Review by Ian Keogh
The indicia may consider this is Wolverine by Benjamin Percy, but his swansong is co-written with Victor LaValle. That’s because LaValle has been the guiding mind behind Sabretooth’s circumstances during the Krakoa years, and ‘The Sabretooth War’ occupies the final two volumes of this run. Wolverine’s continuity follows Vol. 7, while what Sabretooth was up to beforehand is found in Sabretooth and the Exiles. Basically, he’s subverted Orchis technology to access alternate versions of himself, and is now leading them to attack Wolverine and the last mutant stronghold in the Arctic.
Most battles between Wolverine and Sabretooth are feral, to the death encounters, and an unpleasantly imaginative sadism characterises the opening chapters. Percy and LaValle have Sabretooth and his allies slaughtering a fair portion of the few mutants left on Earth, which is supposed to be a big deal as the resurrection technology to bring them back no longer exists. Unfortunately, Marvel have pulled this trick too many times, and because some relatively big names are among the allegedly deceased, all but the novice reader knows any deaths are temporary. Sabtretooth’s savagery needed to be established, and his desire to hurt Wolverine emphasised, but this is a relatively tired and unconvincing method from writers who’ve proved they can do better.
The art alternates between Geoff Shaw and Cory Smith and each serves up the violence the story demands, efficiently and brutally, and if the total is added up, between them they have to deliver a hell of a lot of characters.
Deaths aren’t the only problems with ‘The Sabretooth War’s opening half. Given the trouble Sabretooth alone has caused Wolverine over the years, most readers will figure that a squadron of them acting stealthily ought to be able to deal more easily with the mutants gathered in the Arctic, arguments among themselves notwithstanding. The aspects displaying a greater imagination are the use of Quentin Quire and the as yet unknown effect the intervention of the Exiles will produce. That’s a matter for Vol. 9, and the cliffhanger ending is a puzzler indeed.
