Comic Review: Old Man Logan

If you listen to the podcast, or even talk to me about Marvel Comics, odds are that you've heard me come down on Wolverine like a 10 pound hammer. It's not that I don't like the character, because I really do, it's just I'm tired of him. It's not his fault that in all the movies and newer comic books they make him the most important character of all time. A prime example is in the third X-Men movie. They literally kill one of the oldest and most important characters in the X-Men universe just to get him out of the way so Wolverine can be the romantic interest for Jean Grey. Not to mention as much as he shows up in the various comics of the Marvel Universe that the only logical answer is that he has at least four Skrull dopplegangers running about pretending to be him. It's nothing for him to be in five places at a time at any given point across all the Marvel titles. As a reader and fan, I simply got tired of this amazingly fun character. Clearly, I am in the minority on this issue, but it's just how I feel about him.

Now that I have my personal feelings out of the way, lets get to the point at hand. I'm not here to bash on Wolverine. Quite the opposite actually. I recently had the pleasure of reading something that has redeemed the character in my eyes. In June of 2008 Mark Millar and Steve McNiven started an eight issue arc of Wolverine titled "Old Man Logan." This story takes place around fifty years in the future and features a Wolverine that is now long in the tooth, but short of the claw. Things are bad. The villains apparently got their act together and defeated the super heroes of the Marvel Universe once and for all. The country has been divided up into different regions, each one answering to a powerful villain governor. To top it all off, there was some horrible event that has rendered Logan a shadow of his former-self, vowing to never again pop claws and fight.

Long gone are the days of snikt and being the best as what he does. Logan has settled down with his family in the ruins of what used to be California on a farm that looks to be something straight from a Steinbeck novel about the depression. Things are apparently hard all over as Wolverine is having problems paying the local gang their rent money. He ends up taking a job from an old friend and ally from his superhero days. What ensues is a heart wrenching story about the limits of the hero spirit. When it is finally revealed what could be so horrendous that would actually make Wolverine give up the job he's been good at for so many years, you find yourself completely invested in the story. It's a masterwork that will make people with even the most jaded opinion of Wolverine as a character rethink and revisit their stance on this classic character.

Recently released in a hardcover trade paperback, Old Man Logan is an epic read for even those that are not typically readers of Marvel Comics. Check it out and thank me later.

Rating:
Carl - 5/5