Sabretooth (comics)
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Sabertooth (Victor Creed) is a Marvel Comics character, an arch-enemy of the X-Men’s Wolverine. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, and first appeared in Iron Fist #14 (August 1977).
Sabretooth is a mutant who possesses superhuman strength, a healing factor, razor-sharp teeth and claws, an adamantium-laced skeleton and enhanced senses. He is a bloodthirsty psychopath who has murdered numerous people both to fulfill his animalistic urges and as a mercenary.
Although the specifics of their feud are, like most things from Wolverine’s past, hazy, it is known that he and Sabretooth were victims of the Cold War supersoldier program Weapon X and that Sabretooth saw Wolverine as competition and tried to make his life miserable. The two have been bitter adversaries ever since. If Wolverine tries to suppress his inner demons, Sabretooth is the exact opposite: he has totally embraced the beast within. Recently he has joined the current team of X-Men under questionable circumstances.
Sabretooth has appeared in several X-Men animated series and video games. Played by Tyler Mane, he was a henchman of Magneto in the first X-Men film and X-Men: The Official Movie Game.
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[edit] Fictional Character Biography
Sabretooth typically uses the name Victor Creed, but it is unclear if this is his real name or not. Sabretooth's memories have been tampered with by clandestine organizations such as Weapon X and so much of what appears to be his past is not of credible account. His strongest and earliest memory is of being cruelly abused by his father while tied up in his parents' basement, although this memory may have been implanted by Weapon X. While it isn't known if this memory is real, Creed's psychopathy could be, in part, a product of such an early developmentally destructive experience.
During his time as a member of Team X, a covert ops CIA team, Sabretooth sired a son, Graydon Creed, with the mutant shapeshifter Mystique, who at the time remained undercover under the guise of a spy called Leni Zauber. Graydon was a normal human who eventually founded the Friends of Humanity, an anti-mutant organization, and ran for president but was assassinated by his own mother. For some time, Sabretooth believed himself to be Wolverine's father, which was initially the intention of his creator, but the writers changed their minds and decided to disprove this years later by genetic testing performed by S.H.I.E.L.D., which confirmed that Sabretooth could not be Wolverine's father.
It is known that Sabretooth took part in the Weapon X program, but it is unknown what, if any, enhancements he received from it during his first active participation, as he cannot clearly remember that time period.
In 1968, Creed, already using the alias Sabretooth, worked as a mercenary in Saigon and was responsible for the murder of several prostitutes. Because of his contracts, Creed became aware that an individual known as the White Devil was involved in the disappearance of soldiers and locals, which were rumored to be the victims of experimentation. Sabretooth was approached by Scalphunter, who had already killed Creed's employer, and received a large sum of money both as a compensation for the employer's death and also because the White Devil himself wanted to employ Sabretooth as one of his own enforcers. Sabretooth accepted.
For a time Sabretooth was partners with the Constrictor and the two acted as enforcers for major criminal interests. The two have dissolved their partnership and Sabretooth nearly killed the Constrictor at one time. Over the years, Sabretooth battled Luke Cage and his partner Iron Fist, Daredevil, Spider-Man, and the Black Cat. During his battles with Spider-man and the Black Cat Sabretooth's employer the The Foreigner claimed to have trained the mercenary at some point.
Much later, Sabretooth was summoned by the man who had hired him in Saigon and so Creed became one of Mister Sinister's Marauders, participating in the Mutant Massacre. Sabretooth remained with the Marauders for a time but eventually he left and once again became mercenary for a long period. During this time, the Hand enlisted his services and enhanced his strength.
Suffering from severe bloodlust, Sabretooth hired the telepathic mutant named Birdy to help him keep his urges in check by providing what he termed as "the glow," a psychic blast that satiated his bloodlust and numbed the pain of his suppressed memories, allowing him to control himself for short periods. When Birdy was killed by his son Graydon, who had a hatred for mutants, especially his father, Sabretooth slipped into a murderous killing spree. Eventually he turned himself over to the custody of the X-Men, claiming that he hoped that their telepaths could cure him of his psychosis. However, despite the fact that he assisted them in battles against the X-Cutioner and the Phalanx, he remained a violent killing machine. He tried to escape several times, and in the final escape, Wolverine stabbed one of his claws into Sabretooth's brain. Although the brain damage soon healed, he feigned helplessness for some time. After tricking Boomer, who had been nursing Creed for some time, he brutally attacked Psylocke who managed to save Boomer's life before he could kill her, forcing her to telepathically attack him with near-lethal force. However, this no longer worked due to the head injuries he received from Wolverine. Sabretooth had been healed of his addiction to the "glow" that he received from telepathic contact and, furthermore, it rendered him highly resistant to telepathic detection and control. He escaped and nearly killed Psylocke, later to be confronted by several of the X-Men, who managed to incapacitate him.
He was turned over to the custody of Dr. Valerie Cooper, who fitted him with a restraining collar and forced him to participate as a member of the government-sponsored X-Factor team. He eventually escaped, and returned to mercenary work. At some point he gained an adamantium skeleton and claws, but they were removed from him by Apocalypse when he was bested in combat by Wolverine. He later joined Mystique's version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the second team calling itself the Brotherhood, where he participated in an assassination attempt against Senator Robert Kelly. Later, he was forced to become a member of a new version of the defunct Weapon X program and his skeleton was infused with adamantium once more. Sabretooth revealed that by means of genetic enhancement the Weapon X program increased his strength and accelerated his healing factor in Wolverine Vol. 2 #166. Eventually he escaped and is now operating as a solo agent. Sabreooth was one of the villains working to find the Identity Disc.
He was seen again in the wilderness of Canada where he encountered Sasquatch and the newest Wendigo. Sabretooth and the Wendigo ended up in the Arctic Sea, presumed dead by Sasquatch. After a fearsome battle in the Arctic Waters, Sabretooth emerged victorious with the hide of the Wendigo.
Sabretooth would later attack the Xavier Institute, part of the third team to take the name of the Brotherhood. This team consisted of Mammomax, Avalanche, Exodus and lead by Black Tom Cassidy. Also in the group were Nocturne and Juggernaut, though both were actually moles who quickly defected to the X-Men's side. Wolverine claimed to have finished Sabretooth off (off-panel), but with Creed's appearance in "X-Men: The 198 Files," it is certain that this is far from the last we will be seeing of Sabretooth. Sabretooth has been confirmed to be in the initial line-up for X-Men roster starting June.
In X-Men #188, he was recently seen in Nogales, Mexico, fleeing from a mysterious group of superhumans collectively known as The Children. Their reasons for pursuing him remain unknown, but two of them — Sangre and Serafina were seen tracking him. Sangre then activated a singularity generator that anihillated most of the town and killed all its citizens, except for a little girl whom Serafina deliberately shielded from the destruction so there would be a witness to what happened. He later encounted two more of the Children — Aguja and Fuego. They attacked him and temporarily neutralized his healing factor, but he managed to escape regardless, only to end up at the Xavier Institute later that night seeking sanctuary.
During news coverage of the disaster, the girl was quoted at saying "Ella dijo que eran los X-Men. Los X-Men lo hicieron"., which the news reporter covering the incident translated as "She said the X-Men did it."
[edit] Joining the X-Men
As of X-Men (2nd series) #188, Sabretooth will be joining the X-Men. However, writer Mike Carey noted he has no plans on redeeming Sabretooth, saying, "I’m not going to try and show a heroic side to Sabretooth’s nature; I’m not going to retcon him so that there are reasons for his actions that make him forgivable. The things he’s done are not forgivable and he can’t be redeemed. I’m not making him into a hero; I’m making him into a team member and there are reasons within the first storyline as to why he ends up fighting alongside the X-Men against another enemy. And there are reasons why it’s not so easy to simply shake him off again afterwards.There are things that are going on that will sort of unfold during the first year of my run which explain his being there and explain his being accepted with very, very grave misgivings into the team."[1] This is proven true as Sabretooth was only seeking sanctuary from The Children, who are after Creed because he has seen them and knows who they are. It is only when Rogue, the leader of the team, injects nano-sentinels into his blood that they take him along with their fight against The Children, a factor that one of The Children exploits. At one point Cannonball saves his life during the battle, Sabretooth rewards him with some inside information after, "The first time you turn your back, you're dead."
[edit] Origin of Sabretooth
[edit] Is Sabretooth related to Wolverine?
Chris Claremont had meant for Sabretooth to be Wolverine's father, though this was retconned by subsequent writers later on. Claremont, when asked what he had intended to be the relationship between Wolverine and Sabretooth, stated:
- Father and son. That's why Sabretooth always considered Logan "sloppy seconds" to his "original" / "real deal." The other critical element in my presentation of their relationship was that, in their whole life, Logan has never defeated Sabretooth in a knock-down, drag-out, kill-or-be-killed berserker fight. By the same token, on every one of his birthdays, Sabretooth has always managed to find him, no matter where Logan was or what he was doing, and come within an inch of killing him. For no other reason than to remind him that he could."[2]
In Wolverine Vol. 2 #42, tests done by S.H.I.E.L.D confirmed that Sabretooth and Wolverine were not father and son. However, this did not prove that there was not a more distant relation. Cousins, nephews, and half-brothers would not have nearly the genetic resemblance that a father and son would.
In the limited series, Origin, Wolverine's probable half-brother Dog Logan was introduced. As an adult the character appeared much like Sabretooth, but with facial scars Sabretooth does not have. Some have theorized that Sabretooth's healing factor may have been a secondary mutation, eventually healing the scars. The writer, Paul Jenkins, stated in interviews ([3], [4]) that he personally had not intended Dog to be Sabretooth, but he has left it open for future writers to explore the possibility.
[edit] Is Sabretooth a clone?
Sabretooth was a member of the mutant team of mercenaries known as the Marauders, under the employment of Mr. Sinister. While in that group, Sabretooth was allegedly fatally wounded a number of times, at the hands of Caliban of the Morlocks (Caliban broke Sabertooths back and left him in the sewers, where he eventually healed and encountered Cable, Wolverine, and the robot Elsie Dee) and the mercenary Silver Sable, although he never seemed to die. Sinister himself said that he had created genetically identical clones of Marauders that had fallen in battle. It is possible that he improved upon the superhuman abilities of the Marauders or their clones, granting them powers they originally did not have, such as Sabretooth's regenerative healing powers. For some time, it was not known if the current Sabretooth was the original Sabretooth or his clone. Mister Sinister suggested in X-Men volume 2 #34 that Sabretooth's regenerative healing factor made it nearly impossible to clone him. He confirmed this claim in Gambit volume 3 #8, where he also stated that Sabretooth was the only Marauder who was not a clone.
[edit] Powers and Abilities
- See also: Healing Factor
Sabretooth is a mutant with a number of both natural and artificial improvements to his physiology. His primary mutant power is an accelerated healing ability that allows him to regenerate damaged or destroyed areas of his body far beyond the capabilities of an ordinary human. He can regenerate organs such as missing eyes and large portions of flesh. Like Wolverine, Sabretooth's healing powers have been depicted with variable degrees of contradiction by numerous comic book writers. Some writers have depicted him healing from severe burns covering most of his body, gunshots, slashes, and puncture wounds within moments to minutes. However, others have depicted him healing from similar, or even less severe, injuries over the course of hours to days. All of Sabretooth's natural mutant attributes stem from, at least partially, his accelerated healing factor. This "healing factor" also grants immunity to most toxins and diseases. The unique regenerative qualities of his healing powers retards Sabretooth's natural aging process. While he is of an unknown, advanced, age, Sabretooth has the appearance and vitality of a man in his physical prime.
Sabretooth possesses superhumanly acute senses that are comparable to those possessed by certain animals. Sabretooth is able to see objects, with greater clarity, at much greater distances than an ordinary human. His sight is enhanced to the point that he can see with this same level of clarity in almost complete darkness, just like a nocturnal cat. This may be a result of being able to see into the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. His sense of hearing is enhanced in a similar manner, allowing him to hear sounds that humans cannot. Sabretooth is able to use his highly developed sense of smell to track targets by scent. He is able to track targets with an impressive degree of success, even if the scent has been eroded by certain natural factors, such as weather conditions.
Many of Sabretooth's natural physical attributes are at beyond human levels. He possesses some degree of superhuman strength, the exact limits of which are unknown. In Uncanny X-Men #213, Sabretooth displayed that he was strong enough to crush an iron barbell with ease. Over the years, Sabretooth's physical strength has been enhanced by his now deceased son, Graydon Creed and the Weapon X program beyond his original limits, whatever they were. However, Sabretooth's strength, much like his mutant healing factor, has been depicted with some contradiction by numerous comic book writers. His mutant healing factor grants him superhuman stamina. He can push himself at peak capacity for several days before fatigue begins to affect him. His agility and reflexes are enhanced to levels that are beyond the human body's natural limits.
Sabretooth's physical appearance also displays animal-like mutations, including sharper-than-normal teeth with two pronounced canines and retractable claws where ordinary humans have fingernails. His eyes are supposed to be depicted as Amber without visible pupils, as this was noted by the Foreigner as something that caused him to stand out. However, colorists have also depicted his eyes with Red, Blue, Grey, Brown, or Hazel irises. Ordinarily, his teeth and claws, even before being laced with adamantium, are durable enough to rend substances as hard as human bone.
At times, Sabretooth's skeleton and claws have been molecularly laced with the indestructible metal adamantium by Apocalypse, who later removed it and bonded it to Wolverine's bones. Later the Weapon X program bonded adamantium to his bones once more. The presence of the adamantium has further enhanced the razor sharp edges of Sabretooth's claws. The claws are capable of cutting almost any known substance. The only known exceptions are adamantium itself and Captain America's shield, which is the only substance in the Marvel Universe known to be even more durable than adamantium. Sabretooth's ability to slice completely through a material depends upon the amount of force he can exert and the thickness of the material. Sabretooth's punches and kicks are weighted, as if using brass knuckles, because of the adamantium, greatly increasing their effectiveness.
[edit] Skills
Sabretooth is an excellent hand to hand combatant, having been trained by various organizations such as the CIA, Weapon X, the Foreigner, and HYDRA. He is also an expert hunter and tracker, even without the use of his heightened senses. Sabretooth also has developed a high resistance to telepathic probing and manipulation. Although his extreme arrogance gives him the appearance of stupidity, he is actually quite intelligent. He routinely hacks into government databases to steal classified information, and has escaped the highest levels of incarceration.
[edit] Did Sabretooth always have a regenerative healing factor?
In Sabretooth's first appearances as an Iron Fist and Luke Cage villain, he was originally written as a serial murderer/assassin who was human and wore clawed gloves.
In appearances as a Spider-Man villain, Sabretooth's claws appeared to be part of him, but he still did not have a healing factor. In fact, he is severely injured when Spider-Man covers his face with a shot of webbing and Sabretooth foolishly rips it off, taking off a good portion of his own skin. This injury landed him in the hospital with a bandaged face. Later the Black Cat defeats Sabretooth, reopening his facial wounds and beating him severely.
It was only later that he was retconned into becoming a mutant, when Wolverine started becoming more popular and needed his own arch-nemesis. No explanation has ever been given for his lack of built-in claws or a healing factor in his early appearances.
[edit] Other versions of Sabretooth
[edit] Age of Apocalypse and the Exiles
In an alternate universe in Marvel comics depicted in the Age of Apocalypse storyline and the Exiles comics, there is a vastly different version of Sabretooth. This version of the character has the same origin as the one in the normal continuity, but has a different moral alignment. He is actually one of the X-Men and a role model for other mutants in this alternate reality. This Sabretooth was initially a villain, having been recruited by Apocalypse and even becoming one of his first Horsemen, but he was cast out as a traitor when he expressed moral reservations about using nuclear weapons to wipe out the world's human population. Apocalypse intended to kill Sabretooth along side the X-Men, but was thwarted by Magneto. Sabretooth came back into Apocalypse's fold and took part in a number of cullings, but he eventually grew disgusted by his life and rebelled against Holocaust, for which he was imprisoned alongside the feral Wildchild. Instead of becoming a feral killer, like Holocaust intended, Sabretooth defeated Wildchild and became his master and protector. Together, the two escaped and joined the X-Men afterwards. He became a hero and an ally of Wolverine, and even adopted a young girl, Blink, as his daughter. In the Exiles comic, he spent decades in an alternate dimension raising mutant children, attempting to teach them ethics and tolerance, without incident. It is reasonably certain he is not of the same immoral constitution as Victor Creed in the normal "mainstream" continuity.
When the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline was nearly destroyed, Sabretooth became the leader of the extra-dimensional band of characters who slide into alternate realities, known as Weapon X. For a time he was also the leader of their counterpart team, the Exiles, and remains with the team to this day. This version of Sabretooth has no adamantium in his skeleton, but is still superhumanly strong and possesses a regenerative healing factor. In this alternate reality, Sabretooth has gained control of his feral tendencies, which has granted him a higher level of self-discipline and therefore greater competence than the one in the normal Marvel continuity, who is conventionally "evil."
When Sabretooth decided to leave Weapon X, he stayed behind in a dimension to make sure that a young boy would not be corrupted by his near-omnipotent powers. However, the boy turned evil anyway, despite Sabretooth's best efforts. When he was recruited by the Timebroker into the Exiles, Blink's personality became incredibly docile and subservient to Creed. Sabretooth gladly took the leadership role from Blink, a fact that Mimic clashed with him over multiple times. He continues to assist the Exiles in the race to catch Proteus. He survived being teleported into outer space by Blink (albeit by accident). After Proteus' defeat, Sabretooth stayed with the team to help fix the multiverse.
Later, when the Exiles must defeat the Silver Surfer, this version temporarily becomes a Herald of Galactus. He uses the powers he'd gained to maul the Silver Surfer, then after he no longer needed it he returned the Power Cosmic to Galactus.
[edit] Earth X
In another alternate reality, Earth X, Sabretooth was a member of a Hominid race of half-men, half-beast creatures known as the Bear Clan (along with the Wendigo spirit), who were staunch opponents of the Moon Clan, of which Wolverine was a member (along with Wildchild, Sasquatch and Beast).
However, as said before this story takes place in an alternate future, and thus is not canon in the mainstream Marvel Universe.
[edit] Ultimate Sabretooth
In the Ultimate Marvel Universe Sabretooth is a mutant soldier and commando for Weapon X, under the direction of a man by the name of Colonel Wraith , who referred to him as "a poor man's Wolverine". He appears to be the only mutant who enlisted in the program by choice, due to his high-ranking position and his high authority in the operations. He is practically the same as the Earth-616 version of Sabretooth, having accelerated healing and keen senses, with the exception that he has four adamantium claws surgically implanted in his arms in an attempt to one-up Wolverine after having many failures in the service of Weapon X. He has a burning hatred for Wolverine and also, as he stated in his encounter with him at Weapon X, for the primitive Homo sapiens. He feels that his cruel, psychopathic nature was merely a natural part of being a mutant. When Magneto attempted to destroy the world so that he could eradicate humans, Sabretooth asked him to kill as few animals as possible.
He cruelly boasts of murdering Wolverine's wife and child, and then commenced battle with him outside the Weapon X compound. He initially had the upper hand, but Wolverine managed to score a critical hit (a stab to the groin), before driving him off the edge of a cliff.
Following Sabretooth's loss to Wolverine, the Weapon X program was dismantled with Colonel Wraith being shot dead by Nick Fury. Sabretooth did not die from his encounter with Wolverine, but rather returned as a high-ranking follower to Magneto in the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. His encounter with Wolverine while with the Brotherhood was his final underestimation of his old enemy. After boasting that he can survive any wound or injury, and would always return to fight and haunt Wolverine, Wolverine gives a vicious retort: he decapitates Sabretooth on the spot (although the panel was partially covered).
Sabretooth was long thought dead until he recently resurfaced one night when Wolverine and Storm were leaving Nowhere Special (a Pool hall). He appears well and alive sporting a new scar around his neck, apparently from the 'decapitation' he received from Wolverine when they last met. Sabretooth explains that his head remains partially attached to his body via strands of tissue and blood vessels, which allowed him to survive in a comatose state while his body regenerated. He also made one startling revelation: Wolverine is his biological father. However, this was possibly a lie that Sabretooth used in order to get close to Wolverine and acquire a flesh sample for Dr. Cornelius, who seemingly intends to clone Wolverine.
[edit] Trivia
- The DC Comics supervillain Tracer of The Extremists is based on Sabretooth.
- Sabretooth's appearance in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse is something of a continuity enigma, in that, he has the physical appearance of Ultimate Sabretooth, the demeanor and backstory of 616 Sabretooth, and at the same time plays a nurturing father role to Blink, ala the Age of Apocalypse/Exiles Sabretooth.
- One of the adamantium claws implanted in Ultimate Sabretooth's left forearm is broken. Exactly how and when this occurred has not been revealed.
- Sabretooth's physical strength has been artificially enhanced at least twice. Sabretooth recieved his first strength enhancement from his now deceased son, Graydon Creed, during the mini-series Sabretooth: Death Hunt. Sabretooth's strength was further enhanced later after joining the latest incarnation of the Weapon X Program.
- Sabretooth's true name, or what is believed to be his true name, Victor Creed, was first revealed in X-Men (2nd series) #5 in February, 1992.
[edit] Appearances in other media
Sabretooth was portrayed by Tyler Mane in the X-Men motion picture released in 2000, but was blown through the head of the Statue of Liberty by Cyclops following a brief battle with Wolverine, and has not been seen in either of the sequels. According to the official Novelization of the film X2: X-Men United, Sabretooth survived the incident and was the subject of an international manhunt. X-Men: The Last Stand writer Simon Kinberg revealed in an interview with If Magazine [5] that Sabretooth was not used in the third film so that he could be saved for the Wolverine spin-off film. In the movies, the only connections between the two characters were similar dogtags they wore.
In X-Men: The Official Game, Sabretooth serves as first and final boss for Wolverine. he first appears as a hologram in the Danger Room, then fully appears near the final act with Magneto and is sent into the Master Mold to retrieve Jason Stryker for Magneto's Brotherhood. He has a rematch with Wolverine inside the gigantic Sentinel factory, and is once again defeated when Wolverine impales him and has him fall to his presumed death. Sabretooth's name as well appears in Stryker's base above a cell door, a nod to fans of the character, as Sabretooth was rumored to be receiving adamantium claws like Wolverine.
The character has also appeared in the X-Men and X-Men: Evolution animated series, voiced by Don Francks and Michael Donovan, respectively. In all three incarnations, Sabretooth was depicted as a button man for Magneto. In the mainstream comics, however, Sabretooth and Magneto have never come together in any real capacity.
Aside from The Official Game mentioned above, Sabretooth has also appeared in several video games, such as X2: Wolverine's Revenge, X-Men Legends and its sequel, X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (PC version has a playable version) and the Capcom fighting games X-Men vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
[edit] External links
- MDP: Sabretooth - Marvel Database Project
- Marvel Universe
- The Root Cellar v2.xx
- Knightmare6.com; Sabretooth FAQ
- Mutant High; Sabretooth Profile
- Uncanny X-Men; Sabretooth Profile
- June 2002 Interview with Paul Jenkins
- January 2004 Interview with Paul Jenkins
Categories: Brotherhood of Mutants members | Fictional assassins | Fictional Canadians | Fictional psychopaths | Fictional serial killers | Wolverine villains | Marvel Comics superheroes | Marvel Comics mutants | The 198 Files | Fictional mercenaries | X-Men villains | Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength | Fictional characters with the power of accelerated healing | Weapon X | Fictional secret agents and spies
