X-Men ‘97 Episode 7, titled Bright Eyes, has answered a lot of fans’ dangling questions after the deadly attack on Genosha in Episode 5, Remember It. As things get clearer for the X-Men, with the revelation of the real main villain, the series has also tied one major loose end from X-Men: The Animated Series—Cable's connection to Cyclops.
Cable appeared in The Animated Series several times as a nameless mercenary who worked for a general called The Leader. At the time, he was only known for being a time traveler and a clone created by Mister Sinister with no connection to any X-Men members. However, in X-Men ‘97 Episode 7, his relation to Cyclops / Scott Summers is finally revealed.
Warning: Major spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk.
Everything started when Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Nightcrawler, and Morph went to Genosha to help the relief effort. While doing so, Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, called them to go to Madripoor for a talk. The discussion revealed that a new organization called OZT, alongside an anti-mutant leader, Bastion, was working to wage war on mutants.
Later, Trask wanted to end his life by jumping off a building, and though Rogue tried to stop him, she later let him fall to pay for Gambit’s death. To their surprise, Trask came back alive and transformed into a cyborg Sentinel, possessing incredible strength and power enough to defeat the X-Men. But before Trask could end their lives, Cable showed up and brought the enemy down with just one shot.
Jean Grey deduced Cable was Nathan Summers, Cyclops’ son with Madelyne Pryor. Cable knew it all along, but Cyclops looked surprised. However, they didn’t get the chance to enjoy the moment, with Cable saying, “Let’s skip the reunion, Dad.” Instead, he warned them of the threat that Bastion would bring.
Cable’s Appearance in X-Men: The Animated Series
In The Animated Series, Mister Sinister created a clone that grew up as Cable. He first appeared in Season 1 to work for The Leader. However, when he learned that his so-called boss wasn’t as interested in democracy as he claimed to be, he left him and started his own revolution. He then went to Genosha, helped free Gambit and the X-Men, and defeated The Leader. When asked who he was, he introduced himself as the “Wild Man of Borneo.”
In Season 2, Cable returned from the future, now with a bionic arm. Here, he allied with his nemesis, Apocalypse, to go back in time to kill Bishop, who changed the Techno-Virus and erased his timeline. The X-Men found a way to ensure that the future Bishop and Cable would meet on the same timeline. The two ended up working together to fight Apocalypse.
Lastly, in Season 4, Cable’s child, Tyler, joined him on a mission to destroy the Lazarus Chamber, the secret behind Apocalypse’s long life. Interestingly, the villain stole his time-traveling device and used it to escape time and travel to any period he wanted. Cable used another time-traveling device to ask for X-Men’s help. Bishop then joined the group to stop Apocalypse, which resulted in the latter being destroyed for good.
By the looks of it, Cable will help the X-Men to defeat a common enemy. With only three episodes left for the first season, fans need to see how they will stop Bastion from fulfilling his mission to wipe out the mutants. X-Men ‘97 Episodes 1 to 7 stream on Disney+, while new episodes drop every Wednesday.
