Cable, Vol. 3: Stranded

Cable (2008)

by Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Paul Gulacy (Illustrator)

We open literally one second after the shattering conclusion of Messiah War, and Cable's mission to save mutantkind has never looked bleaker. In fact, you can't even call it a mission anymore.

After all he's been through, after all he's survived, now all Cable can do now is pray - pray the heavily-armed killers roaming the deep future can't match his survival skills. And what is the fate of Hope - the so-called "Mutant Messiah"?

Collecting: Cable 16-20

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

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2010

About the author

Duane Swierczynski is an American crime writer who has written a number of non-fiction books, novels and also writes for comic books.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bishop has left the Earth all but dead bar two cities in his hunt for Hope! ...and even worse Hope and Cable get separated in the time stream, for the first time ever, Hope alone! The nail-biting drama continues apace, as Swierczynski continues to build his great Cable & Hope story... even bringing in new artist didn't deter from the storytelling style. Solid 8 out of 12 from me.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cable and Hope realise that, to escape Bishop, they need to flee Earth entirely. Cue a clash with the Brood at the edge of the solar system.

It was entertaining enough but nothing special. Consistent art would have helped bump it up to four stars.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty average volume in a otherwise good series.

The start of this arc is pretty good actually. Hope and Cable get seperated and she is pushed into the future 2 years. In doing so she must survive on her own and she meets a boy. Young love begins! Then when time catches up Cable reunites and they go on the run again...this time in SPACE! Aliens attacks and it basically becomes aliens with Bishop as a terminator like force.

Overall, it's decent. The start is a lot of fun. And watching Hope grow up is always good. I also think the relationship between Hope and the boy she liked was good. However, Bishop following them is getting tiresome. I also thought the Aliens subplot was silly and added really nothing.

Overall a okay volume. Not bad but not great. A 2.5 out of 5.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's at this point that this series starts wearing out its welcome. Bishop chases Cable and Hope, Hope barely escapes death by mere seconds due to a deus ex machina, rinse and repeat. It must have been pretty easy to write, too. All the writers had to do was plug the three main characters into a futuristic setting and the rest of the story writes itself.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope is upset with Cable and ends up throwing herself into a different part of time as him. Now on her own, she has to survive with everything he's taught her up to now.

It's an interesting concept, but the interesting parts are never touched on. She never ends up actually surviving by herself and the story devolves quickly into a lot of action. The action however was pretty good. The characters actually feel like they are in danger in this book (and this whole series) which gives everything just a little more weight.

I wasn't a fan of the narration style used to tell the story. Would've preferred if they kept the Hope/Cable inner monologue. There's also not many moments between Hope and Cable, except for them arguing, which is strange since the relationship between these characters is what this whole series was built upon.

Overall a filler volume, but still worth a read if you're a fan of Hope and Cable.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tragically, my library doesn't have a copy of Messiah War, so I had to skip the event and move right on with the rest of the Cable series. Even more tragically... it's not clear that anything changed with the event?

Namely, Bishop is still hunting Cable and Hope across time. We're farther in the future with Hope and Cable separated. Hope befriends a local kid who helps her escape to space, where she's reunited with Cable (and Bishop) and, unexpectedly, is forced to battle the Brood.

It's all chase chase shoot shoot with no time for the characters to like, be real people. I started reading this series in hopes of better understanding Hope's strange journey through time, but the plots here are really no better than a direct-to-video 90s action movie. The art in this volume is especially bad to boot.

[Jeff Lanter · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could, I'd probably give this 3.5 stars. Something within Cable starts to feel a bit tired at this point. One issue is that Bishop is still the same flat and kind of boring character who is mindlessly and desperately trying to kill Hope. That part of the story is growing stale and uninteresting. Hope and Cable stuck in a world where people try to rebuild after Stryfe is initially interesting but something about it is a bit too familiar and predictable, especially with the friendship Hope develops with another kid. This might be the first story I've read with the Brood and they certainly inject (no pun intended) some horror and tension to the plot. The flying space sharks thing was really random and kind of dumb though. Another area of weakness is the art which is definitely not as nice as the previous volumes and the inking has that weird and kind of not, nice digital look to it. I'm going to finish out the next volume but I think it is good that this arc is coming to an end at the same time.

[J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume isn't nearly as enjoyable as the previous ones, and there are a few plot points that just don't make sense. Some of them are significant, but strangely enough the one that sticks with me is this: why are there rocket-powered sharks flying around in space??? The art is much more standard than the previous volumes, as well.

[Alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope doing childish things to cause the pair to separate is kinda expected even if I don't like that trope. With the earth as ruined as it is, I guess space was the only place you could have gone. Who hasn't ripped off Aliens with the Brood either? Art was rough throughout as well. At least it isn't roach people.

[Michael T. Christensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unlike the plot of Messiah War, in this one we actually have a much better progression of the story, as something new actually happens to these characters. Hope grows up and starts to develop her own identity, Bishop takes on a totally new alter ego, and Cable keeps guessing wrong about what Hope will do, proving that he really hasn't taken the time to train her at all.

Also, they go to space, which is a nice change of scenery from the same blasted post-apocalyptic/dystopian landscapes that have dominated the book.

[C · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing the great x read of 17/18...

What has been a great series sort of falls apart here.

It starts out strong with hope and cable becoming separated but quickly becomes a wash rinse repeat plot cycle. I really feel like their story should have moved towards their homecoming at the end of messiah war.

Oh, and rocket powered space sharks. Because this book needed a literal interpretation of just what it was jumping.

[Andrew Margetson · Rating 2 out of 5]

-
• Bishop chasing down Hope and Cable is starting to drag on a bit at this point.
• Hope looks like a full-grown adult in most close-up panels, even though she is meant to be 9-11.
• Bishop escaping to steer a space whale to chase down Hope and Cable seems awful silly.

+
• The brood are quite frightening adversaries

[Judith Groen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was not a bad book perse, but I am getting tired of Bishop wanting to kill Hope and stuff. Also the love of the boy for Hope was cute, but the way the story was written, from his point of view was sometimes annoying. Hope the next volume will be better since I love the Cable/Hope dynamic :)

[Roman Colombo · Rating 4 out of 5]

First loves, first time without Dad there, first time in outer space, first time fighting a giant space whale. Ah adolescence.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can count the number of good Brood stories on one hand and this was not one of them.

[vk chompooming · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent story about the early life of the Mutant "Messiah" Hope as she and her adopted father Cable flee forward through time running from the traitor Lucas Bishop.

[Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really enjoying this Terminator time travel kill the girl story
4 stars

[Fazun · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Julia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mhm, this whole story begins o annoy me. The whole Bishop vs. Cable thing just drags out waaaay to long and the longer it drags out the more time I get to think about how Bishop's motivation is completely nonsensical: Both Cable and Bishop acknowledge that the timeline they are in is not their own future, but one in which Hope did not return and the mutants died out.... so how would killing Hope change any of this and wipe out this timeline they're in? Did Bishop think about this... maybe for one second... maybe before he destroyed the whole planet?... So we have a villain who is completely insane... and the same story over and over again: He tries to kill the girl, Cable rescues her in the last second.

Now for my problem with this particular storyline:
Why would our new character (who's name I have already forgotten) fall in love with Hope? The first thing she does is threatening his life. It's also the second and third thing she does. Is it because she is the only person with hair left on the entire planet? Why does he help her? It's just... Hope is not a very nice person (which is understandable), so this makes no sense to me. Well I guess it does't matter because apart from helping Hope and falling in love with her when they are twelve he has no character to speak of anyway.

I think the biggest problem of this series is, that despite it being the story of Hope growing up, we never get a sense of who she really is. Or rather we see her grow up to become a one dimensional stock character: The tough soldier girl with a heart of gold. I hoped for something more interesting.

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cable has never made any sense to me. He has always come across to me as that character that Marvel created after they jumped the shark several times. But I kind of like Hope. In this one we see Hope age hypothetically from 9 to 11 or 13 or 15 - it almost seems like the book isn't sure. It's clear that she is supposed to be a powerful mutant - but you have no idea based on the book as to what those powers would be or who she is. And then there is Bishop - who in this book is clearly a bad guy. Bishop has always made even less sense to me than Cable. So interesting story and pretty good art and some decent characterization. But no real beginning and no real end and it includes time travel - so no reason to believe it is part of continuity.

[Matthew Ledrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd be lying if I said that the whole "relentless chase across time" thing between Cable and Bishop around which this whole series was based wasn't starting to wear a bit thin at this point. This might be the book when this short series "jumped the shark": it ages Hope in several big jumps, 2 years of which are without Cable due to them being separated in the time-stream.

Still, putting this book from the character "Emil"'s point of view was a nice change to normally simple narration of the soldiers like Cable and Bishop, and the Bishop/ Cable dynamic has the sort of relentless tension that Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones portrayed excellently in "The Fugitive." That element above all else is what earned it the 3 stars it got. :)

[Clare · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love story starring a nine year old and an eleven year old, who become an eleven year old and a thirteen year old. I didn't catch the next time jump but let's assume it's two years again, so thirteen and fifteen. Still creepy guys, especially b/c it's most significant aspect is when they were REALLY young instead of just really young.

The creepiness is not at all helped by the fact that in almost every close up panel Hope looks like a grown woman. It's partly the colouring, which makes it look like she's wearing lipstick, partly the her eyes, which make it look like she's wearing eye liner, and a very sharp jaw line I've never personally seen in a child.

[Elh R' · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love this serie of Cable and Hope, but this vol seems a bit confusing to me, without making too much sense. Actually, the main idea is good : what will happen if Cable and Hope get separated ? I just felt confused at how they 2 get together again, plus that the art differs too much from the volumes before, specially the first ones, and, even when the art continues to be good, there are some panels that I disliked. Still a good story and lead us to the conclusion of the serie.

[Mairi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a story of people hesitating about doing what they've been longing to do, and thereby prolonging the story. Cable and Bishop continue to duke it out across time, and Hope ages and encounters someone else to care about. The art is somewhat inconsistent; Hope's age isn't always clearly portrayed, and the progression of the techno-organic virus makes no sense. In all, I found it ok, but not really more than that.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good installment in the Cable/Hope story. This one looks at the inevitable: what happens when Cable & Hope are separated during a time jump and Cable can't go backwards in time? Introduced some new characters and ended this leg of the series well, as it leads up to the final part of the story before Cable & Hope get to go home.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been four stars, but I was really annoyed about all the men thinking they know what is best for Hope, even her 'love'. Also she was 9, then 11, and then ? The comic quit saying how far ahead in time we had gone.

[zxvasdf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this one as much as the previous entries. The introduction of the Brood kinda turned this into an Alien parody. But you have got to be impressed by Bishop's sheer doggedness.

[Lord · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good story (improvement from Messiah War) if you don't think about it much.

[Rasheta]

Still don't care for the art, but the story is fascinating.