Sabretooth and Wolverine: Take a look back at some of their previous encounters from more than a century of fighting as Wolverine prepares for his most vicious fight to date in “Sabretooth War.”
Wolverine: The Past Shows That Sabretooth Is More Than Just a Brute
For the better part of a century, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been engaged in combat due to their exceptional lifespans and mutant healing powers. These two tough fighters are still embroiled in one of the most savage feuds in the Marvel Universe.
Despite their occasional collaboration on the same squad, Wolverine and Sabretooth have a mutual animosity that overrides all other allegiances. Over the years, Logan and Victor Creed have engaged in increasingly violent altercations, resulting in a river of blood being spilled in both the Canadian wilderness and the corridors of the X-Mansion.
One of the bloodiest Wolverine tales ever told, “Sabretooth War,” features Wolverine and Sabretooth facing out once more after avoiding one another for the majority of the Krakoan Era. Now, when Logan and Creed rematch in WOLVERINE (2020) #42 by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, and Alex Sinclair, let’s look back at some of the most vicious, violent, and barbaric fights between Wolverine and Sabretooth.
MUTAN MASSACRE
It was during “Mutant Massacre,” one of the team’s deadliest epics, that Sabretooth first saw Wolverine in his X-Men form. Sabretooth and his squad, the Marauders, attempted to exterminate the mutants known as Morlocks, who lived under sewers, per Mister Sinister’s orders. In UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #212, written by Chris Claremont and Rick Leonardi, Sabretooth assaulted Wolverine when the X-Men attempted to aid their subterranean allies.
Despite the fact that readers had never witnessed a fight between Wolverine and Sabretooth before, the two were already bitter rivals and had a long history together. In UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #213 by Claremont and Alan Davis, Creed escaped and assaulted Psylocke at the X-Mansion after Wolverine momentarily buried Sabretooth alive. Psylocke continued to read Sabretooth’s mind as Logan and his opponent fought their way across Xavier’s expansive estate. Although the enemy was able to flee by leaping off a cliff, this fight solidified Wolverine and Sabretooth’s rivalry as fierce and enmity-filled opponents.
HOW SABRETOOTH AND WOLVERINE MET
According to Frank Tieri, Ángel Unzueta, and Guillermo Sanna Bauza’s RUINS OF RAVENCROFT: SABRETOOTH (2020) #1, Sabretooth and Wolverine first met in person at the Ravencroft Institute in 1909, long before Wolverine joined the X-Men. Sabretooth began hunting down the future X-Man to exact revenge on his brother after finding out Logan had murdered Saul Creed. After discovering Logan comatose at a crime scene, Creed brought him to Ravencroft, where he was collaborating with Mister Sinister’s human persona, Nathaniel Essex.
Doctor Claudia Russell, a werewolf, attempted to liberate Logan after Essex had lobotomized him and severed one of his arms. Logan’s instincts kicked in and he sank his claws into Sabretooth’s jaw as the creature stopped them. After that, Sabretooth became stunned. Russell then challenged Sabretooth to a fight while Wolverine was weaker.
Silver Fox’s demise
During one of Wolverine and Sabretooth’s most vicious confrontations, Creed killed Silver Fox, Logan’s partner, by attacking him. In the dark history of WOLVERINE (1988) #10 by Chris Claremont and John Buscema, Creed hunted Logan down and attacked on his birthday when he and Silver Fox were living in rural Canada.
Following Wolverine’s discovery of Silver Fox’s corpse, Sabretooth went up to Logan and boasted about having killed his companion. Logan discovered that Sabretooth was stronger and faster than him as the two got into a brutal combat. Logan attempted to flee by scaling a mountain, but Sabretooth was there to greet him and engaged in a more vicious combat with Logan.
One of Wolverine’s earliest defeats, Creed defeated him and made the hero experience true terror, even though Wolverine went into a berserk rage. In this brutal fight, Sabretooth proved to be one of Marvel’s most vicious villains by tormenting Logan both physically and mentally.
ESCAPES OF SABRETOOTH
Professor X took Sabretooth to the X-Mansion for treatment in an attempt to heal him, but it didn’t work. Even though Sabretooth was shielded by an electric force field and occasionally assisted the X-Men, he continued to torment Wolverine. In WOLVERINE (1988) #90 by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert, Creed broke out after attempting to provoke Logan into a fight one night.
After Creed threatened to kill Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, and Jubilee, Logan first attempted to control Sabretooth and fought defensively without using his claws. However, Wolverine went feral and viciously attacked him. The X-Man bit Creed’s brain to temporarily impair his mental ability and reduce him to a juvenile state while the villain threatened Logan’s friends.
FIGHT AN APOCALYPSE
In WOLVERINE (1988) #145 by Erik Larsen and Leinil Francis Yu, Apocalypse made Logan and Sabretooth fight as part of his plan to convert Wolverine into his brainwashed Horseman of Death. Although Wolverine at the time only had bone claws, Sabretooth had both claws and a skeleton lined with adamantium, which he utilised to attack the bewildered Wolverine first. Upon learning from Sabretooth that the victor of this battle will go on to become the next Horseman of Death, Wolverine unleashed his animalistic tendencies and thoroughly dismantled Creed.
Wolverine disembowelled his opponent and concentrated his strikes on Creed’s exposed organs, taking advantage of his opponent’s impenetrable adamantium skeleton. Logan followed Apocalypse’s instructions and silently hoped to overcome the ancient mutant’s indoctrination in order to prevent Creed from becoming the Horseman of Death, which he eventually did.
EVOLUTION OF WOLVERINE
In “Wolverine: Evolution,” a story that started in WOLVERINE (2003) #50 by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi, Sabretooth and Wolverine squared off multiple times during a period when Sabretooth had been tricked into joining the X-Men. A mystery character named Romulus replaced Sabretooth with a clone following a deadly struggle that ended with the X-Men’s Blackbird crash landing. Romulus claimed to have controlled Wolverine’s life and provided funding for the Weapon X Programme.
After mutilating Feral and Sasquatch, this Sabretooth clone was confronted by Logan brandishing the fabled Muramasa Blade, which has the ability to negate healing factors. Logan severed his limb and attempted to speak with his former foe in WOLVERINE (2003) #55 by Loeb and Bianchi, thinking the mindless clone was the actual Sabretooth. Logan used the sword to decapitate the Creed clone when he requested for Logan’s help in killing him, seeking retribution for all the deaths he had taken.
REBORN SABRETOOTH
The true Sabretooth, having seemingly died, started training and collaborating with Romulus to torture Wolverine. He later launched an attack on his former adversary in WOLVERINE (2010) #310, illustrated by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi. Upon discovering an abandoned Weapon X facility where Romulus had produced further Sabretooth clones, Logan was confronted by the original Creed while many of his clones ignited. Logan had to chisel a way to a jet and burn a few clones to death as he took off since the clones were about to overpower him.
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Logan traced the real Sabretooth to Romulus’ stronghold in WOLVERINE (2010) #312 by Loeb and Bianchi after crashing the plane into the Weapon X building. In an attempt to ambush Wolverine, Creed was struck by the X-Man, who struck him in the face and smashed his head into the ground. After Sabretooth was immediately rendered unconscious by those attacks, Logan turned all of his focus towards Romulus.
WOLVERNINE: DEFEATING
A Microverse virus infected Wolverine, neutralising his healing factor and rendering him vulnerable, while Sabretooth reinvented himself as a global criminal king. Equipped with an army of ninja, Lord Deathstrike, Mystique, and the Silver Samurai, Sabretooth used his vast criminal resources to place a bounty on Logan’s head and push him to the limit of his physical capabilities.
In WOLVERINE (2013) #12, by Paul Cornell and Alan Davis, Sabretooth battled Logan until he was both mentally and physically worn out. Following his near-fatal beating, Sabretooth ridiculed Wolverine and made death threats. Nevertheless, content with his triumph, Creed spared Logan’s life and proceeded with his other plans, which Wolverine—still helpless—finally thwarted.
SABERTOOTH WAR
One of the first formal acts of the mutant country after the mutants of the globe united on Krakoa was to sentence Sabretooth to the Pit, an eternal jail. After escaping, though, Sabretooth began retaliating against Wolverine in “Sabretooth War.”
Together with a small army of his ruthless alternate-universe Sabretooth equivalents, Sabretooth trailed Wolverine and the X-Force allies to their headquarters at the North Pole. Sabretooth and his group slaughtered Kid Omega, a fellow member of Wolverine’s X-Force, in order to continue his birthday attack ritual on Logan. In WOLVERINE (2020) #41 by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoffrey Shaw, and Cory Smith, Creed and his army also mutilated and killed Logan’s son, Daken.
Sabretooth’s men stormed the base and massacred the mutants who were taking refuge within after torturing Wolverine and leaving him out in the bitter cold of the Arctic. Logan will stop at nothing to protect his daughter from his fiercest adversary, even after Wolverine and X-Force managed to repel Sabretooth’s troops and Laura Kinney is nowhere to be found.
In WOLVERINE #42, currently on sale, open Sabretooth’s birthday present to Wolverine!
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