Comic Book Journal

Wolverine and Sabertooth are finally going to end it, according to a Jeph Leob interview at IGN. The two long-time adversaries are going to fight their final battle on the pages of Wolverine’s self-titled book, and there many indications Sabertooth may finally meet his (well deserved if you ask me) end.

Said Leob in the interview, “Without spoiling anything, we want to let you guys know that this is the last fight these two characters are ever going to have.” Leob later added, “I think the question is if he doesn’t kill him, then why doesn’t he. I’ve written that story, I wrote about why the Batman doesn’t kill the Joker. This will be different.”

Still, its because of my respect for Jeph Leob - especially over the course of Heroes - that I question if this bout if really going to end the way we think its going to end. While Captain America and more recently Flash’s fate were foretold long before it happened, I wonder if Leob has something more unpredictable up his sleeve this time around.

“I could have dropped a book for a year and come back and not felt like I missed much of anything. Comics don’t have to be like that. I think stories right now are really compelling and totally unpredictable. Who would have thought Tony Stark would be the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

Civil War and Infinite Crisis were huge events which effected the comic book reader every bit as the non-comic book reader. But Sabertooth’s hypothetical death? Not that much eye-catching.

I think Wolverine’s fight with Saberooth is going to be one for the books, and by books, I mean Hellblazer. Its going to be one of those fights which leaves lasting scars on both characters. Jeph Leob has to know that. He also has to know that if he just killed Sabertooth, the character would be brought back from the grave within a year and the whole feud would start again.

No - if this is the last fight for Wolverine and Sabertooth, something has to change between both characters. Something which scares the prospect of revenge out of one or more feral mutants. Something big and something bloody.