Iron Fist #14 Is a Major Marvel Key, & Its Value Has Little to Do With Iron Fist

The simple answer: Chris Claremont. The writer, best known for his work on Uncanny X-Men, introduced a new opponent for Iron Fist in Iron Fist#14, Sabretooth, who would go on to become one of Marvel’s most iconic villains. After almost ten years battling Power-Man and Iron Fist, Claremont would make Sabretooth the leader of the mutant mercenary team the Marauders, setting him up for an almost forty-year rivalry with Wolverine. Beginning with Claremont and carried through to subsequent runs by later writers, Sabretooth evolved into Wolverine’s nemesis, gradually given a backstory that tied in with Wolverine’s own mysterious past. In the decades since, Sabretooth has become so strongly associated with Wolverine that many fans forget his almost ten year-history before he and Wolverine first fought in the pages of Uncanny X-Men#212. 

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For comic book collectors, it’s hard to forget. Iron Fist#14, published as the title was on the brink of cancellation, is a rarity and a Bronze Age mega-key, one of the most sought-after Marvel Comics of the 1970s. In terms of value and collectibility, Sabretooth’s first appearance has eclipsed the first appearance of Iron Fist himself. On average, a high-grade Iron Fist#14 sells for more than a high-grade copy of Iron Fist’s debut in Marvel Premiere #15. Recent sales of 9.0 Near-Mint graded copies of Iron Fist#14 average between $550 and $600, versus $400 for Marvel Premiere#15. This is despite the CGC recording almost 2k more graded copies of Iron Fist#14 in existence than Marvel Premiere#15. Sabretooth’s ties to the X-Men, and Wolverine in particular, make him just that much more of a collector’s item. In a few days time, Heritage is set to auction one such 9.0 Near Mint copy of Iron Fist#14, and at the time of writing, they’ve already attained a price of nearly $300 for the comic.

How Sabretooth’s Retconned Backstory Eclipsed His Real History

In his Bronze Age appearances, Sabretooth is a simple mercenary. His debut is inauspicious, one of those villains shoe-horned into a dialogue and plot-heavy issue to make sure that readers were still getting their thirty (or thirty-five, as we’ll get to later) cents worth of action. In this humble origin, Sabretooth has two things working in his favor: a plot by Chris Claremont and art by John Byrne. Byrne draws an imposing, monstrous form for Sabretooth, as well as an instantly-iconic costume (which Byrne had first designed with Wolverine in mind); Claremont writes him with a menacing personality to match. Like Bullseye in his early appearances in Marv Wolfman’s Daredevil, Sabretooth feels dangerous in a way that many other Marvel villains don’t. He isn’t pulling his punches, and even on Al Milgrom’s Iron Fist#14 cover, he’s out for blood. 

Claremont intended for Sabretooth to be a recurring adversary for Iron Fist, but the title was cancelled and merged with Power-Manbefore he could make good on this. Interestingly, though Claremont continued to write for Iron Fist in the merged Power-Man and Iron Fist (#50-53), Sabretooth did not return until writer Mary Jo Duffy’s tenure on the title, paired with villain Constrictor in three issues (#66, #78, #84). Duffy’s Sabretooth made use of several intended plot points from Claremont, including his evolution into a serial killer called “the Slasher” in #78. Peter David would use Sabretooth twice in his Spectacular Spider-Manrun, cementing the villain as a “street level” character for his first ten years. This changed when Claremont elected to use Sabretooth for an Uncanny X-Menstoryline, making him a member of a new super-villain team called the Marauders. Curiously, Sabretooth is the only pre-existing character on the team, suggesting that Claremont had greater plans for him – which for a while, he did.

How Chris Claremont’s Alternate Origin For Sabretooth Would Have Changed Everything

As he built up the rivalry between Wolverine and Sabretooth, it was Claremont’s intent to reveal that Sabretooth was Wolverine’s father. “Father and son. That’s why Sabretooth always considered Logan “sloppy seconds’ to his ‘original’ / ‘real deal,” Claremont explained in one interview. For one reason or another, this plot point was aborted, but the seeds of it had still been sown: readers see Wolverine and Sabretooth battle for the first time in Uncanny X-Men#212, but both make oblique references to this being far from the first time they’ve fought. Wolverine’s solo series, which filled in many of the details of his life before the X-Men, would fill in these blanks. Kieron Gillen’s Wolverine: Origin IIcanonized that Wolverine and Sabretooth had been rivals since Wolverine’s adolescence. Larry Hama’s Wolverineand Jim Lee’s X-Menbegan to fill in the backstory of Wolverine and Sabretooth’s time as mercenaries for the American government.  Lee’s X-Menwas a primary inspiration for X-Men: The Animated Series, and as a natural consequence, Sabretooth (voiced by Don Francks) was front and center in the 1992 cartoon. 

As with the comics, Sabretooth’s proximity to Wolverine made him a favorite with viewers, turning the character into one of the series’ most popular recurring villains. Accordingly, Sabretooth was merchandised heavily by Toy Biz, with the figures packaging and marketing emphasizing his status as the nemesis of Wolverine. For a generation of X-Men fans, Sabretooth was inextricable from the mystery and intrigue that made Wolverine into one of their favorite characters. Even the X-Menfilm franchise preserves this, with Tyler Mane and Liev Schreiber’s Sabretooth serving as Wolverine’s link to his past across films. From his origins as a one-off villain in a soon-to-be-cancelled comic, Sabretooth has evolved into the embodiment of one of the most iconic facets of Marvel’s mythology, the tortured past of Wolverine. And even though Iron Fist#14 is a far ways from Sabretooth’s eventual place in the Marvel Universe, the issue remains a firm collector favorite, and the Near-Mint sample on auction at Heritage is sure to fetch a premium price.

Who’s your favorite X-Men villain? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

A Forgotten X-Men First Appearance Is Suddenly Worth A Small Fortune (But There’s A Catch)

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