The Secret of Cable’s Death Has Finally Been Revealed

Warning: spoilers for Cable #4 ahead

Cable was killed by a younger version of himself, but it looks like the old man was already planning to die. Nathan Summers has done his fair share of traveling through Marvel’s timestream and has seen the future changing around him constantly. Sometimes he works to protect the timeline while other times he attempts to rewrite history. Whatever the problem, Cable has always been up to any challenge he encounters, including – it seems – his own death.

Fans have grown used to the older, hardened version of Cable who doesn’t put up with any nonsense. This is why it was surprising to see a younger version of the character called “Kid Cable,” take center stage in his new series. Luckily, the gritty older version of the character makes an appearance, but he doesn’t last for long. Kid Cable finds out about his older counterpart, tracks him down and kills him. It seems as though the older Cable should have known that something like this could happen. Turns out, he did.

In Cable #4 by Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto, Kid Cable finds himself in a sticky situation with a squadron of Spaceknights. After Kid Cable finds the Light of Galador, a powerful sword from the home planet of the Spaceknights, the squadron tracks him down. The Spaceknights order Kid Cable to send them back in time to their homeworld of Galador, which has since been destroyed. Kid Cable’s original idea was to steal the time machine in the arm of his older version’s corpse. Once he got his hands on the arm though, he realized why the older Cable allowed himself to die.

Kid Cable did not find the time machine that he expected in the old man’s arm, but rather found a nuclear device. It turns out that Old Cable knew that the younger Cable would need a bomb for this exact situation and that he would have to sacrifice himself to get Kid Cable the device. Kid Cable was surprised after gunning down his future self because he knew that Old Cable could have just time-traveled away. He even said, “Old fool… you really shoulda seen that coming,” after killing the old man. Little did he know, this was Cable’s plan all along. 

With the bomb rigged, Cable is able to escape the Spaceknights and keep his new sword. Unfortunately, this may not be the last time Cable has to deal with the Galadorian Spaceknights, as a transmission is shown to have gone out to another member just before the explosion. For now, however, it seems like Cable can just enjoy his awesome new sword.,

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