By Uncanny X-Men #212–213, Sabretooth feels a lot more threatening.

By Uncanny X-Men #212–213, Sabretooth feels a lot more threatening. He's involved in the Mutant Massacre, and now he's fighting Wolverine. This is the first fight between them that readers see published, but they already know each other in the story. There's history there before we get to see them go at it. Logan brings a wall down on him in #212 and gets the Healer out. That doesn't finish Creed. In #213, he's at the mansion threatening Psylocke, and Wolverine has to deal with him there while Betsy gets information from his mind. He gets away again. Now it's Wolverine's friends and the place they live that are being threatened. Creed has gone from somebody causing trouble in another hero's book to somebody who knows Logan and can bring that trouble straight to him. That's what I mean about him being reworked. You can see the change in how he's used. He was always vicious, but he's getting a much bigger job in the X-books. The earlier stories didn't introduce him as this fully established Wolverine enemy. They built toward that later.