There’s a gift and a curse to comic book miniseries. The gift comes when the series is good. Sometimes there’s not enough time to tell a proper story, and readers are left with more questions. In cases like Absolute Martian Manhunter, a miniseries gets extended because the fans show overwhelming support for the project.
The curse comes when you, the reader, want more from the comic book because the characters or the tale are so good. However, it takes a certain level of self-awareness to understand when it's time to end something. That’s the case with David Pepose’s Cable: Love and Chrome.
Cable: Love and Chrome creative team
- Writer: David Pepose
- Artist: Mike Henderson
- Colorist: Arif Prianto
This story begins with Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Summers on a normal day of fighting battles throughout the future to protect the timeline (yes, that’s normal for him). It leads to him being attacked by a mysterious villain named Cicada. We don’t know who they are or why they hate Cable. What we are aware of is that they want him dead, and they call him a hypocrite.
"That's just it, cowboy--it's never about how much time we have...all that matters is how we use it."Avery Ryder
During their battle, Cable is sent through time and ends up in a place where the techno-organic virus is killing people, and a company is doing the best they can to keep those people down. Thankfully, there’s a group of freedom fighters led by a woman named Avery Ryder. After meeting Avery, Cable falls in love for the first time in more than a few lifetimes. Sadly, if you know anything about Nathan Summers, nothing good lasts.
The Cable: Love and Chrome review
When writer David Pepose promoted that issue five was the final one in Cable: Love and Chrome, I tweeted that I couldn’t believe it was ending so soon. Pepose responded, saying “Yeah, it was always built as a five-issue mini.” Hearing that added hope to what was coming.
Prior to that, I wondered how this would be wrapped up. Would this leave readers unsatisfied? Will Cable find love? What’s going to happen to Avery Ryder? As much as I’d love to spoil things, I won't because you should read the series. The one thing I will say is that the ending does not disappoint.
An often difficult aspect of time-travel stories is that things can get confusing or annoying. The creative team has to pay attention because bad continuity will ruin the story. Thankfully, plenty of attention is paid here as there is only good continuity in Cable: Love and Chrome. Everything is placed perfectly, down to the final page. Even if the ending isn’t the one people would have hoped for.
I don’t say that to imply that the ending wasn’t good. It perfectly fit the character. Nathan Summers’ story is supposed to be a tragedy. Whenever something good comes around, something must happen to balance it out. Although the way it’s written here, there is a bit of a happy ending. And when it comes to any of the X-Men, any happiness is a win.
Lastly, everything you’d want from a comic book is in this series. There’s a ton of action, nonsensical science, and amazing dialogue. To top it off, David Pepose understands everything about Cable, like how he speaks and reacts to people.
However, we did get to see a part of Nathan that no one ever has. He was irrational. But even that makes sense within the story. To quote a part from the Cable: Love and Chrome, “...even in the face of extinction… love makes a fool of us all.”
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