User blog comment:Pijuyo2/Sabretooth vs. Daken, who's the best Wolverine Nemesis/@comment-3443897-20110223094553

Honestly, I'm quite disappointed at how people have played down just how much of an EPIC Wolverine villain Sabretooth has ALWAYS been. It's as if people have forgotten just how deep the relationship of the two archenemies/rivals/teammates/bestfriends cuts.

I've followed Marvel, especially the X-Men, since I was 3 or 4 years old (kudos to my father and his monthly subscriptions) and I've read the comics (not all, but a sufficient amount and still reading whenever I get the chance away from law school), watched nearly every rendition done on tv series and movies, and played nearly all the video games.

I'm not here trying to impose a belief that Sabretooth is a better villain for Wolverine. My goal really is just to let the younger generation of comicbook readers, and perhaps the older ones who've forgotten, understand how DEVELOPED a character Sabretooth has always been, albeit unappreciated and poorly written when they killed him off.

1. Motivation The history behind Wolverine and Sabretooth has never truly been explained. And I've always found the Romulus run quite disgusting and lacking. The creation of an ancient non-mutant ancestor for both of them just stole everything away from the characters. Wolverine walks away unscathed of course, cause he's Wolverine and no matter how bad the writing gets, he's Wolverine. Sabretooth however, became just another unappreciated pawn in the picture.

Away from that, the design of Sabretooth has always been simple: He lives to torment Logan. Why? Who knows. Does it matter? Not really. All we know is that where Wolverine goes, Sabretooth follows. And in Sabretooth's own words: "Pretty things get killed."

Sabretooth has haunted and hunted Wolverine at every turn of his life whenever their memories haven't been tampered by the government or some other mastermind in the shadows making/forcing them to work together.

Sabretooth killed Silver Fox on Wolverine's birthday which was the beginning of Sabretooth's tradition of finding Wolverine on his birthday and either (a) fighting him on it (in the spectacular animalistic combat which is the norm between the two) or (b) ruining it by hurting or killing someone he loves.

On every occasion, he has not only resorted to physically harming Wolverine and those closest to him, but he has also mentally/psychologically attacked the already relatively-amnesiac hero. He has over the years claimed to be his father, goaded Wolverine that he's never been good enough to kill Sabretooth (and truth be told, knowing that Wolverine has had no qualms about ending Sabretooth's life - once even popping a claw into his brain - we see that Sabretooth is legit since Logan HASN'T ever been able to kill him - till the Muramasa Blade run), he's made the X-Men see Logan as a murdering animal who wanted nothing but to execute his rival by playing on their sympathies and letting them keep him captive (only later breaking loose to wreak havoc in the mansion and mortally wounding Psyclocke in his escape, to Wolverine's outrage).

He has been deemed as dangerous as Wolverine by even the likes of Apocalypse himself, who forced the two to battle for the right of being a Horseman. Wolverine, afraid of how dangerous a Horseman Sabretooth would be, took upon himself the sacrifice of going all-out, defeating Sabretooth, and instead having himself become the Horseman of Apocalypse.

In every universe where Logan and Victor have been together, (1) if they're enemies, they're at each other's throats, (2) if they're allies, no one can stop them, (3) when they have a falling out, it's practically World War III.

In light of this, Daken seems pretty tame and "normal" to me. He's a kid, angry at his father who he blames for the death of his mom. His goal is to end his old man's life.

Victor however, doesn't want to kill Logan. He wants to torment him. He wants to make Wolverine feel like sloppy seconds. He wants to take away every bit of Wolverine's happiness. He wants to ruin any good thing Wolverine puts together in life. He wants to make Wolverine's life a living hell.

He doesn't want to kill Logan. That would be too easy. He wants to thrash Wolverine to a nanometer of his life (which he has done on more than one occasion), tie him up, execute every single one of his loved ones before his very eyes, then leave him there to live, just so he can revel in Logan's suffering... and then do it AGAIN once Logan has moved on.

That honestly for me has always been the beauty behind the rivalry, the hatred, the passion behind Logan and Victor. And that honestly, is a frightening motivation for any monster to live by.

Powers and strength: Sabretooth and Daken are lightyears away in my opinion. Sabretooth is stronger - he can pick up Wolverine and his adamantium skeleton and powerbomb him, powerslam him, hurl him around, or whatever without the slightest effort. Sabretooth has in fact gone up against different assortments of X-Men and Marvel heroes and villains and on many occasions WON.

Sabretooth is years more experienced than Daken. He's been a soldier, a mercenary, an assassin, a spy, and has acquired and honed the skills of those trades over the many years of his career. He's been a member of Weapon X, the Brotherhood of Mutants, and many other organizations. Sure, let's say Romulus trained Daken (and what a cheap way to "develop" a character's abilities. hooray for "meh" writing), but Sabretooth's been through a lot more HELL than Daken has been. And Sabretooth is IN HELL right now giving shit to the devil himself.

Sabretooth is intelligent and cunning, masking this trait of his behind a facade of being nothing more than a stupid animal so that he can strike when he wants to. He is resistant to psychic attacks and other mental conditioning, either faking their effects on himself or bouncing back from their effects given a period of time.

Sure, he may not have any emotion-controlling pheromones to use and he's not about to let anyone give it to him from behind, but does he really need to? Isn't it more frightening that Sabretooth doesn't need a biological mating cheat to turn people against themselves and against one another?

Power-wise, the argument of Sabretooth v. Daken could swing both ways. But I'd say that Sabretooth is MORE of an animal than Daken and in a throwdown he'd show Daken that, if Logan's "sloppy seconds", Logan's son is nothing more than gutter trash. This of course would be dependent on Marvel writer's revisiting Sabretooth history and admitting to themselves that they've been shortchanging such an amazing character as of late.

Looks and costume: Sabretooth, unlike Daken, has his OWN iconic look. Several, in fact. He's had the Wendigo uniform (his classic one is in fact the hide of a Wendigo that he killed after playing mind-games with it). He has the blonde hair, long brown coat look. He has his Exiles look. Outfits that when you see them on paper, you know it's Sabretooth.

Daken, on the other hand, doesn't have a look. He just has his mohawk and his tattoo. The whole Dark Wolverine look, let's admit it, it's basically just Logan. The only thing that tells us otherwise is the fact that he only has two claws on each hand and he's skinnier.

On all three grounds I say Sabretooth has over the years shown that he's a formidable character. And so, if I haven't convinced you that he STILL is Logan's undisputed rival, then at least I've hopefully convinced you that he is an amazing, and frightening character, as opposed to how people downplay him these days.

Thanks. Peace, True Believers.