Wolverine, Vol. 8: Sabretooth War, Part 1

Wolverine (2020)

by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoff Shaw (Artist)

The most violent Wolverine story ever told! Get ready for the showdown to end all showdowns: Wolverine vs. Sabretooth! It's been years since these heavy hitters have crossed paths in the Marvel Universe. But as Krakoa falls, so rises Sabretooth - and he's out for revenge! Freed from the Pit and backed by an army of Sabreteeth, Victor Creed will prove once and for all why he's Logan's ultimate nemesis! Collecting WOLVERINE (2020) #41-45.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

144 pages, Paperback

Published June 11, 2024

About the author

Benjamin Percy is the author of seven novels -- most recently The Sky Vault (William Morrow) -- three short fiction collections, and a book of essays, Thrill Me, that is widely taught in creative writing classrooms. He writes Wolverine, X-Force, and Ghost Rider for Marvel Comics. His fiction and nonfiction have been published in Esquire (where he is a contributing editor), GQ, Time, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, Tin House, and the Paris Review. His honors include an NEA fellowship, the Whiting Writer's Award, the Plimpton Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, the iHeart Radio Award for Best Scripted Podcast, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Promoted as the most violent Wolverine story ever told and a continuity follow -up to X-Force season five's end, whilst the Krakoan age has ended so devastatingly bad for mutant kind, everyone dead or on the run, Sabretooth doesn't give a hoot, and seeks to deliver his time-honoured gift to Wolverine - causing total carnage in Wolverine's life! As violent as advertised, and in my opinion, overly so negatively impacting the story. The violence is so explicit and overt it feels very cartoony, like Marvel overplayed their hand. Saying that, X-fans like me will always appreciate any exposure to Sabretooths everlasting obsession with messing up Wolverine. A Three Star, 7 out of 12 read.

2025 read

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't too huge a fan of the League of Extraordinary Interdimensional Sabretooths (Sabreteeth?) but apart from that Percy delivers with a bloody and cruel birthday party for our boy Logan and company. Looking forward to reading the second part soon.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, well... they were truthful when they proclaimed, "SABRETOOTH WAR BEGINS HERE! THE MOST VIOLENT WOLVERINE STORY EVER TOLD!"

It's fundamentally a harsh blend of extreme violence and torture-porn, aptly labeled "War," yet it proved to be engaging with its moments of merit: Akihiro's demise, mirroring the fate he once dealt to Frank Castle in Dark Reign: The List - Punisher, was just poetic justice by my account.

I regret not delving into Victor Lavalle's Sabretooth: The Adversary and Sabretooth & The Exiles volumes leading to this one, but I plan to rectify that as soon as possible.



And although the gift was not much good, Sabretooth was so sweet for remembering Logan's birthday again...

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bloody and violent with some cannibalism mixed in

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

2,5*

An extraordinarily violent volume for Marvel: decapitations, eviscerations, mutilations... Don't waste any more!

That's fine. But what's the point anyway? Eternal repetition of the war between Wolvie and Sabretooth, only much much more hardcore. Violently fun but a bit pointless when you think about it.

Includes links with a series I haven't followed - Sabretooth and the Exiles - and which starts off with a situation that's not always comprehensible, even if you end up catching on as you go along. The point being to shockingly kill characters it’s no big deal anyway.

Art is serviceable and easily forgotten

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is exactly what I expected from a Wolverine and Sabretooth book. It is a bloody, brutal, quick read.

Sabretooth was the first mutant to be sent to the Pit of Krakoa. Logan/Wolverine thought he was free of Sabretooth's influence, but even in the Pit, his evil could not be contained. Now, after the fall of Krakoa, he is finally free, and with back-up, he intends to deliver his birthday tradition of destroying everyone close to, loved, or around Logan. He has already struck first blood. In fact, this time, he might have cut deeper than ever.

This book certainly delivers in the brutality department. How far will Wolverine go to get his revenge? I can't wait for the next book. Hopefully, the final fight lives up to the hype. The book finishes with a varient cover gallery.

[Tyler Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is gruesome and terrifying. It keeps me on edge but I have to say I’m not as interested as I should be. I just find Wolverine to be overused, Marvel banks on him way too hard when it comes to X-Men titles. I honestly think he works best on a team, sorry. But I’ll keep reading because I deeply care for this Krakoan Age.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well the post Krakoa age remains a violent and pretty horrifying state of affairs and I STILL don’t understand how Orchis has sentinels spotting mutants on Krakoa every five minutes but hasn’t started publicly killing humans yet…was it all a farce? If you’re willing to be on board with these “across the dimensions!” Sabertooth characters, this definitely is a great way to offer a pretty chilling threat to the ongoing mutant underground presence on Earth. I just wish there was some indication of where this is all heading…are we just burning things to the ground before a big reboot? Is it undermining me that I’m not following the Marvel announcements for their comics still? Could I name a single member of the Exiles after Sabertooth left? Do I find it odd that New Mutants and Exiles and X-Force have all sorta been jammed into Wolverine now? Eh. It’s fine!

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW! Marvel pulling out all the stops on this event in preparation for FHX/RPX.
This might be some of the most violent I've seen in a Wolverine comic.
I'll say much more in the review for Part 2, but Sabretooth is waging war on the remaining post-Hellfire Gala mutants for Orchis. So much so, they've given him his own division.... full of Multiversal Sabretooth Variants.

DAMN...

Onto Volume 2.
Recommend.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Cool characters, concept, and action. I just wish there would’ve been a bit more depth to this story over just violence. I assume we’ll hopefully get more of that as the Sabretooth War finishes in the next volume.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75
The Sabretooth War was excellent. And it did feel like a war. Lots of characters involved, which I liked.

I didn't love the run at first, but it really grew on me, and now I think it's among the best.

Bravo. Fun to have read from start to finish.

[Alex Sarll]

The back cover brags that this is "the most violent Wolverine story ever told", which I could understand as a selling point in the nineties, but now? Really? And that's if it's even true; leaving aside the latest film, didn't he have a mature readers Max series for a while? But yes, it's certainly nasty, gleefully and gratuitously so, Wolverine being reconciled with other characters just so he can then be angry when Sabretooth eviscerates them. Sabretooth, meanwhile... well, Victor LaValle has come on board as co-writer, and plotwise this builds on his two miniseries, but there's barely lip service paid to their attempts to, if not excuse, then at least contextualise Creed; even his own alternate universe selves are increasingly realising that he's a vicious dickhead who, despite how hard they are to kill, is nevertheless going to get them all killed. I think I might have found this less grindingly horrible had it come while Krakoa stood, a contrasting note in a range where other books were telling stories of mutant utopia. But as part of the Fall, with so many comics seeming a little too into watching paradise burn, it just feels like another unpleasant reminder of how flatscans seem so much easier to entertain with stories of suffering than joy.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picking up directly after the events of Sabretooth & the Exiles this volume of Wolverine is the opening to what should be a great event. Creed continues to be shown as almost demonic is his hatred of Logan and literally starts by giving him a present he’ll never forget.
The rest of the Sabretooth’s continue to work with the main Creed to take down Logan and crew but there’s some interesting dynamics happening.
The action is hard hitting and gory and the tension between Creed and Logan is palpable.
Some good stuff. I especially like that this doesn’t seem like it’ll be a quick event but instead be given proper time to develop.

3/5

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Plenty gruesome with some major kills, though they're mostly gratuitous. Sure, arrange all those limbs into words! It'll definitely get the people going!

If you read the Sabretooth miniseries, you know the guy has a band of alternate universe Sabreteeth who he's working with alongside Orchis with the main goal of killing Wolverine once and for all. That's pretty much it, at least in this volume. Nasty battles, X-Force decimated, and the alterna-Sabres starting to think "hey maybe we shouldn't listen to the main guy anymore."

Decently fun stuff, though it probably would have been better outside of the Fall of X.

[Ian Barnaik · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unleashed marvel story the way this should be when you think about these two characters. Violent and bloody . Over the top on purpose. I was surprised how many known characters die

[Trike · Rating 3 out of 5]

A multiverse army of Sabretooths under the direction of the 616 universe Sabretooth go after Wolverine in the bloodiest way possible. In order to make this work they had to make Sabretooth both smarter and more patient than he has historically been portrayed. Usually Victor is more “slash first, asked questions later”, but I’m going with it for now.

I haven’t read the antecedents to this story so I don’t know all the details of how the X-Men ended up in this situation, especially with the Stark Sentinels that resemble Iron Man, but there is enough backstory included in the dialogue to clue me in on the broad strokes.

This is a quick read, being 90% action, as you’d expect from a title about Wolverine and Sabretooth slicing and dicing each other. I’m already 1/3 of the way through the second volume. The reason I picked this up is that I enjoyed Predator versus Wolverine last month, which was also by Percy, so I figured this would be pretty much in a similar vein. And it is, just less of a standalone story than that one.

I will say that this is impressively violent and gory, with multiple deaths of significant characters, which leads me to believe there will be the typical reset to the status quo once all is said and done. In the meantime, it’s pretty gruesome. A couple images under the spoiler tag:


Part of that message includes Daken, Wolverine’s son:

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a brutal and gruesome comic from the start as we see Sabretooth out for revenge against Wolverine on his birthday yet again after what he does to Daken and its insane like how he writes happy birthday using Logan's son's bone and omg the the revenge feeling Logan has and the battles from there are so interesting and add to that the multiversal team that Sabretooth has put together and what it results in, the fate of X-23 also decided and an insight into the past they shared when they were on Team X and I like how it adds the depth to the story.

You also got the angle with the exiles and the role they will play in this story and you should read the 2 sabretooth mini series before this to really have a fun experience as its crucial with the multiversal variants and I like how the other variants are under the main one but also resisting and bring back Graydon and what that will result in will be fun to see but yeah I was hoping they will explore these variants more which they haven't done and it kinda makes a opportunity go to waste and doesn't provide them with that depth which they could have had.

I also like how it takes us back to Krakoa like after Fall of X and how it was abandoned and its surrounded by the sentinels and Creed inside it, so make sit much more dangerous and Wolverine on his solo mission to save Quentin who surprisingly becomes another big component emotional wise of the story and its fun to see their ultimate battle there in next volume so yeah brutal volume with lots of epic moments and some missed opportunities, but still good read overall.

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hay que admitir que Benjamin Percy ha sabido guardarse el gran as bajo la manga en todo su "planning" a expensas de la Era Krakoana con el retorno de Dientes de Sable nuevamente buscando el "enfrentamiento final" con Logan. Derivando de la miniserie de los nuevos "Exiles" (inevitable presencia de su autor Victor LaValle en la parte argumental junto Benjamin Percy), Victor Creed ha tenido la oportunidad de agenciarse todo un ejército multiversal de Dientes de Sable. Quedando apenas 4 con la cabeza sobre sus hombros considerándose "medianamente dignos" de ser lugartenientes de este maníaco.

Su primer acto contra Logan es ya directamente atentar contra el último bastión Krakoano y cometer una serie de barbaridades que hacen que este comic sí que se gane bien el sello "Rated R". Benjamin Percy aún logra mantener equilibrada toda esta sangría manteniendo el foco de la enemistad histórica entre Logan y Victor ( estupenda la idea del ardid telépata para confudir la percepción de Logan haciéndole retornar a los tiempos del Equipo X) y la rabia de este último ante el castigo de la comunidad mutante hacia su persona con un Consejo nutrido de varios mutantes más o menos villanescos como él.

Cory Smith y Geoff Shaw se reparten el ámbito gráfico de la primera mitad de este sangriento y perturbador "blockbuster" para finiquitar la era Krakoa.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story is honestly kind of running out of juice right now. I have noticed that is a particular flaw Percy has in writing his longer story arcs with villains: they tend to get repetitive and retread dialogue that has been used before. Perhaps the most gut-wrenching scene of the entire volume though was Wolverine opening up the present Laura left for him. The note she wrote was so sweet and is what puts Wolverine's next decision into motion. The other exceptional thing about this issue is the art. It is beautiful and dynamic. Action scenes are filled with fluid motion and the character's faces are incredibly expressive. Other than that, this volume contains one of the best issues of Percy’s Wolverine run in a long time. While I had my reservations about another Wolverine vs. Sabretooth showdown, this issue blew me away in every way possible. This volume marks the halfway point for the Sabretooth War, so there is still time to pay off on some promises and hopefully stick the landing.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sabretooth War is upon us...

(if this is actually collecting issues #41-45, then that's only HALF of the Sabretooth War. It's supposed to make it to #50)

Wolverine has taken X-Force and fled to the arctic with one of the last mobile Krakoan bases. In other books, they're after Beast. Somewhere along the way they squeeze this bit in. Sabretooth is stalking Wolverine and preparing to pay back all the mutants that 'let him' get locked away in the Krakoan pit. He's got multiverse analogs of himself and they're going to dismember (literally) anybody who gets in their way.

Remember...anybody who dies isn't promised a revival. Krakoan resurrection is GONE.
*Warning: this is probably the most graphic they've gotten in a Wolverine comic.
====
Bonus: Sabretooth vs Wolverine has been done SO much and has so much history how do they top themselves?

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally a Wolverine comic by Percy that's not about Beast. This is about Sabretooth out for revenge. You are going to want to make sure you read the 2 Sabretooth miniseries that Victor LaValle wrote. This spends directly out of that and X-Force #50. LaValle is actually a cowriter on this.

Sabretooth is written to be a lot smarter here than is typical, using all of this tech from other dimensions. It's kind of difficult to swallow. That and all of these alternate Sabretooths are simpatico with being betas which I don't think would ever be the case. Regardless it's refreshing that for once this isn't just a continuation of Beast's character assassination.

The art is by Geoff Shaw and Cory Smith. It's fine. The art is extremely violent.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

For better or worse Benjamin Percy has a real flair for brutality. This has served him well when writing Wolverine and less so with X-Force when he has tried to veer into the goofy. In the wake of the mutant massacre at the Hellfire Gala brutality is the order of the day and Sabretooth is easily the most brutal character in the Marvel Universe so Percy, along with artists Shaw, Smith and Junior, is totally in his element here and delivers the solid first half of a story the title of this collection implies. All that said, one element I'm happy to see absent from this story is the absence of sexual violence that has historically been a part of nearly all Sabretooth stories. Percy could have easily gone there and I was deeply relieved he didn't.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am torn between a 3 and 4 star rating as this is the volume that resulted in me tracking down the rest of the issues. As a sequel to the two Sabertooth series by Victor LaVelle, which are among my favorite Krakoa era comics, I find this book to be potentially underwhelming without the conclusion to follow it. This book has a problem that emerges when a story is cut in half but released to the general public. Perhaps it would have made more sense to delay this book’s publication until all of Sabertooth War could be published in a similar volume at once. The only other real question I have with this book is where it takes place in reference to the Alpha Flight Fall of X storyline given how that ends and some of the events present here.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A shockingly violent "final" battle with Sabretooth that deserves the name Fall of X better than almost anything else from this era between the third Hellfire Gala and the Fall of the House of X. This is Sabretooth at his best/worst, right up there with some of the classic stories.

What surprises me most is that Percy incorporates the really mediocre Sabretooth stories written by Victor LaValle. But, good for him, as picking up the storylines of a shared universe is exactly what you're supposed to do (and it turns out that LaValle is a cowriter of these stories, but working Percy, his mediocrity becomes great).

This story could still trail off into nothing in the second half, but the setup of this first volume is high-adrenaline and terrific.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. Usually when it's Wolverine Vs. Sabretooth, I'm all in, but this one just felt like overkill. It's marketed as "the most violent Wolverine story ever", and it probably is, but it just feels like violence for the sake of violence rather than to form a story. It also seems too drawn out, as I think this could have been told in six issues rather than dragging it out to ten.

So basically Sabretooth has traveled the multiverse and recruited all the alternate versions of himself to create an army to get revenge on the X-Men, specifically Wolverine. But it just feels overdone. Plus, since it seems like no one ever stays dead in the Marvel Universe, the consequences don't have the weight they need to truly hook the reader.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewing the War as a whole, because it's just easier that way.

Sabretooth War is the culmination of Ben Percy's Wolverine run, pitting he and X-Force against a multiversal army of Sabreteeth (great word), with only the Exiles as back-up. Joined by Sabretooth writer Victor LaValle, Percy brings an age-old conflict to a close in a way that respects all that both Wolvie and Sabretooth have been through as part of the Krakoan Age, as well as their shared history together for a brutal, gory ten issue storyline that never lets up on the brakes and manages to feel much more complete and able to breathe than Percy's X-Force conclusion.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much of a story to be honest. Just a bunch of grue and gore. Sabretooth is one of the least interesting villains in all of comics and giving him this much room to pursue some revenge agenda against Wolverine just doesn't make a lot of sense. At least Victor Lavalle started the process of giving Victor Creed some depth in his two miniseries. But all of that is out the window now (though it does help to have read those two series as a lot of what happens here grows directly out of them) in favor of violent action. We'll have to see if it all adds up to anything after the next volume.

[Daniel Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wolverine x Dentes de Sabre é tipo uma rivalidade ancestral
sabemos que no final quase sempre Logan derrota o adversário mas a que custo ?
aqui Benjamin Percy está disposto a dilacera a alma de LOGAN com violência através das artimanhas do Dentes de Sabre ferindo amigos, e usando todos os recursos para desestabilizar o Wolverine
Percy cria uma armadilha da qual seria impossível o Wolverine sair, ainda bem que tem o Victor Lavvalle nos roteiros dando uma rota de fuga viavel através de seus exilados.
X-23 e tropa alfa são personagens que me cativam nesse arco

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story so far, hate the fact Marvel is splitting this volume into 2 for the cash grab. Terrible corporate decisions aside, Percy has really hit his stride with the Wolverine run. His understanding of Wolverine and Sabertooth's relationship is played very well here. Creed is menacing and truly villainous, putting Logan through a plethora of hardships. I recommend the read; however, waiting for the full story to be released may be worth it rather than getting both volumes. Grade: B+

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sadly disappointing, drawn out end to an epic and memorable run.
This didn’t read like a Ben Percy book.

I get the impression that he wrote the skeleton of the plot and key moments and Lavelle was brought in to write the dialogue and pad it out to 10 issues.

It really stands out poorly compared to the rest of this terrific series. What a shame xmen editorial completely lost the plot on this Krakoan era of books.