"With all due respect to Walt Simonson, Stryfe was brought to the table months after Cable was created, designed and implemented. Cable was in fact first introduced as a character in an Alpha Flight proposal that I gave to Danny Fingeroth that was green lit and moving forward until an Alpha Flight re-launch was ultimately ruled out, a condition necessary for me to jump over from the X-office. Cable walked in the doors with me when I arrived at Marvel, he eventually turned up in New Mutants and here we are 17 years later. Not Commander X, Not Quinn, Cable.
"Bob trusted me with turning the New Mutants around and after a brief period with Louise Simonson, I was handed control of the title and we created comics history. The book went from the lowest selling X-Men title to the top of the charts. Issue #100, the single proudest achievement of my Marvel career, had four printings and sold 1 million copies. No variants, no trading cards, just momentum from a story and artwork that excited a generation of fans to jump on board, setting the stage for the 5 million copies of 'X-Force' #1.
"As for Cable's influences, look no further than Bruce Willis circa 'Die Hard' meets a certain death dealing cyborg from the future. Cable however, with his mixture of sci-fi-mutant-action-hero-big-guns-pouches-scar-cyborg-fruits-to-nuts character mix did indeed create his own brand of creative spin-offs and rip-offs. Magog being one of the most obvious admitted examples."
"Alpha Flight," I asked? This was new info...
"Well, before I was committed to New Mutants, I was looking for a vehicle that I could have more plot input on and it turns out that they were looking for a new team on 'Alpha Flight.' I was a huge fan and sent in a two year proposal that pre-dates my start on 'New Mutants' by about seven months. Cable was introduced as a soldier from Wolverine's past, who would have worked with the existing Alpha Flight roster. Danny Fingeroth was eager to get me on the series, but when it wasn't going to be re-launched I opted for 'New Mutants' and was able to do a dramatic housecleaning with editorial's blessing. My second issue of 'New Mutants,' there were several new characters of my design and creation that debuted, including but not limited to Cable. The entire MLF roster was created by me, Thumbleina, Tempo, Fourarm, Wildside, Reaper were among the new villians including Stryfe to appear. The book's tone and direction was changed from that point onward. There was little to no resemblance to what had gone before with the previous creative teams. Fans can make up thier own minds as to how much I did or did not contribute to what was a wholesale creative face lift on a book that was facing cancellation as I accepted the assignment."
What could have been; AF, Liefeld and Cable
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Originally Posted by PWalk
