{"id":2323,"date":"2013-12-21T22:04:05","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T22:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2013-12-21T22:04:05","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T22:04:05","slug":"cable-x-force-15-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=2323","title":{"rendered":"Cable & X-Force #15-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

A three-parter of which it can truly be said, “That was three issues of\u00a0Cable & X-Force<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

This series completed its initial storyline in issue #14, with Hope having joined the team, and the source of Cable’s visions having been explained. \u00a0Now, we get something that’s actually quite rare in modern superhero comics – a routine story in which the heroes simply have an adventure within their status quo. \u00a0It’s not something that fits very well with the fashion for making every story long enough to justify a collected edition.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Cable & X-Force<\/em> is in an awkward position, because after this it’s doing a two-month crossover with Uncanny X-Force<\/em>, and then both books are being cancelled. \u00a0They’re being replaced by a title called simply\u00a0X-Force<\/em>, but to judge from the solicitations, only Cable is carrying over to that book. \u00a0So, there’s no opportunity to start anything big, and a few months to kill before\u00a0Uncanny X-Force<\/em> is ready to join in with the crossover. \u00a0That, I suspect, is why we find ourselves here.<\/p>\n

I observe in passing in issue #16 has a cover that bears no relation whatsoever to the content, which makes me wonder quite when the relaunch decision was made.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the status quo of this book is that Cable is having precognitive visions that let him see disasters coming, and he dispatches his team to deal with them. \u00a0There are essentially three stories here, but rather than give them an issue each, Dennis Hopeless has mixed them in together. \u00a0So Colossus and Domino get to sort out a problem with some Sentinels, Cable and Hope deal with the Reavers, and back at base, everyone else has to deal with the Adversary. \u00a0He was last seen back when Forge was in\u00a0X-Factor<\/em>, I believe, and has been trapped in Forge’s mind ever since. \u00a0He escapes and causes chaos, the idea being that this also cuts off the back-up that the other two missions were expecting.<\/p>\n

It’s a nice enough way of linking the three stories together, and it makes sense to use the Adversary, given that he’s the closest thing Forge has to an arch enemy. \u00a0None of these stories is of any great importance, though, and the closest there is to a broader plot development is a confirmation that Cable no longer has telepathy or telekinesis. \u00a0But since he hardly them anyway, preferring to just shoot stuff, it’s not an earth shattering development.<\/p>\n

Artist Gerardo Sandoval is a new name to me. \u00a0He’s done a bit of work before for Marvel and Top Cow, and his art’s dynamic enough in an early Jeff Matsuda kind of way. \u00a0He does a good demonic Adversary too. \u00a0But the script here calls for some difficult stuff, and it’s clear that he’s struggling at points. \u00a0A giant Sentinel head sliding down a mountainside ahead of an avalanche and careering towards a town below is intelligible, but not really as dramatic as it’s meant to be – though many artists would have found this one tricky, I suspect.<\/p>\n

More dubious is a scene where Cable and Hope are supposed to be pursued by a monstrous creature formed by fusing loads of low-ranking Reaver cyborgs into a giant ball. \u00a0Here, Sandoval more or less throws in the towel and presents a grey blur, with characters moving rather randomly in space. \u00a0It’s a badly botched scene, even allowing for the fact that it wasn’t easy.<\/p>\n

There are a few nice ideas along the way – I like the premise that, having possessed Forge’s body, the Adversary is still trapped in X-Force’s headquarters, because it’s made of steel (which is basically iron), and so he can’t magic his way out. \u00a0There’s something in that, both as a plot twist and as a set-up to have the Adversary try to lure everyone into making a hole in the wall for him. \u00a0But it’s not really followed through as well as it should be; his reality-warping within the base is impressive enough to beg the question of why he doesn’t just magic up a bazooka and use\u00a0that<\/em> to blast a way out. (Maybe the idea is that you can’t work around the rules of magic like that, but if so, somebody needed to ask the question.)<\/p>\n

It’s an okay few issues; the characters have strong voices, the concepts are reasonable, and it’s nice enough to see the heroes just going about their business for a few issues. \u00a0But basically it’s routine\u00a0Cable & X-Force<\/em>, no more or less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A three-parter of which it can truly be said, “That was three issues of\u00a0Cable & X-Force.” This series completed its initial storyline in issue #14, with Hope having joined the team, and the source of Cable’s visions having been explained. \u00a0Now, we get something that’s actually quite rare in modern superhero comics – a routine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-x-axis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2323\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}