Cable #7-#9: Ugh, clones.
Nathan and Rachel rescue five of the ten kidnapped babies. Yay! But, Nathan reads the cult leader's mind and discovers that he isn't really an Order of X fanatic: he's working for Stryfe. Stryfe orders the cult leader to bring five of the kidnapped babies to him because reasons. When a frustrated Nathan returns home, Cyclops comforts him by recommending that he take off some time to wait for his luck to change. Instead, Nathan realizes he can do something more actively on that front and recruits Domino!
She takes them to Tokyo for gyoza, and it turns out the cult leader is there! Oh, Domino. Of course, the cult leader had killed himself in his previous fight with Nathan, so Nathan realizes that he's actually a clone. Nathan chases the cult leader into his secret laboratory where he unleashes twelve Nathan clones. Hilarity ensues. Domino and Nathan eventually take out all the clones and learn that Stryfe intended to replace Nathan with one of his clones because reasons. Duggan and Noto really use the great imagery that Tokyo offers to the max throughout this sequence, like when Domino and Nathan run through its puddle-ridden alleys (paging "Blade Runner").
Worried about Stryfe's plans, Nathan tries to recruit help. My favorite sequence in this series so far is Nathan posing as a waiter to approach Wolverine. Logan is engaged in some sort of typical-for-Wolverine plot that Duggan never clarifies, itself a hilarious twist. Eventually Wolverine tells Nathan that you bring in Wolverine when it's time to throw hands not when you're investigating. When Magik can't even get N'astirh to help him, Nathan starts to get desperate and tells Hope that he's considering bringing back "the other guy" to face Stryfe.
All that said, I have no idea what Stryfe's actual status is. I know Cable killed a Stryfe in "X-Force" #18 and various Stryfes have popped up a few times since then. At several points, Nathan refers to Cable killing Stryfe (I assume in "X-Force" #18) and himself "mindwiping" Stryfe, which I think happened before he returned to the past to kill Cable. But, I don't have a consistent read on Stryfe's various time movements, though I'm not sure that anyone does.
Cable #10-#12: Nathan's interactions with Emma have been some of my favorite ones of this series. Issue #10 gives us one of the best ones. Emma discovers Nathan ready to assault Professor X's home so he can steal Cerebro and bring back Cable. When Nathan explains to Emma that Stryfe has returned, she notes that it's after 5:00 pm and pulls out a flask. Man, I love her.
Nathan laments what Apocalypse has done to him in creating Stryfe, and Emma notes that Apocalypse did what he did for the same reason that he does anything: to make him fit. Emma suggests that he talks to his farther. They do, in a typical Summers way: fighting two Arakkii who got stroppy in a London bar. Scott is less than thrilled at the idea of Nathan "returning to some dystopia that won't exist if you stay here and make sure it doesn't."
Later, the Five consider resurrecting Cable, and Professor X (one of the "helmet bros," as Nathan calls them) arrives telling them that they have Council approval to do so. Meanwhile, Jean throws in her lot with Nathan, agreeing that the Summers' fight against Stryfe is a forever war and that they need to fight it together.
The Five resurrect Cable who takes Nathan to Graymalkin II. Cable says that he's glad that Nathan has grown up a bit and realizes that this "protector of the timeline" business is bullshit, since he never met a timeline that he didn't alter for his benefit. While Nathan puts together a Summers-heavy posse, Cable has Magik take them to where Stryfe is after Belle locates him.
I loved Magik's glee over discovering Stryfe intends to launch a demonic invasion of Earth using the babies from a Limbo-like dimension. (We learn that he only needed five of the kidnapped babies because he cloned them figuring it should work.) Other excellent moments from issue #11 includes Esme informing Nathan that the Five in One were ending their relationship, Nathan convincing Esme to fight Stryfe by his side (so much kissing), and Jean cutting off the flow of blood to Deadpool's brain when her telepathy doesn't manage to silence him.
After all that, the series ends as expected: Cable, Nathan, Deadpool, Esme, and the Summers prevent Stryfe from sacrificing the babies. At one point, Esme reads Stryfe's mind and admits to Cable that she gets why he has to do what he has to do but why she hates for him that he does. She also admits that Nathan was initially a mission: Cyclops and Marvel Girl thought that he was too good to be true and wanted the girls to confirm that he wasn't Stryfe. But, Esme realized that he was just a dumb boy and liked that.
After they return home, Nathan says his good-byes. I'll be honest that I'm not sure why Nathan has to say good-bye. After all, it seems like Cable is going to stay in our present, which honestly makes less sense if you're worried about disrupting the time stream. Wouldn't you want the one with the least amount of knowledge to stay? Also, you could make a compelling argument that, if Nathan needed more training in war (the argument used here for sending him back to the future), he would benefit more from learning as one of Krakoa's warriors than as an untested leader on the future's battle fields. It gives him a lot more of a margin of error, instead of just devaluing the lives of the soldiers that he's going to lead in the future.
At any rate, Scott tells Nathan how proud he is of him at any age. That said, I'm surprised how easily Scott agrees to this plan, after collapsing to his knees with worry that he was going to lose him again in issue #6 during "X of Swords" and forbidding him returning to the future in issue #10. But, it is what it is. Nate returns to Cable on Graymalkin II. Cable upgrades his arm, and Nathan wants him to answer all his questions about the future. The farthest that Cable will go is confirming that the Krakoan age changed everything for the better. But, Nate now has to fight for the good outcomes that he wants. Later, an older Esme wishes Cable luck in dying, as we see her enter the scene from issue #4 where Cable alters his arm for Nathan.
Final Thoughts: In other words, the worst part of this series is that the time-travel stuff, as always, makes no sense. On the plus side, Duggan makes Cable a little more coherent as a character, reemphasizing that both Cable's mission is fighting all the various Stryfes throughout time. Nathan allegedly had to return to the future because it needs to be a two-front war. On the negative side, this argument doesn't make a ton of sense to me because it isn't like only two Cables exist: a Cable exists every minute he's alive. Aren't they all fighting that war? Also, Cable and Esme seem to be the same age, so either Esme goes to the future with Nathan at some point or Cable returns to Earth later than we currently are in the story? Ugh. Time travel.
All that said, this series is one of the highlights of "Dawn/Reign of X." I'd recommend it to anyone who just wants to enjoy a good X-Men story. Although the last issue drops the ball in terms of characterization and plot, it doesn't undermine the fact that both those aspects of Duggan's writing were strong throughout the rest of the run. I honestly would rather read a Kid Cable series set in the future than an Adult Cable one now, but we'll see where Marvel goes.
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