A thick TP that collects: New Mutants #87, Cable: Blood & Metal #1 - #2, Cable #1 - #4.

In the first arc Cable goes after Tolliver and his group of mutants (the MLF - one letter shy of something interesting) and gets a nasty surprise.
The MLF are interesting and this is maybe the only thing positive about this arc.
The art isn't good but I can't wholeheartedly call it awful. The people are walking mountains and the drawing is overloaded with details and it's just not good, but it works - I didn't have a problem following what was happening and I guess some of the credit's due to the colorist - there are a lot of panels that could've turned to utter visual gibberish but they didn't.

The second arc is less of a snooze fest - it actually starts in a rather interesting way - placing Cable in a futuristic world with several other people and he's being chased. One of the women from his group resents his past choices and looses trust in him. The design of that futuristic world is beautiful, but it gets ruined pretty fast when Cable returns to the present to sip on some coffee for the rest of the arc.

The drawing is 80s style and I don't think I need to say anything else - maybe just add "mountain-sized humans". I know it's a cop out on my behalf - not taking the time to ponder on what didn't work and why, and that it's not a real critique.
I can live with it.
There are good things in this TP: I would enjoy reading an arc with Cable in a futuristic world, and I would enjoy reading an arc about the MLF group without the association with that enticing abbreviation - just give them a slight face lift. Also - they don't have to be the bad guys.

This TP doesn't really divulge anything about Cable - maybe I'm wrong to expect that from a line called "Classic", but I thought that some of its intent is to give some info about the character and not just to resurrect random arcs and glue them together.
Also there is the cover issue here - the cover is shorter than the pages - that means the pages stick out a bit, but the gap is small.
Also there is a horrid design choice here (not necessarily the designer's fault) - in the beginning of the TP next to the credits there is a painting of Cable and he looks more than a mountain-sized human... He looks Galactus-sized. He's holding two nail/stapling guns (or a combo - one of each) and his head is tiny, the coloring is fugly with a bad computer-made lightening of the colors which looks like the paint was scraped off or that it faded. Just weird streaks of white all over the place.

The stories are very boring and hard to get through - especially the arc with Tolliver. There is no point in reading this TP.
If you feel like you want to cry yourself to sleep, I recommend these wonderful and sad songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_Pp0Wf8u4


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGFgt7l2eGg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubdgoyPoMrg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JACV6nPsgtQ


But they are also good if you want to hold it in and face the consequences, or if you want to vent after this bitch-fest.