X-amining Cable #44

"Temptation In The Wilderness"

June 1997

In a Nutshell

Cable reunited with his birth mother

Writer: James Robinson

Penciler: Randy Green & Allen Im

Inkers: Scott Hanna and Scott Koblish

Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft

Colorist: Mike Thomas

Editor: Mark Powers

Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

Plot

At the X-Mansion, Scott and Jean discover Cable locked in a meditative state, the result of being trapped on the Astral Plane by his mother, Madelyne Pryor. Madelyne wants to show Cable details of her life, and their limited time together. She shows him Mister Sinister's lab where she was created, and explains how she wants to get revenge on Cyclops and all mutants for hurting her. Cable reminds her that he is a mutant himself, and takes control of the setting, showing her Apocalypse's fortress, where he says true evil lies. He insists the X-Men's intentions are noble, and says he'll never join her crusade. When Madelyne askes whether this means he feels nothing for her, he suggests a neutral place where they can psychically meet again if needed: the cabin in Alaska where they lived when he was a baby, a place he knows Madelyne was happy. Just then, Nate announces that he can feel Jean breaking through, and suggests Madelyne leaves. Nate wakes up in the real world, and thanks Scott and Jean for being there for him. Meanwhile, in the Swiss Alps, Sebastian Shaw and Ch'vayre strike a deal to work together in order to rule both the future and the past. 

Firsts and Other Notables

Writer James Robinson's brief foray into the X-office begins with this issue, the start of his run on Cable that will last through issue #51.  

Cable meets his birth mother, the resurrected-by-horny-Nate-Grey Madelyne Pryor, for the first time in this issue (though later retcons involving an alternate reality Jean Grey known as the Red Queen arguably nullifies this as their first meeting).

Cable #44 concludes with Sebastian Shaw meeting with Ch'Vayre, a setup for "Hellfire Hunt", Robinson's signature (really, his only) story in the book, which begins after "Operation: Zero Tolerance" and next month's flashback issue. 

Scott Summers, Husband of the Year

We get the first on-panel reaction from Cyclops to the news that his evil ex-wife is seemingly alive; it is...muted.

A Work in Progress

Madelyne jokes that if they wait long enough on the Astral Plane, they may see Doctor Strange whiz by. 

Madelyne points out that Cable and Mister Sinister share a first name; the correlation between Cyclops' child having the same name as his childhood bully (who was later revealed to be Sinister) has been mentioned before, but this is coming after Sinister's original name was established in The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix miniseries. 

Madelyne gives Cable crap for having been in the past so long and not defeating Apocalypse yet, to which he has no response. 

Cable doesn't believe Madelyne is really his mother, but rather, all her misery and misfortune made manifest. 

That said, while he also refuses to join her, he does establish their former home in Alaska as a neutral place where they could meet again in the future.  

Austin's Analysis

Appropriately enough for a writer arguably best known for his work rooting around in the Golden Age past of DC Comics, James Robinson's brief run on the series begins with a relatively quiet retrospective story. The return of Madelyne Pryor over in X-Man is the kind of thing this book ultimately had to address, given it creates a situation where both Cable and his mom are alive and adult enough to meaningfully interact with each other for the first time. Hindsight — knowing this Madelyne is only kinda, sorta the real deal (even before getting into all the Red Queen nonsense) — robs it of its impact somewhat, but it's still fun to see these two characters take a step back and reflect on the comic book craziness of their respective lives. 

More effective is the way Robinson ends the encounter with a sort of detente. Cable isn't going to forgive his mother's supervillain proclivities but he won't attack her, nor is Madelyne going to give up her evil ways, but also won't throw her son under the same bus she would the rest of the X-Men; each is willing to consider the other in a new light due to the circumstances of their relationship. It's a surprisingly nuanced status quo for a genre that tends to devolve all disagreements into punching, a franchise that earlier had one of these characters try to kill the other while he was a baby in order to bring hell to Earth, and a series whose title character, all recent development aside, is still largely known in 1997 for wielding comically-large guns. All else aside, the relatively measured conclusion of this meeting is appreciated. 

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