Joe Casey Comics: Cable #58

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

An interesting issue as Casey explores Cable's messianic elements and sets up the four-part "Nemesis Contract" storyline along with laying the foundation for "The Twelve."

After last issue's allusion to the elimination of all psionic powers, Cable lacks telepathy and, more importantly, telekinesis--which keeps his techno-organic virus at bay. Blaquesmith sends him to a small Greek island to retreive an object, the Psimitar, an Askani weapon he used in his youth that allows him to focus his powers--as he still has a shred of telekinesis left.

At the sanctuary on this island is a small cult devoted to Cable and worship him as the "chosen one." Well, except for one member who sees him as a false prophet or something and resents Cable to telling them to leave that life and rejoin the world. I'm not a fan of the doubter because it comes off as cliche and why is there always one in these fanatical cults? It bothers me for some reason.

That part of the issue is drawn by Ed McGuinness with skill. His style is quite different from Ladronn's, but it doesn't feel as out of place as Ryan Benjamin's work on the previous two issues. Of course, McGuinness knows how to tell a story well, so...

The other part of the issue, drawn by Ladronn, has a secret meeting on the SHIELD helicarrier involving shady businessmen and semi-rogue agents that concerns Cable. This allows Casey to recap some of the past events involving the character in set-up for "The Nemesis Contract." The men involved want to capture Cable and attempt to remove the techno-organic parts of his body so they can adapt it for their technological uses. Their solution is using Agent 18, who will be introduced next issue as Agent Jack Truman, the man who will eventually star in Deathlok, which I've already discussed.

The Ladronn pages are set apart from those of McGuinness because they are very cramped with most pages containing nine panels, all small and filled with dialogue. Although, during Agent Quartermain's briefing on Cable's activities, Casey is smart and doesn't put any dialogue in the panels that show Cable's past activities, allowing unobstructed Ladronn action panels--tiny action panels, actually, that show off how good Ladronn is as he fits a lot of detail into those small panels.

This mixture of looser and more compressed storytelling does give the issue and odd feel, but Casey compensates by using Irene's narration in the McGuinness pages.

What I enjoy is that Casey's plans for the character were obviously altered by the storyline where the psionic plane was disrupted, but this issue shows him finding ways around it that push the story forward at the same time. Cable needs the psimitar as part of his mission, but it also allows him to regain some of his lost telekinesis. His lack of telekinesis means the techno-organic virus is spreading, but some guys at SHIELD want it and may just get some of it (oops, spoiled something there, didn't I?). Casey is clearly adept at fitting into the larger Marvel universe while still pursuing his own interests.

Next issue begins "The Nemesis Contract" and introduces Jack Truman.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #57

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Here we have Casey's first overt attempt at storytelling experimentation as this issue is told in a non-linear fashion in an attempt to relate the structure to the content as the villain of this issue is Rama-Tut (aka Kang aka Immortus aka a time-traveller with a weird Egypt hard-on). Sadly, the issue also has Ryan Benjamin on guest pencils.

The story of the issue is pretty simple: (1) Cable goes to the bagel place and chats up Stacey the waitress; (2) he has a heated discussion with Irene that is interrupted by Blaquesmith who is being held by Rama-Tut for some reason; (3) Cable goes to rescue him; (4) Cable fights Rama-Tut; (5) during his fight with Rama-Tut, Cable's psionic powers are depleted because of some event in X-Men #77; (6) Cable defeats Rama-Tut; (7) Cable finds Blaquesmith; (8)Cable and Blaquesmith attempt to escape; (9) Cable and Blaquesmith escape. Simple.

The way it's told jumps around a lot. The order of events in the issue is: (7), (1), (8), (4), (8), (2), (3), (8), (5), (6), (7), (9).

Now, I'm wondering if this story was planned as such since Casey was still using the Marvel style of writing at the time. Maybe Casey knew this is what he was going to do with the issue ultimately, but did Benjamin? Was this issue drawn as a normal one and then resequenced for this effect?

Two things suggest no. The first being that the splash page that begins the issue is repeated in a smaller panel on page 20. Of course, the fact that the dialogue is the same could be a result of Casey alone, but unlikely. The other being the occasional use of chapter headings that take up the top of the page. These, though, really could have been added in later by resizing the art--especially as none of the headings are the same size, which I would assume Benjamin would aim for had he purposefully left space for them. So, I'm not sure these headings really argue against a resequencing during the scripting stage.

This is an interesting issue with lacklustre art and a mediocre story. I really do think Casey resequenced the pages during the scripting stage in an effort to make the issue more interesting and compelling. If this were a linear issue, it would barely pretty damn bad--the non-linear storytelling is really all it has going for it.

Although, without any behind-the-scenes knowledge, this is all speculation.

Until next time.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #56

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

What an unremarkable issue. I blame fill-in artist Ryan Benjamin, because, well, I don't like his work. Benjamin was a Wildstorm mainstay and has that style--one that I cannot stomach. Women are twigs, lots of little lines equal realism, and the interesting moments involving dialogue are squeezed between the looooooooong fights. Compared to last issue where Ladronn aptly drew pages of dialogue and made it interesting, the art here is immature and... well, ugly.

Blockade nearly kills Domino and Cable takes his revenge. A simple plot.

There's another Casey moment in this issue where Blockade is playing cards with Hydro-Man and Stilt-Man and there's some of that lovely supervillain-as-real-people banter. Of course, it's crammed into a single page and slows the issue down a lot. The few bits of character development and dialogue slow this issue down a lot because of the horrible pacing of Benjamin (at this point in his career, I believe Casey was writing in the "Marvel style" of scripting as "full script" hadn't yet become the standard--as displayed by the fact that Casey did scripting work around this time). When you have page upon page of fight scenes that you breeze over, cramming the talking scenes into a page fucks with the reader. That's one of my main problems with the Marvel style and this type of artist.

Cable's revenge on Blockade is cold and methodical: he uses his telepathy to make it so Blockade will forever live out his own personal hell without end. Casey ties this to Cable's past (aka the future) where this sort of revenge is a tradition he learned from the enemy forces--and one that he respects. Casey places Cable within the realm of the soldier rather than the superhero and, again, the fight between the two is far too long. The physical confrontation between the hero and the villain is out of place here, particularly one that takes up nearly a fifth of the issue when, really, the emphasis is on how skilled and determined Cable is, focused on obtaining his revenge more than anything else--the physical element seems so out of place because it's unnecessary to his goal and seems inserted merely to satisfy genre concerns--and to keep the artist entertained.

There is also a brief one-page encounter between Blaquesmith and Cable that barely has time to accomplish anything. As well, the final page sets up a future confrontation between SHIELD and Cable.

Compared to other issues of the run, this one is a disappointment, but Benjamin does prove himself more able in the next issue--although, that may be to Casey's credit. But, that will have to wait until Tuesday.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #55

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Joe Casey's run on Cable is marked by tensions between the character's past and future, as well as his role in the X-universe and the larger Marvel universe--tensions this issue highlights.

Firstly, Casey sets Cable up in Hell's Kitchen, putting him on par with Daredevil specifically, but also with Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers. While the X-Men have operated everywhere in the world except for New York, basically (although there were exceptions, obviously), Cable is breaking from that tradition and joining the ranks of the other heroes, in a sense. Casey places Cable within the tradition of these heroes and does his best in this issue to expand upon that by having Cable confront/meet three women--one a past love interest, one a current companion of sorts and the other a future love interest. This is Peter Parker-esque melodrama, not the typical type of story found in the pages of Cable.

Cable has returned to New York and stops in at Babel's, a diner in Hell's Kitchen where he flirts with the waitress, Stacey. This flirtation is interrupted by Irene, Cable's "chronicler," who is pissed off about being left in Switzerland in a telepathically-induced sleep while Cable went on to Apocalypse's hibernation chamber to combat Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce. The confrontation between Irene and Cable is interrupted by Stacey and then put on hold while Cable goes home and finds Domino waiting for him. They exchange words and she leaves, their relationship at an end.

Casey is pushing Cable in a direction that moves away from his past while, at the same time, enforcing it. While elements like Domino no longer fit in, Blaquesmith does. The issue begins with a beautiful splash by Ladronn that features this giant creature that's partly machine standing in a fiery wasteland over the bodies of Cyclops, Marvel Girl (Jean Grey is in a more classic costume for some reason), Cannonball, Professor X and Magneto. This turns out to be all in Blaquesmith's head and he doesn't know if it's a hallucination or a vision of the future. He's trapped somewhere and needs Cable to rescue him. As Blaquesmith ties into Cable's role as savior and slayer of Apocalypse, he fits into Casey's new direction, while Domino is more an element of the best-left-forgotten Liefeld roots of the character (that's my phrasing as Casey doesn't seem as anti-Liefeld as most considering his rescripting the original Youngblood series and writing the newest version of the book).

At the same time, someone has hired a superpowered assassin to hunt down and kill Domino. Casey roots him in the Marvel universe by having him stay with Speed Demon, who appears out of costume and mocks his former group, including the Beetle for going straight (a reference to Thunderbolts--an interesting one, too, as it suggests that other supervillains knew the true identities of the group, perhaps).

It's worth noting that the guest stars or villains in most future issues are not from the X-books, but people like Rama-Tut, SHIELD, Nick Fury and the Avengers--along with the Black Panther in last issue.

Despite this, Casey sees that Cable is able to fit into the larger Marvel universe because he has unique attributes and is different from the rest of the heroes. These differences aren't explored in this issue, but the next will demonstrate a key difference--although his mission puts him in a different class of hero, that of the hero on a quest, which is different from most Marvel heroes who live the much more realistic day-to-day lifestyle. Although, by having Cable get a cup of coffee and a bagel burger, Casey introduces an element of the mundane not found in the book previously.

Ladronn's art with its Kirby influences helps place Cable within the Marvel universe as well. And it's gorgeous. Sadly, this issue suffers from printing errors that blur/smudge the art and lettering on six pages (three at the beginning, three at the end). Not the last time this happens, either.

Until next time.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #54

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

After last issue's end, Cable crashes down to earth in Wakanda, allowing Casey to draw parallels between the Black Panther and Cable. Both are men with heavy burdens and set paths. In this issue, T'Challa's cousin, a doctor who lives in New York, allies himself with Klaw as he feels T'Challa is not leading Wakanda in the right direction, which reminds me of Ch'vayre's role in the previous issues and his willingness to work with Cable's enemies if it meant putting Cable on the so-called "right path."

The story itself is pretty basic with the thematic connection between Cable and T'Challa mattering more than anything else. And, even then, there's not a whole lot there. Maybe T'Challa provides an example of a man who has accepted his fate and does his best to live up to it, while Cable is still unsure about his. He questions if he would have had the ability to kill Apocalypse had he been in his hibernation chamber in the previous issue.

The real star of this issue is Ladronn as he's at his most Kirby drawing the Black Panther and Wakanda. The art is gorgeous here as he draws big Kirby machines and dynamic fight scenes. As well, apparently, Ladronn's art caused quite a debate when he first came on the book. In the letters page of this issue, one letter-writer hates the art, while another used to hate it until issue 51 and another never liked Kirby's work but loves Ladronn.

Casey includes a scene marking the return of Blaquesmith to the book, demonstrating how Casey will often take past elements of the character and use them to push the book forward.

Next issue, Domino returns. Fun.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #53

[Continuing the look at Joe Casey's run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

Well, today, my order containing the final five issues of Casey's run on Cable arrived, so there's no excuse at all not to finish now, is there?

Today, we get the final part of the six-part "Hellfire Hunt" story, which James Robinson penned for the first three issues and Casey the last three. This issue concludes the arc, but sets into motion the events that eventually became a big X-crossover mega-event involving the X-Men, the Twelve and Apocalpyse--but that's far off, so let's forget it.

The basic plot of the issue is that Shaw & co. have broken into Apocalypse's hibernation chamber, found it empty and plan to plunder it when Cable arrives. Pierce goes insane with rage, there's a fight, the whole place begins to self-destruct, Shaw escapes, Pierce is left to die and Cable seemingly dies in an explosion above the earth. At the end of the issue, Apocalypse sets Ozymandis and Caliban free, saying he has to go it alone from now on. Dun dun dun.

Casey demonstrates a couple of storytelling tricks he'll continually use throughout his career here. The first being Irene Merryweather's narration throughout the issue that is divorced from what happens in the art, but also comments upon it. She discusses her views of Cable, at the beginning of the issue, while he fights his way through Apocalypse's defences and there's an element where the narration describes what happens on panel, but not really. This is something I noted in Codeflesh and in Deathlok, Casey seems very interested in using captions two or more ways at the same time. Although his efforts here are clumsy and a little too literal much of the time, this IS his third comic and reads at a level above that. I'm almost tempted to pick up some of the comics he scripted for Marvel over the plots of others around this time to see how he handles narration and dialogue there.

One line stood out to me as hinting at the direction Casey would one day take the cast of Wildcats in: "But it's been said that every soldier needs a WAR to define who he is." That sentiment is the key to understanding Casey's work on Wildcats volume two and I find it interesting that it shows up this early in his work. Is there a link between Cable and Wildcats I missed until now? Something worth keeping in the back of my head, I suppose.

For the most part, this is a by-the-numbers issue that concludes the storyline without any major problems--but also doesn't do much beyond that. We can assume that this ends the influence of James Robinson over the plot of the book--or, I'm assuming that--so next issue is Casey's first 100% solo issue. We'll see what it shows about Casey and his style/interests.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #52

[Continuing my look at Joe Casey's 20-issue run on Cable. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

In this issue, Casey draws a subtle connection between Ch'vayre and the old man, Wilhelm. Ch'vayre is a member of the Askani faith and was set upon a path as a young man to help bring about Cable's fate as saviour of the world while Wilhelm was also seduced by an ideology as a youth, becoming the Nazi super-soldier Master Man. Ch'vayre's beliefs drive him to help the Hellfire Club in their quest to harness Apocalypse's power as he hopes that will cause Cable to act and embrace his role; Wilhelm seeks to escape his past crimes by subscribing to a new ideology, calling himself a Believer, one of those who help Cable. I'm not sure if Casey actually intended to suggest that the Askani faith is similar to the ideology of the Nazis, but it comes off that way here. It could just be a suggestion that any ideological system is, ultimately, corrupt and misguided.

That seems likely as Cable is actually portrayed as a less-than-positive force. He uses his powers without any sense of morality, his mission the only that matters. Team-up with a former Nazi super-soldier? Well, if it helps him do what he needs to do, sure thing. Use telepathy to put Irene to sleep against her will? Again, for "the greater good." The fact that Cable is mysterious and closed off to the reader adds to his ambiguity and potential to be considered a villain.

The end of this issue hammers home the point as the Hellfire forces attack Apocalypse's stronghold and fight against its defences as Cable notes that no matter which side wins, everyone is fucked. There is no good or evil, there are only sides in fights and the only way to tell which side is "better" is by which one wins.

German Garcia provides the art on this issue and his work is decent. His figures are a little blocky, but he isn't vastly different from Ladronn--at least as far as storytelling goes. His page layouts are similar here, possibly purposefully so. While having part five of a six-part story drawn by a fill-in artist sucks, Garcia's work doesn't break the flow much.

What does is the lack of narration from Irene. Here, Casey only uses the third-person omniscient narrator and it detracts from this issue. Particularly when Irene wakes up after Cable used his powers to keep her asleep for hours, a moment that would easily lend itself to Irene's narration, but doesn't. Irene has acted as the reader's entry point into Cable's world for this arc and the lack of her voice is very conspicuous.

On Tuesday, we'll conclude this story.

Joe Casey Comics: Cable #51

[And so we finally get into Joe Casey's 20-issue run on Cable with his first Marvel work, issue 51. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

This comic pissed me off when I first saw it. At the time, I was subscribing to Cable and X-Force (Christmas and birthday gifts from my grandma) and had been doing so for a couple of years. I wasn't that enthused with Cable after Jeph Loeb left the book, but James Robinson coming aboard seemed like new life for the title and had me hoping for a Warren-Ellis-on-Thor sort of thing where a crappy book suddenly becomes awesome and blows my young mind. Instead of Mike Deodato, Cable had the wonder that is Ladronn and I was feeling it, people. Every new issue just hooked me and had me entranced.

And then issue 51 came out with some guy named Joe Casey as writer. What. The. FUCK? "Who is the hell is Joe Casey?" I must have thought, because who the hell was Joe Casey? Since I subscribed, I usually got my issue in the mail a couple of weeks after it appeared in comic shops--and since my dad is an obsessive X-book collector, I saw his copy of the issue and noticed "Casey" on the cover where "Robinson" should have been. Normally, I didn't read my dad's copies of Cable and X-Force as I didn't want to spoil it for when my sub copies arrived, but this time, I broke that rule (slightly) as I opened the book to the credits and noticed that, yeah, Joe Casey wrote the goddamn comic and where the fuck was James Robinson, assholes? I flipped through the issue and then put it back down, not wanting to break my rule too much.

When the issue finally arrived, it seemed typical enough, not all that different, but also lacking that certain something. I hoped that maybe Robinson suffered some terrible bout of the flu or some other minor illness that kept him from actually writing this issue, but would be back in action for issue 52. Robinson did get a special thanks credit, which meant he probably did the story and some editorial assistant finished the book for him because of deadline concerns. The lack of a letter page in the issue annoyed me, because that was clearly where this whole bungle would be explained.

And now I look back on that whole strange incident with ironic fondness as Cable #51 introduced me to Joe Casey, a guy who's writing I've followed almost obsessively since. Isn't it funny how things turn out?

But, what do I think of the issue ten years later? (Jesus Christ, it's only been ten years since Joe Casey's first comic!) To make things interesting, let's do it real time-style!

1:40: Read first ten pages and they flow well with Robinson's work. Irene narrates and recaps the story while Cable is all mysterious and "I want you to chronicle my life but you should sit at home and wait for me to tell you what happened even though I rarely do that." So, they go to Switzerland and are ambushed by a whole squardon (or whatever you'd call them) of the Hellfire Club's personal guard people. Cable kills many of them and is rescued by some elderly German man who offers them a place to stay.

Casey's narration is a little clunky and obvious, but not that much worse than Robinson's. Is that a sign that Casey started off pretty decent or that Robinson just wasn't that good?

1:46: Adam comes home and I talk to him a little before reading two more pages where we learn that Wilhelm (the old German guy) moved to Switzerland after the war and is a Believer--while Irene gets her first taste of Cable inside her mind.

2:47: I watch TV with Adam, including some Daily Show where the interview is edited up and just makes Stewart look like a idiotic douchebag.

2:55: I finish the comic. Only three scenes make up the second half of the issue. First, Ch'vayre, Shaw and Pierce are in the Alps, closing in on Apocalypse's lair so they can harness his power for their own uses. Of course, Ch'vayre is only doing this to get Cable off his ass--but he still wonders if he's doing the right thing. We get a pointless flashback to his first meeting with Shaw that just reveals that Ch'vayre is from the future, which we already knew because Sanctity sent him back in time (revealed in issue 50). The final scene has Cable using his powers to read Wilhelm's mind and discovers that he is the Master Man, the Nazis' answer to Captain America.

I actually like that Cable just invades Wilhelm's mind, it demonstrates a lot about his character and his difference from other characters. Where Professor X and Jean Grey respect the private rights of people, Cable reasons that it's his job to save the world, so if a few people's minds get read in the process, that's the price, deal with it. We've seen Cable willing to kill up until now, but this willingness to go against typical hero morals sets him apart further. It begins Casey's attempt to distinguish this book from every other title on the shelf, no longer relying on the '90s mentality of "It has a mutant, so you should read it just 'cause."

Ladronn's work is fantastic. As always. Yes, I'm going to say that every time.

Not quite a "bursting onto the scenes" beginning for Casey, but I've read far worse first comics.

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Cable #50

[The third post in my look at Joe Casey's Cable run and the last post of James Robinson's tenure on the book. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

James Robinson left Cable with this "double-sized" (short four pages of story to really be double-size) fiftieth issue and leaves on a high note. This issue has Cable and Irene travel to London where Sebastian Shaw and Donald Pierce are attempting to open some capsule left by Apocalypse that we saw contains some altered man from Victorian London. To go with this is some flashback sequences to 1915 where Union Jack foils the attempt of the Hellfire Club of that time to open the capsule. In the end, it's opened and the Harbinger of Apocalypse emerges, while Shaw, Pierce and a man called Ch'vayre escape. The Harbinger manages to defeat Cable and also escape. Later, Cable tracks him down and the two talk, with Cable emploring him to diregard Apocalypse's programming--to create chaos and separate the strong from the weak--but to no avail.

As this is the fiftieth issue, Robinson references Cable's past a bit with the issue beginning at Xavier's and Cable visiting an injured Scott. Later, Madelyne Prior shows up for no reason I can see other than to have Cable's biological mom show up. Ch'vayre is actually a follower of the Askani faith and only helps Shaw and Pierce because it will put Cable on the proper path--and also namechecks Sanctity (aka Rachael Summers). Apocalypse makes an appearance in a flashback and this issue actually begins the whole push to the millenium when Cable was supposed to have his final confrontation with Apocalypse.

Ladronn's work here is damn good, but there is an odd moment during the fight near the end where he has a small panel of the ground and Cable's foot above it. It's so odd that the editor includes a note for it saying that no one knows why Ladronn included that panel, but it's so wacky that they kept it.

Ths issue is a little strange because it's really the halfway mark of "The Hellfire Hunt," but actually feels like a conclusion to the story as the bad guys got away (as they often do), but their scheme foiled. The Harbinger flies away, setting up a future threat. Maybe Robinson set the story up this way because he knew he would be leaving the book, so wanted to leave on a conclusive note, while recognising that there's a larger story.

An interesting parallel is the use of Union Jack's journal as the key to knowing what Shaw and Pierce are up to at the same time that Cable has taken on Irene as his chronicler, highlighting the importance of someone recording these events.

On Thursday, Joe Casey's first Marvel comic... something that annoyed my 14-year-old self to no end when it came out. Oh, how young I was.

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Cable #49

[The second in my series of posts looking at Joe Casey's run on Cable. Since Casey took over the title midstoryline, I've begun by looking at the three issues James Robinson wrote before Casey came aboard. New posts Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.]

So I'm sitting here, writing this post and I look over at the cover of this issue and notice artist signature. There's the combined one by Ladronn and Juan Vlasco, but then there's also the "LIQUID!" (or is it "LICQUID!"?) bit added by the colouring studio. They used to do that on every fucking cover they coloured and it was such a marker of that late '90s Marvel era. Whatever happened to those guys?

"The Hellfire Hunt" continues with Irene Merryweather learning a little bit about Cable--actually all she learns is that he's a mutant from the future. Ah, that mysterious Cable! We learn that Pierce is the one behind the "Tomorrow Agenda" and it relates to him wanting to take revenge on Cable for something or other. Cable tricks Pierce into thinking he's in Algeria, so he can raid Pierce's house with as little resistence as possible. No such luck as Cable winds up having to blow shit up, fuck people up and almost dies while inside the head of one of Pierce's flunkies. In the end, he knows what they're trying to do: kill Apocalypse and harness his power for their own purposes, and have been trying to kill Cable because they figure he'd try to stop them. And they figured right.

A decent enough issue that advances the story a little with the introduction of the main characters (Cable and Pierce) and makes the actual problem clear. Really, this is the first act of the story, issue 48 more a prologue. It has Cable in his element: fighting a shadowy conspiracy featuring many faceless flunkies and relating to Apocalypse.

This issue also hints at a few elements of Cable's mythology that will get played up. First, Irene as his chronicler, suggesting his messiah-like role. Second, a group called "the Believers" who work with Cable to further his goals, again pushing his messiah role. Casey will use these elements further, but Robinson lays the groundwork here.

Ladronn's art continues to amaze as he manages to fill most pages with five or more panels without it ever looking cluttered or confusing.

Robinson's main problem here is that he doesn't seem to know what sort of story he is telling. He uses three different types of narration, tries to get into the heads of three different characters, but, as a result, winds up giving us very little information. He introduced Irene as a POV character, but doesn't use her as such here--or, at least, not enough. The entire sequence with Pierce and the third-person omniscient narrator distracts from the story and Irene's narration.

On Tuesday, I'll look at issue 50, which is also Robinson's last issue on the book. And, then, on Thursday, we get Joe Casey's first comic work for Marvel (maybe his first comic work period, but I remember hearing about a book he did for Calibre that could have been around before this).

Pre-Joe Casey Comics: Cable #48

[The first in a series of posts looking at Joe Casey's run on Cable. Since Casey took over the title mid-story, today, we begin with the first part of that story, issue 48, which was written by James Robinson.]

The first part of "The Hellfire Hunt" barely contains Cable at all. The majority of the issue focuses on Irene Merryweather, a reporter for some third-rate scandal sheet with dreams of working for The Daily Bugle. She's assigned to find out about some redhead on the arm of some rich guy named Sebastian Shaw. She does some digging and gets the impression that most of the people who say they don't know anything really do. That is until one guy tells her about working a dinner party Shaw was at--and talking to a guy named Pierce about "hitting Cable." Next thing she knows, that guy is dead and the entire staff of her paper have been slaughtered, the offices trashed. She's attacked by Hellfire Club men and is saved by Cable.

Not a whole lot actually happens here, but the introduction of Irene Merryweather is a big thing because she plays a large role in Casey's run on the book. Despite Robinson's best efforts she comes off like a stock character here. The intrepid reporter working at a tabloid until she can land her dream job at a real paper.

The real draw of this issue (no pun intended) is Ladronn's art. This wasn't the first issue of Cable he'd drawn as he drew issue -1, but it sets the tone of Casey's run. Ladronn has a weird manga/Kirby mash-up style that is very kinetic, but also weirdly detailed. As well, a lot of the story is told through his art as facial expressions and body language sell it.

This issue is little more than set-up, but also had me excited when it first came out. I had subscribed to Cable since "The Age of Apocalypse" with the last couple of issues of X-Man, really enjoyed Jeph Loeb's work on the book (I've yet to go back and read that stuff again, though), and then the book sort of floated with no direction and went through a slew of guest writers. James Robinson's arrival on the book had me thinking of Warren Ellis' arrival on Thor: a book I was reading that wasn't the greatest, but here comes a well-respected writer whose work I wasn't all that familiar with and the promise of a new direction. Now, Robinson didn't deliver like Ellis had done, but this issue still had my 14-year-old self excited.

Next issue will have some meat to it, I believe.