Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.xbooks
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 21:40:36 -0500 
From: Steven Kelly Woyicki <sw3r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Maybe, just maybe there is method to the madness

In regard to the X-cutioner problems that we've been moaning about:

-the Techno Virus gunshot:
    Maybe there was a reason.  I'm not very sure about this, but aside
from the "I-did-it-to-make-him-suffer-like-I-suffered" reason, there may
be something in what Xavier said when he awoke after being cured.  He
said something about "Cable, Stryfe, Scott, Jean, everybody" in the
?computer/machine? or something.  I don't see what any of this means,
but perhaps Stryfe shot him in order to turn him into the Professor. 
Again, I don't see any logic to creating Cable's already existing
computer, but perhaps Stryfe is merely paving the way for his own
creation.  (Bear with me on this point!)  I know somebody suggested this
before and this could confirm the theory.  However, I still think Ship
is the Professor.  But maybe this (what Chuck said) explains who "Scott,
Jean and Hank" are.  ????????

-Stryfe's comments:
    about Cable being "my failed brother" and how "I created my own
past" or something like that.

(Ok, I'm typing as this comes me!)
The flow of events is thus:

    - Nathan is sent to the future in X-Factor.  Askani raises him as
her son.  He believes himself to be hers.  Thus the name Stryfe calls
him: Day-something??
Cable gains his robotic limbs/parts from the virus.  Or else he receives
replacements for what he's lost due to injury incurred from the virus.

    -3800, Cable and the Clan fight Apocalypse.  This psycho Stryfe (who
must be insane) shows up and creates problems.  Cable's crew and Stryfe
both lose.

    -3800, two alternate futures.  (i.e. the good-bad Nathan thing) 
Somehow, Stryfe winds up in Cable's timeline.  Perhaps Stryfe went back
to ancient Egypt? and confronted Apocalypse then.  Apocalypse stabs him
and believes he dies.  Wounded, Stryfe narrowly escapes into time.  He
winds up in Cable's timeline.  (This would explain Apocalypse's comments
about having killed him when he sees Stryfe's face and the sword.) 
Stryfe thinks Cable a fool for working with the Clan, the decendants of
those who betrayed him (Scott and Jean).  However, Cable doesn't know
his true ID.  Thus, the failed brother comment.  Eventually, Cable and
Stryfe wind up in the past.

    -1992, If this is true, then the interaction of people from two
timelines (Cable AND Stryfe) could cause things to be different than the
way Cable remembers hearing about the past.


Therefore, Stryfe is from another timeline.  In Stryfe's, he learns his
true identity (from Askani?  maybe she told Nathan in one and not the
other!)  and goes nuts.  First he fails to defeat Apocalypse in the
future.  Then he goes after Apocalypse in the distant past.  He fails
again. (The sword thing)  With a new, bitter outlook (where he blames
Scott and Jean for screwing up his life), he tries to change the future
by going to a timeline where Apocalypse has not yet had his final
triumph.  (i.e. Cable's)  There he fights everybody!  He laughs at his
"failed brother" and both are defeated and wind up in the past.  (Which,
together, they change from the way their independent timelines remember
it.) 

I know it sounds screwy, but if this is the case then don't blame me. 
Blame Marvel.  (I rather liked the Claremont Files plan.  Except for the
part involving Colossus ripping out Wolvie's bones.  That sucks.)


-The Bishop thing:
    Hey Folks!  Bishop is BEFORE Cable's time.  WAY BEFORE!  Therefore,
there's as much of a link between them (the traitor thing somebody was
speculating on earlier) as there is between Kang the Conquerer and
Bishop.  There's too much time between Cable and Bishop's timelines!


Anyways, I've been an X-fan since #197 and I'm starting to believe the
series is dying.  There's only so long something can go on.  I think it
would take another Claremont or Lee to revive the series.  X-Factor and
Excalibur look good however.  This could be because they've gotten away
from the mutant mainstream, and are focusing more on what I call
Avengers-type plots.  Namely, they aren't fighting the same villians
every 6 months and aren't creating ghosts of the past that suddenly rise
up to haunt the characters or make some startling revelation.  (I.e. the
recent Brian Xavier and Wolverine things.)  I used to be in favor of the
constant crossover thing, but the whole future concept thing and
rewriting the past has gotten WAY out of hand.  If Marvel was smart...

* reveal the whole Cable-Stryfe thing NOW.  By the end of the
X-cutioner's song.  I heard it isn't going to end there, however.  I
guess they forget how pissed off we were with neverending plot lines. 
Go figure...

* NO MORE TIMETRAVELERS!!!!!  We liked Cable way before he was revealed
to be one.  Y'know, new characters CAN be from the present.

* END THE WOLVERINE ORIGIN CRAP.  Reveal it or get the hell away from it!

* QUIT REWRITING THE PAST!  Let it lie.

* Work on the new villians you've introduced.  The Upstarts, Omega Red,
the Hand (I know they've been around a long time before the Xbooks got
'em.), etc.  And reveal what the heck happened to Nimrod-MasterMold and
Amanda.

    Well, what do think?

    Steve (Sinister-Apocalypse in '96)