War? More Like A Squabble: Reviewing ‘Wolverine’ #49

What’s colder than a cold war? Whatever it is, that’s where things stand currently for immortal enemies Sabretooth and Wolverine.

After a blazing hot opening, with blood, gore, and death a plenty, The Sabretooth War continues to mostly walk in place through Wolverine #49, with the final anniversary issue ahead. An illuminating but somewhat predictable story from Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoff Shaw, Alex Sinclair, Cory Petit.

I mean, the first page of this issue is literally just a speed recap of where things stood from the past three issues. In case you somehow forgot what happened in this break-neck speed bi-weekly rush to wrap the series up with a nice big number 50 pace that the book has been on.

While the previous issue was a lot of pondering from Wolverine and Sabretooth while Logan sought out his latest “I’m depowered and need a boost” plot device, this one, well… it’s similar. Now we’re watching what happened to Sabretooth while caught in the “death” see that Nekra used against him, ahead of seeing him breaking out at the end of the previous issue.

Basically, TLDR, a facsimile of Doug tries to rehabilitate Sabes by making him live out his horrific crimes through the eyes of his victims. Predictably, it doesn’t take because we’re apparently fully on the page that Creed is just pure unfiltered evil (which naturally does exist).

What makes it feel iffy is that LaValle spent time on the previous Sabretooth minis laying out and hinting that there might be more under the surface. We even see that in this arc when Quentin deduces that Creed’s hatred of Logan somewhat stems from anger at missing their comradery in the “good old days” of their sordid past.

Other than that, we get Graydon Creed or “Bad Seed” as he is now known, turning on the last remains of Creeds (essentially useless) army of Sabretooth. Then X-Force continues their slow hell final approach arrival, as Wolverine and the Exiles apparently super sped back to Krakoa, and everything is finally setup for the finale after weeks of stewing.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m 100% convinced this was only ten parts because they wanted to get an issue 50 out of this series. That milestone bump up the page count and price extra cash. Therefore, a ton of wheel spinning has happened to allow the story to be here, full of a lot of things that were unnecessary.

Can’t really help but wonder what LaValle’s original trilogy plan was for Sabretooth and this ‘war’ before it became enveloped by this series and he gained a co-writer. Thematically the idea that someone like this can’t be rehabilitated does connect to the themes about the flawed carceral system from the first mini-series. Unfortunately, any of that will remain lost in the bloated shuffle. For a story where it seems most likely that Sabes will be beat, slink away, and will be back at some point in the plans of whoever writes the next Wolverine solo (coming in September).

Visually it’s all the same as it’s ever been. Shaw is back on it after passing back and forth with Cory Smith. It’s all rough edged and smooth, with plenty of great beats of depth and detail. Characters own the space and some of the paneling is pretty solid. Especially in the mindscape scenes, how they handle the first person POV of Creed in his victim’s shoes.

It gets the job done and depicts what needs to be there. Some of the spreads are big and bold feeling. Color wise things are very similar too. A lot of harsher darker tones to keep the world feeling ominously dark, with splashes of vibrancy. Sinclair maintaining the same quality of vibe, no matter the story content, issue to issue on such a sped-up schedule speaks volumes.

Lastly, Petit still does what he does so well. Bringing a solid energy, both visually and character wise, for the various bits of dialogue. It flows well, captures every bit of tone or volume needed, and throws in some fun modifiers to spice things up.

Overall, this story has been fine to meh. It’ll be nothing that stands the test of time and is returned to as an epic or even mildly memorable story. Much like a lot of the rushed, ill-connected, and possible ill-conceived mad dash yearlong conclusion of the Krakoa era. Came in with a bang, goes out with a strangled whimper.

Wolverine #49 is now available from Marvel Comics.