Comic Books

Cable #4 Review

Cable takes on a villain in 1906 Russia. Time to send him to the gulag!

August 23, 2017

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Cable has been a delightful surprise for me this year possibly because my expectations were zero, but the adventure has been fun. The time hopping story has Cable chasing a baddie who reveals everything this issue. Can Cable clock him one while the monologue flies? We’ll see!

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So what’s it about?

Read the preview with a full summary.

Why does this matter?

James Robinson has been writing a well-paced series that’ll do very well in the collected format. The first three issues have certainly had a slow crawl as far as reveals go, but all in all the story has been exciting and action packed. No reason to think it’ll get any less action packed in 1906 St. Petersburg, Russia!

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

Nice place you have here.

While the art has changed Yildiray Cinar does a good job with it here. There’s a cool layout for instance, with 7 panels and a running Cable superimposed over three of them that’s very dynamic. There’s plenty of panels that show the scope of an action with Cable quite small yet the action clear to see. There are some cool lighting effects when it comes to Cable’s laser blasts by Jesus Aburtov and Federico Blee. The opulent mansions of the rich Russians are well detailed and helps set the scene of this time in history.

The villain finally reveals his plans this issue so if you like flashbacks and explanations to the whole point of this endeavor you’ll dig this. It’s particularly satisfying seeing as we’ve been in the dark for much of this series. These flashbacks are quite pretty too and look different in style due to a painted look.

“Another bauble for my collection.”

It can’t be perfect can it?

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Unfortunately, this title drops artist Carlos Pacheco who did a lot of cool things with vertical panels. The style is very different too with a less clean look Pacheco was great at. The art isn’t bad per se, but the tonal shift will be a bit of a shock when folks read this in one sitting.

The story continues to keep its pace slow and this issue is filled with pointless fighting. Sure, most fight comics have pointless fighting, but this one seems even more so, with Cable struggling to break from a trap for what seems like forever, shooting robot horses because whatever sure, and even hitting Russian soldiers with the hilt of his gun for half a page. This all feels even more pointless when Cable reveals he’s only sticking around to test the villain. What?! Just rush off in time already dude! The entire issue is filler so as to reveal the villain’s hopes and plans which aren’t even that original.

Is It Good?

I’ll be along for the ride next issue, but this installment makes it quite clear the decompression is killing the enjoyment. A story that could have carried over 3 issues is now heading into it’s 5th. Please end this!