The upcoming Deadpool 3 will see Ryan Reynolds’ lovable Merc with a Mouth make his triumphant return to the big screen, accompanied by familiar faces like Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, Blind Al, and even Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. But of course, there’s one key member of Deadpool’s supporting cast who’s currently unaccounted for: the time-traveling cyborg soldier Cable, who made his movie debut in 2018’s Deadpool 2.
Played by Josh Brolin, Cable initially serves as the film’s antagonist before eventually joining forces with Deadpool in the film’s climax. But while Cable plays a crucial role in the movie, little is revealed about his personal history. In fact, the film never truly explores one of the most important aspects of Cable’s comic backstory: his family.
Cable’s History in Deadpool 2
In the story of Deadpool 2, the man known only as Cable travels back in time from a devastated future to avenge the death of his wife and daughter at the hands of the mass-murdering mutant Russell Collins, aka Firefist. In order to ensure that the death and destruction caused by Firefist in his timeline will never come to pass, Cable seeks to kill Russell while he’s still a young boy. However, Deadpool refuses to allow Cable to kill a child, and the two come to blows. But of course, the two end up joining forces to stop Russell from taking his first life, and they end the film as allies.
However, that’s as far as Cable’s story goes in his big-screen debut — the film never delves into Cable’s backstory before the loss of his family. It’s never revealed how he became such a deadly fighter, or how he got his cybernetic implants, or whether he has any ties to the X-Men. The movie never even confirms that he’s a mutant. The only detail about Cable’s past that he provides is the name of his daughter: Hope. Of course, Hope’s last name is never stated on-screen, nor is Cable’s real name ever revealed. Because if it was, then the movie would inevitably have to confront Cable’s tangled family history from the comics.
Who are Cable’s Parents?
In the original X-Men comics, Cable’s real name is Nathan Christopher Charles Summers. If the last name Summers rings a bell to any X-Men fans, there’s a good reason for that: Cable’s father is none other than Scott Summers, aka Cyclops. Indeed, the Cable of the comics is Cyclops’ time-traveling son, gone back in time to aid the X-Men in their battle against evil. One would naturally assume, then, that Cable’s mother is Cyclops’ longtime love interest Jean Grey. And while that’s not an incorrect assessment, the truth — like many things in X-Men — is much more complicated than that.
After the death of Jean Grey in the iconic “Dark Phoenix Saga” storyline, writer Chris Claremont has the heartbroken Cyclops leave the X-Men to stay with his grandparents in Anchorage, Alaska. But when Cyclops arrives in Alaska in 1983’s Uncanny X-Men #168, he’s soon greeted by cargo pilot Madelyne Pryor, who bears an eerie resemblance to the late Jean Grey. Scott and Maddie quickly hit it off and begin dating, and she proves to be accepting of not only Scott’s history as an X-Man, but also of her resemblance to Jean. Over time, Scott finds true happiness with Maddie, and the two are married in Uncanny X-Men #175. Later, in issue #200, Maddie gives birth to baby Nathan — the child who would become Cable — alone in the X-Mansion while Scott is away aiding the X-Men in battle.
The marriage is soon strained as Scott begins to miss his days as a hero. Being an X-Man is all he’s ever known, so he doesn’t know how to live an ordinary life. In the end, he goes back to his old ways and leaves his family to join the newly formed X-Factor team alongside a resurrected Jean. Not long after, Maddie becomes targeted by the Marauders, henchmen of the enigmatic mad scientist Mister Sinister, who abduct baby Nathan and attempt to kill her. Narrowly escaping the Marauders, Maddie seeks refuge with Storm’s X-Men and becomes the team’s stalwart civilian ally, working with them to take down the Marauders. However, everything goes awry when Maddie learns that she’s a clone of Jean Grey created by Mister Sinister to produce a child with Cyclops, in hopes that said child will be a mutant of unfathomable power.
Traumatized and enraged by all the suffering she’s endured, Madelyne Pryor turns to villainy and attempts to put the world out of its misery in the classic 1989 crossover event Inferno. After Maddie’s tragic death, Cyclops and Jean begin raising Nathan in her stead, only for him to be sent to the far future due to the machinations of Apocalypse in 1991’s X-Factor #68. Around this time, the adult Nathan travels back to the present as Cable in order to stop Apocalypse from conquering Earth in his future. However, due to complicated time-travel shenanigans, Scott and Jean were nevertheless able to raise Cable themselves at multiple stages of his childhood and adolescence.
Who is Hope Summers?
While Cable’s unnamed wife in Deadpool 2 doesn’t correlate to any existing character in the comics, the same can’t be said of his daughter Hope. In the 2007 storyline X-Men: Messiah Complex, the X-Men battle Mister Sinister and his Marauders (along with several other villainous factions) over the first mutant child born after a near-extinction event for mutantkind. This child, the so-called “mutant messiah”, is ultimately rescued by Cable, who takes her to the future to protect her from those who would do her harm in the present. Raising the girl as his own, Cable names the child Hope Summers, reflecting her status as the living hope for mutantkind.
Eventually, Cable and his adopted daughter returned to the present, with hope now grown into a teenager with the power to both mimic and enhance the powers of other mutants. In the following years, Hope was at the center of several different comics and storylines — some of them were well-received by fans, like Kieron Gillen’s Generation Hope and Uncanny X-Men. Others, like Avengers vs. X-Men, were not. These days, Hope is a major player in Gillen’s Immortal X-Men, while Cable is a supporting cast member in Al Ewing’s X-Men Red. What the future holds for them is currently a mystery, but one thing's for sure: the story of the Summers family will always be as complex as it is compelling.