Sabretooth is a mutant supervillain created by Chris Claremont and Josh Bryne who originally appeared in the 1977 comic Iron Fist #14. Originally intended to be exclusive to Iron Fist, this character was later included in the X-Men comics. Despite being introduced as a minor villain in the X-Men comics, Sabretooth is by far one of the most vicious villains in the Marvel world and Wolverine’s arch-nemesis.

In fact, IGN voted Sabretooth as the 44th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time in 2009, which says something about him. We will look at Sabretooth’s dark origins and delve into the comics where he first appeared in this video. So, without further ado, let us get this party started, shall we?

The Tragic Origin Story of Sabretooth

Victor Creed seems like one of the most dangerous men to walk on earth as he torments Wolverine at every chance he gets, and it makes one wonder what made him this way? What made him want to brutally murder not just his enemies but also innocent people?

In the comic X-Men Origins: Sabretooth #1, we delve into what happened and what led to the creation of Sabretooth. The comic starts with Victor Creed’s birthday, when he didn’t get any pie, and his older brother, Luther, made the mistake of enjoying his dismay. Their mother returned to the room to find Victor holding the pie, crouching over Luther’s lifeless body.

He had attacked his older brother and killed him, using his “devil teeth.” Victor’s father chained him in the cellar of their family home and regularly descended the stairs to remove Victor’s teeth. Victor’s mother said she could not let him go because she was too afraid of his father, but Victor told her that she should be fearful of him instead. Eventually, he broke free from one of the chains holding him to the wall, and when he couldn’t release his other arm, he chewed through his wrist instead. After this, he murdered his father.

Sometime later, Victor stepped in when he walked into an old-west saloon and witnessed a brawl between Logan and other patrons. The two became friends, but afterward, Silverfox came for Logan, and Victor warned him that Silverfox would only hurt him. Several months passed before Logan returned to the bar with Silverfox dead in his arms. Victor wished Logan a “Happy Birthday,” resulting in a violent battle between the two mutants.

Later on, both Victor and Logan were scheduled to interview for positions on Team X… on the same day. Once again, violence ensued, and the two fought immediately, unable to be broken apart until the entire support team stepped in. The interviewing agent had known their unpleasant history with each other, and both Logan and Victor had their minds wiped of both the incident and the history between them.

Both Logan and Victor were made a part of Team X. After a successful mission, Victor began harassing Logan when he mentioned that it was his birthday. He didn’t know why he did this, only saying that it felt right. On another mission in West Berlin, Victor murdered the woman Team X was meant to extract.

Logan confronted him, and yet another fight began, during which Victor stated he made the kill because it was Logan’s birthday. Finally, about ten years later, Logan paid off a bartender to leave the venue empty, knowing he could expect a fight with Victor. Logan was prepared to walk away from the fight, but Victor reminded him of Silverfox, and the fight continued once again.

The mind-blowing backstory of Sabretooth from X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The 2009 film might have revolved around Hugh Jackman’s character, Wolverine, but it also introduced us to one of the supervillains of Marvel, Sabretooth, or as we know him from the film, Victor Creed. The movie starts in 1845 Canada, where a young boy, James Howlett, witnesses his father being killed by Thomas Logan, the groundskeeper. This instigates his mutation, and he ends up killing Thomas, who reveals that he was the father of the young boy. Now, Victor Creed, who is James’s half-brother, decides it would be best for them to flee from the village.

They spend the next few centuries fighting the Civil War, World Wars, and the Vietnam War. Eventually, they are sentenced to an execution, which they survive because of their mutant abilities, and are approached by William Stryker, who offers them a spot in his team of mutants, Team X.

This team consists of Agent Zero, Wade Wilson, John Wraith, Fred Dukes and Chris Bradley. Although everyone had their powers and strengths, Victor was the most ruthless one of all. He didn’t think twice before killing someone, and his ruthlessness eventually caused Logan, to leave Team X. We fast forward to 6 years later, to the year 1979, where Logan now works as a Lumberjack in Canada and lives a peaceful life with his girlfriend, Kayla Silverfox.

Stryker and Agent Zero track him down, asking Logan to help find the killer who was responsible for the murders of Wade and Bradley, but Logan refuses. Grief follows when Logan finds Kayla’s dead body in the woods, familiar scratch marks on her car and trees, and he knows Victor was behind this. Logan tracks him down in a local bar, where they go against each other, but Victor manages to escape.

This is when Stryker informs Logan about Victor’s intention and how he has gone rogue, killing his team members and a series of innocent people. This is when we learn just how dangerous Victor has proven to be; despite being Logan’s half-brother, he would stop at nothing. Logan decides that he will get his revenge, and so, he undergoes an experiment where they reinforce his skeleton with adamantium, which is an indestructible metal. After facing a near-death experience, he overhears Stryker’s true intentions and manages to break out and escape. What follows is Stryker’s team trying to hunt Logan down, but they fail, and it results in the death of Agent Zero.

Now, Logan manages to locate Wraith and Dukes, where Dukes tells them the real truth. This entire time, Victor was working for Stryker, where Victor would hunt down mutants, whether they were young teens, women, or men, and Stryker would experiment on them. All this was carried out on a hidden island, and the one person who had managed to escape was a mutant named Gambit.

What happens next is a series of events, from Stryker, killing General Munson, Logan learning that Kayla was alive, and a mutant who was working for Stryker in exchange for her sister’s safety. Logan walks away, and Victor asks Stryker for the adamantium, but Stryker refuses, and then goes on to activate Wade, or as he is introduced as Deadpool, weapon XI, and the mutant killer.

This is when we see Logan and Victor team up for the first time in a very long time, showing that despite everything, they were still brothers, and even though Victor was a ruthless killer, he tried to help Logan. Eventually, Logan loses his memory, the mutants are all safe with Professor Charles Xavier, and Stryker is requested for an inquiry. Some might have seen the ending as redemption for Victor, but can someone change after killing innocent people?

Worst things Sabretooth has done

Wolverine and Sabretooth both possess healing powers, which also means the ability to fight over and over again, heal, and go back at it again, which sums up the relationship between these two characters. In the movie, we just discussed there are several incidents where Sabretooth has proven to be a supervillain and a ruthless one. To begin with, after Victor and Logan finish a fight, Logan is defeated and falls to the ground; this is when Victor takes an opportunity to break Logan’s claw, making him scream in pain since this was before his enhancement.

Sabretooth also spends the majority of his time in this movie killing innocent people and capturing mutants for Stryker. One of the worst things that Sabretooth has ever done was in the comic Wolverine #10, where Logan and his girlfriend Silver Fox are living in Canada, where Sabretooth murders her on Logan’s birthday, making it even more evil and ruthless. Sabretooth defines this incident as his masterstroke, which is enough proof that this has to be the evilest thing he has done so far.

Wolverine’s son Daken had teamed up with Sabretooth to form a new Brotherhood of mutants. Eventually, this resulted in Sabretooth tricking and manipulating Wolverine to kill his son, whose body he later took to Japan and buried there. Other than the more obvious and devious murders and plots, Victor Creed also tried to sexually assault a woman during the Vietnamese war, which is proof that it didn’t take joining Team X to make him evil, all it gave him was an outlet and more purpose to be evil. Even though he has been a part of groups, Sabretooth is a lone beast at the end of the way and will do whatever it takes to save himself, even if that means sacrificing his friends or family.

What Makes Sabretooth a Formidable enemy of the X-Men?

The best way to measure a supervillain’s capability is to see who he has taught and defeated, and in this case, Sabretooth versus Wolverine has been one of the biggest rivalries in Marvel so far. We’ve seen brothers in Marvel fight before, like Thor and Loki. However, that doesn’t even come close to the relationship shared between Sabretooth and Wolverine. We know Sabretooth is a mutant, which comes with enhanced physiology, to begin with.

However, on multiple occasions, he has also been lucky enough to attain artificial enhancements like adamantium which only made him a lot stronger, and in turn, more vicious. One of his main powers that might not be harmful to others, but is far too beneficial to himself, are his healing powers.

These give him the ability to bounce back from almost any and every fight, making him a dangerous opponent to the X-Men because not every mutant possesses healing powers. In addition to healing, he is also immune to various kinds of poisons, diseases, and viruses, and of course, he has an incredibly long lifespan, considering he is well over 100 years old. Like most supervillains, he possesses superhuman strength, but along with that, he also has superhuman sense, which includes a heightened sense of taste, smell, hearing, and sight.

Much like Wolverine, Sabretooth also has claws and fangs, which can cause plenty of damage. He is also an expert at hand-to-hand combat and has been trained by the CIA, Hydra, and Weapon X, which gives him an upper hand as compared to the X-Men. He might look like a brute on the outside with his build and beard, but he is an extremely cunning and intellectual man, who has vast knowledge and plenty of experience after being alive for this long. As we have witnessed before, he is also an advanced manipulator, easily convincing people to do his dirty work for him.

Where else has he appeared?

Apart from films, Sabretooth has also appeared in television shows such as X-Men: The Animated Series, Wolverine, and the X-Men, and even The Ultimate Spiderman. It’s safe to say that in almost any show that Wolverine was in, Sabretooth was there to cause damage. He also appears in several Wolverine and X-Men video games. Even though supervillains are the crux of everything evil in the Marvel universe, they do have a large and dedicated fan following, which leads to the creation and sale of merchandise.

Sabretooth has been a part of the Marvel Legends merchandise. To begin with, he was released as a part of the fifth wave, and later, in a face-off two-pack with Wolverine. He was also a part of the Walmart exclusive Build-a-Figure wave, and subsequently a part of other build-a-figure waves. In the 90s, ToyBiz released several Sabretooth figurines. His figurines were a part of almost all X-Men sets or paired with Wolverine. Diamond Select also released a Sabretooth bust, along with bookends that featured both Sabretooth and Wolverine.

Sideshow and Applause released a diorama that featured the brothers, Sabretooth and Wolverine fighting each other. All major companies capitalized on this rivalry and the audience’s love for Sabretooth in the comics, shows, films, and video games. Even now, you can shop for several Sabretooth merch online, from clothes to funky pops, to figurines; there’s something for everything who loves this ruthless supervillain.

Sabretooth or Victor Creed has been a brother, a son, an enemy, an ally, a ruthless killer, a soldier, and all in all, one of the best villains that Marvel has ever created. The more brutal a character is, the better villain they are, and Sabretooth is the perfect example of that. Even though he has had many rivals over the years, his main enemy will always be his brother, Wolverine, and he will go to ends to make him miserable and fight him. However, every hero needs a villain that challenges him, and without Sabretooth, there’s no Wolverine, and without Wolverine, there is no Sabretooth.