Wolverine and one of the X-Men’s strangest foes just had a surprising team-up against a classic mutant villain in the heart of the Savage Land.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the story “Sticks and Stones” from Wolverine: Black, White, and Blood #3 by Steven S. DeKnight, Paulo Siqueira, Oren Junior, Andres Mossa & VC’s Clayton Cowles, on sale now
Wolverine is usually regarded as one of the more dangerous figures in the Marvel Universe. Thanks to his healing factor, there’s almost nothing that can even slow him down, let alone stop him when he goes on a rampage. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t others who can at least keep up with him in terms of brutality.
In Wolverine: Black: White and Blood #3, Wolverine and Sauron just had a surprisingly grisly team-up against another Savage Land villain, with both men literally ripping their enemy to shreds.
After arriving in the Savage Land during the story “Sticks and Stones,” Wolverine finds himself facing off with the classic X-Men foe, Sauron. Both men threatened to murder each other, with the only respite coming from a rampaging T. Rex that Wolverine is forced to kill from the inside. Discovering a stone brain within the beast, Wolverin and Sauron work together to bring down the obvious culprit — Garokk the Petrified Man. They find the immoratl Garokk trying to control the animals and Mutates of the Savage Land, intending to try and take over the world with them.
But Wolverine and Sauron quickly arrive and butcher the villain — Wolverine slices out his eyes, Sauron rips off his arm, and Wolverine ends the fight by slicing through his neck, beheading the villain. Garokk’s mystical properties mean he’ll be reborn not long after, but this at least throws him off enough to free the creatures of the Savage Land from his grip and allow the Mutates to go free. But even with their team-up successful, the two quickly resume their own fight, with the story ending as they charge again at one another.
Karl Lykos — aka Sauron — was introduced in X-Men #59 by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams. As a child, Lykos was attacked and bitten by a mutant pterodactyl, and transformed into an energy vampire who had to drain the lifeforce of others to strengthen himself. However, upon absorbing the life force of a mutant, Lykos is transformed into a half-man/half-pterodactyl creature that comes to be known as Sauron. Sauron eventually relocated to the Savage Land, becoming a frequent ally to the Mutates, an occasional friend to Ka-Zar, and a consistent enemy to the X-Men. Thanks to his transformation, Sauron has always been one of the more brutal X-Men villains, with his latest battle against Wolverine being a good reminder of why.
Even when compared to other X-Men villains, Sauron is one of the oddest ones of all. His specific powers mutating to turn him into an evil dinosaur man give him a distinct appearance, and his ability to leech the abilities from others — such as when he briefly replicated Wolverine’s healing factor in New Avengers to survive being shot in the head — make him a memorable and durable foe. But as such a dangerous and monstrous figure, it makes sense that Sauron would be one of the only villains who could be as savage and brutal as Wolverine is in a fight. If he could work along with Logan, they might even be able to find a small sense of respect instead of just trying to rip each other apart.
