Cable #17
Cable #17 is the opening chapter of the 'Dark Ride' arc and marks the debut of four new Dark Riders — Lifeforce, Hurricane, Deadbolt, and Spyne — who would go on to menace the X-Men line for years and later serve as the muscle behind Tyler Dayspring's Genesis persona. The issue also signals a fresh chapter for the solo series itself: it is the first issue written by Jeph Loeb, who would become the title's longest-tenured writer of the 1990s and finally gave the book the creative stability it had lacked since launch. Beyond the new villains, Cable receives a new costume here, a visual reset that coincided with the series finding its footing as a genuine character study rather than a pure action vehicle.
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The Cable ongoing series launched in 1993 but, as Wikipedia notes, struggled to retain a stable creative team — no writer-penciller pairing lasted more than three consecutive issues until Loeb's arrival. Cable #17 is where that changes: Loeb steps in as writer, partnered with penciller Steve Skroce, and the Grand Comics Database explicitly flags this issue as the point where 'Loeb begins work on series.' The two would collaborate through the 'Dark Ride' arc (issues #17–19) before Loeb and Ian Churchill locked in as the book's anchor team beginning with issue #20. The issue was edited by Bob Harras and Lisa Patrick under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco, the standard X-office hierarchy of the mid-1990s.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Title: 'The Dark Ride, Part 1: The Calling' — released September 6, 1994 with a November 1994 cover date.
- Written by Jeph Loeb (his first issue on the series); pencilled by Steve Skroce; inked by Mike Sellers, Matt Ryan, and Bob Dvorak; colored by Mike Thomas; lettered by Richard Starkings/Comicraft.
- First appearances of four new Dark Riders: Lifeforce, Hurricane, Deadbolt, and Spyne — all mutant members recruited by Tyler Dayspring (as Genesis) to replace Apocalypse's original Inhuman roster.
- The issue also features the in-story death of Dark Rider Foxbat, whose life energy is drained by the newly introduced Lifeforce as a demonstration of the team's 'survival of the fittest' purge of unworthy members.
- Cable receives a new costume in this issue, a visual redesign that accompanied the creative team change.
- The central conflict sees Cable, Domino, and Storm rescue former Horseman of Apocalypse Caliban from the refashioned Dark Riders in the Morlock Tunnels beneath Manhattan; the story then plants the question of who is commanding the Riders in Apocalypse's apparent absence.
- Part 1 of a three-issue arc (issues #17–19); the arc concludes with the reveal that Cable's own son Tyler Dayspring — now calling himself Genesis — is leading the Dark Riders.
- The issue has been reprinted in the Dutch Cable (Juniorpress, 1994 series) #6 (1995), the French Cable (Semic S.A., 1994 series) #11 (April 1996), and was collected in the Cable & X-Force Omnibus (Marvel, 2019).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Cable #6 (1995), Cable #11 (1996), Cable Classic #3 (2012), Cable & X-Force Omnibus #[nn] (2019)
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