Precipice

“Precipice”
Uncanny X-Men #238 (1995)
Written by Scott Lobdell
Pencils by Joe Madureira
Inks by Tim Townshend

Most of the best X-Men stories are, in some way, about failure. The heroism of the X-Men is more in how they persist in trying to do the right thing and stand up to oppression, not in them frequently succeeding in their goals. “Precipice,” a high point in Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira’s mid-‘90s run, is largely about the X-Men acknowledging the limits of their idealistic philosophy and suffering for it. 

The story starts with Charles Xavier confronting the X-Men’s prisoner, the murderous psychopath Sabretooth, and admitting that he’s given up on his attempts to rehabilitate him and give him a second chance among the X-Men. Xavier is magnanimous but stern when confronting Sabretooth – it pains him that he can’t figure out how to curb Sabretooth’s homicidal rages, or integrate him into the group as he had with Wolverine, Rogue, or Gambit. Sabretooth is too far gone, and he knows it. He taunts Xavier, bragging about how he never wanted to be saved, and that he loves having the power to kill with impunity. Xavier can only counter Sabretooth’s argument with moralism and reason, but he knows he’s wasting his time. More than any other major X-Men antagonist, Sabretooth represents pure amoral id. He has no ideology, no agenda. He’s just a sadist and a savage. Xavier owns up to his failure, and decides to pass him along to government custody. 

Sabretooth is, by design, the dark opposite of Wolverine. They have more or less the same powers – healing, claws, enhanced senses – but Sabretooth is bigger, and stronger. Wolverine has a nobility and morality in contrast with his violent rages, but Sabretooth is a total nihilist. The only thing he seems to care about at all is causing pain and satisfying his base urges. “Precipice” is the conclusion of a long-running B-plot through much of the mid-90s in which Sabretooth is held captive by the X-Men in the mansion, where he largely behaves like a mutant version of Hannibal Lechter, with various women in the X-Men – Jean Grey, Boom Boom, and Psylocke – playing the Clarice Starling role in different ways.

All three of those women appear in “Precipice.” Jean, who had previously intimidated and belittled Sabretooth, sticks to the sidelines and supports Xavier in his decision. She certainly sees no point in trying to redeem this guy. Boom Boom, a compassionate but not particularly clever member of the junior X-Force squad, faces Sabretooth on her own, furious to realize she had fallen for his ruse when he had been pretending to be mentally impaired following an encounter with Wolverine that seemed to partially lobotomize him. “I trusted you!,” she shouts while slapping him in the face. “I believed your brain was all out of whack! I was there for you when everybody else had written you off!” Sabretooth, ever the sadist, just tells her that she’s an idiot, and then plays on her considerable insecurities about her white trash family and feeling like a loser among the X-Men until she retaliates by hitting him with an energy blast that sets him loose.

Sabretooth’s casual manipulation of Boom Boom is so heartbreaking. She’s not stupid, just guided by raw emotions and obvious self-loathing. Her compassion is real, but also just a transparent desire to stick up for broken losers – like herself, like her own father. Sabretooth and Boom Boom’s dynamic is a dark mirror of Wolverine’s more wholesome relationship with Jubilee, another teen character with a very similar personality and superpower. What if Wolverine was a sociopath? What if Jubilee had no self-esteem whatsoever? 

Psylocke observes this moment between Sabretooth and Boom Boom, and is there to intervene when he’s set free. Psylocke and Sabretooth have a shared history – the two faced off in the issue during the Mutant Massacre storyline in which she joined the team. Back then it was a deliberately mis-matched fight, with the frail and demure Psylocke seeming like easy prey for this brutish psycho. She managed to defeat him, and proved herself as X-Men material. This time around, the duel seems more evenly matched, as Psylocke is now in her Asian ninja body. But it doesn’t go nearly so well, as her attempt to use her psychic power backfires on her, and he eviscerates her. 

The issue ends with Sabretooth having escaped, Psylocke being on death’s door, and Boom Boom in tears, knowing that her emotional weakness may have led to Psylocke’s death, and the inevitable deaths of whoever else gets in the path of this unhinged maniac. The issue starts with Xavier and his top lieutenants having to admit they can’t redeem Sabretooth, and ends with them being proven correct in the most awful way. Boom Boom has to face up to the reality that her faith in the notion of redemption had only made her the perfect mark for an ultra violent con man. 

“Precipice” is more upsetting in the context of Lobdell and Madureira’s previous story focusing on Sabretooth in the alternate reality Age of Apocalypse event. In this world, where Xavier died young and the X-Men were founded by Magneto, Sabretooth is a heroic figure and essentially has Wolverine’s role in the group. Madureira, whose art is so stylized and dynamic that some might not notice the elegant nuances of his cartooning, draws these Sabretooths very differently. The AOA Sabretooth stands tall with good posture, and carries himself with obvious pride. The “real” Sabretooth is always slouching, and moves like a cross between a tiger and gorilla. Madureira draws him with vacant eyes and cruel toothy grin, like The Joker as a wild animal. 

The heroes in the story have softer features, and emote with big eyes and display their confidence – or lack thereof – in how they carry their arms and shoulders. Madureira portrays Jean Grey as empathetic and uncertain, Cyclops as strong and decisive, Bishop as angry and conflicted, and Xavier as cold and aloof. Psylocke appears bold and defiant, while Boom Boom looks defensive even when she’s being confrontational. Madureira rightly gets a lot of credit for his excellent sense of design and his intuitive skill in making his pages look vibrant and uncluttered, but he’s just as brilliant in conveying a lot of information about characters without the writer needing to explicate much about their interiority in dialogue or exposition.