When the Cable series ended, Nathan was unable to control his abilities, which were increasing dramatically in power. Cable was anchorless, wandering the world to intercede in conflicts that existed in the real world (i.e., in the Earth that we the readers lived in).
Soldier X is how Cable returned after cancellation–like so many other titles in this month of 2002, an old series ended and a new one began.
After a tone-setting issue, at the beginning of #2 Blaquesmith offers Cable the mission to save a little girl who has the mutant power to heal. He tells Cable of this girl in a restaurant meeting…
That scene is both creepy and hilarious. And that about sums up the whole series.
The girl, who lives in Russia, has a mother who wants to get famous based on her daughter’s abilities. The local church wants to turn the girl into a saint. The father–who has ties to organized crime–tried to use his daughter for financial gain. Caught in these pulls, the girl is suffering. And of course all these influences are a rich storytelling source.
Cable sees saving this girl as a way to help prevent the future that spawned Cable–that by blowing up all the bad guys now, the bad times won’t come later.
Along the way, Cable is making entries into a diary that is transmitted to Irene Mayweather–the reported from Cable’s previous series–and he tells her in the end that he has realized he cannot be a force for peace. He has to be the man he is destined to be.
He has the power of a God and seems to transcend human existence in the last pages of #6, leaving behind only his bloody metal arm.
He’s being hunted, though, and Irene knows he’s not dead.
This arc wasn’t just heavily philosophical, it was wholly experiential. There’s no good way to sum it up.