Cable #1 Review

Cable #1
Writer: Jamers Robinson
Penciler:  Carlos Pacheco
Inker:  Rafael Fonteriz
Colorist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Associate Editor: Mark Basso
Publisher: Marvel

A Review by Robert Coffil

James Robinson is a name in comics that will always draw my attention. Sure his epic run on Starman is quick to fall off the tongue of any longtime comic reader. However, his recent run on books like Airboy at Image and Scarlett Witch at Marvel have kept him on the tongues of comic book readers “in the know”.

Cable can be a divisive character. Even to long-time comic readers, his story is a convoluted mess. Between the time traveling to protect Hope (who seems to have been completely removed from the board in X-books) and the technovirus that was slowly killing him, Cable has gone from being at the forefront of the revival of the mutants to being shunted to the periphery. Now, however, he is thrust into the forefront of his own book, minus any X team affiliations (sad face), by writer James Robinson.

What Robinson does so well in the first issue of Cable is not mentioning the core character’s chains of continuity. The reader is given a “man on a mission tale” and it works. You need not know anything about this character and you can jump right into this story. Cable is presented as a law bringer, of sorts, who is on a mission to subdue a person traveling through time bequeathing anachronistic weapons to “ne’er-do-wellers” and Cable must subsequently deal with them.

In American cinema history, modern westerns owe a great deal to the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa. Never has the connection between the Eastern and Western heroes been so close as the pages of Cable #1. Cable travels to the old west and to the Japanese middle ages hunting his time criminal and henchmen. Carlos Pacheco uses a similar style to Kurosawa when presenting the story of the issue. Carlos’s establishing shots set the American West as being dry, hot and lawless. His Japanese landscape is lush, beautiful, but also has that danger which might lurk around any corner. Carlos’s panel layout is never boring and keeps the story moving at brisk pace. Even though Pacheco’s Cable is always grimacing and appearing fearsome, the cast in this issue displays a full range of emotion.

Verdict:
Must Buy! You need not be a fan of X-men, Mutants, Cable or Marvel to enjoy this comic. If you are looking for a good story about a man on the hunt for a villain, Cable 1 is where you hop on this train at.