Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2 Review

 

Writer: Erica Schultz

Artist: Valentina Pinti

Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer: Cory Petit

Cover Artists: Elena Casagrande & Edgar Delgado; Jacopo Camagni; Nimit Malavia; Ashley Witter

Designer: Jay Bowen

Editors: Cy Pedro Beltran, Mark Basso, Tom Brevoort & CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 5, 2025

 

Mutants finally live free of Human persecution. Laura Kinney serves Revelation, the man who helped make that happen. As his Seraph, she protects him from the ailing US government and anyone else who sends agents to assassinate him. But life as a Seraph isn’t easy. Laura has lost her husband in Revelation’s service. While carrying out her duties, she cannot protect Alex, the son Zane gave her. And even when she is in Revelation’s compound, other Mutants can use Alex, who has yet to manifest any powers, to manipulate her.

 

So, Laura forges a desperate plan. She consigns her son to her siblings’ care. Will Revelation abide by Laura’s decision? And will her glorious leader discover Laura killed Hellion to keep him from blackmailing her? Let’s leap into Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2 and see!

 

Story

When Revelation next requests her presence, he tells Laura to bring Alex back. Furthermore, he doesn't want any Mutants to leave his territories. He is especially worried about Mutants fleeing to Arakko. He wants her to lead Vanisher and a contingent of guards to Helicarrierville and prevent them from leaving his territory. Revelation insists that he only wants the best for the Mutants. But he also warns Laura not to fail.

 

While Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2 begins in Revelation’s compound, the bulk of the story occurs in Helicarrierville. Laura, Vanisher, and the guards arrive to prevent anyone from leaving via Sage’s teleportation gate. However, Gabby isn’t going to stand still for that. Erica Schultz packs her story with action as the Mutants attempt to leave and Laura tries to prevent them. But while the plot highlights the rivalry between the two sisters, the battle seems part of a larger contest between Revelation and Apocalypse.

 

This series began with Laura extolling the virtues of life in Revelation’s territory while attempting to help her child escape it. Yet amid this paradise Revelation has created, Gabby and Laura constantly fight. Their brother Akihiro tries to help the sisters get along. Yet when Laura tries to reunite her family in Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2, Gabby and Akihiro try to keep her son under their care. As in a divorce, Alex becomes a casualty of a feuding family, with contesting adults fighting for the right to raise him. 

 

 

 

Art

Valentina Pinti opens with Laura approaching Revelation in his long, narrow throne room. While she wears her functional, one-piece outfit, Revelation drapes himself in robes that drag on the floor. Revelation may have hoped to unite the Mutants under his rule. But as he walks between pillars evoking Sentinel legs, he stands between Laura and her father. His words conjure a black-and-white memory of her with Zane and Alex. Regardless of how this happy image compares with the reality of her marriage, it contrasts with Laura’s relationships with Gabby and Wolverine.

 

After the yellow that dominated Revelation’s compound, Rachelle Rosenberg portrays the crowds outside Helicarrierville amid a hazy purple. As Sage addresses the would-be emigrants atop a green mound, the makeshift arch behind her looks composed of repurposed components. After Laura, Vanisher, and Revelation’s guards appear within a starburst of light blue energy, red lightning shoots from the arch. Rainbows melt in the red energy field. Sage’s yellow glasses form a link with Laura’s outfit as she strives to get her fellow mutant to see things her way in Laura Kinney: Sabretooth #2.

 

 

 

Cory Petit fills white dialogue balloons with black uppercase letters that grow bold for intonation, enlarge for raised voices, and rarely shrink. Laura shares her thoughts with yellow words in brown narrative boxes. Revelation makes a convincing argument with white letters in black balloons. Sound effects accompany internecine fighting, a non-football-related head injury, and the teleportation gate's activation. Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a review copy. 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

While Revelation's cause may be noble, he manipulates Laura, works Wolverine like a puppet, and hires Vanisher to enforce his will. Then again, Revelation ordered his wife's death for acting against him. Life may be the paradise many Mutants yearned for. But Revelation’s need to control everything dooms relationships in Kinney: Sabretooth #2.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch. 

Binary #2 Review

 

Writer: Stephanie Phillips

Artist: Giada Belviso

Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer: Travis Lanham

Cover Artists: Rickie Yagawa; Corin Howell & Rachelle Rosenberg; Jacopo Camagni; Junggeun Yoon

Designer: Jay Bowen

Editors: Lindsey Cohick, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevoort & CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: November 5, 2025

 

Carol Danvers is hurting. She accepted the Phoenix Force ten years ago. Yet in the past year, she has suffered from increasing headaches. Along with the people she protects, frustration has begun to overtake her. Like the characters in Stephen King's novel, the inhabitants of Beverly, Massachusetts, live under the dome. And after a decade of lockdown, Carol's protection feels like imprisonment. How will the townspeople express their frustrations this time? And how will their actions change Carol Danvers' life? Let's slip on some shades, leap into Binary #2, and see!

 

Story

When Doug Ramsey unleashed the X-virus, Jean Grey knew how dangerous it was. She feared not only what it would do to our planet but that the virus might spread to other worlds. Carol Danvers tried to talk her out of it, but Jean had to try. As in Robert Charles Wilson's novel Spin, Jean Grey attempted to enclose Earth in a protective barrier. When the effort proved too much for Jean, Carol was with her. She accepted the Phoenix Force and vowed to live with it.

 

In Binary #2, Carol suffers from an inferiority complex. Distraught over Jean's death and burdened with unwanted power, she retreated to her hometown. Erecting a barrier to protect the people in her community from the X-virus came naturally. But once Carol erected the barrier, she couldn't leave. Trapped in a prison of her own making and expending energy to keep the virus out, Carol couldn't learn to wield the Phoenix Force like Jean. So, she feels like a failure. Worse, she broke her promise to Jean to protect the rest of the Universe from the X-virus.

 

After beginning her story shortly after Doug Ramsey unleashed the X-virus, Stephanie Phillips fast forwards to the days following the troubled town hall meeting. Just as Hank stirred up the audience, he called people to his home. He shows them the explosives that they will use to blow up the Beverly town hall at the beginning of Binary #1. But neither he, his followers, nor Carol expect what happens next.

 

 

 

Art

Jean kneels and supports her weary body with her hands inside her barrier. While her hair flutters with the Phoenix Fire, Captain Marvel keeps her long blonde hair bound in a braid. Fracture lines race across Jean's face as Carol pounds on the barrier. When hands reach toward each other to touch the barrier, Jean and Carol form two dark beings at the heart of a white hole star in Binary #2.

 

Carol Danvers burns orange, yellow, and white as she hovers over the street. A Babel pushes herself up and kneels while supporting herself with her hands. But when she looks up, her features evoke Carol’s anger. And instead of submitting like Jean, she lashes out with her fists like Captain Marvel pounding on the barrier. So, Carol encloses her in a pink ball of energy, evoking the shield Jean placed around the Earth.

 

 

 

 

Like the clothes of the Babel she captures, Carol takes refuge in a green room. Giada Belviso shows how the community space has fallen into disrepair. Broken window blinds in a private residence are another reminder that the lockdown is unsustainable. As Rachelle Rosenberg shows the yellow sunlight streaming into the room, the light mimics a cosmos. The glowing stars illuminate Hank as he preaches. One of his followers, clad in a red jacket, best expresses their resolve in Binary #2.

 

Carol Danver's white uppercase thoughts also appear in red boxes. Travis Lanham places bold black time/space markers in white boxes bordered with yellow. Black uppercase dialogue inhabits white balloons and narrative boxes. The letters grow bold for intonation. Anger swells words and deforms balloons. Sound effects help us hear Carol's efforts to rescue her friend and a Phoenix scream. Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a review copy. 

 

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Carol Danvers has done her best. But it doesn't feel like it's enough. Her efforts are a drop in a bucket compared with what she promised Jean Grey she would do. But while Carol acts out of compassion for the townspeople and the Babels, another woman exploits Carol’s self-doubt and guilt to expand her power base in Binary #2.

 

Rating 9.6/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch. 

 

To see how this series started, see my review of Binary #1.