Summary

• Cable’s decision to be resurrected with his deadly Techno-Organic virus was a strategic move to use it as an ultimate weapon against the Children of the Vault.
• Cable’s T-O virus was able to control the highly contagious super-strain, infecting the Children’s City.
• Cable and Bishop’s plan to threaten the Children with planetary destruction paid off, saving humanity from assimilation by the Children and giving mutantkind an ultimate weapon against their enemies.

Warning: contains spoilers for Children of the Vault #4The X-Men hero Cable and his former mortal enemy Bishop have been on a mission to keep the Children of the Vault from taking over Earth, which the two mutants recently accomplished in Children of the Vault #4 through the use of an Ultimate Weapon. The way that Cable and Bishop were able to take down the Children and force their retreat also answered a major mystery that fans have wondered about: Why did Cable choose to be resurrected with his Techno-Organic virus?

Cable has been resurrected at least three times during the X-Men’s Krakoan Age and each time he has been brought back to life with his deadly Techno-Organic virus still infecting him, making fans question why he would choose to continue causing harm to himself.

Children of the Vault #4 – from Deniz Camp and artists Luca Maresca and Carlos Lopez – sees Cable and Bishop threatening to destroy the Children and their precious City with a highly contagious super-strain of the T-O virus, which can only be controlled by Nathan’s own T-O infection.

Cable Chose To Be Resurrected With His Dangerous T-O Virus

Cable was infected with the T-O virus by a villainous Apocalypse when he was a young baby, forcing his father Cyclops to send Nathan thousands of years into the future to be saved by the technology of the Askani Clan. Cable survived his infection, and avoided being captured and killed by -:A:-, by using his incredible telepathic abilities to stave off the virus, keeping it contained to one single arm. Mister Sinister manipulated the conception of Nathan by Cyclops and Madelyne Pryor to create an “ideal mutant,” and without needing to keep the T-O virus at bay, Cable would be one of the most powerful telepaths in history.

The potential of Cable’s power is why many have been confused about his decision to be resurrected with the T-O virus still infecting him, first when he was brought back to life after Young Cable killed him, and again after both the Progenitors and Uranos ended his life. At the time Hope said he was “studying it for any mutations,” but Children of the Vault #4 retcons this decision, proving that Cable was strategically keeping his T-O virus to use as an ultimate weapon. Cable explains to Serafina and Capitan that years ago he risked assimilation into the Phalanx in an alternate timeline to get a sample of a hyper-evolved TO strain, which he has now released on the City.

The Deadly T-O Virus Saved The World From The Children

Cable’s highly virulent T-O variant quickly began assimilating the Children and their City, with Nathan warning Serafina that within 24 hours the assimilation would be complete and a Babel Spire would form, calling a Technarch to Earth to devour the planet. Cable and Bishop’s bold plan works, with Serafina unable to risk the future of the Children on the two mutants acting like “heroes.” Serafina reverses the infectious “Message” of the Children, freeing humanity from their control, prompting Cable to re-absorb the variant T-O strain into his infected arm, before the Children fully disengage from Earth and re-enter the Vault they evolved within.

Cable and Bishop played a huge risk in threatening the Children with planetary destruction, but their gambit paid off, saving a potentially undeserving humanity from assimilation by the Children. Finally, fans know why the X-Men’s Cable has always chosen to resurrect with his T-O virus, and why he might continue to in the future, to give mutantkind an Ultimate Weapon against their enemies.

Children of the Vault #4 from Marvel Comics is available now in stores.