As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

WOLVERINE vol 7 #41
“Sabretooth War, part 1”
Writers: Victor LaValle & Benjamin Percy
Pencillers: Geoff Shaw & Cory Smith
Inkers: Geoff Shaw & Oren Junior
Colour artist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Stacie Zucker with Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

COVER / PAGE 1. An amalgam of Wolverine’s face on the left, and Sabretooth’s on the right. It’s the most violent Wolverine story ever told, apparently. Not sure that’s really the selling point of Victor LaValle’s Sabretooth stories, but okay.

PAGES 2-5. Sabretooth kills a group of “X-Men”.

Okay, so. We last saw Sabretooth in the Sabretooth & The Exiles miniseries, in which he defeated Graydon Creed and seized control of Orchis Station Five. Graydon had been travelling the multiverse killing Sabretooths and mounting their heads; he also had the bodies outfitted with collars which let him control them as weapons. That’s where all the headless Sabretooths in the crowd came from.

Earth-203 Sabretooth, Earth-1912 Sabretooth and Earth-12 Sabretooth all debuted in Sabretooth & The Exiles. Earth-33441 Sabretooth, with the camouflage powers, is new, but presumably wound up on Orchis Station Five in the same way. Apparently, Earth-33441 isn’t a number that’s been used before.

The duplicate X-Men, who got torn apart by Sabretooth, are from the homeworld of Earth-12 Sabretooth. He was presented in Sabretooth & The Exiles as a “bad boy” celebrity type, apparently one of the less threatening Sabretooths out there (though these things are relative). Earth-12 had previously been identified as the home dimension of Mimic from Exiles – which was in fact a world where superheroes were popular – but the apparently sub-par performance of the Earth-12 X-Men suggests it’s not supposed to be the same world.

Sabretooth has been so busy occupying himself with soft targets in the multiverse that he hasn’t heard about “Fall of X”.

PAGE 6. Recap and credits. This story takes place after X-Force #50, which isn’t due out until the end of March.

PAGE 7. Kid Omega is despatched to Krakoa.

This is the Greenhouse, which X-Force set up in X-Force #47 as a mutant refuge. Krakoa itself doesn’t have a presence here, but Black Tom can still synch with the organic tech. The sequencing here is a bit odd, but Black Tom is apparently detecting that some mutants have appeared on Krakoa, where they’re at obvious risk from he patrolling Stark Sentinels – these mutants are presumably the Sabretooths who land on Krakoa two pages later.

Lord Summerisle is the villain in The Wicker Man. Kid Omega is probably just thinking (quite vaguely) of his appearance.

PAGE 8. Sabretooth approaches Krakoa.

And indeed Earth. His status as leader with these other Sabretooths seems a little questionable, though he has the force of personality even if they have (relatively speaking) more common sense.

PAGES 9-10. The Sabretooths explore Krakoa.

“When I was a prisoner in the Pit.” Sabretooth was a prisoner in the Pit from House of X through to the end of LaValle’s Sabretooth mini.

The bar is the Green Lagoon. Sabretooth is actually wrong about the mutants fleeing – they were telepathically marched through the gates in orderly fashion. What he’s actually seeing is presumably the aftermath of Orchis raiding the island to collect trinkets, as seen in issue #38.

The second room is the chamber of the Quiet Council.

“Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” John Lydon’s sign-off at the final Sex Pistols concert, apparently intended to deride Malcolm McLaren’s presentation of the band.

PAGES 11-13. The Sabretooths kill Kid Omega.

So we can be pretty confident that resurrection comes back, at least for a bit, at the end of “Fall of X.”

PAGES 14-15. Wolverine and Fang.

Fang showed up at the Greenhouse in X-Force #47.

If there’s actually hunting around, I think we have to take “the North Pole” very loosely.

Much of this issue is dedicated to reminding us of how strongly Wolverine feels about his actual children Akihiro and Laura, and his awkward protege Kid Omega, so that they can get promptly killed off.

PAGES 16-17. Wolverine reflects on the fall of Krakoa.

“From almost as far back as I can remember, at every point, that bastard Sabretooth was a part of the worst of it.” The flashback to the left shows Logan with Silver Fox, killed by Sabretooth in flashback in Wolverine vol 2 #10 (though whether it happened exactly as depicted is a hideously complicated question). The picture on the right is a more generic image of them fighting in the modern era.

PAGES 18-19. The Sabretooths approach the Greenhouse.

“For a short time I’d been dragged down to that same prison.” Wolverine was kept in the Pit by the Beast between issues #27 and #29.

“I know his stain was there … but I don’t recall encountering him otherwise.” Wolverine fought a kind of echo of Sabretooth in the Pit in issue #29.

“Sabretooth had this sick tradition of bringing me pain for my birthday.” This dates back to Wolverine vol 2 #10 and writers really like invoking it. Count up all the stories that have used it and give the sliding timeline palpitations!

The lantern thing presumably contains a body part from Kid Omega.

PAGES 20-21. Wolverine and Laura.

More reminder that they’re supposed to have a relationship – and also that Wolverine has a looming fear that something awful is coming.

PAGES 22-24. The Sabretooths kill Akihiro.

“Logan and I, we’ve had our rough spots.” Akihiro started out as a villain in Wolverine: Origins.

“Things were okay on Krakoa…” From what we could see, Wolverine and Akihiro got on perfectly well on Krakoa, but didn’t exactly hang out much. Akihiro’s slight disquiet about Krakoa’s happy-clappy tendencies mirrors his father’s feelings about the place.

PAGE 25. Trailers – listing exclusively Wolverine comics. The Krakoan reads SCREAMS OF THE DYING.