Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk #3
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeIssue #3 is the payoff chapter of the miniseries' central escalation: the coalition of superpowered Five Points gangs finally deploys their ultimate weapon against Sabretooth, bringing Dragonfire — a new pyrokinetic assassin from the mystical city of K'un-Lun — directly into the fray. The issue also delivers the first Earth-616 appearances of William Randolph Hearst and the New York American, as well as the first full appearance of Nikola Vanko, weaving real historical figures into Marvel's early-twentieth-century underworld. As the middle chapter of a five-issue limited series, it marks the dramatic turning point where Sabretooth's seemingly unstoppable rise as 'Mad Dog Murphy' is genuinely threatened for the first time. The series as a whole — and this issue in particular — represents a creative attempt to build out Marvel's Gilded Age New York with the same layered gang-world texture that later writers used for the modern Marvel street-level milieu.
Find on ebay
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The series originated as part of Wolverine's 50th anniversary programming, with editor Mark Paniccia approaching Frank Tieri — a veteran of both Weapon X and prior Sabretooth-centric work — specifically because Sabretooth was being killed off in present-day continuity, necessitating an untold-tale framework set in the past. The Dead Don't Talk also functions as a direct sequel to Tieri's earlier Ruins of Ravencroft: Sabretooth one-shot, explicitly picking up Victor Creed's story from that installment. Michael Sta. Maria served as artist throughout the run, with colorist Dono Sánchez-Almara providing the period-appropriate grimy palette, and Rafael de Latorre supplied the main cover for issue #3. The editors on the project were Mikey J. Basso and Drew Baumgartner, with Mark Paniccia as senior editor.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Released February 26, 2025 (cover-dated April 2025); the third of five issues in the limited series.
- Written by Frank Tieri; interior art by Michael Sta. Maria; colors by Dono Sánchez-Almara and Javi Laparra; main cover by Rafael de Latorre.
- First full appearance of Nikola Vanko (Earth-616) in Marvel Comics continuity.
- First Earth-616 appearances of William Randolph Hearst and his newspaper the New York American as in-universe characters.
- Dragonfire — a female pyrokinetic assassin from K'un-Lun, created by Tieri and Sta. Maria — is the issue's central antagonist; she debuted one issue earlier in #2 and her arrival is the narrative climax of #3.
- The story is set circa 1909 in New York City's Five Points district, with Sabretooth operating under the alias 'Mad Dog Murphy' as enforcer for a shadowy figure named Fisk.
- Apocalypse (En Sabah Nur) and Two-Gun Kid (Matthew Hawk) are mentioned in passing, anchoring the 1900s setting within broader Marvel history.
- Issue #3 carried three cover variants: a standard Rafael de Latorre cover, a Paco Diaz variant, a Mark Brooks Animated-Style variant, and a 1:50 Mark Brooks Animated-Style Virgin variant.
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.