Writing: Larry Hama
Art: Adam Kubert
What Went Down: This issue isn’t directly tied into any of the current X-Men storylines, but it does have some major effects on Sabretooth, who is technically still a member of the X-Men at this time. Sabretooth starts out the issue sitting in his cell, watching a TV news broadcast of the police beating a homicidal serial killer. Wolverine is standing outside the cell, so Sabretooth gets angry and lunges at him; the cell’s containment field shocks Creed and keeps him contained. The TV discusses the depraved acts of the killer and mentions that he has a weird obsession with wolverines. Sabretooth taunts Wolverine about how much he wants to kill Sabretooth, but Wolverine doesn’t want to be drawn into a fight, since he promised the rest of the X-Men he wouldn’t.
Next we get a montage of Logan working out, complete with eighties headband; he’s trying to get his mind off of Sabretooth. Later, he watches a news report where Trish Tilby questions whether the police used excessive force in their apprehension of the killer; Wolverine believes she is being naive. Then a police officer comes on the news defending the actions of the officers, followed by a psychologist who mentions that the police’s earlier efforts were so ineffective because the killer had been hurting himself, thus conditioning his body and mind against pain.
Wolverine sleeps in a different bed that night, worried that Sabretooth might get out. He’s about to fall asleep when he realizes that Sabretooth has similarly been conditioning himself against the pain of the field in his cell. Down in his cell, Sabretooth is still watching TV when he decides to make his escape, by running full force into the field; the field shorts out, freeing Sabretooth, but Wolverine is right outside telling him to put on his restraints peacefully.
Predictably, a fight ensues. At first, Wolverine doesn’t use his claws because he is trying to prove to Sabretooth that he is not a savage, bloodthirsty killer. But when Sabretooth threatens the people in his life, including Jean Grey, Heather Hudson, and Jubilee, Wolverine loses it. After beating Sabretooth and pinning him, Wolverine extends two of his claws around the outside of Creed’s head. Sabretooth goads him into popping the third one, saying he’ll kill all the X-Men if Wolverine doesn’t. The issue ends with the sound effect of a claw popping, followed by the world turning into crystal, caused by the crystallization effect over in the Legion Quest storyline.
How it Was: In case you couldn’t tell by the cover, Wolverine and Sabretooth fight in this issue. There is a nice twist to the basic formula; instead of Sabretooth ambushing Wolverine or kidnapping someone in his life as bait, we have Wolverine in a position of power over Sabretooth, acting as an agent for his rehabilitation. There are some nice touches where we see how Wolverine’s new role affects him, like when he changes rooms because he’s worried Sabretooth will escape and kill him in his sleep (even though Sabretooth has the same tracking abilities and enhanced senses as Wolverine, so does it really matter?).
The biggest thing that stands out is the format of the comic; this issue contains numerous foldout pages to either fit more panels on a page for a given sequence or to make a large two page spread even larger. I absolutely hate this because it makes the comic impossible to read unless you’re reading on your bed or behind a very large table; the whole point of comic books as a format is that they are short and easy to read. Ignoring the severe impracticality of the comic, it’s actually kind of impressive on the pages with numerous panels (especially during the main fight), but on the pages with one continuous spread across it seems like a wasted effort. After all, how big do you need a panel of Sabretooth watching TV to be, and why is it so important to not break up the sequence with a page turn?
The narrative loses me with the very monotonous news reports that are meant to draw a very blatant parallel between Wolverine and his own prisoner. To me it comes off as preachy and over-the-top; there’s absolutely no subtlety whatsoever. Yes, there is an interesting social issue brought up over excessive force and police brutality vs. the restraint of police officers effectiveness, but the situation is so far-fetched that the police are completely justified making the argument completely one-sided. Of course, this is the Marvel Universe, so I guess nothing is really far-fetched.
I haven’t even gotten to the fight, which is actually pretty good. However I’m torn over the ethical dilemmas working within the story. I like that Wolverine is hesitant to attack full force because of his promise to the X-Men, but there’s no real reason why he shouldn’t use his claws since Sabretooth does have a healing factor of his own. Ultimately the end is pretty good, and it’s nice that it has some lasting effects on all of the titles, even though these effects are later retconned away. I like that this issue tries something new, although I’m also glad that the giant page gimmick never caught on.
B-
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