CABLE #104 REVIEW

[Brandon Yates]

<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/cable-104.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/cable-104t.jpg" align=left alt="Cable #104"></a><b>Reviewer:</b> Brandon Yates, brandonyates@zentertainment.com
<b>Quick Rating:</b> Excellent!
<b>Story Title:</b> How Many Albanians Does It Take To Screw In A Lightbulb? (Conclusion)

It's the Clone Wars all over again, as Cable ventures to put an end to the ethnic Albanians clone-factory once and for all.

<b>Written by:</b> Igor Kordey, w/ David Tischman
<b>Art by:</b> Igor Kordey
<b>Lettered:</b> Randy Gentile
<b>Colored by:</b> Avalon Studios' Arsia Rozegar
<b>Assistant Editor:</b> Lynne Yoshii
<b>Editor:</b> Andrew Lis
<b>Editor In Chief:</b> Joe Quesada
<b>President:</b> Bill Jemas

In my review for <b><i>Cable #103</i></b> I predicted "Chow-Yun Fat style theatrics" for this issue, the conclusion to the "How Many Albanians..." storyline. Turns out I was dead wrong, as the violence was in no way glamorous or gratuitous, with Cable barely participating in it besides his... self-destructive actions in the end.

As my Quick Rating indicated, I thought this was an excellent issue, all in all, but I have to criticize the use September 11th news coverage as a backdrop to Goldberg's (evil mercenary mastermind's) speech about "acceptable loss." It's not that I have a problem with 9/11 imagery in comics - I have no problem at all if it's done with respect to the ensuing storyline, but it seemed awfully abitrary here. I'm not sure what it had to do with what Goldberg was talking about. As alternating panels switched back and forth between Goldberg's dialogue and a television commercial for a certain news station's commemorative War Special, I wasn't sure I could find the correlation (outside of the word "war").

Outside of that, I was very impressed with Tischman's final issue of <i><b>Cable</i></b>, though I have to wonder exactly how much influence he had since the credits list "Igor Kordey w/ David Tischman" as the story writers but doesn't list a separate scripting credit for Tischman. I'd like to know how much of this story was Kordey's doing as well, so I can pass the praise where it's due.

After the awkward opening scene with Goldberg, we find Viktoria (Cable's Serbian ally) on the run from a horde of blonde clones (Spider-Man readers should be familiar with those kinds) who are on the verge of madness, as their cellular degradation progresses. The main difficulty with these clones is that they slowly begin to remember everything about the life of their "original self" including the moments leading to his death. If you remembered dying, how would that bode for your mental stabilitiy? Good question. This story arc provided a thoughful answer.

Cable is, once again, deprived of much "screen time," and I'm beginning to get a little turned off by Cable's basic function in this book - to kick people in the ribs and blow stuff up. He's little more than a terrorist in his own book, and I wish Tischman followed through with some of the Askani-aspects he used in the title's "Shining Path" storyline. The real reason I want to see Cable has little to do with my liking the character (up until now, I didn't) but more to do with wanting to see more of Tischman's excellent characterizations and Kordey's captivating illustrations of the one-man-army's subtle moments and bombastic actions.

I will admit, though, that Cable's dimished presence did not adversly affect this conclusion which was told in an engaging fashion, with little questions posed here and there in captions ("If you were a clone who remembered being dead why would you mind dying again?") and a big-scale war between the Serbs and the ethnic Albanians deranged clone army.

Kordey's artwork this issue is great as usual. The Ana-clone/Gani scene is a personal favorite, seeping with hate, vengeance and, ultimately, regret. The artist has the eyes of a cinematographer.

Though the issue ended with the obligatory explosion, it led to subequently quiet final pages with the survivors. Cable begins to wonder about his destructive effect on people and governments and wonders if his way is the right one. I can dig that, given my criticisms above. Hopefully the book's new writer will explore Cable's newfound self-doubt.

Darko Macan (<b><i>Captain America: Dead Men Running</i></b>) is taking over the writing reigns next issue, and while I'm very-much looking forward to that, I can't help but wonder where this book could have gone if Tischman stayed aboard. He took the Askani warrior to more gritty, morally questionable real-world locales, found a way to use clones as an essential plot point, despite all of the negativity the word "clone" implies these days, and he seemed to have an excellent synergy with Kordey, making them the best creative team on this book ever, in my humble opinion.

Kordey's remaining onboard is perhaps a bigger deal than one might believe since he's not only the artist, but an ardent story-contributor who probably participated in more ways to the <i><b>Cable</i></b> relaunch than we'll ever know.

<b>Art:</b>
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<b>Story:</b>
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<b>Overall:</b>
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Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!

[Maximus Prime]

great review
have yet to pick up this issue
but am planning to order it on X-World
i have seen the preview images and they bode well
who is darko
i didn't pick up dead man running
so have no idea of his wriing abilities
anyone want ot fill me in

[Wolverine]

I believe that the Tischman run was a bit dissapointing. Did you know that it is the least succesful of the 2001 re-launchs. The sales have dropped astronomicly since the end of the Weinberg run. Sadly Cable is soon to leave use but i hope Solidier X will carry its legacy onward.

[ShaggyDiz]

I agree. The first arc was good, but this one wasn't all too good. We had to rely on some unbelieveable stuff where clones remember their past lives. I guess people got turned off by what was happening here. Hopefully Darko can fix things up.

[Brandon Yates]

Originally posted by Wolverine
I believe that the Tischman run was a bit dissapointing. Did you know that it is the least succesful of the 2001 re-launchs. The sales have dropped astronomicly since the end of the Weinberg run. Sadly Cable is soon to leave use but i hope Solidier X will carry its legacy onward.

Upside and downside, if what you're saying is true. Creatively, I think it's been a huge success.

who is darko

Darko Macan and Igor Kordey have worked on projects in the past including, I believe, a Tarzan comic so at least we know that they're familiar with each other and can make that much better a team.

I picked up the first issue of Captain America; Dead Men Running (the title on the book is "Men" but in every Marvel ad it's listed as "Man." go figure). I liked it a lot. It was a story about mercenaries and jungle battles and it runs almost parallel with Tischman's concept for CABLE, so I don't expect it to be a huge difference in direction (in other words, don't expect Mr. Sinister or Lila Cheney or whoever).

Now, I admit I didn't buy the rest of Cap: DMR but that was more for budgetary reasons than anything else. I'll probably pick them up once I can find another nickel to rub against the one I've got now.

[charm]

I've had to think long and hard about this, but I thought this issue was a disappointment. I've thoroughly enjoyed Tischman's and Kordey's take on Cable (even more than Weinberg's), but the credits in this issue pointed to Kordey as the main writer and I think it showed.

Previous issues had been detailed, with alot of interaction and speech and in this issue speech appeared to be at a premium. There was much that you had to take as read, with little / no explanation eg clones remembering their former lives, Cable's teleporting ability being jammed (puhlease!), plus Goldberg being portrayed as a really one dimensional bad guy (been there, done that, got the T-shirt). Cable developed little as a character, in fact he appeared little as a character, which is OK during the build up in an arc but not in the final instalment when all should be revealed and all loose threads drawn together. I felt most, if not all, the characters were cliqued - 'looked what you've made happen', ' I don't make things, I unmake them' - what is this supposed to be some sort of major epiphany for Cable. Considering he's supposedly very intelligent, this appears to be an entirely unsuitable statement or a very stupid Cable.

Sorry to sound so negative, but given the way the previous arc had ended and the fact that this arc was building the same way, I was really disappointed with this ending. Deeply unsatisified.

Charm

[Brandon Yates]

Hm, I forgot to mention my small criticism of Goldberg, now that you mention it. But the book's rating would have remained the same since what was there, in my opinion, far outweighed what wasn't.

I didn't get that bit with the Illuminati ring at the very end. Was that supposed to be a shocker?

[Maximus Prime]

how can i become a member of the xfan staff
can i
i just want to give something back to my country
"sniff"

[Kevin Woodside]

I thought, overall, this storyline was good. I thought it was interesting to see Cable's aditute towards clones - with his past experience with it, he seemed to understand the results of toying with nature.

I agree, though, about the 9/11 footage. It just kinda seemed to be there to be there, ya know?

I'm looking forward to Darko. I wasn't sure until I read his work on Cap. It is awesome. I just hope the remaining issues of Cable and the new Soldier X directions allow us to see a new side of Nathan Summers.

As for what Darko has planned - I'd like to have Nathan at least ACKNOWLEDGE his past. That doesn't mean a ton of X-Men guest appearances, but at least an acknowledgement.

But back to the point - yeah, this storyline was good. It could have been much better though. But, overall, it was good and had a strong conclusion.

I don't get the ring thing either.

~W~

[Merlin]

What was with that guy with a the ring. So i heard that is a Illuminati ring. So was that Mr. Tishman ending Cable with soem personal pariniod fear of his that the Illuminati control the world?

[tyran80]

My biggest regret is that we might never see what will happen to all of Tischman's danglers? I mean, we have the Peruvian Askani followers, and in 104 alone, we have Goldman and the man with the Illuminati ring, what will happen with Viktoria, and what will become of Inza after she escaped from prison?

But overall, i liked this issue a lot. The first two issues of this arc were rather slow in respect of what we've seen from Tischman in the Shining Path arc, but this last issue fixed that, definitely.

Well, here's to hoping that Macan can carry Cable / Soldier X with stories on par with the likes of Weinberg and Tischman.

[Brandon Yates]

They've got the entire Shining Path storyline on Marvel.com (dotComics) if anyone's interested. I hadn't read it yet (I started reading/reviewing Cable with #101) and I must say it was a faster-paced overall story for those who thought "How Many Albanians..." was a little too slow for their tastes.

By the way: might as well air this small grievance while it's still relevant - I haven't been a big fan of Tischman's story titles like the aforementioned "How Many Albanians...' and last issue's "Oops! I did it again!"

They just seemed unnecessarily silly, and in no significant way indicative of the excellent stories within.

Again, just a minor quib. I'm bored, so I thought I'd share that. ;)

[Merlin]

Inza escaped from jial when did that happen

[charm]

I actually quite liked the titles, as I think it brought some much needed humour to some of the storylines. Cable used to have some good one liners -

Cable:'.... or someone will end up getting hurt'
Wolvie:'Yeah, like who'
Cable:'Me probably, but you want me co-operative, not comatose'

A personal favourite :D

Charm

[Brandon Yates]

Originally posted by charm
I actually quite liked the titles, as I think it brought some much needed humour to some of the storylines. Cable used to have some good one liners -

Cable:'.... or someone will end up getting hurt'
Wolvie:'Yeah, like who'
Cable:'Me probably, but you want me co-operative, not comatose'

A personal favourite :D

Charm



I never read that issue. That's classic! :LOL:

[tyran80]

Originally posted by Merlin
Inza escaped from jial when did that happen

In the first 3-4 pages of this issue, actually. Read the television text bubbles, they were about to air a tv segment documenting her incredible escape from prison.

[Merlin]

wow I missed that thanks

[Kevin Woodside]

I was wondering . . . what is the "Illuminati?"

~W~

[Brandon Yates]

Depends on who you ask and how paranoid they are. Type it into Yahoo and there's a bunch of sites with their own takes on this supposedly secret conspiracy group ("men in black") who control the world or somesuch.

As for how "they" fit into CABLE is anyone's guess. I suppose we'll have to wait and see if Darko follows up. Personally, I don't care if he doesn't.

[SethX]

Originally posted by ShaggyDiz
I agree. The first arc was good, but this one wasn't all too good. We had to rely on some unbelieveable stuff where clones remember their past lives. I guess people got turned off by what was happening here. Hopefully Darko can fix things up.

Personally, i hate the book now that Weinberg and RYan are gone. THe art is substandard and the writing is pedantic

[Brandon Yates]

Originally posted by SethX


Personally, i hate the book now that Weinberg and RYan are gone. THe art is substandard and the writing is pedantic

Pedantic? Seems like an odd word to describe Tischman's stories. Can you explain what you thought was pedantic about Cable? An example or somesuch. Just curious.

[tyran80]

Odd. I always found Ryan to be a strange choice for a Cable artist myself. For a dark, gritty character like Nathan Summers, Ryan, while very good, is too cartoony. I feel that Kordey suits Cable, artistically speaking, so much better.

[SoopaFly]

i think all the new cable issues are good but just not how it used to be

[charm]

Tyran and myself are at one on this (enough said ;) :D ). Although I enjoyed RW & Ryan, Cable was v quickly de-aging (compare the early issues of the Harmony timeline with jow Cable looked in 96 and he looks about 20 years younger).

When you say pedantic, I'm assuming you mean slow, however, I think this type of build up suits Cable. Comeon, the man's 104, he's not doing anything in a hurry :D .

Charm