Sabretooth & The Exiles #1 Review

Written by: Victor LaValle
Art by: Leonard Kirk
Colors by: Rain Beredo
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: November 9, 2022

Sabretooth & the Exiles #1 Picks up where the last Sabretooth mini-series left off. Victor Creed finds himself in hot water (technically, a cold operating table) when he’s shanghaied on the open ocean by an Orchis doctor who makes Doctor Frankenstein look like a puppy vet.

Is It Good?

Sabretooth & the Exiles #1 is a pretty good start to the next phase of Victor Creed’s life away from Krakoa. I liked LaValle’s first take on Victor Creed as an inmate in Krakoa’s prison but was severely disappointed by the rushed, uneventful ending. Now, LaValle can make up for that botched ending and deliver on the promise of Creed’s influence over the mutant population, potentially instigating a Krakoan civil war. Does this first issue get the killer mutant’s journey back on track? Largely, yes.

When last we left Victor Creed, he set sail for destinations unknown to be free of Krakoa and its rules. Now, we catch up with Victor after he’s captured by a floating Orchis medical lab, led by a sadistic medical experimenter named Dr. Barrington. With Orchis funding, Barrington kidnaps and dissects mutants to create a mutant-power-enhanced super soldier. Victor’s super-healing organs are needed to bring her creation to maturity. Still, the experiment doesn’t have much time to train before the Exiles, who’ve been tracking Victor to lend aid for his part in some future prophecy, show up to stop Barrington’s cruel experiments.

As far as continuing the previous limited run, this issue is an excellent jumping-on point with plenty of claw-ripping action from Victor, a new villain that’s easy to hate, and a new mission to track down the other Orchis labs to rescue one of their own, Orphan-Maker, and stop other mutants from falling prey to Barrington’s scalpel.

Hints are dropped that Destiny’s vision for the future, and Victor’s place in it, are very much a priority. Still, his new mission serves as an excellent starting point for Victor to assume a leadership role and bring the team together. The pacing is quick, the plot is organically constructed and delivered, and the dialog is excellent. This is a solid start to the next phase of Sabretooth’s journey.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Final Thoughts:

Sabretooth & the Exiles #1 is a solid start to the continuation of the Sabretooth limited series. The action is energetic and bloody. The new villain is truly villainous (a rarity these days), and this issue acts as an excellent jumping-on point for the next phase in Victor’s journey to fulfilling Destiny’s prophecy.