Wolverine & Sabretooth's Most Brutal Battles

Thanks to their mutant healing factors and extraordinarily long lives, Wolverine and Sabretooth have been fighting each other for most of a century. To this day, these two battle-tested warriors remain locked in one of the most vicious feuds in the Marvel Universe. 

Even though Wolverine and Sabretooth have occasionally coexisted on the same team, they share a mutual hatred that triumphs all other loyalties. From the Canadian wilderness to the halls of the X-Mansion, Logan and Victor Creed have spilled a river of each other's blood, and their brawls have only grown more vicious over time.

After keeping a distance from each other for most of the Krakoan Era, Wolverine and Sabretooth are going head-to-head again in "Sabretooth War," one of the most violent Wolverine stories ever told. Now, let's take a look back at some of Wolverine and Sabretooth's most brutal, bloody, and barbaric battles, just as Logan and Creed reengage in WOLVERINE (2020) #42 by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, and Alex Sinclair.

THE MUTANT MASSACRE

Sabretooth encountered Wolverine as a member of the X-Men for the first time during "Mutant Massacre," one of the team's darkest epics. On the orders of Mister Sinister, Sabretooth and his team, the Marauders, tried to wipe out the Morlocks, a group of sewer-dwelling mutants. When the X-Men tried to help their underground allies, Sabretooth attacked Wolverine in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #212 by Chris Claremont and Rick Leonardi. 

Although this was the first Wolverine and Sabretooth fight that readers saw, these two were already old foes with a deep hatred for each other. After Wolverine briefly buried Sabretooth alive, Creed escaped and attacked Psylocke at the X-Mansion in UNCANNY X-MEN (1963) #213 by Claremont and Alan Davis. As Psylocke read Sabretooth's mind, Logan and his foe continued their battle across Xavier's sprawling estate. The villain managed to escape by jumping off a cliff, but this brawl cemented Wolverine and Sabretooth as ferocious, bitter rivals.

HOW WOLVERINE MET SABRETOOTH

Long before Wolverine joined the X-Men, Sabretooth and Wolverine came face-to-face for the first time at the Ravencroft Institute in 1909, as revealed in RUINS OF RAVENCROFT: SABRETOOTH (2020) #1 by Frank Tieri, Ángel Unzueta, and Guillermo Sanna Bauza. After learning Logan had killed Saul Creed, Sabretooth started tracking the future X-Man down to avenge his brother. Creed found Logan unconscious at a crime scene and took him to Ravencroft, where he was working with Nathaniel Essex, the human guise of Mister Sinister. 

After Essex lobotomized Logan and cut off one of his arms, Doctor Claudia Russell, a werewolf, tried to free Logan. When Sabretooth stopped them, Logan's instincts took over, and he popped his claws into Sabretooth's jaw. This left Sabretooth dazed, so Russell urged the weakened Wolverine flee and took on Sabretooth in her werewolf form.

THE DEATH OF SILVER FOX

In one of Wolverine and Sabretooth's most brutal encounters, Creed attacked Logan and killed his partner, Silver Fox. When Logan and Silver Fox were living in rural Canada, Creed tracked Logan down and attacked on his birthday, starting a grim tradition in WOLVERINE (1988) #10 by Chris Claremont and John Buscema. 

After Wolverine found Silver Fox's body, Sabretooth confronted Logan and bragged about killing his partner. As the pair fell into a vicious fight, Logan realized that Sabretooth was faster and stronger than him. Logan tried to escape by climbing up a mountain, but Sabretooth was waiting for him at the top, where he fought Logan even more viciously. 

Even though Wolverine fell into a berserker rage, Creed beat him and made the hero feel genuine fear in one of his first defeats. By torturing Logan mentally and physically, Sabretooth established himself as one of Marvel's most ferocious villains in this bloody brawl.

SABRETOOTH ESCAPES 

In an unsuccessful effort to rehabilitate Sabretooth, Professor X brought the villain into the X-Mansion for treatment. Although Sabretooth was secured behind an energy force field and helped the X-Men occasionally, he still taunted Wolverine relentlessly. After trying to goad Logan into a fight one night, Creed pushed through the force field and broke out in WOLVERINE (1988) #90 by Larry Hama and Adam Kubert. 

Logan initially tried to restrain Sabretooth and fought defensively without using his claws—but after Creed threatened to kill Jean Grey, Kitty Pryde, and Jubilee, Wolverine went feral and savagely attacked him. As Creed continued to threaten Logan's friends, the X-Man popped his claws into the villain's brain, which temporarily limited his mental capacity and left him in a childlike state.

BATTLE FOR APOCALYPSE

As part of his process to turn Wolverine into his brainwashed Horseman of Death, Apocalypse forced Logan and Sabretooth to fight in WOLVERINE (1988) #145 by Erik Larsen and Leinil Francis Yu. Wolverine only had bone claws at the time, but Sabretooth possessed an adamantium-laced skeleton and claws, and he used them to strike the confused Wolverine first. Once Sabretooth explained that the winner of this fight would become the next Horseman of Death, Wolverine leaned into his feral instincts and eviscerated Creed. 

Knowing his way around Creed's unbreakable adamantium skeleton, Wolverine gutted his rival and focused his attacks on Creed's unprotected organs. To stop Creed from becoming the Horseman of Death, Logan submitted to Apocalypse's process and quietly hoped to break through the ancient mutant's brainwashing, which he eventually did.

WOLVERINE: EVOLUTION

During a time when Sabretooth had been manipulated into joining the X-Men, he and Wolverine faced off several times throughout "Wolverine: Evolution," a story that began in WOLVERINE (2003) #50 by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi. After a bloody battle that culminated in the crash landing of the X-Men's Blackbird, Sabretooth was replaced with a clone by Romulus, a shadowy figure who claimed to have manipulated Wolverine's life and funded the Weapon X Program. 

After this Sabretooth clone mauled Feral and Sasquatch, Logan confronted him with the Muramasa Blade, a legendary sword that can neutralize healing factors. Under the belief that the mindless clone was the real Sabretooth, Logan cut off his arm and tried to talk to his old rival in WOLVERINE (2003) #55 by Loeb and Bianchi. When the Creed clone asked Logan to kill him, Logan decapitated him with the sword to avenge the countless lives he took.

SABRETOOTH REBORN

After his apparent death, the real Sabretooth began training and working with Romulus to torment Wolverine, then attacked his old foe in WOLVERINE (2010) #310 by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi. When Logan found an old Weapon X facility where Romulus had created more Sabretooth clones, the original Creed attacked Logan as dozens of his clones became activated. The clones began overwhelming him, so Logan carved a path to a plane and burned a few clones to death as he took off. 

After crashing that plane into the Weapon X building, Logan tracked the real Sabretooth down to Romulus' base in WOLVERINE (2010) #312 by Loeb and Bianchi. When Creed tried to ambush Wolverine, the X-Man attacked Creed by smashing his head into the ground and slicing into his face. Those attacks knocked Sabretooth out relatively quickly, and Logan shifted his full attention to Romulus.

WOLVERINE: KILLABLE

While Sabretooth refashioned himself as an international crime lord, Wolverine became infected with a Microverse virus that neutralized his healing factor and made him vulnerable. With vast criminal resources at his disposal, Sabretooth put a bounty on Logan's head and forced him to fight Mystique, Lord Deathstrike, the Silver Samurai, and an army of ninja to push him to his physical limit. 

Once Logan was physically and mentally exhausted, Sabretooth fought him in WOLVERINE (2013) #12 by Paul Cornell and Alan Davis. After beating him to within an inch of his life, Sabretooth taunted Wolverine and threatened to kill him. However, Creed was satisfied by his victory and spared Logan's life before moving onto his other plans, which a still-powerless Wolverine eventually stopped.

SABRETOOTH WAR

When the world's mutants came together on Krakoa, one of the mutant nation's first official actions was to condemn Sabretooth to the Pit, a prison meant to hold him indefinitely. However, Sabretooth eventually escaped, and he has already started taking his revenge on Wolverine in "Sabretooth War." 

After teaming up with a small army of his bloodthirsty Sabretooth variants from alternate realities, Sabretooth tracked Wolverine and his X-Force allies to their base at the North Pole. To carry on his tradition of attacking Logan on his birthday, Sabretooth and his team butchered Kid Omega, one of Wolverine's X-Force teammates. Creed and his army also killed Daken, Logan's son, and dismembered him in WOLVERINE (2020) #41 by Benjamin Percy, Victor LaValle, Geoffrey Shaw, and Cory Smith. 

After brutalizing Wolverine and stringing him up in the Arctic cold, Sabretooth's army attacked the base and slaughtered the mutants sheltering inside. Although Wolverine and X-Force were able to turn back Sabretooth's army, Laura Kinney is missing, and Logan will do anything to save his daughter from his most ferocious enemy.

Unwrap Sabretooth's birthday gift for Wolverine in WOLVERINE #42, now on sale!

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