Cable: United We Fall

Cable (2024) #1-4

by Fabian Nicieza, Scot Eaton (Illustrator), Lan Medina (Illustrator)

The future must not come to pass! All the signs are here: The Neocracy is coming - and with it comes not only the end of mutantkind, but all of humanity as well! As if rescuing his time-traveling younger self from the ongoing threat of Orchis weren't enough, can Cable root out this growing threat and decimate it before the Neocracy has a chance to take hold and exterminate all life on Earth? Or is he already too late to change the future? When their investigation sends Nates old and young crashing into the Grey Gargoyle, they'll have to battle for their lives to avoid being turned into stone! And each step forward brings them further into the crosshairs of the mysterious Parvenu! The weight of the world is on the shoulders of Cable and Nate! Collecting CABLE (2024) #1-4.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2024

About the author

Fabian Nicieza is a writer and editor who is best known as the co-creator of DEADPOOL and for his work on Marvel titles such as X-Men, X-Force, New Warriors, and Robin.

His first novel, the Edgar Award-nominated SUBURBAN DICKS, a sarcastic murder mystery, is on sale now from Putnam Books.

The Dicks will return in THE SELF-MADE WIDOW, coming June 21st.

Reviews

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
When older Cable and young Cable are on an adventure together, you know there's going to be plenty of "wibbly wobbly timey wimey" stuff. This time the Cables focus on taking down the Neocracy, a future full of human/mutant/robot equality where everyone is a being of energy and have thus lost all freedom and autonomy. This is old-style Cable comics (Fabian Nicieza at the helm!) and reads very much like one.
Overall, a good read, but not very memorable in the long term.
Recommend, if you like Cable.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Grew up a Cable fan and picked up in a discount bin. Not a huge fan of 2 versions of Cable running around together. Wasn’t the same for me. Probably need to know more about the how and why but story didn’t really grab me.

[Alex Sarll · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one I read out of simple completism and not wanting Krakoa to be over, but for saying I'm not a particular fan of either writer or lead(s), it's entertaining and even unexpectedly thought-provoking. The parenthesis because we open with regular grizzled Cable rescuing his younger self from Orchis captivity, and much timey-wimey niggling at everything from appropriate tenses to what this all means for free will ensues. The premise is that Cable has seen the first hints of an approaching extinction-level threat, the Neocracy, which he's watched wipe out too many timelines before (except also in the future - see what I mean about tenses?), and is now determined to nip in the bud: "I'm tired of being from the future and always running out of time." Whether they were a threat he'd mentioned before, or this is a backstory insert, I couldn't tell you: like I say, not usually a fan (although along the way, the comic does dig out what I recognise as a ton of obscure old characters). But the concept fits much better with core X-Men themes than some of their more offbeat foes, given the whole baseline idea of the books is about the response to difference, and the Neocracy's solution is to make everyone the same. This is not the only Fall book to make the bold move of positing an even bigger threat which justifies leaving the battle against Orchis to others – but unlike Children Of The Vault, here it doesn't break the logic of the shared world, because here it's in the shadows where only a time-traveller knows to look. The miniseries is not perfect - the whole temporary clone idea feels wedged in to little effect, and towards the end it sometimes feels like it's losing focus - but for the most part it's smart, sometimes very funny, and pulls off an unexpectedly satisfying and bittersweet conclusion. A surprise delight.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

FABIAN NICIEZA: I have this idea for a new Cable story, guys...
MARVEL EDITORIAL: That's great, but we've got this big 'Fall of X' epic going on. Can it wait 'til after?

FABIAN: Oh? I mean, i can still tie it in to the fall of Krakoa. It won't take long. He's a time traveler anyway.
MARVEL EDITORIAL: Sure. Fine. Whatever. You gave us lots to work with on Cable in the 90's. We can sweep this under the rug if we need to. Want to use teen Cable? We aren't doing much with him...
----------------------
That's how I imagine this whole pitch went down. The Neocracy story could have been written any time in a Cable series. In fact, it probably would have fit in well with the 'Nate as world savior' bit that had him trying to end war and follow his path to a brighter future....but it wasn't. It was thrown into a massive storyline that's going to reset the X-titles across the board. In fact, they're saying that Marvel editorial doesn't want any 'complicated' characters to appear for awhile when the new stories happen.

That's a copout in my opinion. You're telling me that there aren't writers out there that can write an intelligent story that won't A: Bore me, or B: confuse me with a messy timeline?

Ugh. Good try Marvel.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fall of X comics have generally been pretty terrible because it appears that it was editorially mandated that nothing notable could occur between the Third Hellfire Gala and the Fall of the House of X. So we got four months of wheel-spinning, with the worst occurring in the interminable solo miniseries.

Fabian Nicieza tries to do better by suddenly sidestepping to a different threat: the Neocracy. But they come out of nowhere, they anticlimatically disappear into nothing (even the comic says so!) and so no one cares. Even the fun idea of having young and old Cable together does nothing for the story.

The only saving grace of United We Fall? Nicieza remembers that Cable & Deadpool happened (after all he wrote it!) and even reverses the stupid death of one of the major characters from that comic courtesy of timey-wimeyness (in a single sentence of explanation).

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t remember Cable appearing in the Fall of X main line so I for the life of me can’t see how this arc had any sort of connection back to the bigger event it runs parallel too. The connection between Young and Old Cable is fun, but it’s a little stale and underwhelming here. The antagonists too are so ho hum — I wasn’t really familiar with almost any of them and they come and go within the arc so quickly in almost every instance. I just would like a bit more…connective tissue with the mainline I think, but that’s been an issue with the Cable stories of the last few years. Young Cable worked better playing off the New Mutants, but Old Cable needs something more innovative to give his stories a reason to exist beyond showing us the character is still plugging around.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old Man Cable and Teen Cable team up to battle a company that's working to bring about the Neocracy. Don't worry, the "Neocracy" is thoroughly defined in United We Fall, so you don't need to know anything going in. For a book with two Cables, there's a lot less running and gunning than you might expect, though.

The ultimate crux of the book is that Old Man Cable and Teen Cable are actually on different life paths - and that's a good thing, I guess. We don't have to repeat our mistakes! Or our victories!

Don't expect any real tie-ins with the Fall of X, though. This is a decently enjoyable one-and-done miniseries. I expected a lot worse - United We Fall cleared my low bar.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won't defend this book. It's not very bad, but it's also extremely pointless. If you reach hard enough, you could find parallels in its narrative with the dominion ascension games of the villains in the other titles, but nothing like that is ever capitalized on in the text so I can't say that was intentional. It's a very run of the mill Cable story that has little to nothing to do with the larger X-Men narrative. Cable creates an engaging antagonist but feels out of place in the X-Men larger continuity.

[Matt J · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting Coda to Nicieza’s great Cable and Deadpool run, touching on the main themes and assessing where the character is today. It’s not great, not bad.

I’m very happy they brought Irene back after an unceremonious and pointless death. Revisiting the early arc of Cable and Deadpool by having the villain try the same thing that Cable did was a great touch. I think this story may have been better with Deadpool instead of young Cable given that it felt like such a throwback to that time, though young Cable did offer a fresh perspective.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty pointless little miniseries that seems to exist only to give Cable something to do during the Fall of X, and even then, this is a side quest that has nothing really to do with the main action. Here, old Cable and teen Cable team up to stop the Neocracy, a future where mankind and mutantkind are all united by becoming energy beings who are all the same, with no individuality, etc. It's a threat that seems to come from nowhere and then disappears with a bit of a whimper. The art's not bad.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sure this will have importance to the Fall soon but at the moment it has zero importance to the wider story going on and it feels weird taking two of the biggest members of this fight out of the fight for a completely different one. The only thing I can see being used from this is whatever technic virus they used is going to be used on the AI to defeat Orchis.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize Teen Cable could ever return.

Also it's weirdly similar in theme to Children of the Vault. Cable teams up with a time-travelling frenemy to destroy a group of super-mutants that threaten the future.

[Tor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was initially excited to see what was going on with Kid Cable but yeaaaaah this was just a confusing, pointless mess that felt entirely disconnected to the rest of Krakoa/the Fall of X. I also really did not like the art at all.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth star is because COURIER IS BACK BABY!!
The story is solid, and actually had some character beats which a lot of fall of x is missing. I don’t know how critical it is to the plot, but at least the story is satisfying for fans of the 1998 Gambit ongoing and Cable & Deadpool.

[Derrick O'Rourke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fine but not crucial for the big story

I got this volume thinking it was a key part of the fall of x storyline but it is not. It can be skipped entirely. It's fine as a standalone story but nothing amazing.

[Andres Pasten · Rating 1 out of 5]

Salvo la última viñeta, no tiene relación alguna con Fall of X

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4
I like Cable. And I have enjoyed kid Cable a good deal. Kind of an insignificant side quest. But it was more about their characters. The plot was a vehicle for that.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 stars

[Gary Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 336

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An adventure about destiny and choices.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

nathan summers the only person alive to manage to be a father to a younger version of himself AND his mother’s lesbian immaculate conception daughter

[Bertazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

That's it... I have read almost every Krakoa paperback. An amazing journey.

[Javen Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring characters, story that was hard to follow/makes sense of and speech bubbles that hurt to read at times...