Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews

Cable #5
Marvel Comics
Swierczynski & Olivetti

The finale of the opening arc has Cable battling Bishop. Again. Yes, they fight and to no one’s shock, Cable gets away. Otherwise the title would have switched names to Bishop by now. The issue contains some nice artwork and some good character moments from Cable’s friend, Sophie. Beyond that, the issue is okay but far from great.

The issue begins with Cable and Sophie heading to the mansion. Cable finds that Cannonball has left things in great order. Weapons are kept up, the blackbird is working and so is Cerebra. Finding this, Cable destroys it. How convenient that it explodes and leaves a Phoenix reflection in the baby’s eyes. Cable tries to ditch Sophie, but instead she dresses like an X-Men and arms herself to the teeth. This sequence gives another interesting moment for the baby who crosses her arms and make a “you take that and like it” face to Cable. This infant is more advanced then most 18 month olds, but hey, whatever works.

Bishop takes out some of his captives and eventually gets some of them to follow in his quest against Cable. Then he is seen driving in Manhattan. So how does Bishop cross the river? You got me, considering half of NJ is in the ocean and Sophie had just mentioned last issue how impossible it was to get into the city. Whatever works.

Cable lands the blackbird on top of Bishop and they battle. Somehow Cable planted landmines (apparently off panel) but this doesn’t stop Bishop. Sophie shoots him in the back but this doesn’t work either. Finally, Bishop has Cable dead to rights and Cable vanishes! Yes, he “fixes” his time jumper and is gone. The reasoning is ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous that I cant imagine it took Cable all this time to figure it out.

So that’s the issue. Cable and the baby leave. Bishop is left screaming “not again!” and Sophie begins to make her world a better place by killing those in charge. Alls well that ends well.

Now, I really make the issue sound silly, but to be fair the moments with Sophie are really great. She really makes Cable feel like a fool with how he has been acting. She actually helps him grow as a character in this issue. The art is also really good. The people getting shot up are a bit much, but the detail is really good. Also, the art was able to give the baby a little personality, which is kind of amazing.

The downsides are how the sorry played out. The ending was not believable. Neither was Cable’s use of the blackbird. Why not kill Bishop from above? Or fly far away?

As the opening arc ends I’m not sure I will continue with this series. Now, this individual issue isn’t bad at all, but I just don’t know how much time travel I can handle here. I would think you really need to love Cable (or Bishop) to want to read this series. I guess you could also love Jean Grey a lot, in hopes that she is the baby. Anyway you look at it, I liked the issue for the most part, but the story elements felt a little weak at the end.

3 out of 5 geek goggles


Cable #5