character profiles

Cable (Nathan Summers) Full Name: Nathan Christopher Charles Summers Aliases: Nathan Dayspring Askani'son Family: Scott Summers (father), Madelyne Pryor Summers (mother, deceased), Jean Grey-Summers (step-mother, deceased), Aliya Dayspring (wife, deceased), Tyler Dayspring (son, deceased), Rachel Summers (alternate reality half-sister) Powers: High Level Telepathy and Telekinesis (currently depowered and using technological substitutes)

"Nate, we're a family. We share more than a name - we share a bond that transcends time and space. Life and death."

- Rachel Summers, Cable 71

Cable first appeared in New Mutants 97 as a mysterious soldier from the future who went on to lead the New Mutants (who then became X-Force), and little was said of his past.

Rachel first encountered Cable during the Days of Future Present Crossover, when the Franklin Richards of Rachel's timeline visited the school and caused Cable and the New Mutants to get involved in stopping Ahab. But there was no interaction between the two.

When Colossus joined Magneto's Acolytes following the death of Illyana, Cable tried to stop the X-Men from helping him on Muir Island in Excalibur 71. Rachel intercepted him, and as they slugged it out, a string of odd occurrences happened. She was able to telepathically read this thoughts, despite the fact that no other telepaths should have been able to. After transporting herself ten seconds into the future to avoid a landslide, Rachel took on Captain Britain's costume and asked for the Askani'son's help. (Cap was currently trapped in the timestream). Rachel collapsed and had no memory of what happened.

Cable told Rachel that they need to sit down and figure out what happened. Hearing Nightcrawler's thoughts that he was under attack, Rachel sucker punched Cable to go help. But before she left, she knelt beside Cable and asked Cable's computer if it could explain the connection she felt for Cable - a bond she could feel in her heart and soul.

A short time later, the connection between them was discovered. Cable was a grown-up Nathan Christopher Charles Summers, Scott's son who had been taken to the future by the Askani to cure him of the Techo-organic virus that was killing him. Nathan's mother was Scott's wife, Madelyne Pryor, who was a clone of Jean Grey.

When Rachel first learned that she was going to have a baby brother (in X-Men & Alpha Flight 1) she was devastated that she wouldn't be born in this timeline and went running out of the room.

However, once Nathan Christopher was born, Rachel warmed up to the idea of having a baby brother (Uncanny X-Men 201). She formed a permanent telepathic link with her brother (a psi-bond), promised she would look out for him and for her to call on her if he needed her.

Baby Nathan Christopher used the psi-bond to call out for Rachel's help when his mother attempted to sacrifice him during Inferno. While asleep, Rachel hurt his cry for help and blasted out of Excalibur's lighthouse, nearly destroying it. When she got to New York, she was distracted by seeing Madelyne and mistaking her for Jean that she was sucked into the demonic Empire States Building.

Following the events of Inferno, Rachel visited her baby brother on X-Factor's ship (Excalibur 8), while avoiding Jean.

During the Days of Future Present Crossover, Franklin (Earth-811) made baby Nathan Christopher disappear since he wasn't part of Earth-811, but he later reappeared with Rachel. He was captured with Rachel and Franklin by Ahab, and Ahab manipulated Rachel by threatening to turn Nathan Christopher into a Hound.

Baby Nathan was infected with the techno-organic virus by Apocalypse that was slowly killing him. A woman calling herself the Askani came to Scott and said she could save the baby by taking him to the future.

After learning that Scott was his father, Nathan visited Rachel on Muir Island in Cable 9 to tell her how they were related.

But Nathan still couldn't understand why the felt the way they did for each other:

Nate- "How can we be so alike and so dissimilar?... How can we feel such an intimate... affinity for each other when we're not even really related?"

Rachel - "But there's something wonderful about it all at the same time, isn't there? We finally get to start asking questions about why we belong with this family of people -- instead of why we were always apart."

Rachel and Nathan next saw each other at Scott and Jean's wedding X-Men 30.

After Rachel returned from the wedding, she sacrificed herself to save Captain Britain who was trapped in the timestream. She found herself nearly 2000 years in the future in a world controlled by Apocalypse. There she formed the Clan Askani and was called Mother Askani. Nearly a hundred years later, she learned that Apocalypse had plans to travel back in time to seize Nathan as his perfect vessel. She had a member of the Askani get him first. In case her plans failed, she had Nathan cloned (and that clone would become Stryfe). But when Apocalypse's troops raided the Askani Cloisters and slaughtered most of the Askani, Rachel transported Jean and Scott 2000 years into the future to help raise Nathan. (Adventure of Cyclops & Phoenix 1).

Weakened, Rachel went into a coma, but kept a psi-link with Nathan as he grew up and helped guide and teach him.

When Nathan was 12, Mother Askani died. Jean & Scott were sent back to their normal bodies and time and Nathan was left on his own. Nate eventually found the remains of the Askani and became a great warrior. He traveled back in time to stop Stryfe and to prevent Apocalypse's rise to power.

When Apocalypse was defeated by Cable, the Askani future seized to exist. Rachel was sent back into the timestream, and ended up trapped billions of years into the future by a tyrant named Gaunt. Gaunt used Rachel to lure Cable to him, and challenged him to a fight. Cable was able to defeat Gaunt and bring Rachel back to the current timeline. (Cable 82-86)

After Nathan explained to Rachel everything that had happened while she was gone, she was in shock and needed time to adjust. Nathan suggested that she take some time off and go to college. He was the only one who knew she was back. But she wasn't out of action for long. She helped Cable defeat the Dark Sisterhood. (Cable 92-95).

Cable and Rachel next met in Cable & Deadpool 9-10, when the X-Men tried to stop Cable's plans to unite the world against him. Nathan's telekinesis was holding up Cable's floating city, Providence, and when he was taken out by the Silver Surfer, it was up to Rachel to keep it aloft. Nathan telepathically communicated with his sister and together they lowered Providence to the ground.

Cable was missed by the Shi'ar when they attempted to eliminate the entire Grey genome. Since Nathan's mother was Jean's clone, he genetically is a Grey.

Following the events of Cable & Deadpool 10, Nathan no longer has his powers, but does have synthetic versions of them. He runs Providence along with the country of Rumekistan and has been helping Rogue's X-Men team.