SPIDER-MAN, PUNISHER, SABRETOOTH: DESIGNER GENES - June 1993

Credits:  Terry Kavanagh (writer), Scott McDaniel (penciler), Keith Williams (inks), Joe Rosen (letters), Tom Smith (colors)

Summary:  Peter Parker discovers that numerous lab animals at ESU have been slaughtered by a mystery creature.  Nearby, the Punisher faces a group of arsonists called the Scorchers.  After the Scorchers are neutralized, a homeless woman shows Punisher the mutilated bodies of several of her friends.  Spider-Man and the Punisher’s investigations lead to an underground lab, where they discover Sabretooth.  They mistake Sabretooth for the killer until he reveals that he’s hunting a former Weapon X scientist named Phil Chambers.  Sabretooth leaves Spider-Man and the Punisher to fight amongst themselves and heads to Roxxon’s headquarters.  Spider-Man and the Punisher eventually follow and meet Roxxon executive Brandon Chambers, who has hired his brother Phil to conduct genetic research.  Phil, from his lab, unleashes his genetically modified creature to kill the heroes.  Brandon is shocked to discover the monster is their brother Mitchell, who Phil was allegedly treating for cancer.  With Brandon’s help, Mitchell is restrained.  Sabretooth kills Phil and escapes.  Later, Brandon tries to make amends by using his brother’s altered DNA to advance cancer research.

Continuity Notes:  Sabretooth remarks that “my claws only kill for money...and revenge.”  At this point, Marvel tends to portray Sabretooth as a mercenary rather than a serial killer.

I Love the ‘90s:  Phil Chambers tries to escape with his floppy disc archive of scientific research.  Also, the very concept of “designer jeans” seems unique to the ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“Huh?” Moment:  The Punisher escapes the Roxxon building when Microchip arrives in a helicopter.  The Punisher has his own helicopter…and chubby computer hacker Microchip knows how to pilot one?

Creative Differences:  An added line of dialogue has Spider-Man confirm that one of Roxxon’s guards is still alive after the Punisher forced another guard to shoot him with a laser rifle.

Production Note:  I hesitate to call this a bookshelf format one-shot, because an argument can be made that it’s a full-fledged graphic novel.  It’s not oversized like Marvel’s earlier graphic novels, but it is sixty-four pages of original material at the whopping price of $8.95.  (And that’s in 1993 dollars!)  The cover also has foil effects and raised lettering.

Review:  Do you think Peter David was kicking himself when Terry Kavanagh got to the pun “Designer Genes” first?  If only Peter David had written this one; the silly title probably would’ve remained, but I’m sure he could’ve done something with a Spider-Man/Punisher/Sabretooth team-up story.  Terry Kavanagh does pretty much what you expect Terry Kavanagh to do, which is fill pages with words but never really say anything.  To be fair, there is an effort to give one of the Chambers brothers a character arc, but at no point does Kavanagh actually make him sympathetic or believable.  Instead, Brandon’s redemption is just tossed in during the final pages to create the impression that this comic has more to it than mindless violence.  The story mainly consists of the three lead characters, most likely chosen for marketing reasons, having brief fight scenes with one another that are interrupted by quickie plot points, which lead to more running and fighting until the sixty-four pages are mercifully over.  While the dialogue isn’t as bad as some of Kavanagh’s later work, there are quite a few groaners in here.  The Punisher specifically is saddled with some hideous one-liners, like “He's a killer who needs being dead” and this egregious one: “Just get me to the hurt on time.”  Get me to the hurt on time.  Yeesh.

The back cover plays up the idea that the one-shot contrasts the idea of the hero, the anti-hero, and the villain, but that’s kind of a joke.  Sabretooth and the Punisher are essentially the same character in this story, with Spider-Man playing the part of the overwhelmed hero who accomplishes nothing by the end of the comic.  I will say that Kavanagh writes Spidey pretty well for most of the story, and I was relieved to see Spider-Man make some effort to apprehend the Punisher.  Stories where Spider-Man just accepts what the Punisher does aren’t true to the character, so I have to give Kavanagh some credit for trying to stay loyal to Spider-Man’s values.  However, not only does Spidey fail to apprehend the Punisher, he fails to do anything in this one-shot.  The Punisher escapes.  Sabretooth escapes and kills the main villain.  And the secondary villain gets a redemption arc that Spider-Man has zero participation in.  It’s almost as if Spider-Man’s only here to sell comics or something…

I’m not sure why someone thought that Scott McDaniel at this stage could handle a nine-dollar prestige format book, but he’s clearly out of his depth here.  While his interpretation of Spider-Man is remarkably consistent (and not a bad variation on Ron Lim’s portrayal at the time in Spider-Man Unlimited), the rest of this art looks like any other subpar Jim Lee impersonation from the era.  I’m assuming this was penciled before McDaniel began experimenting with his style on Daredevil; I wasn’t a huge fan of that run, but there was something stylized and cool about it.  Designer Genes just looks like any random Wildstorm comic from 1993, without the fancy computer colors.  This is pretty bad stuff all around.  In Marvel’s quest to reprint everything, I wonder if this is something they’re just going to overlook.

SABRETOOTH: BACK TO NATURE- January 1998

Homicidal Tendencies

Credits: Jorge Gonzalez (writer), Frank Teran (art), Comicraft (letters & design), Shannon Blanchard (colors)

Summary: Wild Child is informed that his former girlfriend, Lori, has been murdered by sibling serial killers Yuri and Komarovsky “Chop Chop” Yevgraf. Sabretooth knows them from his past, and talks Wild Child into traveling to Canada with him. Stealing Yuri’s pain medication, Sabretooth is able to ignore his restraint collar and kill him. Meanwhile, Wild Child rescues Lori’s sister Leisl from Chop Chop in a warehouse. Despite Wild Child’s insistence on bringing him in alive, Chop Chop accidentally impales himself while trying to escape. Sabretooth returns home with Wild Child, content with his supply of Yuri’s painkillers.

Continuity Notes: This takes place during Sabretooth’s days as a compulsory member of X-Factor, although it was published a few months after he broke free of his collar. Sabretooth actually does mention pills have helped him remove the collar in X-Factor #136, so this was worked out in advance.

Production Note: This is a $5.99, forty-eight page, prestige format one-shot.

I Love the‘90s: Sabretooth remarks that he “pulled a Tyson” after biting Yuri.

Review: Here we go, another six-dollar one-shot that could’ve easily served as an X-Men Unlimited issue. I wouldn’t call this a bad comic at all, but over ten years later, the cover price still seems outrageous. You could argue that the story has some significance for setting up Sabretooth’s escape from X-Factor, but the fact that the character left the team several months before this comic was published kinda kills the drama. The tone is appropriately gritty for a Sabretooth comic, and Frank Teran’s art, which falls in-between Bill Sienkiewicz and Klaus Janson, certainly fits the mood better than the Jeff Matsuda X-Factor issues that precede the story.

Jorge Gonzalez has a decent handle on Sabretooth, portraying him as suitably nasty, but still throwing in a few curveballs, like his brief warning to Leisl not to let revenge consume her. Sabretooth could’ve just as easily killed the woman as give her advice, which might come across as inconsistent characterization under a lot of writers, but Gonzalez is able to make the scene feel somewhat credible. In the end, we learn that Sabretooth’s partial motive for tagging along was to push Wild Child into giving in to his animal temptations, but mainly to score some painkillers from Yuri, who he happens to know is an addict. Having Sabretooth take vicodin to get around his collar’s “retaliatory blasts” is pretty clever, although I doubt all of the dope in the world would be enough to deaden the pain we’ve seen the collar dish out in the past. Surely Sabretooth’s healing factor is stronger than any prescription drug, anyway. Maybe the drug material would’ve been a little much for the regular priced, Code Approved comics, and I did find myself enjoying the comic, but I still refuse to believe this story warrants the six-dollar format.

SABRETOOTH SPECIAL#1 – January 1996

In the Red Zone

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Gary Frank (penciler), Jon Holdredge w/Mark McKenna (inkers), Dana Moreshead & Electric Crayon (colors), Richard Starkings & Comicraft (lettering)

Summary

Caliban tracks Sabretooth down in the sewers, but Sabretooth manages to knock him unconscious and escape. Phoenix tries to telepathically locate Sabretooth, but can’t. Cyclops and Iceman investigate one of his old safe houses while Beast and Archangel position themselves around the city. Sabretooth returns home while Cyclops and Iceman are there. He jumps out of the window and takes a hostage on the street, forcing Iceman to let him escape on the subway. Beast confronts him on the subway train, but Sabretooth manages to escape again. Archangel spots him and tries to capture him, but Sabretooth rips open one of his wings instead. Cyclops orders Iceman to take Archangel to the hospital, while Jean senses that the police have discovered a train ticket for Boston in the remains of Sabretooth’s clothing. The X-Men discern that Sabretooth is headed for Xavier’s school in Massachusetts to kill the younger students. Cyclops, Phoenix, and Beast catch him at the train station. When Sabretooth sees the brigade of police nearby, he antagonizes them into shooting him repeatedly. Val Cooper takes his apparently dead body away, as Cyclops laments that Sabretooth ended up getting exactly what he wanted.

Continuity Note

According to Professor Xavier, Sabretooth can’t be located telepathically ever since his healing factor repaired his brain damage and removed his need for a psychic “glow”. I don’t know if that’s been kept consistent over the years, but this explanation doesn’t make any sense to me.

Gimmicks

This issue has a wraparound chromium cover and is forty-eight pages with no ads. The cover price is $4.95, a dollar more than X-Men Alpha, which had the same format a year earlier. I could be wrong, but I think this was the last chromium X-book.

I Love the ‘90s

Sabretooth refers to X-Force as the “MTV slacker group”. Phoenix stations herself on top of the World Trade Center. Beast admits that he enjoys The Richard Bay Show. “Veruca Salt” appears as graphiti on the subway.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Sabretooth says “sucks” at one point, which is a word Joe Quesada later claimed the Code had a problem with.

Review

I’m not quite sure what the point of this comic is, outside of Marvel just saying, “Hey, we haven’t done a big, expensive chromium cover comic in a few months”. Maybe the idea was that after so many months of having Sabretooth live in the mansion, there should be a giant “X-Men vs. Sabretooth” comic to end the storyline. The story isn’t that bad, even though the plot mechanics get on my nerves. Gary Frank delivers a solid art job throughout the issue, but his clean, smooth style seems like an odd choice for a Sabretooth special. Nicieza uses the story as a vehicle for Sabretooth’s sadistic point of view, emphasizing again and again that he has no desire to change and that he likes what he is. It’s a legitimate avenue to take, but it starts to get old after awhile since the story mainly consists of Sabretooth having brief confrontations with each of the X-Men and then running away.

For no internally logical reason, only the original X-Men are sent after Sabretooth. I get that Nicieza wants to pit the original team against a creature so nasty he couldn’t have existed in the Silver Age, but hardly any of these characters really have any unique perspective to bring to the conflict. And the mechanics required to keep the story going for almost fifty pages are also silly. Not only can’t Phoenix mentally track him because Sabretooth’s suddenly developed some defense against telepathy, but in the end she can’t even keep him afloat with her telekinesis because she’s “too tired”. Cyclops hits him point blank with his optic blasts more than once and it barely has any effect. The idea that all five of these X-Men would have such a hard time capturing Sabretooth is silly. Four out of the five of them could just attack him from a distance, since Beast is the only one that can’t fire some type of projectile. Given Iceman’s recent power-up, it’s hard to believe that he couldn’t have just frozen Sabretooth at some point in the story. I don’t usually complain about the way characters use their powers in a fight scene, but this is ridiculous.

The story does have its moments, though, as Sabretooth has a few interesting exchanges with Archangel and Phoenix. Archangel talks about suppressing his own dark desires to kill Sabretooth, which is the first acknowledgment of his own internal conflicts in a long time. The idea that Sabretooth is constantly pushing the X-Men to cross their own moral boundaries also works well. The story’s central idea, that Sabretooth is really a coward because he’s unwilling to fight against any of his urges and see if he ever could change, is fine but it’s repeated so often it starts to wear on you. Overall, the story has its moments but it’s obviously padded to fit into the double-sized format, and some of the plot elements don’t hold up to much scrutiny.

SABRETOOTH #1-#4

SABRETOOTH #1 – August 1993

Home Is the Hunter

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Richard Starkings (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colorist)

Summary

Sabretooth returns home to his mansion and defeats an army of ninjas. His telepathic assistant, Birdy, gives him a psychic “glow” and tries to speak to his inner child. Sabretooth punches her out for wasting time on the past and walks away. Later, Birdy double-crosses Sabretooth and lets a group of mercenaries inside to kidnap him. When he awakes, Sabretooth learns that his strength has been enhanced by the armored mystery man, Tribune. Tribune is sending Sabretooth on a mission to kill Mystique; if he doesn’t comply, the bomb Tribune planted inside his chest will go off. Sabretooth agrees to kill Mystique, but also promises to kill Tribune when he’s done.

Gimmicks

This issue has a cardstock, die-cut cover.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Well, it’s a mini-series about a psychotic killer. Just a few years before this, that probably wouldn’t have gone over very well. There’s violence against women and children, and lots of people get shot or stabbed. It’s never really bloody or visually graphic, though.

Continuity Note

The group of ninjas want revenge on Sabretooth for killing their “Clan Leader”. Silver Fox had previously been revealed to be the leader of Hydra, and Hydra has aligned itself with the Hand in the past, so that might be what they’re referencing.

I Love the ‘90s

In a reference to dated video game terminology, the enhanced Sabretooth is referred to as “Turbo-Sabretooth!”

Review

This is the debut issue of the Sabretooth mini-series, one of the many limited series released in the summer of 1993 to coincide with the X-Men’s 30^th anniversary. At the time, Marvel genuinely wanted Sabretooth to join the X-Men (Fabian Nicieza had already hinted that he was joining in an earlier issue of Marvel Age). According to Scott Lobdell, he was able to talk Bob Harras out of doing this, and the storyline was altered to have Sabretooth living as a prisoner of the X-Men. Turning villains into heroes was the latest trend during this era, and it was a pretty ghastly one. I guess after making the heroes as dark as possible, the only place left to go was to sell the villains as heroes. I have no idea if this mini was initially intended to be a part of Sabretooth’s rehabilitation, but the first issue doesn’t leave me with that impression. There’s some attention paid to Sabretooth’s traumatic childhood, but li’l Sabretooth is also shown to be rather nasty. Hama is still writing Sabretooth as an unrepentant villain, even showing us that he deserves his comeuppance at the end of the story. It’s hard to have any sympathy for a guy who decks the pretty girl who wants to help his inner demons. Fitting the exaggerated tone of the story is Texeira’s artwork. Combining photorealism with the excesses of this era is an eccentric look, and not something that would suit a series like Captain America, but it works for a Sabretooth mini.

There’s a shamelessness to the entire issue that I like. The horrible assassin Sabretooth lives in a fabulous mansion, has portraits of his murder victims on the wall, and drinks champagne in the hot tub while receiving some type of psychological pleasure from his blonde sidekick/prisoner. It’s intentionally over the top and suits the character perfectly. I’d rather read this than a comic that portrays Sabretooth as morally conflicted and suddenly remorseful over his actions. Sabretooth, only motivated by money and bloodlust, has simply done too much in his past to be convincingly redeemed. Hama emphasizes this with Sabretooth’s brutal treatment of Birdy. The violence against the ninjas is inoffensive to any reader, but punching the woman who wants to help him makes Sabretooth totally appalling. A monthly series with Sabretooth as the unrepentant lead would get old quickly, and I’d even question the moral judgment behind publishing it; but as a standalone limited series, it works.

SABRETOOTH #2 – September 1993

A Kiss Before Dying

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Michael Bair (art assist), Richard Starkings (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Sabretooth tracks down Birdy for revenge, but decides not to kill her after she gives him “the glow”. They travel to Paris to kill Mystique, but she manages to elude Sabretooth. When he gets close to her, Mystique morphs into his mother, causing Sabretooth to flash back to his childhood. When he finally reaches Mystique on top of the Eiffel Tower, she reveals that he told her his secrets years ago before his memories were blocked. Mystique then tells him to discuss it with her dinner date, Wolverine.

Review

An entire issue devoted to Sabretooth tracking down two separate women he wants to kill. It’s creepy if you reflect on it, but the fast pace and relentless action make it easier to digest. It would be nice if there was more going on, though. I should point out that Hama is able make Birdy, a background character rarely seen before this series, pretty likable and fun to read.

SABRETOOTH #3 – October 1993

City of Light, City of Night

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Richard Starkings (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colorist)

Summary

Mystique convinces Wolverine, Sabretooth, and Birdy to call a truce while she reveals her connection to Sabretooth over dinner. During the Cold War, Mystique assumed the alias of Leni Zauber. Working for separate spy agencies, she met Sabretooth after they were both sent to murder a scientist in Berlin. The two of them hit it off and Sabretooth went AWOL for a month with her. When the body of the real Leni Zauber was found, Sabretooth assumed she was dead and moved on. Mystique tells Sabretooth that they have a son together, and that he’s the one who sent him to kill her. After Mystique detonates a grenade, Wolverine covers it and Sabretooth and Birdy leave to kill Tribune. Birdy uses her powers to track Tribune to an office building in New York.

Continuity Notes

This issue establishes the past between Sabretooth and Mystique. Years later, Chuck Austen would totally contradict this story with another “first meeting between Sabretooth and Mystique” story in X-Men Unlimited.

According to Wolverine, Sabretooth’s first encounter with Mystique happened during their Team X days.

Mystique says that her morphing powers “continually revitalize my body cells and DNA memory”, explaining why she doesn’t appear to age. This is the first comic to establish that Mystique is older than she seems.

Review

Another ‘90s X-comic that reveals the hidden past between two established characters. Just like all of Wolverine’s flashbacks during this era, it’s hard to remember when this once seemed new. I’m not sure why exactly Marvel felt the need to give Sabretooth and Mystique a past together, but I don’t really have a problem with it. It’s much better than inserting yet another character into Wolverine’s backstory, I guess. Just like the previous issues of this mini, it’s a nicely done action comic that doesn’t ask too much of its readers. Wolverine’s guest appearance is totally gratuitous, but I guess it’s inevitable that he would show up in a Sabretooth mini-series.

SABRETOOTH #4 – November 1993

Sins of the Fathers!

Credits: Larry Hama (writer), Mark Texeira (artist), Steve Biasi (backgrounds), Richard Starkings (letterer), Steve Buccellato (colorist)

Summary

Sabretooth and Birdy infiltrate Tribune’s building and force his surgeon to remove the bomb in Sabretooth’s chest. When Sabretooth confronts Tribune, he wants to know why he wanted Sabretooth and Mystique dead. Birdy takes him inside his mind, where he learns that Tribune is Graydon Creed, and that his parents’ abandonment led to his hatred of mutants. When Birdy tries to talk Sabretooth out of killing Creed, he recognizes her as Sabretooth’s “escape valve”. Creed fatally stabs Birdy, forcing Sabretooth to live without someone to ease his pain. Convinced that Creed really is his son, Sabretooth lets him live and searches for someone else to provide “the glow”.

Continuity Note

This issue establishes that Graydon Creed is the son of Mystique and Sabretooth. The mystery of his parentage didn’t last long, thankfully.

Approved By The Comics Code Authority

Sabretooth uses his claws to rip open his own chest in preparation for surgery.

Review

Reading the final chapter, it now seems as if Hama was given some continuity points for Sabretooth and worked a story around them. The mini reveals that Sabretooth fathered Graydon Creed, his need for “the glow”, kills off his source of “the glow”, and provides him a motive to search out the X-Men. These are all story points that tie back to the main X-books, and not anything Hama was doing in Wolverine at the time. Hama’s approach to do a straightforward, hyper-violent story clearly hitting each of those points was probably the best way to handle things. Read on its own, the mini is enjoyable simply as an action story, but in the context of X-continuity, it still sets the stage for the next “shocking” storyline. By the time the story is over, it seems as if Marvel had firmly decided that Sabretooth would be getting treatment from the X-Men, but not actually joining the team.

Hama continues with the excessiveness as the series concludes. Graydon Creed doesn’t just have bodyguards; he employs a group of heavily armed investment bankers with “CHK-LIT” (Charged Hyper-Kinetic Lepton Impulse Thruster) guns. At least this stuff is supposed to be funny, unlike many of the other comics from this period. Graydon Creed himself is portrayed as some sort of yuppie supervillain in this issue, an interpretation of the character that never caught on. The ending is rather anticlimactic, and Sabretooth actually choosing not to kill someone, especially after everything Creed has done, just seems wrong. Overall, though, it’s an enjoyable read, and better than most people would expect from a Sabretooth mini-series.