Cable serves as the third chapter of some of the best weeks in the X of Swords event so far. You should read Hellions first, then New Mutants, and finish it up with Cable, which focuses on Cable, Cyclops, and Jean who are attempting to figure out what happened to the people who once manned the S.W.O.R.D. space station. But wait, how does this connect to X of Swords? You’ll find out!
Of all the X of Swords tie-in comics, this feels the most separated from the rest. There’s no adventure to find a sword, nor any training for the upcoming battle, even though it will require Cable and his sword. Though it’s quite clear this book was supposed to be published months ago, it does serve as a good spooky chapter for the spookiest time of year. Jean, Cyclops, and Cable are on a space station with everyone missing and remnants of dead bodies on the walls and decide to split up. Always a bad move. Soon there are strange and scary things put in front of our heroes to make sense of.
This issue adds a lot of mystery and scary elements to an event that has been generally about war and doomsday. That’s quite cool. It further explores the relationship of the family, which has been mostly hinted at and never really focused on. Seeing these characters interact like a domestic family unit is a ton of fun, especially for readers who grew up with Cable being an old man and Cyclops attempting to get past the weirdness of that. It’s unclear whether what the characters discover will matter to this event, or if it will be a big part of Al Ewing and Valerio Schiti’s upcoming S.W.O.R.D. series, but it’s a good start to a new and haunting sort of tale.
Cool hologram effect.
Credit: Marvel Comics
The art by Phil Noto is excellent as always. It’s fun to see Noto play around with a space station, given his excellent work on Star Wars. Here we get some cool blur effects to help maximize an intense and scary moment and a haunting sickly green used in an action scene. For however silly these costumes are, Noto pulls those off too, from Jean’s mask to Cable’s ridiculous armor and Cyclops’ visor.
This is a very good issue, but if you’re looking to save a few bucks you could probably skip it — it doesn’t appear to play a huge part in the event itself. It likely will play a big part in futures stories, but if you’re expecting more than what’s on the Light of Galador sword data page you’re not going to find a lot here.
This is a good horror story within the X of Swords event. Writer Gerry Duggan takes the biggest family unit of the mutants and plops them on a space station teeming with evil and bad vibes. For that alone Duggan has earned a high score for the issue, especially when it’s the spooky time of year. Cable #5 offers an unnerving horror story in an X of Swords package.
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