There is Ahab. He's a former member of Excalibur who eventually became an anti-mutant hunter. This version of Ahab comes from the dystopian "Days of Future Present" timeline. He is accompanied by an army of mutant hounds. One of his former hounds is the X-Men's very own Rachel Grey. In EXTERMINATION, Ahab appears to be hunting the five original X-Men teens -- presumably with the goal of destroying the X-Men by killing its founding members. So far, the X-Men have managed to avoid Ahab. Well, everyone but Bloodstorm...
And then there is Cable. But not the Cable that we've known for thirty years. This is a young version of X-Force's founding member -- and he's actually pretty effective at what he does! So far, Young Cable has managed to capture Young Iceman. He's managed to kill (Old) Cable. He's managed to capture Mimic. And he's managed to capture Young Angel.
And these last two captures, which were both portrayed in EXTERMINATION #2, are what I'm writing about in this blog post. I'd seen some promo images from this issue earlier this week, so I knew that Young Cable was going to ambush Mimic. My original thought was that he was going to compel Mimic into fighting alongside him. After all, Mimic isn't the most loyal X-Man. He fights against them as often as he fights with them. Young Cable recruiting Mimic didn't make a lot of sense, but I could think of stupider things for him to do.
Later in EXTERMINATION #2, Young Cable ambushed the rest of the original X-Men. He capture Angel and he almost managed to capture Beast. He teleported away with Angel and hooked him up to this menacing device. And then proceeds to surgically -- and painfully -- remove Angel's cosmically enhanced wings from his back!
Which brings me to the point of this blog post. It's clear that Young Cable to gathering the original X-Men and getting them ready to return them back to their rightful spots in the timeline. Frankly, I'm surprised that the X-Men have allowed them to remain this long!
But the Young X-Men have all been changed from their modern day adventures. Angel has his fiery wings. Beast is now a magician. Iceman came out as a gay teen. Marvel Girl has this weird telepathic/telekinetic battle sheath. And Cyclops knows that his father is alive. In other words, Young Cable needs to knock the Young X-Men back to their original status quo.
Some of these corrections are easy enough for a powerful telepath like Young Cable to accomplish. Some mental adjustments and the X-Men can forget all of their modern day adventures. Iceman can get knocked back in the closet. Beast can forget his spells. But Angel still has those metal wings! So it makes sense that Young Cable would rip those metal wings off of Angel's back!
But ripping off the metal wings doesn't make Angel's original wings grow back automatically.
Which brings me to my theory about Mimic getting recruited by Young Cable into this whole affair. Young Cable isn't seeking a soldier here. He's seeking somebody who can mimic the powers and abilities of other mutants. Not only that, but Mimic has a tendencies to hold onto the powers of the original X-Men. Including Angel.
So Mimic isn't going to be a warrior. He's going to be a donor. Young Cable is going to remove Mimic's mimicked wings and surgically graft them to Angel's back. Which will allow Angel to return to the past and resume his original trajectory as a founding member of the Uncanny X-Men.
That's my theory and I'm sticking to it!