This Time, It’s More Than Personal — Reviewing ‘Wolverine Vol 8: Sabretooth War Part 1’

It’s Wolverine’s birthday, and Sabretooth has gotten him quite the gift. Bloody and gory revenger wrapped in war wrapping paper. Hope he kept the receipt, because that seems like a quick return.

Before Krakoa came to an end, the long-running Wolverine series wrapped up multiple long running plotlines in the form of the ten-part Sabretooth War. The first five parts are collected in Wolverine Vol 8: Sabretooth War Part 1 from Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoff Shaw, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, Alex Sinclair, and Cory Petit.

Historically Logan’s birthday has been a day where his old ‘buddy’ turned foe Sabretooth tends to do something extremely horrific in ‘celebration.’ While the man was trapped in the Krakoan prison pit that wasn’t so much a concern. Unfortunately, he got out of the pit and went on a spree of adventures in a couple of his own miniseries. Along the way he gathered a mutli-dimensional army of What If Sabretooths dead set on using this new force to destroy Logan and everything he loves, once and for all.

There are points where it’s clear whether LaValle or Percy handled a particular section, their particular handling of certain characters very pronounced, and others where it sort of blends. A lot of the overall tone pulls from what Percy has been doing on the Wolverine series this whole time. There are beats of what LaValle accomplished on Sabretooth and Sabretooth And The Exiles. Even if some of the moments from that duology are kind of rushed over, various beats having happened off panel sadly.

Overall, this particular piece is a tale of two stories. Most of it is fine, even if large parts of the backstory and focus on Wolverine/Sabretooth is typical nostalgia. Weapon X, their back and forth, the things Creed did to those Logan loved, etc. Some exploration happens to point out the reasons that Creed wants to kill Logan. He sees it as ‘saving’ the man since Logan refuses to go back to being who he was with Creed, which Creed thinks was the real/best Logan.

A whole lot to unpack there.

It is clear that this was stretched into ten parts so that the series can end with a big shiny issue number 50, as the middle issues start to really slow down. A bunch of characters headed for a confrontation, dealing with obstacles, and extraordinarily little is revealed or allowed to progress.

On the other side, there is a whole intro stretch that is just blood and gore as far as the eye can see.

Wolverine books are bloody affairs. Especially when it’s Logan versus Sabretooth (or Sabreteeth in this situation).

I’m not against the blood and slashing buffet of violence. Where I’m torn though is the brutality that is wiping out young characters, alongside the wide body count across the whole line during the Fall Of X event. It’s different sure, but it gave very ‘clear the board’ Decimation like vibes. Especially since resurrection was taken off the table early in the event, and by its culmination was gone all the way for the new era.

I mean shit, Sabretooth pops the head off of a child and then rips the guts right out of another. Both are just laser-focused close-up style panels. This follows intros of Quentin Quire being gutted alive and Akihiro being killed then his pieces being used to spell Happy Birthday. This is a comic story that made me want to sigh, throw up, and nod my head all at the same time. It’s a story that would make some of the previous ‘adult’ versions of Logan’s stories blush or run for the hills.

After teaming up on the first issue, Smith and Shaw (along with inker Junior) switch off issues as they bring these various moments to vivid life. Their artistic styles share a lot in common while still having a unique existence.

Shaw’s comes with a lot of those really sharp edge rough beats, fitting for this precise story. Heavy shadows are everywhere, characters feel larger than life thanks to panel choices that keep the point-of-view very close to the action. Except in the wider memory montage pages which have more room to breathe, compared to the other pages that are meant to feel confining with all the death and tension.

Weightier inks in places muddle some of the visuals but on purpose, in a way that adds to that darker atmosphere. Adding to that heavy nature and making some of the brutality actually a tiny bit less graphic in nature. It almost feels exaggerated with some of the proportions and beats, which work.

On the other side, Smith’s work has a more detailed but still a bit rough and heavy tone. Enhanced by the weightier inks of Junior, letting every moment sort of hang and have an impact. A lighter side can be found, as there is a very animated whimsical bag of DNA mixed in there. Characters flow through the world, action scenes feel energetic, and the paneling does a solid job of framing.

Viewers are generally in the midst of things rather than sitting in the nosebleeds looking down.

Across the whole thing, Sinclair brings a more muted color palette to play. It’s extremely helpful in the more brutal pages, as the blood is not that bright sickening crimson one might expect. This helps meet that point mentioned earlier of toeing the line without falling into Marvel MAX or slasher film territory.

Many of the color aspects and artistic choices overall reflect more of the visual sensibilities witnessed within the Sabretooth minis. A realism that meets the harsher and fantasy aspects of this universe. That’s not to say there were not similar elements already at work with Logan’s book, but this type of appeal is very distinctly born of Sabretooth’s adventures. Creed brought his focus, style, and crew down upon his most hated rival.

A variety of voices are found here, with the competing styles of Creed and Logan (as well as their writers) the loudest. Petit wrangles all the emotions and bombastic alpha maleness that is leaking all over the page and delivers it with impact. Letting the character’s emotions and personalities ring true in our proverbial ears as we move through the issue. Each bit of lettering has great impact, a particular razor sharpness to anything the Sabretooth crew has to say.

Wolverine Vol 8: Sabretooth War Part 1 is now available from Marvel Comics.