Daddy, Will You Love Me Now? Reviewing ‘Sabretooth And The Exiles’ #5

Victor Creed is many things. Most of them are pretty terrible. One of those things includes being a father. Unsurprisingly, he’s a terrible father, and his son has a bone to pick and a ton of Orchis tech and ideas to back his plans up.

Remember that story where Sabretooth, thanks to comic book shenanigans, was inverted to a more ‘heroic’ version of himself where his Weapon X team traveled to Hell and he sacrificed himself and that change in order to rescue his son Graydon Creed from eternity in Hell? Don’t worry, Victor LaValle remembered.

In these reviews, I’ve spoken a ton about the work that LaValle puts into these stories to really weave in important topical real-world elements for the characters to reference or tackle. That’s because those are so powerful and well done and important to the story, but there is something else that LaValle does so well with these stories. Those little bits referenced there from the Weapon X series, which came out during one of a flurry of attempted revivals of the line pre-House of X/Powers of X, as well as numerous other character & plot elements strewn about the two mini-series, so far speak to how well LaValle knows and cares about this universe.

These characters and spaces have a rich history that is both remembered and not so remembered, that’s what happens when there are so many decades of stories, and great writers find ways to make sure that stuff still fits into the now without being an anchor to their story or just nostalgia baiting. Here the bit about how Graydon came back might have been forgotten by many, but we get enough of the reference here to fully understand where father and son are at this point.

A lot of the aforementioned topical issues of this mini-series are a bit sidelined, though the Exiles portion of the cast is dealing with them a bit as they have an interesting adventure around the mutant babies, as we move into the realm of father/son issues and the multiverse but it’s actually all good. This series and its forebearer have done the dance of being an action-packed superpower comic book series but also one that has very important real-life issues to speak about perfectly since it began and that doesn’t change now. LaValle wraps up quite a number of the plots and sends various characters/groups off in various directions that set up some of what likely is coming next (we know there is another chapter/mini/series coming after this but not what form it’s taking quite yet) all while doing some great character development and fun bits.

We get another wonderfully created issue featuring the artwork of Leonard Kirk and the colors of Rain Beredo. With each issue, they have been afforded the chance to do things similarly but also quite differently from the last because of the rapidly changing situations. One issue needed trippy Astral Plane stuff while the last one was mostly open spaces and cramped ship corridors. This one has a mix of indoor settings but wider colorful spaces for some of the action and big story beats. Much like the last one, the more enclosed spaces work to the power of the issue because the characters in some ways are trapped and trying to find escape/help from their situations and the space amps up that confined feeling.

I really liked the work that Kirk does with the various Sabretooths here because there is a similarity to them in stature and facial features, but each is also quite unique in their appearance since they are from different lives/universes. It matches the depth and focus qualities that Kirk displays, both in adding them and taking them away. Feeling, atmosphere, and intent are often more important than the actual visual details with some of Kirk’s images that can slip into a blurry or fuzzy or out-of-focus sort of appearance. We don’t need to see every single bit of a face or setting to get the intent or emotion of a panel, sometimes just the mere notion of a moment is enough to inform and guide us.

Sabretooth and the Exiles operate in a sort of gray in-between area after what they dealt with on and now off Krakoa. We see this reflected within the colors because Beredo weaves back and forth between vivid stand-out colors and ones that are far more neutral or toned down in how bright or eye-catching they are. Some of the more fantastical elements (like costumes, powers, or such) are given slightly bright treatment because they are meant to stand out but the settings and overall vibrance are toned down quite a bit. Within spaces, there are colder and often sterile sort of elements at work matching the vibe that is supposed to come from these labs and stations built by evil scientists to do evil things.

Some of the art panels do a wonderful job of putting order to some pretty chaotic disorganized scenes (like the spread of the Exiles in Station Four dealing with the powered-up babies) and the lettering does the same. Cory Petit puts a ton of energy into not only making sure every bit of lettering captures the spirit and energy of the characters they relate to but also into making sure that it all flows around the page in the best/most natural way possible. Even when it’s spread across a page that has a ton going on there is a natural order to the direction one must read, letting the bubbles sort of become our guide through the page. It’s something that is every bit as important as making sure that the lettering displays tone/volume when it’s dialogue or fills us in on a character’s thoughts/sets things up in the story.

Sabretooth And The Exiles #5 is now available from Marvel Comics.