Warning! This article contains spoilers for Sabretooth #1
With the rise of X-Men’s most brutal movie kills. Sabretooth has been featured in two X-Men films, X-Men and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In the latter film, Sabretooth pulls off an insanely brutal kill, and in his latest comic book exploits, he kills someone exactly the same way.
In Sabretooth #1 by Victor LaValle and Leonard Kirk, readers get a glimpse at the hellish existence Sabretooth has been sentenced to while living out his days in the Pit of Krakoa. Not only is the prison one of the body but also the mind as Sabretooth is locked in endless cycles of random and violent situations of his own creation, all while not fully aware that he has been imprisoned. In this issue, Sabretooth becomes aware of his situation and starts to shape this new world in which he is forced to live, turning it into a literal hell with him as its sole ruler.
Before he becomes fully aware and in control of his imprisonment, however, Sabretooth creates a situation in which he single-handedly murders nearly every one in the Marvel Universe, including one kill in particular that is exactly like one pulled off by his X-Men movie counterpart. In the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the mutant teleporter Wraith, who had been helping Logan throughout the film, attacks Sabretooth. Victor Creed times Wraith’s movements as the mutant is teleporting all around him and striking at unexpected times. Once Sabretooth gets his movements down, and Wraith gets close enough, he sticks his claws into his chest and kills the mutant hero in epically brutal fashion. In the comic Sabretooth, the titular villain does the same thing his movie version did to Wraith except with Nightcrawler. In the fabricated battle held within Sabretooth’s mind while in the Pit of Krakoa, Nightcrawler attacked Sabretooth just as Wraith did, and when Nightcrawler got close enough, Sabretooth killed him in equally brutal fashion.
While Sabretooth killed Nightcrawler in the comics the same way he killed Wraith in the movie, the only difference lies in the specifics behind the actual killing blow. In both cases, the teleporting attacker disappeared and reappeared around Sabretooth during their respective battles and Sabretooth timed their movements to the point of anticipating where they would end up and killing them once they were close enough. However, in the movie, Sabretooth stabbed Wraith with his claws and grabbed hold of his spine as the teleporter died slowly gasping for air. In the comics, Sabretooth bit out Nightcrawler’s throat, leaving the X-Men member choking on his own blood while writhing around on the ground.
Even with the minor differences regarding the exact cause of death, the scene just released by Marvel Comics is eerily similar to the one that was shown in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. With all of the controversy surrounding that film, as it is almost unanimously hated by most fans, the fact that it showed off one of Sabretooth’s most brutal kills first and was then copied by the comics years later is a huge win—and perhaps the film’s only win. Marvel Comics steals one of the X-Men’s most brutal kills from the movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Sabretooth’s latest solo comic series.
