King-Size Cable Spectacular #1 – Review

By Duane Swierczynski (Writer), Ken Lashley (Pencils), Paul Neary (Inks), and Frank D’Armata (Colors)

For a “King-Size” comic, there sure isn’t a whole lot of substance to the latest issue of Cable. While cleverly written, visually impressive, and definitely entertaining, it amounts to little more than a chess match through time between Cable and Bishop, ending with next to nothing resolved.

By telling the story almost entirely through the perspective of Bishop as he (piece by piece) tracks Cable and the “Messiah” baby ever farther into the future, Duane Swierczynski is able to weave a mighty impressive tale. That is, up until a certain point… The problem is that when everything finally comes together and all the pieces fall into place, I couldn’t help but feel surprisingly empty inside. For the first time since the series launched, I finally had some emotional investment in what was happening to the principle characters, only then to realize that very little actually happened in the nearly fifty page story. Frustrating? You bet.

It is far from a total loss though. As I said, the story is fun to read and it is complimented by some incredibly dynamic artwork by Ken Lashley, Paul Neary, and Frank D’Armata. The action has a nice flow to it, the designs for the future creatures rock, and the different glimpses of the future were always interesting. I suppose I could nitpick about some facial inconsistency, but as a whole, this one made me realize how good a Cable series can look as long as Ariel Olivetti stays away from it.

King-Size Cable #1 does a whole heck of a lot right, but it stumbles just before the finish line. If you can stomach that, then by all means give this entertaining book a read. As a side note, let me just say that Cable has got to be one of the most frustrating series I have ever invested in. It does just enough to keep me hooked, but always, it manages to let me down in some way month in and month out. One of these days everything is going to click, I just hope that day comes sooner than later. (Grade: B-)

-Kyle Posluszny