Wolverine's War With Sabretooth Gets Off to a Deadly, Bloody Start

Marvel wasn't kidding when it put a parental advisory on the Wolverine event "Sabretooth War." The much-anticipated matchup between longtime enemies Wolverine and Sabretooth officially kicks off this week. Marvel has done a good job of keeping the adversaries away from each other, which only makes "Sabretooth War" all the more interesting. As we approach the end of the X-Men's Krakoa era, it's time to finally see Wolverine and Sabretooth mix it up. But fans may want to brace themselves because it's already a very violent affair.

*WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Wolverine #41, Part 1 of "Sabretooth War." Continue reading at your own risk!

Wolverine #41 is from the creative team of Victor LaValle, Benjamin Percy, Geoff Shaw, Cory Smith, Oren Junior, Alex Sinclair, and VC's Cory Petit. The "parental advisory" memo on the cover lives up to its billing right away, with Quentin Quire the first X-Man to fall in "Sabretooth War." Quire is one of Wolverine's teammates on X-Force, and even though Quire has died and been resurrected a number of times, his gruesome death at the hands of Sabretooth and his band of multiverse variants is still hard to watch.

Wolverine's son is murdered by Sabretooth

Another person close to Wolverine to die is his son, Daken. Akihiro and Logan have a complicated relationship, but they started to form a real bond while together on the island nation of Krakoa. Similar to Quire, Daken is ambushed by Sabretooth and his army. However, while we only saw the Sabretooths feasting on Quentin Quire's corpse, Daken and Fang get completely disembodied, with their remains spelling out Sabretooth's message to Wolverine: "Happy Birthday."

Wolverine notes earlier in the issue how Sabretooth always has a knack for ruining his birthdays, and he's able to keep that tradition alive in Wolverine #41. "Sabretooth War" is a 10-part event slated to take place through Wolverine #41-50. If its opening salvo is any indication, fans may want to brace themselves for even more death and heartbreak for Logan. Also, with Fall of the House of X and Rise of the Powers of X marking the end of the Krakoan age and Marvel relaunching the X-Men line later this year, Wolverine can go out with a bang and a Snikt by telling a definitive Sabretooth story.

"Sabretooth is the definition of big bad — one of the nastiest, cruelest, scariest villains in the 616 and Wolverine's greatest nemesis," Percy told Marvel.com when "Sabretooth War" was announced. "Which is exactly why we haven't allowed their stories to intersect — during this age of Krakoa — until now. The tension has built up painfully, and now these two savage titans are going to claw and slash their way into each other's lives again in what will be the most violent Wolverine story in Marvel history."

"I'm geeked I get to continue the story of Sabretooth that I began in that first mini-series back in 2021," LaValle added. "Even more thrilled to tell it in tandem with my friend Ben Percy, who knows how to thrill and terrify with the best of them. We plan to make this a visceral story of two lifelong enemies coming to their most violent ends and I'm excited to get the blood flowing."

Let us know your thoughts on Wolverine #41 in the comments.