Victor Creed (Joint Venture)

Sabretooth is a mutant, and a long-time nemesis (and sometimes member) of the X-Men, and Wolverine in particular. This is the Joint Venture Universe version of the character.

The Accidental Fratricide
Born in the Yukon some time in the 19th century, Victor Creed seemed destined for a life of violence from a young age. Unlike most mutants, his mutation began manifesting at a very young age.

His earliest memory is of himself at age nine, arguing with his elder brother Graydon over the last slice of their mother's pie. As Creed tells it, his next memory is of his parents finding him consuming said slice...while sitting in a pool of his brother's blood, still pumping from a severed artery.

Exorcism and Extraction
Victor's parents were horrified at their now-only son's actions, as well as his change in appearance. His canines had elongated into fangs, and his fingernails had grown sharp points and become more clawlike. While his father Zebediah immediately wanted to shoot the boy for his actions, his mother Victoria tearfully pleaded for his life, not wanting to lose both her children, and Zebediah reluctantly acquiesced.

However, this concession was not without its stipulations. Victor was to be chained and collared in the Creeds' storm cellar until the "evil" was exorcised. To that end, he brought in Father Eigar Harnerst, their town's pastor, to perform an exorcism while he used a pair of pliers to remove the boy's fangs, fingernails, and toenails, despite his son's cries and pleas for mercy and forgiveness.

However, much like Prometheus, Victor's mutilations never lasted. At dawn the next morning, Zebediah would be shocked and enraged to discover that Victor's fangs and claws had grown back. He promptly began to beat his son as if he had regrown the teeth and nails consciously, rather than them being an early manifestation of his healing factor. This would continue for several more years, with Zebediah telling his neighbors his sons were dead, and that he had the wild animal that had killed them chained up in his cellar. Once a month, when he had raised the money to afford it, Zebediah would bring Father Harnerst back to his homestead to perform another exorcism. However, since Victor's extraordinary features and abilities were the result of mutation, and not any demonic influence, they would continue to be ineffective.

Seven years passed like this, with Victor suffering greater and greater mistreatment at the hand of his embittered father, only staying alive by the grace of his grieving mother, fighting constantly not to lose her only remaining child. Eventually, the rising tension would reach a breaking point.