X-amining Sabretooth & Mystique #1-4

"Old Sins Cast Long Shadows" / "Torture" / "Willing Victims" / "Dead Ends" 

December 1996 - March 1997

In a Nutshell

Sabretooth & Mystique race AIM to get revenge on a Hydra scientist. 

Writer: Jorge Gonzales
Artist: Ariel Olivetti
Art Assists/Inks: Pier Brito (issues #1 & #4)
Letterer: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colorist: Kevin Somers
Editor: Kelly Corvese
Editor-in-Chief: Bob Harras

Plot

Sabretooth and Mystique break into a SHIELD helicarrier, to retrieve a mysterious capsule from inside a man's corpse, exactly where Destiny had predicted it would be found years before. Pursued by agents of AIM also after the capsule, the pair seeks refuge in Mystique's Swiss safehouse. There, Mystique reveals they can now have their revenge on the long-dead Catalyst, an agent of Hydra who captured and tortured them, along with Destiny, during their espionage days, using the capsule to destroy his Access program. Just then, they are attacked by AIM technoassassins sent by AIM's leader, the cybernetic Cypher. Sabretooth & Mystique escape, but Mystique realizes they are being tracked by Sabretooth's restraining collar, so she reluctantly removes it, but keep it with her as a failsafe. The duo proceeds to an island base of Hydra, already under attack by AIM. They split up, with Sabretooth falling into a piranha-filled moat while Mystique is ambushed after getting inside the citadel. 

Mystique is taken before a living Catalyst, who secretly survived his encounter with Destiny, Sabretooth & Mystqiue decades before. With his Access program, designed to give him access to all of cyberspace, almost completed, he inteds to restore Hydra to greatness. Just then Sabretooth, having escaped the moat, arrives, but they're interrupted by the AIM breaching the citadel. Catalyst escapes, while Sabretooth and Mystique are captured by AIM. Cypher tries to download Access for herself, but Catalyst has rigged it to prevent AIM from acquiring it. Escaping, Sabretooth and Mystique split up again. Sabretooth finds Cypher, who agrees to let him destroy Access if he lets her escape, to which he agrees. Elsewhere, Mystique finds Catalyst and kills him. Reuniting with Sabretooth, the pair escape the exploding Hydra base. Mystique reveals she's poisoned Sabretooth with an odorless gas only she knows the antidote to, forcing him to re-don his collar and return with her to X-Factor. 

Firsts and Other Notables

From the writer of the Magneto limited series comes Sabretooth & Mystique, the latest installment of the 1997 miniseries glut. This one is mostly predicated on the idea that Sabretooth & Mystique knocked boots that one time, and are the bad members of X-Factor. 

It introduces a bunch of characters that have yet to appear outside this series, such as Catalyst, the main villain of the story, a Hydra scientist who can control chemical reactions (he poisons people, basically).

 

He has two mutated stooges named Dismember & Corrosion who work for him as well. 

The AIM forces are led by a cyborg named Cypher, who has no relation to Doug Ramsey, the former New Mutant of the same name.  

She deploys a trio of "Technoassassins" in the first issue, who fit nicely into the pantheon of generic 90s cybernetic goons.

Chronology Corner

This story takes place between X-Factor #126 and #127. 

A Work in Progress

Another espionage fakeout (Mystique) 

Because this miniseries takes place while both Sabretooth and Mystique are under fairly heavy lock & key of X-Factor, the script has to do a lot of leg work to explain how they're able to go about having this adventure. First, it's established that Mystique's "can't impersonate the X-Men" inhibitor functions on Obi-Wan logic, allowing her to transform into Angel (and thus fly).

Later, it's established that the villains faked their deaths in a shuttle crash to buy them the time to go off on their own.

Finally, Mystique jumps through some impressive hoops to get to a point where she can remove Sabretooth's inhibitor collar. 

And then, of course, by the end, she reveals she deployed an odorless gas to get him to put it back on. 

It's noted that while Mystique spends much of the series doing her relatively recent "morph into big strong creatures with wings" routine, doing so does not make her any more invulnerable or strong than normal.

In the flashback, Mystique morphs into Silver Age Angel, suggesting it takes place during the original run of X-Men and that Mystique knew about the X-Men (and what they wore) back then. 

The Reference Section

In issue #1, Mystique transforms into Gargoyle of the Defenders (sort of). 

Artistic Achievements

When Sabretooth and some Hydra goons fall into the moat and are attacked by piranhas, there's a great visual of some piranhas pulling on the Hydra mask.

Human/Mutant Relations

Mystique convinces Sabretooth to go back to X-Factor in part by pointing out things are getting worse for mutants, and being with X-Factor would afford him some level of protection. 

Austin's Analysis
Woof. To say Sabretooth & Mystique was a slog to get through is an understatement. Let's start with some (mild) positives. It's better than the Magneto mini. Overall, the art here doesn't work — the storytelling especially isn't great, and it leans too much on twisted, macabre figures — but there's flashes of Ariel Olivetti's later, more polished style. And for all its issues, the art at least has style, a different feel to it than the sort of Joe Mad or Jim Lee-clone house style of the time, one that fits the grotesque Grand Guignol vibe of the story. There's a visual POV. And the idea of pairing up X-Factor's two criminal members for a story that draws on their pasts together as secret agents isn't a bad one. 

That said, this is an exhausting read. It's overly-scripted, with dialogue and captions all over the pages, often doing the work of the art while obscuring it at the same time. It features a bunch of characters who, outside the titular duo, we've never seen nor will ever see again, which makes it tough to care about anything that's happening. The specific circumstances of Sabretooth and Mystique at this point in time — with the pair being effectively neutered, power-wise, by their being forcibly-drafted onto X-Factor — means writer Jorge Gonzales has to spend time coming up with convoluted explanations/plot mechanics for how the characters can actually be off on their own adventure doing things.

Most disappointing, the "dual narratives spread across time" structure doesn't really work. While the flashbacks work to setup the villain and show the details of Sabretooth & Mystique's animosity with him, they do so in the most perfunctory way possible; the flashbacks are just sort of dropped into the first couple of issues, with no effort made to connect them to the present day events immediately following, or do any kind of fun back-and-forth type stuff. The idea of seeing Sabretooth & Mystique in their pre-super-villain days hanging out together is promising, but in execution, there's very little difference between the two depictions of the characters (the first flashback opens with Mystique revealing herself as the true identity of Sabretooth's partner, a revelation that impacts what follows in no way whatsoever). 

Probably the best thing about this miniseries is that, despite being dead, Destiny plays a significant role in the story, appearing in the flashbacks and directing Mystique's actions in the present via her predictions. It's not much, but it at least helps set Mystique apart from Sabretooth, making her motivation one not just of revenge but revenge for her deceased lover, as all too often the title characters devolve into rote "if you betray me, I'll get you!/no, I'LL get YOU!" blustering, which just adds to the exhaustion. It's definitely not enough to save the miniseries, which at this point really feels like the peak example of the "superfluous X-Men miniseries that are a chore to get through" trend of 1997.   

Next Issue

Remember that mysterious box Wolverine was supposed to protect? Well, it's back, in Wolverine #114.

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