Mankind always has feared that which is different. In the future, that fear will explode into a bloody genetic war. Brother will fight brother. Society will be torn asunder. And the human race will wipe itself from the face of the Earth. In the present, there exists one last hope for humanity -- for Nathan Summers has traveled back in time to prevent the war between man and mutant. Now, the soldier called Cable uses his mutant abilities to fight for a better tomorrow -- and seeks his own fate as a man out of time!

Real name: Nathan Christopher Charles Summers
Occupation: Adventurer
Group affiliation: None; formerly the X-Men, X-Force and the Six Pack
Base of operations: Mobile
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #201 (as baby Nathan Summers, 1985), New Mutants #87 (as Cable, 1990)

Height: 6'8"
Weight: 350 lbs.
Eye color: Blue
Hair color: White, originally brown

Powers: A telepathic and telekinetic mutant, Cable's physical attributes have been enhanced to superhuman levels. Although his telekinesis allows him to levitate objects and erect protective force shields, he must turn the majority of his energies inward to prevent the techno-organic virus with which he is infected from ravaging the remainder of his body. Cable's techno-organic left arm and shoulder possess even greater strength than his entirely organic right appendage. Similarly, his right eye enables him to see into the infrared spectrum.

Weapons: Cable wields a long staff with a blade at its tip. Using this psimitar to channel his awesome telepathic and telekinetic powers, he can attack enemies both physically and mentally.

History: The time-tossed soldier called Cable was born in the latter part of the 20th century to Scott Summers -- a.k.a. the X-Man known as Cyclops, cursed with uncontrollable optic blasts. Subsequently, Nathan was infected with a techno-organic virus created by Apocalypse. The mutant warlord feared the baby one day would develop the power to destroy him. As the virus threatened to transform Nathan's body into a mass of liquid metal and organic steel, a member of the time-traveling Clan Askani appeared to Cyclops. She revealed that Nathan would mature into mankind's savior even as he was cured of the virus, but only if the youngster accompanied her 2,000 years into the future. Choosing to save his son's life, but believing he would never see the boy again, Cyclops assented.

The clan raised Nathan to be the Askani'son -- preordained to deliver the world from annihilation at the hands of Apocalypse and his disciples, the New Canaanites. Still, Mother Askani -- the clan's matriarch -- created a clone of Nathan. She feared he would not survive the techno-organic virus. The clone -- kidnapped by the Canaanites, who thought the boy to be the real Nathan -- grew into the mutant madman known as Stryfe. Nathan was raised by Slym and Redd -- actually Cyclops and his wife, the telepathic Jean Grey. Their souls had been drawn into the future and inhabited new bodies. During this time, Nathan discovered how to use his telekinetic abilities to halt the spread of the virus. But already the disease had deformed the left side of his body, now cybernetic in appearance. After a teenage Nathan used his powers to resist Apocalypse, the souls of Cyclops and Phoenix were returned to the era of their birth.

To fulfill his mission as the Askani'son, Nathan returned to the 20th century to end the reign of Apocalypse before it could begin. Now answering to the name Cable, he formed a mercenary outfit called the Wild Pack, later known as the Six Pack. Stryfe, who also had traveled to the 20th century, decimated the Six Pack when the team assaulted one of his hidden bases. Seriously wounded, Cable returned to the future. There, he discovered records claiming that Sam Guthrie, the human rocket called Cannonball, existed at least into the 23rd century. Cable believed Guthrie to be the next in a line of immortal mutants known as Externals. To guide the youngster's ascension, he returned to the present to take command of Guthrie's team -- the New Mutants, former students of Professor Charles Xavier. Cable reorganized the squad into the strike team known as X-Force.

Believing himself to be the real Nathan, Stryfe attempted to assassinate the telepathic, telekinetic Xavier -- and kidnapped Cyclops and Phoenix in retaliation for their supposed abandonment of him as an infant. During the battle that ensued, Cable and Stryfe tumbled into a temporal rift; both were thought to be destroyed. In fact, the two mutants survived. Cable returned to the present and X-Force, finally providing the team with an explanation of his origins -- which soon was confirmed. Cable subsequently experienced a marked increase in his telekinetic abilities, as well as the re-emergence of his latent telepathic powers. As a consequence, the techno-organic virus claimed an even greater percentage of his flesh and blood.

Cable fulfilled his destiny when Apocalypse sought to siphon the awesome energies of "The Twelve" -- mutants of incredible power, destined to alter the course of human history. Cable, Cyclops, Phoenix, and a number of their allies and adversaries were linked to a machine that would channel their energies into Apocalypse, allowing him to absorb a new host body. When his plans were overturned, Apocalypse instead took possession of Cyclops and fled. The first X-Man was presumed dead by most of his teammates; only Cable and Jean refused to believe he had perished. Investigating rumors and hearsay, they found him alive and struggling to reassert his mind over Apocalypse's psyche. With Jean's help, Cable exorcised the warlord and shattered his essence.

Having reluctantly taken his father's place among the X-Men, Cable broke with the team following a long-festering philosophical rift. Increasingly, he had found himself questioning Xavier's dream of peaceful coexistence between man and mutant. Cable believes the war between Homo sapiens and Homo superior already has begun...and that only he can stop it. And so he travels the globe, forcibly intervening in world conflicts -- targeting terrorism, Communism, ethic cleansing and the oppression of any minority by a tyrannical majority. He is a solider; he makes his own rules. In Cable's mind, the ends justify the means.