Laura Kinney, Sabretooth #1 annotations
LAURA KINNEY, SABRETOOTH #1
Writer: Erica Schultz
Artist: Valentina Pinti
Colour artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: Cory Petit
Editor: Mark Basso
COVER: Laura as Sabretooth, in an overgrown city from Age of Revelation. Specifically, the sign says it’s Market Street, which is a main road in Philadelphia, Revelation’s capital.
Obviously, this is the Age of Revelation stand-in book for Laura Kinney, Wolverine.
PAGE 1-11. Laura asks Akihiro and Gabby to get her son Alex out of town.
Yes, it’s an 11 page scene.
“This is what mutants wanted all along…” Laura’s introduction to Age of Revelation Philadelphia presents it as a Krakoa-style utopia, which is basically how the Revelation himself portrays it. The ordinary inhabitants of Philadelphia certainly seem pretty relaxed here. It may not be significant, but for an all-mutant population, they skew much more heavily to human-passing than they ever did in Krakoa. Come to think of it, so did the Babels we saw in Binary.
“Before the government tried to destroy Revelation’s compound, they sent in super villains and assassins to stop us…” This comes from X-Men: Age of Revelation #0. Xorn’s narrative in that issue says that “when they gave up on soldiers and resorted instead to assassins, Revelation had any number of mutants to protect him” (and makes a point about the memory of Krakoa being a driving factor). The art shows Psylocke defending Revelation from Bullseye, but evidently Laura had joined him by this point.
The same page of AoR #0 shows the US government apparently attempting to nuke Philadelphia, and Vanisher teleporting the bomb away to destroy Washington DC instead; this is presumably what Laura describes as an attempt to “destroy Revelation’s compound”, which may suggest that she doesn’t know the scale of it.
“He [Revelation] protects all mutants, even the ones who don’t agree with him.” This is obviously not true, given what we’ve seen of the Babels and the X-Men, but Laura at least affects to believe it, even in her internal monologue. However, her actions in this issue suggest at least a degree of doubt.
“If I was to keep my promise to help and save mutants…” This is indeed something that came up in Laura Kinney, Wolverine, despite being rather generic as a motivation for a mutant hero.
“When Zane took his father’s codename, he wore it with pride…” From the scene as a whole, we gather that Sabretooth had a son, Zane Creed, who took up the Sabretooth mantle. Sabretooth II and Laura become a couple and, at least according to Gabby, Laura abandons her family to be with him. They have a child, Alex. Sabretooth II dies, and Laura takes up the name to commemorate him, rather than the Sabretooth we know.
We’ve never heard of Zane Creed before, but from the look of Alex, he must meet Laura in the fairly near future relative to the mainstream Marvel Universe. Since we’ve been assured that this is a possible future timeline, it must follow that Zane Creed already exists, even though we haven’t met him before. We learn very little about Zane beyond the fact that Laura evidently loved him; however, the fact that he had any “pride” in taking up Victor Creed’s identity hardly reflects well on him. On the other hand, Laura does insist that he “sacrificed enough for all mutants”.
“A Seraph of the Great Revolution.” The Seraphim were described in Age of Revelation #0 as Revelation’s “chosen” and as his enforcers.
“I know you and Akihiro are looking to leave the territories.” Laura claims later in the issue to have learned this from Quentin Quire.
“Revelation has many enemies and you don’t have any powers.” Presumably because he’s pre-pubescent, rather than because he isn’t a mutant. We’ve been repeatedly told that “this mutant land” is hostile to humans, but it would make sense that that didn’t extend to mutants whose powers had yet to manifest. Then again, Hellion openly suggests later in the issue that Alex might not be a mutant, in which case it might simply be that the X-virus doesn’t affect children.
Laura’s rationale for sending Alex away is that she fears him being a target for Revelation’s enemies, which would fit with the suggestion that Laura has only recently been promoted to her current role (Gabby says “now that you’re part of Revelation’s inner circle”). However, it’s clearly signalled that there’s some other reason in mind, since Akihiro clearly doesn’t think her explanation is sufficient, and she won’t be drawn on it further.
“His healing factor is already taxed keeping Bagra-Ghul at bay.” Akihiro still has his status quo from the recently-cancelled Hellverine book, as the Ghost Rider-style host of the demon Bagra-Ghul. It seems at least a little odd that the impact of this on Akihiro’s healing factor is apparently news to Laura ten years down the line.
PAGE 12. Hellion reports to Revelation.
We saw Hellion as one of the Seraphim in Age of Revelation #0. He was set up as a potential love interest for Laura in NYX (though with Kiden clearly the preferred option), and showed up in Laura Kinney, Wolverine #6-7 as the “trap” partner in Laura’s illusory perfect suburban life. Here, he seems to be motivated mainly by jealousy at being rejected in favour of Zane (and still being out of favour even though Zane is dead).
PAGES 13-15. Laura meets with Revelation.
Logan. As in other issues, the Age of Revelation Wolverine is a silent enforcer, though here he stands silently next to Revelation as a bodyguard. (This isn’t just for Laura’s benefit, because he was already with Revelation when Hellion made his report.) Laura recognises that something awful has happened to him, but seems to blame it on the X-virus or some other misfortune that can’t be Revelation’s fault.
“Do you not feel he wouldbe safe here?” Laura makes no attempt to lie to Revelation and offers the same rationale that she did in the first scene: her concern is to not have Alex living in a place which is likely to be the subject of attacks. This obviously implies a lack of faith in Revelation’s protection, but Laura appeals to her sensitivity over the fate of Zane.
“His Omega Kids heard that mutants from Helicarrierville and just over the river are planning on leaving.” The Omega Kids are children who serve as spies for Quentin Quire. Helicarrierville is a shanty town in the ruins of a downed Helicarrier, which we saw in Age of Revelation #0. It was implied to be somewhat disfavoured by Revelation – Xorn had no qualms about walking around there openly.
Revelation seems surprised by this information, which implies that Quentin shared it with Laura first. That would be odd, unless Quentin regards it as unremarkable news (and only worth sharing with Laura because it affected two of her immediate relatives). However, Revelation acts as if it’s highly unusual and rather dispiriting to see mutants leaving in any significant numbers. Laura recognises that these people are clearly dissatisfied with Revelation’s rule, but sees them as misguided.
“I’ve heard tell a group is heading to Arakko… It has become even more inhospitable to Terran mutants.” Laura reacts to this claim with scepticism, claiming that contact with Arakko was lost at some point in the past. Revelation claims to “have my ways”, the most likely candidate being something to do with his wife Bei. However, Revelation seems to be just lying, in an attempt to manipulate Laura into trying to reclaim Alex without directly ordering her to. After all, she’s a true believer and there’s no need to shake her faith in him.
We get a tour of Age of Revelation Arakko in the first story in this week’s World of Revelation #0, and we don’t see anything to support Revelation’s claims about the hostility of Arakko. On the contrary, we’re told that human refugees fleeing Revelation have formed a community in Port Prometheus, and that most of Arakko “has mellowed somewhat in the years since the Genesis War”.
PAGES 16-17. Laura, Akihiro and Sage make plans.
Camden Aquarium. This is obviously meant to be Adventure Aquarium in Camden, New Jersey – the building is the same, although the sign has been changed. This area of the Revelation Territories seems a lot more dilapidated than Philadelphia, which may suggest that the mutant population is basically concentrated in the capital – mutants being less numerous than ordinary humans were, after all.
Shark-Girl was one of the students from Wolverine and the X-Men, making her first appearance in this timeline.
Sage still regards herself as an X-Man, despite not being in touch with the remaining team.
“The Blink-hard drive”. Sage seems to be building a teleportation gate “power[ed]” in some unspecified way by the consciousness of mutant teleporter Blink (who is presumably dead, though this might be a back-up copy). It’s hard to see how a consciousness would provide a power source, but I guess it might make sense for Blink’s consciousness to help in steering a teleport device.
PAGES 18-20. Hellion confronts Laura.
“Scout and Fang.” Gabby and Akihiro, in their long-dropped Krakoan-era codenames.
Laura’s response is apparently to kill Hellion, which seems unlikely to go down well with the authorities, given that he’s also in the Inner Circle – and wasn’t actually making any physical threats to her at the time, however unpleasant his behaviour.
Mutants would blend right in on South Strreet in Philly.
The codename Sabretooth kind of suits her, with those double blades and all, but that is one ugly costume.
“The codename Sabretooth kind of suits her, with those double blades and all”
You think the name SabreTOOTH suits her because of her… claws?
Well great big double claws are a lot more reminiscent of a sabretooth’s fangs than Creed’s sharp fingernails are.
@Si – Creed’s own claws had nothing to do with his codename. That’s not why he was called Sabretooth.
He was called that because of his lupine-like nature, just like Wolverine, right Jeph Loeb?
It’s odd that Schultz introduced the idea of Zane. since she’s not going to be writing Laura after Age of Revelation is over with. OTOH, the teaser for Shadows of Tomorrow had a guy who looked like he was Sabretooth but could be Zane.
Laura really is gullible this issue. “Hmm, Wolverine’s personality has completely changed. But it couldn’t POSSIBLY have anything to do with the guy who can control people’s minds by talking to them, and his assistants who can enhance his powers and help him control people more easily.”
It’s also odd that Laura doesn’t seem to have heard of the Babels, since in World of Revelation he has no problem Babeling Wiccan in front of his Seraphim.
Why does Julian act like it’s surprising that Alex hasn’t manifested any powers yet. He’s only NINE. The majority of mutants don’t manifest powers by age nine.
“it might simply be that the X-virus doesn’t affect children.”
If that were the case there would be MANY human orphans wandering around Revelation’s territories. I think the most likely explanation is that the virus doesn’t affect the offspring of two mutants, regardless of whether the offspring is human or not. Otherwise, mutants would be apprehensive about having unprotected sex in Revelation’s territories.
Julian seems to be implying that the reason Graydon Creed wasn’t a mutant was because he was Sabretooth’s son. There’s no reason to assume this is the case, since there’s other offspring of mutants that aren’t mutants. But Julian’s had dumber ideas.
@Chris V – Funny, I was thinking of the same story. I don’t think Loeb’s parents ever took him to the zoo.
It wouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Doug might have made sure the X-Virus wouldn’t affect the children of mutants. He already programmed it to spread in a slow circle somehow (I’d speculate the X-Virus isn’t a virus as at all, save that we’ve been assured that it definitely it).
Alex is presumably named after Havok, the Patron Saint of unpopular blond relatives.
I actually like Laura’s Sabretooth costume.
I would assume it’s nanotech.
To me, jt looks as stupid as every other Sabretooth costume I’ve ever seen given that tigers don’t have manes.
I guess it’s meant to be a ruff, but it always looks as though the artist is going for “mane”.
Marvel mutant biology is fanciful at best, but there is a certain logic to the notion that if you become a mutant via a viral infection, it doesn’t substantially change your appearance. That would require the virus to infect a significant portion of your cells, across numerous cell types, which is not how viral infections typically work. But there are variety of established mutant powers that one could plausibly imagine developing from a more localized infection of one or a few cell types.
As usual with these things, it should be fully known whether or not Alex is a mutant because there are super-scientist genetics experts in the setting.
“the fact that he had any “pride” in taking up Victor Creed’s identity hardly reflects well on him”.
If you’re a mutant who’s the son of Sabretooth and you have the same powers, you’re gonna get called Sabretooth. Might as well reclaim the name. And that’s if he ISN’T actually the son of AoA Sabretooth or something.
@Dave- but who in Revelation’s inner circle is a geneticist? Doug’s a hacker and most of the rest have no scientific knowledge.
Just for the benefit of anyone who doesn’t live in the tristate area, Camden is just over the river from Philly. They’re basically sister cities. The Aquarium is about a five, maybe ten minute drive from central Philly, depending on traffic.
“With his Choristers increasing his power, he can speak even to the CELLS of LIVING THINGS.” -X-Men Age of Revelation Overture page 10.
Doug is a geneticist now.
At least in the same way that he knows the ‘language’ of martial arts.
Quick aside. the word ‘genetics’ in linguistics and genetics in biology are very different. The usage in linguistics predates the usage in biology. I am sure that Doug’s virus is the correct term even if it doesn’t mean a biological virus like the common cold.
Virus: “something that poisons the mind or soul” – Merriam Webster
Virus: “a corrupting influence on morals or the intellect; poison.” – Dictionary.com
I am interpreting that the spread of the virus is based on Doug’s increasing power to speak to living cells instead of a communicable pathology such as sneezing.
The difference wouldn’t matter to Magik or Binary’s shielding from it.
This was… surprisingly rough. Mostly on the visual side – it’s often acknowledged that many comic artists can’t draw children, and Alex seems to morph from panel to panel, but Pinti also makes the weird decision to depict the probably 30-something Hellion as a maybe 15-year old. Could be she got art reference from early New Mutants/Academy X, but even then she should know that the character is supposed to be at least ten years older.
Sorry, X years older.
But on the plot side – introducing a new, heroic son of Sabretooth, for Laura to fall in love with, have a kid with, and then mourn, all off-panel as setup to this mini is… a lot, and I’m not immediately sure why any of that was necessary. Laura is loyal to Doug. Gabby and Akihiro want to run. This would all work roughly the same without Alex in the picture.
Also, Hellion is a creep in this issue, and that follows some earlier depictions. It’s still wild that Laura murders him on that basis alone – I may have more trouble with that than with her going with ‘Logan has a magic flu’ as explanation for his behaviour.
@KryzysiekCeran, maybe Erica Schultz is just really a fan of Romeo and Juliet in particular , and Western YA Romance fiction in genera , because what happened to Laura reads exactly like something from WattPad LOL