One of the biggest and most contentious figures amongst X-Men fans is Nate Grey — X-Man.
Although introduced as the alt-reality Cable in 1995's Age of Apocalypse, he went on to star in a self-titled series that ran for six years,but has been essentially missing in action ever since. But now he's back.
His appearance in this week's New Mutants #25 comes on the heels of his involvement in the Dark Reign-era Dark X-Men series which found him being used as a power source for a device dreamt up by Norman Osborn and the Dark Beast. In this new storyline, Cyclops tasks the New Mutants, along with Logan and Colussus, to locate Nate Grey — by any means necessary. Although Cable was a viable threat, Nate Grey is 100x times more. Classified as an Omega-level mutant, Moira McTaggert stated in the past that his powers rivaled that of the Dark Phoenix herself.
Nate Gray has a long and winding history inside the Marvel Universe. Whereas Cable was the newborn child of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor, Nate Grey was the test tube baby made by Mr. Sinister in Age of Apocalypse using the DNA of Summers and Jean Grey. In reality, Cable and Nate are more like fraternal twins than identical — the same parents (clone not withstanding), but raised in oddly different circumstances. While possessing the same powers as Cable, unlike his alt-reality twin, he was never infected by the techno-organic virus and became less of a soldier and more a high-level power user. In the final issues of his self-titled series, writers Warren Ellis & Steven Grant reoriented X-Man as a savior for the mutant race, a self described "shaman of the mutant tribe".
The decision to reinsert X-Man into the Marvel Universe at this moment in time could be more than just a coincidence. With Hope Summers emerging as mutant's last hope for a future, the reappearance of Nate Grey could theoretically pose a different direction for the mutant race to go. It'll be interesting to see where New Mutants writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning take this story.
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I have to wait till after work to get my comics, but…oh man…this is the issue that I’m looking forward to the most. Nate is the greatest X character, as he embodies all of the great and bizarre stereotypes that the X-characters possess.
NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!!!!!!!!!
I haven’t been reading New Mutants, but I’ll sure grab this issue. I always did like Nate.
Nice love xman glad he’s back
Not that the continuity of this would bother me, it truly doesn’t, but didn’t he die at the end of the Ellis run?
Cool guys don’t look at explosions.
Those abs. Where does he find the time?
@adamtohell Norman Osborn had him hook up to an abmaster which connected to a big turbine thing
@adamtohell He’s the most powerful mutant in the Marvel universe. He can make those abs just by thinking about it!
nah, it was an abmaster
Cosmic abmaster.
Those picking up this book for Nate Grey are missing the MUCH more important part of the story, namely that Cyclops and the X-Men as an entity have at long last realized that Magik is a potentially unbeatable foe with intelligence and strategies that they didn’t realize she was capable of devising, and that her scruples do not preclude her from sacrificing any or all of them if she feels the need.
This revelation has the makings of a great conflict down the road, and I hope the new team doesn’t forget about it as they go on.
@TheMaster Hopefully that conflict involves a long sword fight…in another dimension.
@brianmaru He… dispersed himself over the entirety of Earth’s telepathic field to protect the earth both from a threat and himself. Norman Osborne’s machine tapped into said field and reconstituted him. Boom.
@PraxJarvin Man, Osborn’s Cosmic Abmaster has some crazy side effects.
This is bigger than Swamp Thing and Constantine returning to DC.
“shaman of the mutant tribe” was kind of dumb
But –
The Warren Ellis and Steve Grant. Art by Ariel Olivetti stuff about the Nate traveling the spiral of reality is still some of the best super hero stories I have read to this day.
Shake Weight
I wonder what Ron’s opinion about this might be?I for one have never read about this particular character, nor have I ever heard him even mentioned in any of the X books that I have read, until now. I gotta say, based on the character history that I have just looked up, this might be really awesome.
Glad to see the love for Nate.
I’m a huge fan of the character, always have been.
I have faith in Abnett and Lanning to do him justice.
Welcome back Nate!
@PraxJarvin Those two sentences exemplify why I love comics.
I skipped his series but always heard good things about it. I did always want his version of the X-Men logo tattoo.
I was really into the original X-Man run, I didn’t read the Ellis reboot, but hey why not?
I loved X-Man growing up and had to pick this up. The only other New Mutants issues I’ve picked up were the Age of X stuff. Hopefully I can dive right in.
Not only was this a great issue that brought Nate back into the fold of the X-verse, but the last page was a love letter for us who have read X-Man. I read this before reading anything else, and still made it my POTW a minute after reading. I’m a shallow bitch like that sometimes.
I had a big stack this week and also had to get last week’s books, so I had to pass this by but I am starting to regret it. My hope is that this will re-establish him as a power player and he’ll be a key character in next summer’s Marvel even just like he was on Age of Apocalypse and Onslaught, back when comics were AWESOME!
I think now is the perfect time for Steve Skroce to give up Hollywood work and come back to comics!