Marvel Knows the Truth: Wolverine Isn't the Most Feral Mutant, Not By a Long Shot

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1

Wolverine is certainly one of Marvel’s most feral mutants. Without the adamantium, his healing factor would kick into overdrive and trigger his bestial true form. However, there is another mutant, often considered Wolverine’s greatest villain, whose ferocity terrifyingly overwhelms Logan’s. Unlike Wolverine, this character isn’t afraid of letting his inner animal loose. The difference between the two is so significant that even Marvel can’t avoid the truth.

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1 – written by Frank Tieri, with Michael Sta. Maria – features Wolverine learning some hidden history about his nemesis, Sabretooth.

Following the eight-part miniseries Sabretooth War, Victor Creed is dead, meaning Wolverine is left without his antithesis. Now, Logan is uncovering a piece of Creed’s past, with a story set in New York’s 1900s criminal underground. Looking back on one of the villain’s bloodiest sagas, it is clear to readers that Sabretooth will always be the most savage mutant of all time.

Marvel's New Posthumous Look At Sabretooth's Past Confirms The Vicious Mutant Is An Apex Predator Of Pure Ferocity

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1 – Written By Frank Tieri; Art By Michael Sta. Maria; Color By Protobunker Studios' Dono Sanchez-Almara; Lettering By VC’s Joe Sabino; Cover Art By Adam Kubert & Laura Martin

It’s not exactly an uncommon opinion that Sabretooth is the more feral of the two mutants. While Wolverine fights to fit into society’s greater rules, Victor Creed couldn’t care less. Both mutants enjoy their solitude, but when provoked are unstoppable killers. That said, aggressive personality and ferocity are two different things. When you think of a feral animal, it often evokes thoughts of rabid predators locked in a pure state of rage and murderous intent. In moments of true animalistic ferocity, there is no room for higher thinking, purely the need to kill and the need to survive.

For mutants like Wolverine and Sabretooth, their feral inclinations are more than just disposition, but instead natural instinct. It’s built into their very mutations. In the early 1990s, it was revealed that without the adamantium poisoning Wolverine, he would mentally devolve while his body rapidly grew to beastly proportions. However, even without the adamantium, Logan rejects this side of him; meanwhile, Sabretooth has consistently proven himself to be a menacing force of nature with no inclination to stop his violent terrors. Wolverine is a man with power, but Sabretooth is a blood-letting natural disaster in human form.

Sabretooth's Feral Nature Connects Him To Wolverine, But It Also Signifies Their Biggest Divide

Sabretooth Is Totally Unrestrained

In Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk, Victor is depicted casually swiping people’s heads off with no effort. In some instances, the kills look clean compared to Creed’s normally visceral messes simply because of how swift his strength is. On more than one occasion, Victor has squared off with a bear and emerged the victor, with Wolverine mocking that Sabretooth should pick on somebody his own size. Despite misconceptions, his animal instincts make him smart. In the ruins of Krakoa, before his death, Victor pondered his ferocious rage, noting that the trauma of killing takes a toll. But, he acknowledges that it’s simply who he is.

The thing is, Victor is right. It’s in his nature, and there's a chance he was intentionally made this way. There is a controversial theory that Sabretooth and Wolverine are related, not because the two are half-brothers in the movies, but because of a character named Romulus. While his background is a mystery, Romulus was the primary power behind the Weapon X Program. A centuries-old mutant with near identical powers to both Wolverine and Sabretooth, Romulus has spent lifetimes developing the project on a generational level. Long before Weapon X, Romulus began pruning the Hudson family line, seeking to create a super-soldier.

Sabretooth And Wolverine's Long, Controversial History Is A Result Of Their Similarities

Two Of Marvel's Most Brutal Fighters

While Marvel has never explicitly stated it as fact, by looking at the pair's shared traits, it’s not hard to assume that the Hudson family directly descended from Romulus. That said, remember that Victor Creed and Romulus also share a shocking number of traits. The clawed nails, heavy brow, wild eyebrows, and hulking stature are all common in Victor's family line. While the Hudsons were Romulus’s primary experiment, the Creeds were probably his backup lineage. It’s why Romulus kept Sabretooth so close. Both lineages were designed to become feral behemoths, but only Sabretooth embraced it.

Sabretooth’s feral domination over Wolverine isn’t just a matter of behavioral differences, it’s genetic programming. Whether Romulus is the common ancestor or the three share an even older ancestor together, there's a visually clear connection. Logan and Victor were bred to refine the bloodline’s mutant abilities, which include their feral nature. While Wolverine's claws and comparatively mild temperament made him a better candidate for Weapon X than Sabretooth, Victor is the greater animal of the two. He’s an unmatched apex predator, nearly untouched by any except for mutants like Wolverine and Romulus.

Victor Creed Is More Animal Than Human, A Fate Wolverine Tries To Avoid

Pure Animal Instinct & Reaction

Between Logan and Victor, it’s the latter who is defined by his savage strength and predator’s senses before his humanity. Long before Wolverine was born , Victor was already a veteran killer, embracing the absolute ferocity that came to him naturally. The drive to hunt. The drive to dominate. The drive to consume. It’s what he was bred for. It’s what he was trained to become. He doesn’t concern himself with thinking, just action and reaction. It’s always kill or be killed. Marvel knows it: Wolverine is a tame beast compared to the feral beast of prey, Sabretooth.

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1 is available now from Marvel Comics.