Cable (Nathan Christopher Charles Summers) (Comic Book Character)

Gender:Male
Age:Unknown
Location:Marvel Comics Earth-616

The son of Cyclops and the Jean Grey clone Madelyne Pryor, (Nathan) Christopher Summers was born while his father and the X-Men were in France after their return from Asgard.
Due to his mother's insistence that Cyclops leave the X-Men, and Scott's subsequent loss of his leadership to Storm in a duel, the entire Summers family moved to Alaska. However, soon after Scott traveled to New York (to find that Jean Grey was still alive), the Summers home was attacked by the Marauders and young Chris was captured and brought to Mr. Sinister, the man who had engineered his existence. He remained in Sinister's lab until just before Inferno, whn his mother, now the super-powered Goblin Queen, came to take him back.

Madelyne was going to scarifice Chris in order to permanently establish a portal between Earth and Limbo. The baby's fear was so string that it reached across the ocean to his "sister" Rachel, who came flying to the States from the UK, bringing Excalibur in her wake. In the end, Madelyne was defeated and she died, so Chris went to live with his father and Jean (who had inherited Madelyne's memories and so was pretty much the same as the baby's mother) in X-Factor's Ship. It was soon apparent that Chris was a very powerful mutant, as before he was a year old he was capable of generating an impenetrable forcefield around his body. This ability could at times be a liability, as it tended to repel Jean's TK. Life went on about as smoothly as possible for a super-powered family until the fateful day that Apocalypse, a long-time foe of X-Factor, sent his Dark Riders to attack Ship. During the battle, Ship was infected with a techno-organic virus and blew up, although it managed to lift off and save X-Factor. The mutants arrived atthe Inhuman city of Attilan in the Blue Area of the Moon. They teamed up with the Inhumans to defeat Apocalypse, who had established a base there, but at a terrible price. While his minions fought the heroes, Apocalypse had captured Chris Summers and infected him with a techno-organic virus that was killing him.

After Cyclops blsted Apocalypse to bits, a mysterious time-traveler appeared calling herself Askani. She told Scott that she could save Chris, IF she could bring him to the future. Cyclops agreed and gave up his son to save his life, knowing that he would never see him again. Thankfully, this was not the case. Almost as soon as Chris arrived 2000 years in the future, the Clan Askani was attacked by Apocalypse's forces. Apocalypse ruled this era, and only the Mother Askani, who was really Rachel Summers, and her followers opposed him. As the attack began to wipe out the last of the Askani, Rachel put into motion two other plans: the first was to clone Nathan Christopher, who was dying from the T-O infection, and the second was to bring the minds of Cyclops and Phoenix forward to her time into specially prepared bodies, so that they could raise Nathan Christopher and protect him from Apocalypse.

Unexpectedly, Nathan survived, but the clone was captured by Ch'vayre and was raised by Apocalypse to become Stryfe, the Chaos-Bringer, Cable's mortal foe. For 12 years, the Dayspring clan (as Slym (Cyclops), Redd (Jean) and Nathan came to be known) moved through Apocalypse's realm, hiding their true natures from the High Lord and just being a family. Redd was constantly teaching Nathan how to use his powers to control and hide his T-O infection. Finally, however, the Prelates caught up with them as Apocalypse was preparing to transfer his essence into the powerful young body of Stryfe. Clan Daysrping and some allies ended up breaking in and fighting Apocalypse. During the battle, Nate was contacted by his "sister" Rachel, who helped him fight off Stryfe before she finally died. The Daysprings were victorious, and Apocalypse died after failing to assimilate Stryfe, but immediately afterwards, Slym and Redd were pulled back to the 20th Century, as the Askani psychic powers holding them there finally wore off.

Nate was left alone, but soon became fast friends with Tetherblood, and the two traveled the world together. After Apocalypse's death, the New Canaanites came to power, but were no better to the average citizen that their predecessor. During one Canaanite raid, Nate was injured, and his techno-virus flared up. Then, Nathan was contacted by the mysterious Blaquesmith, who sensed something within Nathan and pulled out a sentient energy field that called itself "Professor" (and which was the remnant of Ship). Nathan and the Professor were linked, and the Professor helped Nathan regain control. Blaquesmith told Nathan that he must go to Ebonshire, where the last of the Askani would train him in his powers so he could fulfill his destiny. Nate remained in Ebonshire only a short time, as the Askani were betrayed by 'Strator Umbridge, and the village was destroyed by the Canaanites. However, Nate met Aliya, the Askani novitiate who would train him and eventually marry him. After the fall of Ebonshire, Nathan, Aliya and Nate's best friend Tetherblood founded the Clan Chosen to pick up where the Askani left off.

After fighting both the Canaanites and Stryfe for years, trying to return freedom to the people of Earth, the Clan Chosen had grown to a large size. Unfortunately, during one battle, Styfe set a bomb that killed Aliya, and also captured her son Tyler. Cable led a team into Stryfe's base to rescue his son, but it was too late. Tyler had been brainwashe into serving Stryfe and managed to trap Dawnsilk, one of the Chosen, with a neural tap, which would destroy her mind. Cable was forced to shoot Tyler to save Dawnsilk. Shortly thereafter, Stryfe used his Zero unit to travel back to the 20th Century as a means of escape. Cable followed Stryfe to the past, but was disoriented on arrival. He met Moira MacTaggert and then Professor Xavier, how helped him acclimate to this era. Later on, Cable incorporated the Professor into the space station Graymalkin, and was able to use its technology to teleport through time and space.

At some point in his journeys through time, Cable became known as the Traveler, and battled the malicious Skornn in a far-off place. He also attempted to defeat Apocalypse in the ancient past, even shooting his nemesis in the head once, but Apocalypse always came back. On one of these travels Cable seems to have made a bargain with Apocalypse's scribe, Ozymandias, but the nature of the deal is still unknown.

As a front for his search for Stryfe, Cable organized and led the mercenary group the Six Pack, which was very good at what it did. It was during this time period the Professor found evidence that Sam Guthrie had apparently survived into the 24th Century. This indicated to Cable that Sam was an External. On one mission for the mysterious Mr. Tolliver, however, their fortunes changed when their intended target turned out to be Stryfe's base! Cable was shocked and Stryfe escaped. The Six Pack, having broken their contract, were hunted all over the world. Finally, Cable tracked Stryfe down and tool the Pack with him to the new base to steal Stryfe's command files. They got in and got the disk, but Stryfe had laid a trap. With nowhere to go, Hammer decided to give Stryfe the disk, but Cable freaked and shot his teammate in the back. Stryfe retrieved the disk anyway, and then detonated the base. While Cable got out, his teammate Kane was caught in the blast and lost his limbs, later replaced with bionics by Department K.

After the Six Pack disbanded, Cable continued his mission to find Cannonball, and ended up trying to save Rusty and Skids from Freedom. Unfortunately, the M.L.F. had other ideas, and broke the mutants out of Federal custody themselves, getting Cable caught in the process. Cable quickly escaped and soon ran into the New Mutants, who were at the time staying with X-Factor. The kids were under attack by Freedom Force, and Cable's intervention helped them turn the tide and defeat their foes. Cable took over the leadership of the New Mutants, moved them back into the ruins of the X-Mansion, and began molding them into a harder-edged team. However, shortly after the mutants were captured and put on trial in Genosha, the New Mutants roster had dropped to two, so Cable began recruiting new members like Thunderbird II and Domino. Then two more refugees dropped into their laps, and the team reorganized under the name X-Force.

In one of X-Force's first battles, Sam was impaled by one of Sauron's talons and was apparently killed. When he awoke (as Cable had gambled he would) Cable explained to him that he was an External. Shortly thereafter, Domino betrayed the team and destroyed their base, but not before the kids escaped. Domino was revealed to be Copycat, and Cable was presumed to have been caught in the explosion. In reality, Cable returned to find the real Domino, who was being held captive by Tolliver. At that time, Cable's old friend Kane (who now bore a BIG grudge against him) was tracking the M.L.F. and found out that Stryfe looked exactly like Cable. Kane hunted Cable down, confronted him with his evidence, and the two of them went after Stryfe. They failed to capture him, and Kane was once again injured, but Cable saved him by bringing him to the future.

Months later, X-Force was shocked to see Cable shoot Professor X on television. Cable managed to elude the combined X-Teams long enough to gather some data from Department K, although he was confronted by Wolverine and Bishop, who gave him the benefit of the doubt after he teleported them all to Graymalkin. Cable joined the X-Teams in the final fight against Stryfe on the Moon and seemingly perished when he and his clone we sucked into a temporal vortex. Cable survived, Stryfe did not. However, Stryfe managed to porject his mind into Cable, and was sharing space with him for a while. Finally, Sinister told Cable that HE was the original Summers child, and Stryfe was the clone, and Cable convinced Stryfe to let go and accept death. Cable then returned to X-Force in time to assault Avalon in order to get the Professor out. Cable tried to blow up the station, but was badly wounded by Magneto. The Professor was again integrated into Cable's body for awhile, as he recuperated.

Later on, when Legion went back in time to try to kill Magneto in the past, Cable used his latent time-travel ability, with the help of Xavier and Phoenix, to project himself back in time to contact Bishop, causing him to remember the ture timeline and reverse the Age of Apocalypse. Cable's powers had increased by this point to much greater levels, and he was using his telepathy and telekinesis much more easily. He moved X-Force back into the Mansion, but they left him when Bastion began Operation: Zero Tolerance and Cable wanted them to accept new identities. Soon after, Cable saved the life of Irene Merryweather, a reporter who was being hunted by the Hellfire Club. Irene became Cable's chronicler, taking down his story for posterity.

By this point, Cable realized that is was HIS destiny to fight Apocalypse and prevent his timeline for coming to pass. His powers were growing to incredible leverls when the Shadow King's telepathic shockwave hit and completely depleted his powers, causing the T-O virus to rampage out of control. Only the Psi-Mitar, brought to this time by Ch'Vayre, allowed Cable to survive. The Psi-Mitar became Cable's chief weapon. He soon fought the Herald of Apocalypse over New York City, and with the help of the Avengers managed to keep the villain from destroying the city. Finally when Apocalypse made his bid for ultimate power, Nathan was revealed as one of The Twelve and was captured. Unfortunately, he could not defeat Apocalypse because the High Lord had Death III threaten to kill Caliban. Cable was forced to surrender, and even worse, to later stand by and watch as his father sacrificed himself to stop Apocalypse. After the final battle, Cable joined the X-Men to honor his father. Six months later, Cable became embroiled in a battle between two spirits of the group called the Undying, as well as between the two timelines spawned from the result of that battle, the Ranshi Empire and Harmony. Each timeline sent forces from 2000 years in the future to the present, where Cable was said to be the nexus that would determine which timeline would survive.

After defeating the Undying and forcing a new unknown timeline to evolve, Cable rescued his "sister" Rachel from a man named Gaunt who lived at the end of time. He also helped Jean track down Cyclops and in the final confrontation, killed Apocalypse's astral form with his Psi-Mitar. During his tenure with the X-Men Cable was assigned to guard Senator Robert Kelly, just as Kelly was changing his long-time anti-mutant stance. Unfortunately, even Cable's presence couldn't save Kelly from assassination by a human bigot. Soon afterwards, Cable was then embroiled in the machinations of the Dark Sisterhood, who framed him for murder, forcing him to go underground and cut all his ties to the X-Men, Irene and Blaquesmith. After foiling the Sisterhood's plans to usurp the Presidency, Cable struck out on his own, traveling to places of unrest such as Peru and Macedonia, using his powers to try and help stop villainous plots, along the way imparting Askani philosophy to those he befriended. Shortly after the cure for the Legacy Virus was released, Cable noticed a change in his T-O infection that soon allowed him to expel the virus from his body. He was left with a bionic arm and eye, but his powers were finally free to reach their full potential. Unfortunately, Cable now has little control over his powers, and has shut them down in combat until he learns to regulate them better.

It seems that Cable at some point disappeared for two years, and reappeared only via a journal in a CD-Rom he sent to Irene Merryweather. He had been falsely accused of murdering a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and also was concerned over his increasing powers, which now included flight and the ability to affect mass amounts of minds. He traveled across the globe, trying to help different people, teaching them about the Askani philosophy along the way. When (and if) exactly all this occured is still unknown.

Sometime towards the end of this journey, yet somehow in the present day, Cable tried to rescue a girl named Magda from the death penalty, as he felt she was wrongfully convicted, without the benefit of a trial. When Magda declined his offer and opted to die, Cable went into a depression for about six months, until he was contacted by Domino, who had information regarding the new Weapon X Program. Cable began leading a group of former associates in an "Underground" movement to take down Weapon X. He also recruited Weapon X Agent Jackson, who got them into the compound. Unfortunately, Jackson betrayed the Underground and used advanced technology to co-opt Cable's telepathy and knock the mutants out. Cable was severely compromised, but was spirited away from Weapon X by Marrow. He gave Marrow the codes to contact all the Underground cells and disband them, but unbeknownst to him, she converted them to her own new Gene Nation. Meanwhile, Cable's memory was tampered with so that he reported to the X-Men that Neverland was a hoax and Weapon X was not experimenting on mutants.

Some time later, Cable again began operating as a solo agent, trying to right wrongs around the world. His T-O Virus returned, though his powers were even more formidable than ever. Cable soon came into conflict with Deadpool over the Facade virus, which allowed those infected to change their forms at will. During this engagement Cable and Deadpool were wounded and each used the other's abilities to heal themselves. Cable got some of DP's healing factor to control the T-O virus, and Deadpool got some of the T-O to control the Facade virus. A side effect of this merging was that Deadpool was teleported (and sometimes merged with) Cable whenever Nathan used his bodyslide technology, giving Deadpool access to Cable's safehouse. Cable then took control of Facade when it was unleashed upon the world and turned everyone pink for a short time. Now at full capacity, Cable reconstructed a new station, Providence, from the wreckages of Graymalkin and Avalon and invited people to join him. Intending to bring peace to the world, Cable demanded the destruction of all missile weapons. However, the world did not agree, sending first S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new Six Pack and then the X-Men against Cable.

Cable, however, was able to hold all of them at bay, and only allowed Deadpool to get close to him with a piece of his old Time-Displacement Core. Cable had Deadpool excise some of his brain mass, but not before he linked everyone in the world, to show them what a utopia it could be if everyone understood each other. Following his self-lobotomy, Cable was near death, as were the Six Pack, whose minds were trapped inside his. However, Deadpool and the Fixer restored Cable to health by integrating a baby Phalanx into his body to replace the broken T-O mesh that made up his arm and left side. Cable was saved, and his powers severely diminished from their god-like ultimate potential.

Soon afterwards, Cable tried to round up his old X-Force team to battle the Skornn, a menace from the past whom Cable had once defeated. He managed to recruit Shatterstar, but an old ally, Jon Spectre, got to Cannonball and Sunspot first, among others. Eventually they all agreed to work together, but it was Cable who had to use the Five Fingers of Annihilation, a mystical weapon, to destroy the Skornn by sending it through a spacetime portal. Unfortunately, Cable was sucked into the portal as well. Back on Providence, Irene and Forge got Deadpool to agree to use his genetic connection to Cable to try and locate him in the multiverse, with Cannonball and Siryn playing backup on a three-minute delay. Deadpool found a few versions of Cable, all of them extreme variations of parts of his personality, which had been split across the multiverse: messiah, T-O conqueror, War: Horseman of Apocalypse and finally, the true Cable, who had been returned to infancy due to the House of M reality warp.



Cable had been created and raised by Sinister, who had yet to name him when Deadpool arrived. Sinister saw Deadpool's healing factor as away to age Cable and accelerate his timetable, so he had some of the healing factor implanted in Cable. Instead of aging, baby Cable began to display awesome telekinesis, and Deadpool, Cannonball and Siryn managed to get him away from Sinister and jump back to their true home reality.



Then Cable began to age at an accelerated rate, working his way back to his true age, and Forge used his devices to re-integrate the parts of his persona that Deadpool had encountered in the other realities. Cable then agreed to sacrifice his powers to help save Deadpool, who had been brainwashed by the Black Box and had shot himself in the head rather than kill Cable. Soon after returning to his proper age, however, Cable began a quest to replace his lost powers, using Deadpool as an operative to steal the Dominus Objective and the Cone of Silence, technological devices that mimicked telepathy and telekinesis (via gravimetric shaping), respectively. Nick Fury then sent Captain America to Providence, and Cable showed Cap the kind of peace and paradise towards which he was working (after a tussle).

However, Cable then disappeared, and when Deadpool and Irene finally tracked him down, they found him inside Apocalypse's Sphinx ship in Egypt, apparently in league with Apocalypse's scribe Ozymandias! Cable explained that on a time-traveling trip to thousands of years ago, he fought Apocalypse, but his blood got mixed with Nur's, and that is a major part of how Apocalypse keeps coming back to life - Cable's nanite blood constantly regenerates him, even from a single cell and a pile of organic soup. So Cable brought Apocalypse back because mutantkind needed a challenge, and then fought Nur in order to show him the futility of his Darwinist goals.

Cable's next move was to secretly send Deadpool to the Eastern European country of Rumekistan, which had been overrun by Ultimatum, a terrorist group. Between Wade and Domino, who was there to disrupt the government, Cable had Ultimatum overthrown, its leader Flag-Smasher apparently killed, and himself elected to provisional President. With his new political power Cable quickly began to improve conditions in the country and cement alliances with local powers. However, the new Six Pack was hired to make Cable look bad by trashing the new infrastructure, though when they did so, Cable personally used his technological abilities to bypass the breaches they created, exposing the Pack's treachery to the world and solidifying his mandate as President. In addition, he got Domino to come over to his side and denounce her former teammates.

During the "Civil War" over the SHRA, Cable came in temporarily on the side of Captain America, after Cap refused Cable's offer of asylum on Providence. Then he led Deadpool to be captured, and took Wade with him to try and convince the President of the US not to push his initiatives forward. This led to a stalemate between Cable and Deadpool, who was deputized, and their friendship ended. Cable was not directly involved in the rest of the superhuman conflict, returning to the X-Men for a time to contend with the Children of the Vault and then the Hecatomb, a Shi'ar artificial mummudrai that had chased a real muummdrai to Providence. Cable merged with the mummudrai Urizen, who restored his telekinesis and telepathy, but the latter was quickly lost in the fighting, as was Providence.

Right afterwards, Gambit and Sunfire, who had recently joined with the Marauders, attacked Cable on Providence, looking to destroy all evidence of and gateways to the future. Cable apparently sacrificed himself to destroy the Time Displacement Core, and the X-Men and even Deadpool mourned his loss.

Some weeks later, however, the X-Men discovered that the person who stole the first mutant baby born since M-Day was neither one of the Purifiers nor one of the Marauders - it was Cable. Exactly how Cable survived Providence's destruction is unknown, though the TDC probably played a role. What is known is that he got the baby before anyone else and went on the run. He defended the baby from the Purifiers, the Reavers and Lady Deathstrike, and even from the X-Men, who assumed that Cable wanted the child for some nefarious purpose. Finally, Cable had to locate Professor X and recruit him to his cause, which was to save the baby and train her to grow up and save mutantkind. Unfortunately, Bishop came from a different timeline in which the child eventually brought about the oppression of mutantkind, and he tried to stop Cable. Cable eventually convinced Cyclops to let him keep the baby with him, and bodyslided into the timestream just before Bishop opened fire.

Cable ended up in New Jersey in 2037, a post-apocalyptic-flood location, only to be jumped by Bishop, who had backtracked from further in the future to find him!

Cable died during the events of Second Coming trying to return X-Force to the present.