issue summaries

Cable 95 Countdown Part 3: Eternity Waits! Writer: Robert Weinberg Penciler: Michael Ryan Inker: Candelario and Pertzborn Colorist: Avalon Studios Letterer: RS & Comicraft Assistant Editor: Pete Franco Editor: Mark Powers Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada Date: September 2001

Secretary of Defense Gina Anderson is on her way to meet with the President. The night before, the media reported that "mutant terrorist" Cable had masterminded the killings of the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

However, the Dark Sisterhood is really behind the assassinations and the campaign against Cable. Their goal is a global matriarchy, and they are close to the first step of their goal. Once the President and his cabinet are killed, Sisterhood member Anderson will become President of the U.S.

SHIELD Commander G.W. Bridge returns to Washington and demands to see Henry Gyrich. He tells him about the plot. They have less than 12 minutes to prevent the country from becoming a dictatorship.

Meanwhile, Cable and Irene look down on an industrial complex. Cable is planning an assault on the complex with a little help from his friends.

Cable hears a noise in the bushes and yells at whoever is there to show themselves. Rachel emerges and tells him that she comes in peace. Cable is surprised to see her, since he thought she was still at college. She answers that he took some time off. Cable asks how she was able to find them, and she explains that she was once forced to hunted mutants, but her brother is a hard man to find. But she is just in time for some action.

Irene asks if Rachel was the help Cable was expected, but she wasn't. He asks his sister if the Phoenix Force has returned, but she replies that it hasn't. Irene explains that Cable intends to attack the Dark Mother and Rachel asks what the plan is. Cable tells her to have some patience.

When Secretary Anderson’s plane lands, she is told that the President, Vice-President and Cabinet members just barely escaped the bomb she planted. She is arrested for treason.

Planes soar overhead and Cable says he knew G.W. would come through. Cable gets on a motorcycle and says he'll go first and lay down some psionic interference so no one will notice that they are there.

The army forces raid the Dark Sister headquarters.

Elsewhere, other members of the Sisterhood are arrested and Bridge confronts Secretary Anderson.

Sisters tells the Dark Mother that their plans for the Sixth Progression have failed and she needs to flee. But she refuses to, since Cable and his sister are coming. If the Sisterhood can kill them, this will turn this from a minor set-back to a major victory.

Cable burst through the window in the front of the Dark Sisterhood’s headquarters. So much for a quiet entrance. Rachel flies Irene.

While Cable goes after the Dark Mother, Rachel handles the three Sisterhood warriors sent to stop them. They try to go after Cable, but Rachel tells them they have a bigger problem to worry about - her. She shouts, "I am justice" and takes all three of them out.

Cable confronts the Dark Mother and calls her by her real name, Fiona. He doesn't understand why she has waited so long to try to take power. She explains that she had to wait for him and his sister. She bends the future to meet her will and she never loses. But he can't predict his actions. They fight, but she is stronger than Cable expected.

Cable explains that she can't predict his actions because he was raised 2000 years in the future. He is an anomaly, the same with Rachel since she comes from a different timeline.

As long as Cable and Rachel are alive, the Dark Mother can't be certain her plans will work.

The Dark Mother shouts at Cable that he has been in her nightmares for 300 years and he wants to be rid of him. She charges at him with a knife, but he pushes her back.

Her hood is pushed back and he finally sees her face. She looks like Jean. She explains that Jean is her granddaughter many generations removed and that would make Nathan and Rachel his grandchildren. She intended on recruiting Jean into the Sisterhood, but Xavier got to her first.

She charges at him again with the knife, saying she is going to crush his heart, but Irene comes in and shoots her. Cable grabs the Dark Mother and tells her she loses. Her mind is shut off. She is still alive, but her all she sees is darkness. She just sits there, looking dazed.

Rachel arrives. Cable asks if she dealt with the rest of the Sisters and she tells it was no problem. She looks at the Dark Mother and asks what happened to her.

Irene thinks she figured it out. The Dark Mother’s power was to figure out the best scenario to accomplish her goals. When she couldn't find any way around Cable, her mind shut down and she became catatonic.

Cable wonders about what she said about being Jean’s ancestor. Rachel doubt it. All the Dark Mother would have needed to do was some plastic surgery and hair dye for her final ploy against Cable. Even if it is true, who they are is what matters, not who their ancestors are.

Cable hears the soldiers coming and decides it is time for them to vanish. The leave the Dark Mother behind for the army to find. They'll put her in a mental hospital where she can live without thinking forever.

Notes:

- Bob Weinberg and Michael Ryan's last Cable issue is #96. You can read about Weinberg's plans for the series here.

- Weinberg and Ryan were replaced by David Tischman and Igor Kordey. The series went in a different direction, with grittier storylines with Cable traveling around the world trying to stop an upcoming apocalypse and teaching the Askani philosophies to those he meets. Tischman had plans to bring Rachel back into Cable and have her start an Askani Institute

- Tischman's Cable only lasted until issue 105 and last issue of the series was 107.

- Cable's next series was Soldier X, which only lasted 12 issues. The series is set two years later and Irene hasn't heard from Cable at all during that time. Presumably during that time Nathan also looses all contact with Rachel and doesn't notice that she has been abducted.