UNCANNY X-MEN #328: Precipice

Sabretooth breaks loose... again!

Originally Published January 1996

We begin with a high-stakes game of Speak Out

"Ho hahically, hut hur hayin' ihsh..."

Sabretooth is having a bit of a face-to-face -- albeit with a little bit of protective gear -- with Charles, who is quite stern and severe in his demeanor as he explains that he's throwing in the towel on the "rehabilitate Sabretooth" project, turning his back on his mission to extend kindness and understanding to the wayward members of his own kind. Well, after such success reforming Wolverine, Rogue and Gambit(?) into model citizens, he was due for a blemish on his record. Victor, for his part, could give a fig.

Watching on with Cyclops and Jean, Bishop is keen to pitch his usual plan -- kill Sabretooth outright. Cyclops scoffs, if we do that, where do we stop? Do we kill Magneto? Sinister?

Kind of a touchy subject given that Xavier, in a fit of pique, kind of did kill Magneto, and suffered zero negative ramifications from it other than Exodus briefly getting pissy, but that guy was always a timebomb. But ideologically it's still difficult terrain and Scott is right: they're not meant to be mutant executioners.

Bishop admits that his line of thinking may be somewhat influenced by the kill-or-be-killed hell world he vaguely remembers spending twenty years in, and goes to find some solace elsewhere. 

Confiding in Jean, Scott admits that sounds a lot like their experience spending more than a decade raising baby Nathan in a different post-Apocalyptic world, only Bishop doesn't have a pretty redhead to help him process it.

Down below, Xavier and Victor have a discussion about commonalities between Magneto and Sabretooth: is it possible they are only guilty of embracing their place as superior mutants? Charles, somewhat triggered, barks that Magneto's ideology was forged through the heat of traumatic life experience, and just barely wills himself to stop short of saying that Sabretooth does what he does because he's an animal.

Nobody says it outright, but with thinking like that they don't need the Friends of Humanity to tear them apart, they're doing it to themselves.

Xavier has made arrangements with Val Cooper for Sabretooth to be remanded into custody of the U.S. Government. Victor cackles, it seems like an admission of defeat to simply pack the problem away to someone else.

Charles, Jean and Scott head out, which gives Tabitha Smith -- Boomer of X-Force -- a chance to have a few words with the man who had her convinced he was a helpless kitty.

She smacks him around a bit and they have words, but just as she's about to walk away, he goads her on with a crack about her trailer trash background that provokes her to use her timebomb powers, against the advice of a a watching Psylocke.

Given that Sabretooth is one of the strongest and most durable mutants going, it doesn't have the desired effect... unless your name happens to be Sabretooth.

Betsy springs into action, a long-delayed rematch between herself and Creed. In the time since, of course, she's had an upgrade to Sexy Action Ninja, so it's a considerably fairer fight.

They trade blows in a way that suggests Joe Madureira spent a bit of time playing Blanka vs. Cammy on Super Street Fighter II before picking up his pencil, not that I'm complaining.

But of course, Psylocke isn't limited to hand-to-hand combat, and she manages to get into position to play her ace:

Unfortunately, ever since his partial lobotomy at the hands of Wolverine, big psychic attacks don't have the same effect as they used to -- seems he's built up a tolerance.

Which is not good news for the skillful but considerably undersized Elizabeth Braddock.

The other X-Men rush to the rescue but it's too late. 

Further Thoughts:

It was not that long ago in Uncanny X-Men #328 that Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira dredged up Morlock history to pay tribute to one of the classic moments of the X-Men's 1980's heyday. I came away from that one thinking, what a waste; there wasn't any way they could outdo or improve upon the original story, it all felt like a rather hollow tribute.

So here they are, up to the same tricks again: Sabretooth and Psylocke lock horns, much as they did in the immortal Uncanny #213 from nearly a decade earlier. Only this time, it's a version of Sabretooth that has been built up, coiled like a spring in the X-Men's basement waiting for a moment to unleash his violence, and a version of Psylocke that knows she can actually hold her own in a fight. My opinion should be the same as it was three months ago when they were pulling the same Xerox routine, but I'm charmed. Now, that was an absolute classic issue, and this is merely a very good one, but a very good issue of X-Men here in 1995 is exactly what I'm looking for. 

The Sabretooth conflict makes for a canny flashpoint in the mutant discussion, one that can have no easy answer, probably no answer at all. It's not possible for all mutants to be bad, but what about those who are, who have the power to wreak unchecked havoc in such a way that no prison can contain them, and who have no desire to be reformed? The same is true of people of course: some humans -- fewer than you might think of not none -- simply cannot be made to change their ways and will always remain a danger. What do we do with them, and more importantly do we let them shake out belief in the fundamental goodness of the population at large?

It's not easy. It's not easy to be good and it's not easy to do the right thing and there will from time to time be consequences from well-meaning projects. I was watching an old Unsolved Mysteries recently about a woman who devoted her life to rehabilitating criminals and it all went swimmingly until one kidnapped her. Does that mean that everyone on the wrong side of the law is beyond redemption? I don't think so and I would like to believe that woman -- who was still alive at the time of the broadcast's update -- didn't shake from that fundamental belief even after her experience. But there will always be danger, and the purpose of an X-Men comic isn't to invent fantasy danger so much as ascribe fantastical details to danger that exists in life: of extremism, of love of violence, etc. 

It's notable that Charles is becoming markedly less charitable in his behavior these days. That might be worth, you know, watching for future stories. 

So I loved that aspect of the story, that it gives you something to chew on -- Scott Lobdell is often hit and miss when he has his characters philosophize, but this was right in the pocket. The action was strong, not just because it was pretty to look at, but because it played off of what longtime X-Men fans will remember as a significant interaction between these two. (Of course, if you've only been brought to the series since the debut of the cartoon in 1992, you are probably wondering what the hell?) You don't like to see a female character brutalized -- it's too sadly common of a trope (and thanks to Gail Simone has its own famous list) but the way the story plays out at least plays homage to the clear and present danger that Sabretooth represents -- although your mileage may vary.

In short, this was a worthy callback and more importantly a salient touchpoint of this era of X-Men comics, which if you're going to do a reference, is good way to build it.