Cable first enters the series pursuing the Mutant Liberation Front in #87. He comes equipped for a running battle, and that appearance establishes his priorities before the New…

Cable first enters the series pursuing the Mutant Liberation Front in #87. He comes equipped for a running battle, and that appearance establishes his priorities before the New Mutants have any reason to treat him as their teacher. His relationship with the group develops through action. In #89, a clash involving Freedom Force brings him together with the young mutants. By #90, the surviving underground facilities at Xavier's estate are becoming the setting for a new arrangement. The students have a place to train and an adult who takes the danger around them seriously. That can be reassuring. They have spent months dealing with unreliable authority, a destroyed school and friends they cannot reach. Cable offers direction, practical experience and a willingness to fight beside them. He expects a great deal because he believes the threats will keep coming. It can also be abrasive. Rictor does not share the others' readiness to trust him, and Cable's own history arrives as a series of tensions with people who seem to know more about him than the students do. The Madripoor encounter with Wolverine in #93 makes that particularly obvious. The interesting question in these issues is what the kids can judge from his behavior now. He goes after missing teammates. He trains hard. He has enemies and methods that do not come with an easy explanation. Their confidence in him develops amid those incomplete answers. By #100, he is gathering people whose lives already involve serious conflict. Some need protection, some want allies, and some bring combat experience of their own. The new direction grows out of those needs, with Cable increasingly setting the terms on which they will face the world.