Deadpool 2 will release on May 18.
The Deadpool 2 trailers have introduced a mysterious character called Cable who is armed a bit like Punisher but without all the cybernetic implants. Many people who do not read comics are wondering just who the hell he is supposed to be. Granted, he does look a little incongruous when pitted against the wisecracking Regenerating Degenerate (that’s a nickname of Deadpool, believe it or not) with all his seriousness. That is what prompted Ryan Reynolds’ popular character to wonder whether he was from the DC universe. But Marvel has had its dark characters themselves just like DC has characters like Shazam! who might easily belong in the Marvel family.
Anyway, I am sure Josh Brolin’s Cable would be a far cry from the unstoppable machine of destruction that he is in comics. In comics, like with almost every other character, the lore is hazy. First introduced in 1986 in Uncanny X-Men series, Cable, alternatively Nathan Christopher Charles Summers or just Nathan Summers, did not appear as an adult till 1990. Cable was the poster-child of the decade of X-Men comics that were defined by excess. He came in direct confrontation with the supervillain group Mutant Liberation Front and its leader, Stryfe, who later turned out to be a cloned baby of Cable from the future.
Cable seemingly sacrificed himself while fighting Stryfe, but as it happens in comics, nobody stays dead. Cable’s first real encounter with the Merc with a Mouth was in 2004 series, Cable & Deadpool. It is only then Cable got interesting. While the two characters had met before, it was this series that explored their relationship, which is interesting to say the least. I suggest you read it to probably get a rough idea of what is coming in Deadpool 2.
Josh Brolin in a still from Deadpool 2 trailer.
In Deadpool 2, Cable seems to be after a mutant kid (played by Hunt for the Wilderpeople’s Julian Dennison). There is strong indication that Cable may not be the bad guy, or at least not the only bad guy. He might even team up with Deadpool’s newly minted mutant team, “a little derivative” as Domino said, X-Force. Jack Kesy is said to be the main antagonist but we do not know what he is playing.
Cable is a mutant like Deadpool – a one man army from the future. He suffers from a techno-organic virus thanks to Apocalypse that also gives him various abilities. He has telepathic and telekinesis powers. He fought Wolverine hand-to-hand to a standstill and defeated Captain America. His one arm is metallic à la the Winter Soldier, which gives him even more strength. His glowing eye that you probably wondered about is cybernetic that gives him enhanced eyesight and allows him to see in the infrared spectrum. Like DC’s Cyborg, he can use his cybernetic parts to interact with technology to hack computers, pick locks, time-travel and so on.
This is all comics, though. The film might have a totally different Cable. Deadpool 2 will release on May 18.