Cable, Vol. 1: Conquest by James Robinson

Genre: Superhero Comics

Series: Cable (2017) #1

Publisher: Marvel Comics (December 19, 2017)

Length: 112 pages

My Rating: 3 stars

I’ve always found Cable to be an interesting concept for a character. Certainly, back in the 1990s, part of his coolness was his mysterious origins and the other part was the Rob Liefeld art. (Yeah, I’m a Liefeld fan, though I can admit the problems with his style.  No feet.  Weird body shapes and sizes, especially women.  Among other things.)

But those days are behind now.  Long ago in the past.  Can’t say I’ve been a dedicated follower of the character since those days, but I picked up this graphic novel because I thought the idea of Cable as a time traveling hero stopping people from screwing with the timeline sounded okay . . . plus it had Carlos Pacheco art.

The story here starts out okay with Cable chasing a baddie named Conquest around in time, attempting to stop this guy from collecting pieces of some Uber weapon. We don’t know much more than that about what is going on, nor does the plot ever really develop past this. What we do get is loads of fantastic fights between Cable and cowboys, Cable and samurai, and even Cable and dinosaurs. Pacheco’s fantastic art bringing it all to life for roughly sixty percent of the story arc.

Biggest letdown I had with this book was the lack of development: story and characters. I’ve already mentioned how the plot never grew beyond the initial setup, and neither do the characters. Cable and Conquest are the same at the end of the tale as they are before. We never know exactly why Conquest was doing this. We don’t know when, how, or why Cable got involved. And the conclusion of it all doesn’t really tie up any of the loose ends.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say the conclusion is pretty meh.

To sum up, I’d say Cable: Conquest is a decent read, I guess. I enjoyed the fights and the art. Sure, the story could have been better, but it wasn’t a convoluted mess like many X-tales, plus it did make me want to read more about this character again, so it gets three stars.

Purchase the book at Amazon