Issue(s): Cable #4
Cover Date: Aug 93
Title: "A leader among men"
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Art Thibert, Rob Liefeld, James Reddington, Bill Wylie, & Scott Koblish - Penciler
Al Milgrom - Inker
Bob Harras - Editor

Review/plot:
Noting the art credits and the lateness on the entry for the first three issues, i said that the new Cable series was off to a rocky start. That continues with this issue. This issue is "brought to you" by Fabian Nicieza and Art Thibert. But Rob Liefeld is given thanks for an "art assist". When you have to go crawling back to Rob Liefeld for help with deadlines, you are in big trouble. And it took both James Reddington and Bill Wylie to draw page 16 (just pencils; Milgrom is still the inker). And Scott Koblish drew page 18.

Art Thibert was i think already inking covers for Image which may be how it was possible for Liefeld to get called in for help. This is Thibert's last issue; it looks like he was exclusively inking Image covers after this. Going forward, the book doesn't really have a regular artist for a while.

Storywise, we pick up soon after Kane and Cable arrived at Cable's safehouse, where G.W. Bridge was waiting. Cable and Bridge engage in a verbal fight that quickly turns physical, but Kane negotiates a truce where Bridge will help Cable locate X-Force in return for Cable fulfilling the promise to help their Six Pack associate Hammer walk again.

Cable tries to use his computer system to locate Graymalkin, but he can't find it, which confirms Bridge's story that it was destroyed during SHIELD's encounter with X-Force. It's also noted that Graymalkin's AI, Professor, was talking to Bridge but suddenly got cut off. Cable therefore has renewed reason to locate X-Force, since they have "Graymalkin's guts".

Cable also learns that Domino is working with Grizzly and Hammer. Cable had told Domino to locate X-Force, so now Cable is afraid (he does an actual spit take) that Hammer will use X-Force and Graymalkin's tech to get vengeance on him.

Meanwhile, Domino, Grizzly, and Hammer are still with Vanessa, forcing her to live up to her promise to take Domino to X-Force. She brings them to the former Sentinel base in the Adirondacks that X-Force used as their headquarters. Grizzly was there when that base was blown up, so the assumption is that Vanessa doesn't really have any useful info on X-Force's current location. But Vanessa says that if they can get into the base, she can locate them. What follows is some pretty poor sequential storytelling, not surprising based on the mess of art credits. Here we have Vanessa saying that they need to do some strip mining to locate the "venting hatch" to get into the base.

And the very next panel/page is a generic splash of them punching their way into the base.

The next time we see these characters, they're already at Camp Verde, with the script having to do the work of explaining how they found some computer that was still working in the Adirondack base that can track X-Force's "mutagenic energy signatures".

It feels like a pointless tangent. Might as well have had the characters just come here directly if you're going to handwave the way Vanessa could track X-Force like that. I could imagine a more substantial sequence where we see them actually locating the tracking computer, but instead we get a splash of Grizzly punching a wall.

Anyway, waiting at Camp Verde is not X-Force (who aren't home yet) but Cable, Bridge, and Kane. Vanessa runs to Cable, but since she was impersonating Domino the entire time they were together, that's just awkward for him.

Hammer then attacks Cable...

...but that ends with what feels like another sequential fail, going right from the fight to Hammer refusing to accept Cable's help.

These examples aren't the end of the world but they do feel jarring to me, like we're getting the truncated version of the story. And as noted, there were deadline issues, so that basically is the case.

Hammer tells Kane that he doesn't want to be repaired with Cable's future tech the way Kane was, because it just makes Kane a mirror image of Cable. But at least Hammer isn't trying to kill Cable anymore.

This meeting is a reunification of the Six Pack. The possibility of the group getting back together is raised, but Cable can't promise to "come clean with us - and stay clean", "no secret agendas, no personal missions". So they leave without him, even Kane, who says that he's not Cable's kid. Vanessa slips away during the conversation.

I wonder if Fabian Nicieza's longer term plots were changed based on Fatal Attractions or something similar. It seems odd to have set up a story back in X-Force #15 with Cable getting separated from X-Force and asking Domino to locate them without ever getting payoff on that. Domino never made it to X-Force, so it'll actually be Cable who gets back to them first, in X-Force #25. A first meeting between (the real) Domino and X-Force not facilitated by Cable might have been interesting. Domino will eventually become part of X-Force's cast but not in a way that follows directly from the set-up in #15.

I think Fabian Nicieza does pretty well with the scripting. He injects a fair amount of humor and characterization into the story, to the point where i can almost muster up some interest in the Six Pack as a group. There's also some decent interaction between Cable and Bridge at the beginning of this story, although i wish it didn't descend into a cliched physical fight. And the plot here seems just all centered around getting characters into their proper places for other stories in other books (X-Force, Deadpool), and between that and the art this isn't really a great issue, which kind of means the series is 0 for 4 so far.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The argument between Cable and Bridge more or less continues from issue #3. But in between #3 and #4, the Professor goes offline, presumably due to Magneto's construction of the new Asteroid M from the remnants of Grayalkin. That happened in X-Force #24, so i'm placing that between #3 and #4. At the end of this issue, Cable is waiting at X-Force's Camp Verde for X-Force to return, and their return and reunification with Cable will be shown in X-Force #25. But i'm placing a large gap between X-Force #24-25. So that means Cable is waiting for a long time. But he doesn't necessarily have to be literally at the location the whole time. He could have set up monitors, allowing for him to go off and do other things until he got a signal that X-Force was back. So i'd even let Cable appear in other books (without X-Force) during this gap, although i'll try to avoid it. It's said that Kane's search for Vanessa will be shown in Deadpool #1.

There's a scene with Sinsear monitoring channels in his continued search for Tolliver, and one of the channels is someone talking to Nick Fury (nothing of relevance is said). So that's why Sinsear and Nick Fury are listed as Characters Appearing.

References:

• Graymalkin was destroyed in X-Force #20-23.
  
• X-Force's old base was destroyed in X-Force #12-15. That's also the arc where Cable asked Domino to find X-Force.
  
• No footnote, but the Domino/Copycat storyline continues from X-Force #24. And there's even less of a reference for this, but Magneto's actions in that issue are related to the loss of Professor here.
  
• We learned about how Cable was responsible for Hammer and Kane's injuries in the Cable #1-2 miniseries.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

When you have to go crawling back to Rob Liefeld for help with deadlines, you are in big trouble.

I read this at work during my lunch break, and I really had to struggle to stop myself from laughing hysterically :)

What exactly did Liefeld contribute? I recall the anatomy being more or less correct throughout the issue, so I couldn't figure it out.

This issue came out EIGHT WEEKS late. No wonder they were doing whatever they could to get it out. Deadpool 1 came out first and readers were wondering how Kane and Vanessa got there.
Accounts of 1993 usually mention how late the Image books were but they usually neglect how late the Marvel books were. It was frustrating- we never knew what was coming out the next week.
Fabian has said that his plans were for the Six Pack to reform, with a new member they disliked (probably Vanessa), and the Executive Elite, who were introduced in the Deadpool limited series, as their rivals. If that had happened, then Domino's journey would have had a point, even if she didn't meet X-Force. As it is, the Six Pack appear once more in Nomad without Vanessa and then go their separate ways, so Domino's journey seems pointless.

@Michael: Oh, I definitely remember how ridiculously later many of Marvels' books were around this time. I think I mentioned it in a comment on another issue from 1993. Marvel was attempting to absolutely flood the market. At one point I heard a rumor that the had this insane plan to have over 100 ongoing monthly series. I think they actually made it up to around 70 or 80 before the comic book bubble burst.

In trying to crank out so much stuff and bury their competitors, Marvel really fell behind on getting their books out, and the quality of their product plummeted. This issue is a perfect example of this phenomenon, coming out two months late, with work by five different pencilers.

Okay, I located my previous comment about Marvel's epidemic of incredibly late books in 1993. I made it on fnord's entry for Thunderstrike #1, which was yet another issue that had ridiculous delays.

I remember very well that back in 1993, whenever I went to my the local comic shop on Wednesdays for New Comic Day, often I would have literally no idea what was coming out that week until I actually go to the store and saw what shipped. And then it could be a crap-shoot if the creative teams & contents of those issues bore any resemblance to what had been solicited months before.

Which one of tbe dozen or so artist was responsible for giving Cable that mullet?

@Jon Dubya: It was Art Thibert who gave Cable that mullet back in issue #1, so he is to blame for everyone else having to draw it :)