Wolverine #55: The Death of Sabretooth - For Death Week

[theanswer]

Wolverine and Sabretooth's healing factors have become so ridiculously over powered that writers have created a deus machina in the form of a sword called the Muramasa, which is composed of special materials that kill mutant healing factors, just in case they need to kill one of them.

Wolverine confronts Victor with the sword and cuts his arm off with it. Victor picks it up and tries to press it back on so his healing factor can reattach it, but he's horrified when it falls off. Logan explains what has happened and Victor just responds with, "Do it."



And he does.

And he's been dead since.

The bit about all of the hurt women amuses me because this is written by Jeph "Red Hulk has beaten every woman ever" Loeb.

Suggested Tags:
char: sabretooth/victor creed
char: wolverine/logan/james howlett
creator: jeph loeb
creator: simone bianchi
publisher: marvel comics
title: wolverine

Comments

[midnightvoyager]

In that Wolverine's like "Yay, torture and kill a dude! Uh, I almost feel sorry for him because I have a conscience rly, but WOO MAIMIE KILL! Leave body out for the dogs!"

...Whereas Wolverine SHOULD be like "Hey, a chance to kill him," *DOES SO* "Thank fuck that's over with. And now I burn the body and bury the ashes. Because fuck if I'm letting him come back again..."

And Sabretooth is begging for mercy and shit, whereas he should be pulling more of a "You don't have the balls to kill me," etc. bit.

but i am asking for characterization, i have forgotten who i am dealing with here

[foxhack]

Yeah.

Like I said. Give 'em a few years. All of that will be retconned.

Why did it stick?

[nefrekeptah]

To put it quite simply, Sabertooh's death has stuck for this long because most readers and writers stopped giving a shit about him a long time ago.

Think about it; how many times did Sabertooth appear before this arc? How many times has this story been mentioned? Does James go around talking about how he finally killed the man who had been tormenting him for years? Because I haven't seen any sign of it. And there doesn't seem to be any legions of fans calling for Sabertooth back, either.

Sabertooth hasn't come back because most people don't even know that he's dead, much less care about the fact.

Re: Why did it stick?

[theanswer]

You're very wrong. He's synonymous with Wolverine just as Venom to Spider-Man or Joker to Batman.

[sun_man]

Sabertooth deserved better.

He was Logans main arch nemisis.


Cain is a nobody most readers don't even know who he is.


And Daken is his son so that does not count

[cloud_wolf]

Quick, someone tell Anne Boleyn!

[cainofdreaming]

There isn't. In Mary Shelley Overdrive a frankensoldier pulled Creed's... err, it was either elbow or shoulder... out of the socket, so no adamantium ligaments there.

Of course, continuity from one story to the other being what it is...

Re: Why did it stick?

[auggie18]

Wait, this is canon?

*beat*


Sabertooth is dead? Honestly did not know that before right now.

Re: Why did it stick?

[nefrekeptah]

No, he's not. He was, but that hasn't been true for a long time now.

Sabertooth was what Wolverine could become if he succumbed to the raging animal inside him - the raging animal that he kept talking about in the 90's, the blood lust that he's was constantly fighting against.

Thing is, that raging beast inside Logan? He's dealt with it. He doesn't bring it up at every opportunity anymore; he's doesn't have to fight against it every time he pops his claws. It's still there, of course, but it's long stopped being something he has to expunge from himself; it's just a part of his character now. He's progressed from there, as much as a character in this static medium can progress.

And Sabertooth? He's not a dark mirror to Logan anymore, he's a cautionary tale. He's what Logan could have become, not what he's in danger of becoming.

The only reason a person may think Sabertooth when they think Wolverine is because Sabertooth is one of the only recognizable rouges that Wolverine has; it's not very impressive when there's next to no competition.

He is no longer a vital portion of Wolverine's past; he hasn't been for years. When people talk about him now, it's less "I miss him" and more "oh yeah - that guy. Isn't he dead?"

And on a related note, Venom is synonymous with Spider-Man - Spider-Man is not synonymous with Venom. That's a very important distinction.

Re: Why did it stick?

[theanswer]

That's your personal opinion, but every Wolverine fan would harshly disagree. Hell, anyone who has a passing knowledge of X-Men would.

Re: Why did it stick?

[nefrekeptah]

Yup, has been for a while now. In a story that, unfortunately, was utter garbage.

And incidentally, thank you kindly for proving my point.

[geoffsebesta]

I was gonna dispute this, and then I was just gonna link to the last time we discussed this, and then I thought, why. It shouldn't even bother me any more.

Yeah, you can execute people with a sword and when they're tied down with their necks against a block and you're using a specially designed sword, you can sometimes pop somebody's head off with a single blow.

And yeah, Wolverine can totally kill Sabretooth with a magic sword.

It's just that I'm sick of sword decapitations, which defy the imagination in combat and have apparently never happened*, and we never see club or morning star decapitations, which are quite well recorded in history.

*If anyone can cite an in-combat decapitation with a sword from history I promise to never complain about this again.

Re: Why did it stick?

[nefrekeptah]

It's my passing knowledge of X-Men that led me to this conclusion.

[cloud_wolf]

I really hate decapitations with swords. Totally impossible.

Then specify about what decapitation you mean, because yeah, I agree that mid fight beheadings are totally out there. I honestly didn't know about that discussion. I was just being facetious.

[icon_uk]

Or perhaps he realised this was a sword that WOULD kill him, properly and decided to take the opportunity for a bit of a break

[geoffsebesta]

It's all good. I can't figure out why I should care how Wolverine kills Sabretooth this time.

[proteus_lives]

This storyline is lame.

Victor can be a great character.

Re: Why did it stick?

[okkult3000]

Someone, I forget who, pointed out that Daken has taken Sabertooth's place as "psychopath with an emotional/historical connection to Wolverine." They don't need Sabertooth anymore... or at least, not right now.

[rordulum]

Ah, that should be the tag line for the last few years of the whole X-franchise.

[big_daddy_d]

Awesome. Opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[falseaesop]

Doesn't work. Most people would die an insanely horrible death from Deadpool's healing factor. People have tried to replicate it, or clone him, it tends to end very badly (ask the Skrulls how that worked out for them). The only reason it worked for Wade is because his cancer is constantly destroying his body so it gives the healing factor something to do.

The reason it worked for Alex Haden is because technically he was dead for 5 minutes when he 'recieved' Wade's healing factor. He's a dead man kept alive by the healing factor regenerating his dead tissue... but he's still dead, but not zombie dead.

Black Swan? Same deal as Alex. But he never came back from being taxidermied.

[comicoz]

I meant Deadpool got a healing factor (from Wolvie, wasn't it?), more than others have gotten his. I did phrase it badly.

[comicoz]

Because it will Change the World As We Know It!

Until next time.

[falseaesop]

Sorry, I was trying to answer. Weapon X tried, and it killed everyone other than Wade, it only worked with him because of his cancer, however it left him horribly scarred and mentally unstable. (though plenty of evidence suggests Wade was crazy before the treatment, the cancer and the healing factor are eating and rewriting his brain tissue constantly).

Anyone else who has tried to replicate the process has failed (other than with Agent X and Black Swan), the healing factor goes into overdrive, and more or less becomes a cancer. With no wounds to heal it goes out of control and starts to grow tumors, very nasty.

Natural Healing factors in mutants seem to know when to stop rebuilding, no one has been able to replicate that.

[sir_mikael]

Coming soon to a store near you: "X-Men: Second Coming: Ick."