Popular comics creators and regular collaborators Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness (Hulk, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) confirmed this week the coming of Avengers: X-Sanction, which sees time-displaced X-Man Cable take on Captain America and the Avengers. Previously identified as "Cable Reborn," the project will take the form of a four-issue miniseries that begins in December. Naturally, Avengers: X-Sanction is meant to be its own self-contained story, but as Loeb and his collaborators discussed in a Marvel.com liveblog earlier this week, the book builds upon events of the past and also ties-in to those of the future.





In a press conference call and liveblog facilitated by a multitude of Marvel staffers including Marvel.com editors Ryan Penagos, Marc Storm and Ben Morse, Social Media Coordinator Janna O'Shea and Marvel's Director of Communications Arune Singh, the Avengers: X-Sanction team of Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness and editor Tom Brevoort answered questions about the project.

Loeb, whose first monthly Marvel work was a Cable run in the 1990s, seems primarily interested in developing the notion of Cable as a relentlessly protective father figure and seeing Ed McGuinness draw the character hitting people he usually doesn't, like Captain America. To that end, the writer indicated that the Avengers are connected in some way to Hope, the young mutant girl Cable is sworn to protect, and that he will do so regardless of what that may mean for the Avengers' comfort.

While it remains unknown how Cable comes back from the dead (he perished most recently in X-Men: Messiah CompleX), Loeb and co. confirmed that the events of Avengers: X-Sanction "light a fuse" for line-wide story developments in 2012, and will resonate strongly with readers of the ongoing X-Men titles Schism, Generation Hope and Fear Itself. It is also known that fellow time traveling mutant Bishop will not appear in Avengers: X-Sanction.

Some highlights from the liveblog:

"I always saw Cable as very much the Captain America of the X-Men. A soldier from out of time who cared deeply for the people he worked with." -Jeph Loeb "The idea of Cable as a man out to protect his daughter by any means necessary gives the character an emotional heft and underlines everything he does. It's richly fulfilling." -Tom Brevoort "What Cable is up to is not something that can be done quietly. It will raise the interest of some pretty important people and leaders in the X-Men community will have to step in at some point in the storyline." -Jeph Loeb "As we've said, it's not a coincidence that Fear Itself, Schism, and other big stories end at the same time. This is the first brick in the next road." -Tom Brevoort "While I talked about comparisons between Cap and Cable, there's also a parallel with Tony Stark. Iron Man thinks of himself as a 'futurist,' Cable is from the future. Both have been at war with their own bodies. We look for characters with touch points to Cable. Their legacy means an enormous amount to him." -Jeph Loeb "I have yet to find a gun too big for Cable." -Ed McGuinness



[Via Marvel.com]