that has been used-to-abuse in the time since, but, back in 1998 -- it was kind of a novelty.

Cable #55 - (w) Joe Casey / (a) Jose Ladronn

This was my first indication that, this wasn't necessarily going to be the Cable I grew up with. This wasn't the early 90s Image Comics archetype. The pages that followed were equally bizarre... yet engaging. Cable and the waitress-soon-to-be-love-interest, Stacey Kramer share a little bit of small talk. Not through "lol, gritted teeth"... not staring down the barrel of a Mark-69 Liefeldian firearm... but, over a cuppa and (eventually) a bagel.

Cable #55 - (w) Joe Casey / (a) Jose Ladronn

It's not often that Cable comes across as an actual human being. Used to be that scenes like this were few and far between... and when they would occur, they would be so tempered by angst and mystery that the conversation was rendered secondary (or tertiary). Here... it's small talk. Our hero still feels like Cable... but, some of the "Nate" is slipping in as well.

While these quiet scenes may define the Casey run for me, there is so much more to it. For those unaware, the X-Offices had been building to an epic confrontation between Cable and Apocalypse for... ever. It was earmarked for the turn of the century, and it was to be the battle to end all battles. "Was to be". Joe Casey would drop hints to this eventual clash throughout his run. While bebopping around the Marvel Universe having adventures with (and against) S.H.I.E.L.D., the dude who would become the M-Tech Deathlok, the Avengers, and... a crossover with X-Man that we don't need to talk about, there would be reminders that Cable's got a date with destiny on the millennial horizon.

Our man would battle the Harbinger of Apocalypse (a human jammed in a weird coffin by Poccy that had been infused with some sort of Celestial tech a century earlier)... he would prepare for the big dance by arming himself with, of all things, a traditional Askani spear called the Psimitar. Cable without great big guns? What gives, right? While we're at it... Cable was also without his Psi-Powers for a bit here, after the events of the Psi-War over in the flagship books... a story whose ramifications were forgotten about almost immediately after it ended!

Cable discovers the Psimitar
Cable #58 - (w) Joe Casey / (a) Ed McGuinness

All throughout these adventures, Cable would find himself returning to the Babel Diner... where he'd chat up and lay his troubles on Stacey. Their friendship would become a more romantic relationship... one that both grounded our hero as a much more relatable fellow... while at the same time, reminding us that he's not. Stacey wasn't the only member of the Kramer family to join Cable's cast of characters -- her younger brother, Kenny would also appear from time to time. Kenny had Down Syndrome... which Stacey hoped Cable might be able to use his "mind powers"... to cure!

Cable #64 - (w) Joe Casey / (a) Jose Ladronn

This is a powerful scene. Stacey, who was established early on as working on her nursing degree, is desperate see her brother living a "normal life". Hoping Cable's nebulous "mind powers" might do the trick... while choosing to ignore the common sense or ethics of the situation. Even more interesting, this scene occurs during the brief time where Cable no longer had those nebulous "mind powers", so we never find out whether or not he'd have given it a try. Later on in the issue, he attempts to explain this to Stacey -- but, a) she's not interested in hearing his excuse, and b) they happen across a dying Santa Claus laying in an alley (it's Christmastime). Even this Santa scene is important, as it shows that -- even without powers (and big ol' guns), Cable's first instinct is to act the hero.

These Christmastime scenes are scattered throughout Cable #64... fitting neatly between pages out of Irene Merryweather's Cable Chronicle Biography. In it, we see where he's come from... where he's been... along with plenty of the how's and why's of his current mission, and a reminder of his pressing date with Apocalypse. It always comes back to Apocalypse. Who else is getting all psyched up for this final battle?!

Well, readers of Cable's solo book weren't the only ones getting jazzed about seeing Nate and En Sabah slappin' meat -- because, the epic barnburner of a final battle... sorta-kinda... get usurped by the X-Offices to payoff the long danglin' and lingerin' Twelve storyline. Rather than allow Casey's build and prep to pay off in dramatic fashion... the X-Offices did what they do best. The story Cable had been building toward since forever, was taken away... and handed off to:

Oh dear.

In the two years that led up to this barnburner of an issue, the readers really got to know Nathan Summers. We saw him grounded in a more mundane setting, surrounded by a non-mutant cast of characters who he'd formed bonds at attachments to. Cable, as a series, for the first time ever, had a reason to exist (creatively). The payoff? Marvel ditches the direction, brings back the "classic" look and feel -- and delivers us an issue that was so tragic and pointless, that to this very day, I'm fairly certain nobody's accepted the credit or blame for writing the thing!

The quick of it is... the issue opens with Cable strapped to a great big "X" while Apocalypse talks at him... then, 750 pages later, it ends with... Cable strapped to a great big "X" while Apocalypse talks at him. During the middle of the issue, our man breaks free... spends most of his time fighting off Wolverine (who was then the Horseman Death) -- before the big showdown. The blowoff is a handful of full-page pinup spreads of Cable and Apocalypse bouncing off each other.

A terrible issue. Though, it's hard to even blame anybody involved in it for the let down! The event that this series had been building to for years was relegated into being just "Part Two" of the wider X-Men The Twelve storyline. The story couldn't be anything more than what it was. A circular, pointless disappointment. More important than all that, around the time of this issue's production, Rob Liefeld did suffer the loss of his father.

All that having been said... I feel that the impact of Casey and Ladronn's time on the title cannot (and should not) be understated. Joe Casey took a character who was basically deep-fried and pickled 1991... and made him "matured him" for a post-2000 audience. Ironically enough, writing the sort of stories that Image Comics themselves would be putting out not too long after!

--

For more Image-centric chatter both from back in the long ago to today -- please check out the rest of the #SBTU crew!

Between The Pages Blog
Killer Walking Dead Cakes
https://www.betweenthepagesblog.com/2022/05/killer-walking-dead-cakes.html

Comics, Comics, Blog: 
Image Comics: Remembering my early days
https://comicscomicscomics.blog/?p=1845

In My Not So Humble Opinion
Astro City: That Was Then…

Jesse Starcher - Source Material
Darker Image!!!
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/49802624

Asterisk 51
Better Late Than Never: Spawn #1
https://asterisk51.blogspot.com/2022/05/better-late-than-never-spawn-1.html

Superhero Satellite
Dawn Of Image: Inking The Deal, The Dave Olbrich Tapes
https://charltonhero.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/super-blog-team-up-image-comics-the-road-to-revolution-shs-episode-3/

Comic Stripped
Term Life
https://t.co/i2jS0h6oyS

Dave's Comics Heroes Blog
Big Bang Comics
https://davescomicheroes.blogspot.com/2022/05/images-big-bang-comics.html

Chris is on Infinite Earths
Cable Eats a Bagel: the de-imagification of Nathan Dayspring Askani’Son Summers
https://www.chrisisoninfiniteearths.com/?p=37220 - You're already here!