Roll, Zangief's super does NOT take 90% of your life. Furthermore, it's VERY difficult (and impractical, for that matter) to pull off in the first place, so what's the difference.
Cable was designed in such a way that makes it easy to exploit his projectiles, and play keep away the entire round, while slowly draining away at your opponent with chip damage. Characters like Wolverine with no projectiles are screwed when they go up against a Cable user that plays this way (and most of them do). Cable's Viper Beam gets priority over most (if not all) other projectiles, meaning that the only way to inflict any damage on someone that abuses it (and once again, this is most Cable users) is to get in close. But how can you get in close, when their entire strategy is to "keep away?" You can't. They know that, and they're cheap bastards for doing it. Also, you can link his Viper Beam into a Hyper Viper Beam, and you can link the Hyper Viper Beam into another Hyper Viper Beam, into yet another Hyper Viper Beam.
I was curious, however. Even though most of the MvC2 community is in agreement that Cable is one of the cheapest characters in the game (with the exception of the Cable users themselves :colgate: ), I wanted to hear it from a pro; in other words, I wanted to hear it from a Cable user. And I wanted to hear it from an openly CHEAP Cable user. Here are some excerpts froms a Cable Strategy guide:
What's keep-away? Keep away is a way of playing that "keeps" your opponent "away" with long range attacks like projectiles/beams, and chip them to death while they can't put their finger on you.
Cable is a really good character when used in a keep-away game. His viper beam has great coverage since you can direct the beam up and down. His electrap is tricky and can really stops your opponent from move closer to you if used right. Along with the blessing from Capcom of his FP, there is no reason why you don't want to play keep-away with Cable.
If you just love to play keep away, or you need a brief rest from your opponent, jump back and throw dozens of those handy electrap bombs along with viper beam. Cancel any hit viper beam into HVB, and blast those away if they are stupid enoguh to get caught by a electrap. If they start to call you cheap, so be it. Keep doing this until they get pissed off (unless they are your friends, in this case, you better stop it).
Cable doesn't have a good anti-air move. It's just not good when your opponent keeps jump-in. The best way to deal with this problem is to stop them from jumping. Only use Viper Beam and Hyper Viper Beam in air unless it's in a combo or you are 100% sure it's going to hit. By jump back and shoot Viper Beam, you increase the coverage of Viper Beam to about 2/3 screen wide (with directing the beam of course), and also increase the distance between you and your opponent. Your opponent won't be able to jump any closer to you unless they are super or double/triple jumping before your beam come out. Having a good anti-air assist is a good way for dealing with super jump, just remember to cover for your assist. Finally, another good way to deal with super jump-in is simply dash forward to where your opponent was while they are at the top of the screen. This way, you put Cable out from any jump-in attack.
Another important thing about keep-away is always stay on your toe. Some people get mad when play against keep-away because now they can't do their air combos. Try super jump all the way to the other side of screen whenever they (finally) get close to you. This makes them even more mad because now they have to catch you again while your beam stops them from jumping and dashing and chip more health away from them. People do stupid things when they are losing their mind. At this point, some probably starts to call you cheap, but if you want to play a really mean keep-away, don't stop here.
I like keep-away game (yeah you heard me 
) and that's why I play keep-away game. Having fun is more important then win the match anyway. 
This is one of the most obnoxious strategy guides I've ever read, but I'm sure it's not the only one for Cable that promotes cheapness. Notice how the author is proud of the fact that people get mad, his consolation being "having fun is more important than winning the match anyway." Fun for who? Yeah, I'll bet all you cheap cable users have fun playing like that, while your opponent is pulling his hair out trying to counter your cheap strategy, all while getting chipped to death by Viper Beams.