Cable (Nathan Christopher Summers, a.k.a Nathan Dayspring Askani'son) is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe, a superhero associated with the X-Men and X-Force. He made an appearance as Cable in The New Mutants #87 (March 1990), though his first appearance was as a child much earlier, in Uncanny X-Men #201 (January 1986).
A mysterious mutant, Cable became the leader of the New Mutants, a junior X-Men team. He later developed the team into the harder-edged X-Force, and eventually graduated to his own series in 1993. Cable is regarded by some as one of the most popular superheroes to emerge from Marvel's revamp in the 1990s, primarily due to his staying power and frequency of appearance in various X-Men titles. In 2006, IGN.com ranked Cable at #15 on their list of Top 25 X-Men from the past forty years.
Some comic book fans have criticized him as a gun-toting, anti-hero cliché (as referenced in Cable & Deadpool #4 when Cable fires a large gun called the LIEFELD XS). The writers of various X-books attempted to flesh out his mythos, revealing him to be the time traveling son of the X-Man Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor (a clone of the X-Men’s Jean Grey). Cable is considered a messianic figure, a mutant with great telepathic and telekinetic powers, and in recent characterizations, a man aware of, and trying to cast off, the more stereotypical aspects of his character.
In the early 2000s his popularity waned, despite a brief stint in Uncanny X-Men. In September of 2002, his series Cable was remodeled as Soldier X, only to face cancellation in August 2003 after just 12 issues. However, in reference to the retooling of Cable into Soldier X, Wizard magazine stated, "Marvel has breathed new life back into the controversial mutant with a successful string of stories that place Cable in real-world adventures." Despite his series' cancellation and supposed lack of fanbase, he is currently featured in Cable & Deadpool (pairing him with another popular X-Force character) and is a main character in X-Men (vol. 2).
Marvel currently credits The New Mutants writer Louise Simonson and The New Mutants and X-Force artist/co-writer Rob Liefeld as Cable’s creators and the character is closely associated with Liefeld. Though Liefeld is responsible for his visual design, name, and much of his personality, it is claimed that Cable also got some inspiration from editor Bob Harras. Liefeld explains the creation of the character:
"I was given a directive to create a new leader for the New Mutants. There was no name, no description besides a 'man of action' the opposite of Xavier. I created the look, the name, much of the history of the character. After I named him Cable, Bob suggested Quinn and Louise had Commander X."
Nathan Christopher Summers, the child who would become Cable, was introduced by writer Chris Claremont and appeared in Uncanny X-Men #201 (January 1986).