Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeSabretooth: The Dead Don't Talk #1 fills a long-standing gap in Victor Creed's origin mythology by planting him inside the real-world Five Points underworld of early 1900s New York, operating under the street alias 'Mad Dog Murphy' — a narrative device that weaves Marvel's mutant history directly into a documented era of American urban crime. The issue introduces several new Marvel Universe characters native to that period, most notably Sir Marmaduke Dix (who doubles as a long-lived mystery figure in the present-day framing story), making it a genuine first-appearance issue within a historically grounded thriller framework. It also deepens the canonical relationship between Sabretooth and the Ravencroft Institute by building on groundwork Tieri himself laid in his 2020 one-shot Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth, threading those threads into Marvel's post-Krakoa 'From the Ashes' publishing era. As a piece of historical-fiction storytelling within mainstream superhero comics, the series represents a rare attempt to use the genre's deep-timeline characters — mutants who were alive a century ago — to tell a genuinely period-grounded crime narrative rather than a flashback interlude.
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Writer Frank Tieri announced the series exclusively through AIPT's X-Men Monday column in September 2024, describing it as a direct sequel in spirit to his own Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth (2020), which first explored Creed's early history at that institution. Tieri, whose previous Marvel credits include lengthy runs on Wolverine and Weapon X from the early 2000s, reunited with those characters through this five-issue limited series, bringing in artist Michael Sta. Maria to supply the period-appropriate visual atmosphere. The series was released under Marvel's 'From the Ashes' publishing initiative following the dissolution of the Krakoa era, and issue #1 shipped on December 25, 2024, with a February 2025 cover date. Editors Mikey J. Basso, Drew Baumgartner, and Mark Paniccia oversaw the book, with letterer Joe Sabino and colorist Dono Sánchez-Almara completing the creative team.
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- Written by Frank Tieri with art by Michael Sta. Maria, colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara, letters by Joe Sabino, and a main cover by Adam Kubert.
- First appearance of Sir Marmaduke Dix (Earth-616), who appears in both the 1909 flashback and the present-day framing story — he is revealed over the course of the series to be the Crocodilian villain.
- First appearance of Fisk (Earth-616), presented in flashback as an ancestor/relative of Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin) and an early underworld patron of Sabretooth's alter ego Mad Dog Murphy.
- First appearances of Brick Barton (dies in issue), Corey, O'Sullivan, and Fritz (dies in issue), all period-specific supporting or antagonist characters.
- The story is set primarily in 1909 New York, framed by a present-day sequence in which Wolverine discovers a photograph of Sabretooth — operating as gangster 'Mad Dog Murphy' — on the wall of Satan's Circus, NYC's oldest tavern.
- The 1909 storyline establishes Sabretooth working for Mr. Sinister (in his 'Dr. Nathaniel Essex' identity) at the Ravencroft mental institution before breaking away to pursue power in the city's Five Points underworld — directly continuing threads from Tieri's Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth (2020).
- Issue #1 shipped on December 25, 2024 (cover date: February 2025) as a five-issue limited series; the complete run was subsequently collected in a trade paperback (ISBN 9781302962852).
- The issue shipped with five variant covers: a main cover by Adam Kubert, plus variants by Fabrizio De Tommaso, Frank Miller (with a 1:100 virgin edition), Davide Paratore, and Mico Suayan (1:25 ratio).
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