Sabretooth 90s evolution as a character, a tribute

[Chubistian]

Growing up as an X-Men fan, and specially as a Wolverine fan, it's hard not to have at least a little interest in Victor Creed, AKA Sabretooth. I've always had a soft spot for the character and during this pandemic I re-read some comicbooks from the 90s featuring him. Nowadays it might be hard to think that there was such a heavy interest from the writers to pay particular interest on him, which I don't know if it was welcomed by the readers, I guess it was, and so the famous furred villain had what I think was the heyday of his career. Today, I wanted to pay some respect to this Age of Sabretooth and, who knows, maybe find some people that share a same view about this time in X-History.

It's hard to point out where it all started, thank to the serialized nature of superhero comicbooks. Was it Larry Hama's incredible run in Wolverine that put the necessary push in the character, bringing a shared secret agent past alongside Wolverine into play? Was it Omega Red's debut, where a link between Creed and Gambit is mentioned and for the first time ever we get to know Sabretooth's real name? Certainly, every story gave pass to the next, and so on and on. I think a good starting point is the Sabretooth miniseries, written by Larry Hama and with pencils by Mark Texeira, who's macho-esque style was perfect for the character. Here we are introduced to Creed's torturous childhood and it's the second and last story that had Birdie in it, the secretary-mercenary that helped Sabretooth contain his bloodlust thank to her psychic powers. It was also the debut of one Graydon Creed, son of Victor and Mystique. Finally, there was a glimpse to understand (not accept) this character's savagery. Birdie dies at the end of this mini, which leaves Sabes without a person to refrain his killer impulses.

X-Men Unlimited #3 is released and, who I think is the writer that should get the most credit for his contribution to this time of the character, Fabian Nicieza, gets hands on Sabretooth and gives him a genuine interest for healing his mind, in a manner suited for Creed: He goes on in a rampage killing old associates from a dirty job he did years ago. Xavier decides to help Creed by force and captures him. To Charles, Sabretooth was the prime representation of his goal of peaceful co-existence, similar to how Wolverine was back in the day, but this time an even more dangerous case. This wasn't well received by most X-Men, but they had to live with it. Mike Mckone was the penciler of this issue and he has a style that I've always liked. He didn't dissapoint here and gave a solid job. Plus, cover by Bill Sienkiewicz, 'nuff said!



Sabretooth's time as an X-Men consisted in going out on some missions and playing a role similar to Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, messing with some characters' most inner and dark feelings, thoughts and past. It was an interesting and well-executed dynamic that added a new layer to the X-books. Nicieza took most advantage of it and, alongside the pencils of Andy Kubert (who always contributed some interesting compositions that made the comicbooks richer), put some heroes to deal with Victor's words: Gambit, Psylocke, Rogue, Jean. They would come out stronger or broken after a session with him. He proved that even in chains, he was still deadly.



Everything came to an end with Wolverine #90, a great comicbook with some gimmicks that I don't usually like, because I think they break the flow of the story, but every once in a while I'm fine with them, and this was one of those cases. Logan comes to the X-mansion, Victor tries to escape and they get on in a clash of claws, bones and blood, written by Hama and penciled by the one and only Adam Kubert. The Age of Apocalypse epic also interrups the ongoing stories of the different titles and (Mr Creed was an important character here, but a very different one from his counterpart), once everything went back to normal, the consequences of his last fight with Wolverine were shown: he had the innocence of a child. His healing factor did its magic, he tricked the X-Men, seriously injured Pyslocke in a savage fight done by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira, and escaped the mansion. The original X-Men had to hunt him down, which ends with the aparent death of Sabretooth in a one-shot written by Nicieza (who else) and with pencils by Gary Frank, another really good story that I think it's a great end to this epoch. Certainly the character kept on appearing in other comicbooks and featured in some series throughout the decade, but I think then he was closer to his old self. The ending of his time as an X-Men came too quick for my taste, I would have loved to see it go for a little longer, but I can't deny that the way the creative teams put it out was outstanding.

[Gripstir]

I remember first time reading a Sabretooth book and was just off put. Not because he was bad but he was really written like he could just decide at any moment he wanted to see you die. He wasn't my favorite or anything but he was one of those villains that managed to make me uneasy when he was in a book

[Captain Nash]

The whole "Sabretooth rehabilitating at the mansion" storyline was definitely interesting, in part because some of the X-Men were definitely not on board with Xavier's decision, but tolerated it regardless. Of course it inevitably ended horribly, but the time between injuries sustained by Wolverine to his breakout, you almost felt sorry for him. Until you figured out he was just playing for time for a good portion of that.

[Drexelhand]

The whole "Sabretooth rehabilitating at the mansion" storyline was definitely interesting, in part because some of the X-Men were definitely not on board with Xavier's decision, but tolerated it regardless. Of course it inevitably ended horribly, but the time between injuries sustained by Wolverine to his breakout, you almost felt sorry for him. Until you figured out he was just playing for time for a good portion of that.

I just have to say, though, Archangel went out like a bitch. Of course, he'd regained his personality by that point, but if this was Archangel from Fall of the Mutants to X-Cutioner's Song, he would've ripped Sabretooth to shreds. The fact that he managed to hold his own for a bit after getting sniped out by Sabretooth in their last encounter is a testament to that. But, at least this era showed that Gambit and Psylocke hate Sabretooth too.