Cable #9

Man, Bishop is one bad dude. After spending a few issues explaining himself to the X-Men, he reveals that he in fact is just trying to get a weapon to destroy North America that they keep at their HQ. I'm not sure I understand the whole concept behind the book right now though. I guess Bishop is trying to make the world inhospitable so that Cable will only have a few spots in the future where he can hide the mutant messiah from Messiah Complex. Bishop reasons that if he succeeds in killing the child, that timeline will disappear and the deaths he causes won't "really" happen anyway. So is Bishop in that "alternate" timeline now? Is Cable's future just one of many, or what exactly is going on? I think this type of story would be fine more on the outskirts of the Marvel U, but by including the X-Men so heavily, it makes me very confused on what is happening. At this point, I think it would be easier to just bring Cable back to the present and tell the story in one time, but that goes against the core concept of the title. This story on its own, with Cable living in a future haven attacked by roach-men is entertaining. I like Cable's personality and the messiah is growing up into a fun kid-character too. On its own, good stuff, I'm just confused by Bishop's plan and what these alternate timelines mean. Duane Swirczynski writes this book too, but it is a lot more confusing than Iron Fist (time weirdness in both though... interesting).

Ariel Olivetti's artwork is an acquired taste. If you like his computery-looking huge dudes, there is more of that here. I like his X-Men too, with Wolverine's chops showing under his mask being a notable neat quirk. This book is skippable overall though, due to the confusion about how it fits in.

Average