Comic Review: Avengers X-Sanction #1

Issue: Avengers: X-Sanction #1

Name: Midnight
Published: 2011 by Marvel Comics

Blurb:

Creators:

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Dexter Vines
Colorist: Morry Hollowell
Letterer: Comicraft’s A. Deschesne

Characters:

The Good: Spider-Man, Wolverine, Red Hulk, Iron Man, Falcon, Captain America, Redwing
The Bad: Lethal Legion, Laser, Whirlwind, Cable (Nathan Summers)
The Undecided: Hope, Askani’son/Blaquesmith

First Look

My Reading:

The opening pages of this comic provide a nice introduction to Cable and his current situation in the Marvel Universe. Apparently, he’s on his final mission to protect his daughter, Hope, who’s been called the “Mutant Messiah”. To save her he’ll sacrifice anything and it seems he already has.

With Cable’s motivational background out of the way, we’re introduced to the current Avengers as I mentioned in the First Look. They’ve been called to take on the Lethal Legion who somehow broke out of the prison transport taking them to The Raft. As Cap takes on Whirlwind, a cloaked figure shoots Falcon and drags him into the sewers. We soon see an arm that is unmistakably Cable dragging the Avenger down.

As he takes Falcon to his ‘lair’, we learn more about Cable’s motivations which are centered on his daughter. She gave Cable a purpose, and with that purpose came his vulnerability.

Captain America soon realizes Falcon is MIA and goes searching for him. Tracking him to a ship in the docks, he finds Falcon in some sort of glass container and spots Cable. Cable warns Cap not to crack the glass or a bunch of C–4 will go off killing the Avenger and possibly Rogers as well. Cap obviously recognizes something is wrong with Cable but the man from the future doesn’t want to have anything to do with deescalating the situation. Instead, he shoots at Cap and the fight is on. Blow after blow is landed by each hero and Cap even nails Cable with his shield, but neither man is deterred.

Desperate to finish the fight and get back to his timeline, Cable blasts Cap with his eye beam and wrestles his shield from him. Which is fortunate as Steve grabs Cable’s gun and starts shooting, hitting the shield in front of Cable. As Cap runs outta bullets, Cable hurls the shield and it gets embedded in the wall and as Cap runs to grab it, he’s knocked out by Cable.

We then see a time in the future where Blaquesmith and Cable are discussing Hope. They’re in a nuclear winter and Blaquesmith indicates that if Hope had been there, it could have all been averted. Hope wasn’t there so no one could save the world.

When we flashback to the present time, we see Captain America has been subdued and locked into some kind of chair and we are split between present and future. Cable is asking Blaquesmith who was responsible for what happened to his daughter while at the same time we see him explaining the inhibitor chair to Cap.

And we learn two important things…the first is that Cable has less than 18 hours to live and the second is that the Avengers will be responsible for what happens to Hope.

What did I learn:

• Cable’s techno-organic virus is running rampant all over him in this issue.
• Being a father has given Cable all the motivation in the world to protect his daughter.
• Cable’s got a strong military mind and his strategy of taking down the avengers one-at-a-time seems to make sense.

My Thoughts:

This is my first comic featuring Cable and also the first I’ve read from Jeph Loeb and I found both interesting. I suppose with Cable there’s often a chance that you’ll have a bunch of time jumping in the issue and this one was not lacking in that respect. I think Loeb does a pretty good job, and Ed McGuinness draws things distinctly so that it can be easy to tell when we’re in the present and the future. At least I think so…

From what I can tell of the current Avenger lineup, Falcon was the obvious first choice to take down since he doesn’t have a healing factor or super strength or anything like that to make things tricky. And Cable does just that – one shot with a sniper rifle and drag him back to the ship.

Cap is another story. Rogers has the super serum so he’s got some power and he also has a lot of military experience. And the fight between Cable and Cap is nicely done. Lots of action and talking while they’re punching but I learned a lot from the conversation.

As for the motivations of Cable, I get it…somehow, the Avengers are gonna (in the future) do something that messes with his daughter that prevents her from saving the world. That sucks, and I can see why Cable would want to get rid of any chance the Avengers could hurt Hope…I just am not sure how paradoxes and multiverses work in this Marvel Universe. If Cable already expereinced the nuclear winter then how can he stop it by getting rid of the Avengers? It’s a bit convoluted and since I don’t know how Marvel deals with Cable and these types of things, I’m at a loss. Will taking down the Avengers really stop them from interfering with his daughter? Chicken…Egg anyone?

Anyway, this is a fun read and goes pretty quick.

My Rating: B

This comic can be found on Marvel Unlimited, Comixology or at your local comic book shop.