X-Men Monday #267 – Frank Tieri Talks ‘Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk’

Welcome, X-Fans, to a new creepy edition of X-Men Monday on AIPT!

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk? What is this? Well, X-Fans, it’s a brand new miniseries from writer Frank Tieri and artist Michael Sta. Maria X-Men Monday gets to announce it eXclusively! Here’s the solicitation for the first issue, set to go on sale December 2024…

SABRETOOTH: THE DEAD DON’T TALK #1 (OF 5)

Written by FRANK TIERI

Signed by MICHAEL STA. MARIA

Cover by FABRIZIO DE TOMMASO

Who is Mad Dog Murphy? A person who lived in the 1900s and can be seen in a photo on the wall of NYC’s oldest bar? Yes. A feared gangster and killer who rose to power in the notorious gangs of NY? Yes. And also, perhaps most shocking of all, none other than… Sabretooth?!?

Join us—and Wolverine—as we uncover this secret, untold chapter in the life of Logan’s greatest enemy in a story filled with violence, betrayal, shocking revelations, and more violence. Sabretooth may be dead… but the secrets of his past—and the ways they could affect Wolverine in the present—are very much alive.

Cover by Fabrizio De Tommaso, courtesy of Marvel Comics

Curious about this brand new story from Sabretooth and Wolverine’s past? Frank has the details below. (And for more from Frank, check out his first X-Men Monday appearance in 2019, where we talked about his murder of Maggott and more on Terrificon.)

AIPT: Welcome back to X-Men Monday, Frank! You have quite a history with the X-side of the Marvel Universe, having written series such as Weapon X, WolverineAnd Death Pole. But it’s been a while. How does it feel to be back in the X sandbox?

Frank Tieri: Well, that’s not entirely true, it’s been a while since I worked on it Deadpool: Black, White & Blood And Ruins of Ravencroft: Saber-tooth Tiger (That last one comes in very handy in this series, as you’ll see.) That said, yeah, I haven’t been playing in the X-Men toy box as much as I used to, so it was great to come back and work on a series like this, especially when it involves two of my favorite X-Men toys, Sabretooth and Wolverine.

Cover by Davide Paratore, courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: How did you get the chance to write? Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk originated? It is a fairly unique field.

Frank: Hey, it’s Wolverine’s 50th anniversary, you had to assume that I would be involved somehow, you know? (Laughs) And actually, the “somehow” more than anything was editor Mark Paniccia. Mark always liked how I treated Sabretooth as a character and wanted to do something cool with him. The problem, of course, was… SPOILER ALERT… Sabretooth was going to die. Which meant the story had to be an untold story about his set in the past, when, you know, the whole death thing wouldn’t get in the way.

So I got the idea to go back to another Sabretooth story I wrote that is indeed set in Sabre’s past, the aforementioned Ruins of Ravencroft: Saber-tooth TigerThat story marked Sabretooth’s first encounter with Wolverine in the 1900s, when he was in the employ of Mister Sinister at Ravencroft and, well… things weren’t going so well for our old buddy Victor.

Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk picks up the thread again a little later, where we find Sabes dejected about what happened in Ruins of Ravencroft: Saber-tooth Tigerthat Logan outsmarted him, when up until that point NO ONE had ever really outsmarted him. And you know what, Sinister isn’t exactly the most compassionate boss who gives a damn about your feelings, so when Sabes gets a chance to step out from under his shadow, he takes it. And ends up right in the middle of the criminal underworld in Five Points NYC and the ensuing insane chaos that ensues.

Art by Michael Sta. Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: What does the elevator pitch for this miniseries look like and what can readers expect as the story unfolds?

Frank: Simply put, it is Gangs of New York but with Sabretooth.

We actually start with Wolverine, so as events develop Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk unfold, we learn what happened to him. We start with him in a bar — Satan’s Circus, the oldest bar in the Big Apple — having a drink after Sabretooth’s funeral when he sees some old photos of Five Points gang members on the wall… and Sabretooth is one of them! How the hell is this possible? From here, Logan — and we — begin to learn this secret, violent history of his greatest enemy as the gangster “Mad Dog” Murphy and we’re off to the proverbial races.

Art by Michael Sta. Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics

One of the most fun things about using a setting like this is seeing what a Marvel version of Gangs of New York would look like. So you have a mix of normal gangs… and then some not so normal gangs. A gang that uses steampunk technology, a gang that models itself after Captain America from the American Revolution… even a “Frankengang” that was stitched together by one of the good Doctor ancestors. So you can imagine that if we dropped Sabretooth into the middle of something like this, it would be like throwing a ton of TNT into a forest fire. The explosion would not only affect the criminal underworld, but the entirety of 1900 NYC itself.

Fans can expect a lot of twists and turns, some new characters and some old ones, some characters with unexpected connections to current Marvel characters, a love story, believe it or not… and of course, a lot of violence. Like, a lot. (Hey, this is a Sabretooth comic after all – what do you expect?)

AIPT: As a writer, what do you find so fascinating about Victor Creed?

Frank: Because he’s such an asshole. And let’s face it, SOBs are definitely fun to write… and you don’t get any bigger than Victor Creed. I’ve always said forget Omega Red, Cyber, Lady Deathstrike, whatever – Sabretooth is Wolverine’s ultimate enemy… and that’s mainly because they’re two sides of the same coin. Sabretooth is the nightmare that Logan hopes will never come true. That if he’s not careful, he could become Sabretooth. And that scares the hell out of him. And Sabretooth knows that’s what’s happening. And as a writer, you couldn’t ask for a better dynamic to play with than that.

Art by Michael Sta. Maria, courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Finally, if readers want to anticipate your return to the X-Universe and relive classic Frank Tieri X stories, what would you recommend? Are there any personal favorites that you’re particularly proud of?

Frank: Hey, if I wrote it, it’s good. (Laughs)

But seriously, the aforementioned Ruins of Ravencroft: Saber-tooth Tiger since we’ll pick up our story right after that. But fans might also want to check out the Wolverine/Sabretooth stories during my Wolverine And Weapon X just to see what an asshole I’ve always made Sabretooth out to be… and what kind of crazy, bizarre, insane fun they can expect from a series like this.

Cover by Adam Kubert, courtesy of Marvel Comics

AIPT: Well, Frank, thank you for taking the time to reveal this new miniseries and all these details with X-Men Monday!

Don’t forget, X-Fans, Sabretooth: The Dead Don’t Talk will go on sale in December 2024, so I’m sure you’ll hear more details in the coming months.

In the next edition of X-Men Monday: Writer Alex Paknadel returns to write his upcoming Sentries miniseries.

Thanks to Marvel Comics

Until next time, X-Fans, stay exceptional!