Cable #14 - Marvel

This Messiah War story-line has been pretty intense, right from the very beginning. But now? Now things seem to be heating up even more. Now that Bishop and Stryfe have taken James and Hope . . Nathan is pretty worried. This is the moment that he's been dreading ever since he brought hope into the future. Now they have to accomplish 2 things. First and foremost, of course, is retrieving Hope. That takes precedence over everything else. Secondly, they have to shut down whatever it is that's blocking Logan and his group from returning to the past. Meanwhile, while Stryfe is interrogating James, he and Bishop are both trying to do everything in their power to block out their thoughts of Hope. Neither of them want Stryfe to know how important she is . . or will be. Bishop even uses a nanite bomb on Stryfe to try to get him to lower his psychic shield that he's holding Hope in. It affects him for a second, and in that brief instant he does get a shot off, but . . Stryfe quickly recovers. He immediately assumes that Bishop is trying to betray him, but . . it doesn't take much for him to 'read' that he was actually after the girl. When Stryfe realizes this, the pieces quickly come together. Especially, I'm sure, now that he knows what to look for. He allows Hope to take off his helmet, and of course he looks just like Nathan. "Nathan, is that you . . .? Has it been you this whole time? Are you here in disguise to rescue me?" Stryfe quickly plays on her confusion . . "Yes, Hope. I am here to rescue you from your false father." While all of this is interesting, I'm starting to think that the real story lies with Warren and Apocalypse. At the end of last issue Warren took off because of a voice in his head. During the battle he switched to his Archangel form which, I think, opened him up for Apocalypse's influence. I'm sure as soon as Apocalypse felt his presence he called out for him. Warren finds him near death in a cave. He thinks that Apocalypse is asking him to kill him, but actually I think he wants to feed off of his energy. Doesn't he feed off the mutants? I think he's hoping to feed off of those that have gathered near him. And I'm starting to wonder if maybe that isn't Hope's destiny. Maybe she's the one that's powerful enough that when Apocalypse feeds off of her it'll bring him back to his full glory. Maybe that's how she inadvertantly brings about the end of the world. But if that's the case, isn't Bishop equally as guilty. He is, after all, the one that brought this whole plan together and thereby put all the pieces into the same frying pan. It gives you quite a bit to think about. Huh? I'm really diggin' this story-arc. I can't wait to see how it all comes out. Duane Swierczynski and Ariel Olivetti are doing an outstanding job here. My hats off to all involved.