Welcome to another magical X-Men Monday from AIPT, X-Fans!
Sabretooth: Dead Men Tell No Tales? What is it? Dear X-Fans, this is an all-new miniseries from writer Frank Tieri and artist Michael Stay. Maria X-Men Monday exclusively announces! Here is the solicitation for issue 1, which will be released in December 2024…
Sabretooth: Dead Men Tell No Tales #1 (5 volumes)
By Frank Tieri
Pencil drawing by Michael Sta Maria
Cover by FABRIZIO DE TOMMASO
Who is Mad Dog Murphy? The man who lived in the 1900s and whose picture can be found on the wall of New York’s oldest saloon? Yes. The feared gangster and murderer who rose to power among the notorious New York gangsters? Yes. And perhaps most shockingly, none other than… Sabretooth?!?
Join us – and Wolverine – as we unravel untold and secret chapters from the life of Logan’s greatest enemy in a tale of violence, betrayal, shocking revelations, and more violence. Sabretooth may be dead… but the secrets of his past, and how they affect Wolverine in the present, live on.
Cover: Fabrizio De Tomaso, courtesy of Marvel Comics
Want to know more about this all-new story that delves into Sabretooth and Wolverine’s past? Frank has more details below. (For more on Frank, check out his first X-Men Monday appearance back in 2019, where we talked about him killing Maggots at Terrificon and more.)
AIPT: Welcome to X-Men Monday, Frank! You have quite a bit of experience on the X-side of the Marvel Universe, having written series like Weapon X, Wolverine, and Deadpool. But it’s been a while. What’s it like going back and playing in the X sandbox?
Frank Tieri: Well, it’s not entirely true that it’s been a while. I was recently working on Deadpool: Black, White & Blood and Ravencroft Ruins: Sabretooth (the latter of which plays a very important role in the series, as you’ll see). That being said, I haven’t been playing with my X-Men toy box as much as I used to, so it was great to come back and work on a series like this, especially when it features two of my favorite X-Men toys, Sabretooth and Wolverine.
Cover: Davide Paratore, courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: How did the opportunity to write Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk come about? It’s a pretty unique undertaking.
Frank: It’s Wolverine’s 50th anniversary this year, so you knew I’d be involved in some way, right? (Laughs) And actually, that “some way” was, of all people, my editor, Mark Paniccia. Mark has always loved the way I’ve handled Sabretooth as a character and wanted to do something awesome with him. The problem was, of course… spoiler alert… Sabretooth was going to die, which meant the story had to be his untold story, set in the past where death wasn’t in the way.
So I had the idea to go back to another Sabretooth story I’d written, the aforementioned Ruins of Ravencroft, and set it in Sabretooth’s past. That story tells of when Sabretooth first met Wolverine in the 1900s, when he was employed by Mister Sinister at Ravencroft, and well… things didn’t go so well for our old friend Victor.
Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk picks up a little later with Sabes feeling dejected about what happened in Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth saying that he lost to Logan when no one had ever beaten him before. And as we all know, Sinister is not a very compassionate boss who cares about people’s sensitivities. So when Sabes is given the opportunity to step out of his shadow, she takes it and jumps right into the middle of the crime lords of Five Points NYC and gets caught up in crazy chaos.
Art by Michael Stay Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: What is your elevator pitch for this miniseries, and what can readers expect as the story unfolds?
Frank: The short answer is Gangs of New York featuring Sabretooth.
In fact, we start the story with Wolverine, so as the events of Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk unfold, we’ll find out what happened with him. We start with him having a drink after Sabretooth’s funeral at a bar (Satan’s Circus, the oldest bar in New York). He notices some old photos of members of the Five Points gang on the wall… and Sabretooth is one of them! How is this possible? From here, Logan (and we) start to learn about the secret and violent history of his biggest enemy, the gangster “Mad Dog” Murphy, and we’re off to the races, so to speak.
Art by Michael Stay Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics
One of the most fun parts of using a setting like this is seeing what Marvel’s version of Gangs of New York would be like. I mean, there’s a mix of normal gangs… and then there’s the not-so-normal gangs. There’s a gang that uses steampunk technology, a gang that’s modeled after Captain America from the American Revolution… and even a “Frankengang” stitched together by one of the good doctor’s ancestors. So putting Sabretooth in the middle of something like this is like dropping a ton of TNT on a forest fire, and the explosion affects not just the criminal underworld, but the whole of 1900s New York City.
Fans can expect plenty of twists and turns, characters old and new, characters with unexpected connections to current Marvel characters, a love story, believe it or not… and, of course, a lot of violence. A lot, really. (Hey, this is a Sabretooth comic after all, so what else do you expect?)
AIPT: As a writer, what attracts you to Victor Creed?
Frank: Because he’s such a jerk. And honestly, it’s definitely fun to write jerk guys… and there’s no one better than Victor Creed. I always say forget Omega Red, Cyber, Lady Deathstrike, and the rest. Sabretooth is Wolverine’s greatest enemy… mostly because they’re two sides of the same coin. Sabretooth is Logan’s nightmare that he hopes never comes true. If he’s not careful, he could become Sabretooth. That scares him so much. And Sabretooth knows that it’s going to come true. And as a writer, you couldn’t ask for a better dynamic than that.
Art by Michael Stay Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Finally, if readers want to reread some of Frank Tieri’s classic X-stories in preparation for your return to the X-Universe, what would you recommend? Are there any favorites that you’re especially proud of?
Frank: If it’s something I wrote, then it’s fine. (Laughs)
Seriously, the aforementioned “Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth” begins immediately after that so be sure to check it out, but fans might also want to check out my ongoing “Wolverine/Sabretooth” stories for “Wolverine” and “Weapon X” to see what kind of badass Sabretooth I’ve always portrayed… and what kind of crazy, offbeat, insane fun you can expect from a series like this.
Cover: Adam Kubert, courtesy of Marvel Comics
AIPT: Well, on that note, Frank, thanks so much for taking the time to reveal all the details about this new miniseries and on X-Men Monday!
Remember, X-Fans: Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk is coming out in December 2024, so we’ll likely find out more details in the coming months.
On the next X-Men Monday, writer Alex Paknadel returns to talk about the upcoming Sentinels miniseries.
Courtesy of Marvel Comics
Until next time, stay awesome, X-Fans!
