Victor Creed: Sabretooth Appreciation 2019

[Silver Fang]

This is all very interesting. I never realized how bad Creed had been treated till now. I like him as a villain, but felt they could have explored more with him as an antihero. After reading your posts, I can't help but ask what you would think would be a good direction for Creed if given the chance to decide?

This will be long. But someone asked me a similar question on another forum. So I am just pasting.

As a Villain
f he's gonna become a legit A-list villain, like Magneto, then he's got to branch off. Have more ambition than stalking Logan. Long as he's mostly seen as "Wolverine's stalker", he's always gonna be used as a gimmick. Like Dr. Draken from Kim Possible. The worst case we see of this is Wolverine MAX where Sabretooth came off like a jilted boyfriend who was still lusting for Logan...Or The Logan Legacy where he's dressing other man as Wolverine, dreaming about him, and worried he wont find anyone better. MY GOD! That was horrible!!!!

Tormenting Wolveine should remain an occasional hobby he gets sick kicks from. But don't turn it into an obsession and his reason for life. Even in the 90's, he had a life & even some pals to hang with when he wasn't fighting with Logan.

Jason Aaron was going in the right direction having him become a Crime lord in Asian where he also took over The Hand organization. He was moving from henchman level to boss level. But then Bendis came along, made him Mystique's sidekick and that was the end of that.

He needs to be depicted as a threat. Don't have heroes responding to him in an exasperated manner. Take him back to when he was feared, not seen as an annoyance. He needs to stay with one writer who can clean him up, and the X-office needs to crank down on making sure subsequent writers respect the character work. Don't just reset him for the benefit of whatever story the next person wants to tell.

Graydon was brought back in Weapon X. Obviously he'll be a villain. But since Sabretooth is the one who saved him from Hell, he could be responsible for finding Sabretooth & boosting him again as payback for saving him. He gave Sabretooth his first strength enhancement back in the 90's mini series. Wolverine stays getting power-ups. He's got hot claws now. So give Sabretooth some enhancements too and depict their fights as more competitive. Or better yet, make Sabretooth the stronger enemy who Wolverine may have to use some tactics to defeat, rather than taking him out in 5 sec.

Anti-Hero
In order for him to get that, it would take more time than Marvel is willing to give. With all their relaunches, constantly shuffling character to different writers, and not making writers keep consistency, it seems they don't care about development -so much as they care about events & whatever they think is the next big thing.

Sabretooth would need to stay with one writer to do the story. Bunn said he had long plans for Sabretooth & wasn't in a hurry to revert him. But again, he lost the character.

I think the inversion could be used as an opening to have Sabretooth working with others for more altruistic purposes, and show him developing bonds with others & getting in touch with the humanity he's tried so hard to suppress or ignore. Then take Bunn's approach, when he felt it starting to wear off in Uncanny, he decided to try & be something different. Something other than the lie his inverted self was, but something other than the monster he real self was. So as it wears off, have him determined to organically change now that he's experienced some of the positives Logan has in more full form. But won't be easy given he's been evil for around 142 years. But continuing from there with the spell wearing off, and Creed struggling to do better on his own or struggling on what he wants at all, without the magic crutch.

And have Monet try to help him. Bunn would've made them a couple had he not lost the characters. He confirmed last year that they had feelings for each other when he says they had a torturous love. So Monet battling her dark side with Emplate's influence & Creed battling his dark side as well would've made for interesting & possibly some dark developments as they try to stay connected & motivated to face their demons together

It would be a loooooong tale, but something like that could put Creed over the edge to being a solid anti-hero. Plus, it helps that it would be of his own effort, rather than just staying inverted by a spell forever. It works for Angel, but it'd be more authentic if Creed was organically changed. And it'd still be more development than Exiles Creed got. lol

Where things are now. Creed is crazy & ran into the Saskatchewan woods last we saw him & Monet wondered where he was. I could see her finding him (of him finding her if he can recall her scent in that state) and her being the one to care for him while he's out of his mind. Is he reverted & evil? Is he reverted & confused? Or, is he still inverted? The second option would be best because it gives more to work with on how he responds to everything he can remember about his experiences the last few years, his feelings for Monet, and how she's tried to help him. Could create a nice start.

Sadly with Marvel's track record, this will be wasted just to make Sabretooth Wolverine's punching-bag again. As often as he's jobbed, "arch nemesis" isn't something he deserves to be called at this point.