Summary

• Cable uses the life-threatening aspect of the Techno-Organic Virus to push his body to the point of immense stress, allowing him to reach god-tier strength in dire situations.
• The virus, usually a threat, can enhance Cable's abilities, allowing him to disintegrate even powerful mutants with ease.
• Despite the risk, Cable strategically uses near-death stress to unlock immense power, a rare and dangerous ability.

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Cable #3! It’s no secret that Cable, the son of X-Men canon. He was all but specifically engineered to be powerful enough to kill Apocalypse, after all, meaning Cable is capable of tangling with even the strongest opponents on Earth. While the introduction of the Techno-Organic Virus did weaken his mutant powers, Cable still knows how to tap into his true strength, though it can only be done under one dark condition.

In Cable #3 by Fabian Nicieza, Scot Eaton, and Lan Medina, Cable and his younger counterpart, Kid Cable, have infiltrated a laboratory where the villainous Black Womb is orchestrating the creation of the Neocracy, which - if unleashed upon the world - would change the DNA of humans and mutants alike, turning them into a new species void of free will. Cable has seen too many timelines fall to the Neocracy, so he’s hellbent on taking the Black Womb down.

However, the Black Womb has created nearly perfect temp-clones of Apocalypse, Magneto, Cyclops, and Jean Grey, so the Cables’ work is definitely cut out for them on this mission. In fact, the clone of Magneto ripped the older Cable apart, and while Kid Cable is fighting all the immensely powerful X-Men clones alone, Cable is slowly piecing himself back together. And that, as it turns out, is the key to Cable unlocking his true power - a power with which he disintegrates every X-Men clone with a thought.

In the words of Cable himself, “In the seconds after my Techno-Organic mesh realigns with my internal cybernetics, I’m at my most vulnerable… but also my most powerful”.

Cable is At His Strongest Right After Contracting a Virus That’s Trying to Kill Him

While Cable does have to maintain a telekinetic handle on the Techno-Organic Virus to keep it from spreading through his entire body (and thereby destroying him), he’s found ways to make this cybernetic disease a true enhancement. Cable can infect machines with the virus to destroy or hack into them, he can temporarily infect mutants with the virus to depower them, and he can even use it to corrupt a piece of tech as impossibly advanced as the Children of the Vault’s City.

However, the true peak of Cable’s power when it comes to his relationship with the virus is that, right when it’s on the verge of killing him, the Techno-Organic Virus pushes his body into maximum overdrive. Cable is deliberately putting life-threatening stress on his body with the Techno-Organic Virus, thereby spiking his god-tier telekinetic power, and making him strong enough to obliterate some of the strongest mutants in the world (clones or not) just by looking at them.

Cable Uses Near-Death Stress to Kick His Mutation into God-Tier Overdrive

Despite being stronger without it, Cable uses the Techno-Organic Virus to his advantage!

It's well known that Cable would be stronger if he wasn’t infected with the Techno-Organic Virus. In fact, Nate Grey aka X-Man is a perfect example of this, as he’s capable of creating an entire pocket dimension with his mastery of telekinetic and telepathic powers. That being said, Cable has found a way to kick his mutation into god-tier overdrive when he wants to use his abilities for a quick burst of unstoppable power, and he uses the near-death stress to his body brought on by the Techno-Organic Virus to achieve this immediate power-boost.

The power Cable exhibited in this Marvel Comics issue isn’t one fans have seen him utilize very often, and it’s not one he will call upon very often moving forward. Indeed, Cable has to nearly die through total Techno-Organic Virus infection to achieve it. While it’s worth it on the rare occasions he needs to tap into his god-tier power, it’s not something the X-Men hero can call upon every day, as Cyclops’ son, Cable, can only unlock his maximum power under one dark condition.

Cable #3 by Marvel Comics is available now.