Marvel Retcons Cable's Death

During the Extermination event that sent the time-displaced original X-Men back to their home era, a mysterious figure murdered Cable, the time-traveling mutant. As it turns out, a younger version of Cable killed his older self after because he felt the elder Cable had become too lax in his duties. Since then, the mutant nation of Krakoa has accepted the young Cable into its community, and the Summers family, including Cable's father Cyclops, have welcomed him into their home. But Cable #4 reveals that Cable's death was a bit more complicated than Extermination told. SPOILERS for Cable #4 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto follow.

In Extermination, young Cable hunted down old Cable and killed him. But Cable is a time traveler. Extermination never explained why Cable didn't time-jump away to escape his young assassin.

In the current Cable series, that young assassin came into possession of the Light of Galador, a legendary alien sword. It's attracted some unsavory spaceknight types who want to use its power to transform Earth into a new version of their now-destroyed homeworld, Galador. Young Cable offers them a time machine that will allow them to return to old Galador instead. He goes and collects the cybernetic arm, where his time travel device is stored, from Cable's corpse.

But young Cable knows that these criminal spaceknights aren't going to let Earth off that easily. He thinks to himself that he needs more time to rig the time travel device. But he's a time traveler. Shouldn't he have all the time in the world? Cable pauses for a moment to give that some thought. Through the narratively-dubious magic of time travel, time loops, and time paradoxes, when he opens his eyes, there's a nuclear device where the time travel device should be. He uses it to blow up the spaceknights and escape back to Krakoa.

How did that happen? The two Cables are the same people. When young Cable notes the need for an out from this situation, old Cable remembers. Knowing what his younger self will need to save the Earth, old Cable removes the time travel device from his arm and replaces it with a nuke right before his assassination. He couldn't time jump away because he no longer had the device in his arm. He knowingly went to his death, letting young Cable save the day when the spaceknights came to Earth.

What do you think of this retcon? Let us know in the comments. Cable #4 is on sale now.

Cable #4
APR200898
(W) Gerry Duggan (A/CA) Phil Noto

FORCED INTO A CORNER... Ancient knights from another galaxy are targeting Cable... and he's got no choice but to give them what they want!

Rated T+
In Shops: Sep 02, 2020
SRP: $3.99