Now in its second issue, Old Man Logan, Marvel’s newest X-Men monthly, tells a familiar story told previously by Mark Millar and Brian Bendis.  But it’s a visually compelling jump-on point to a future world story of one of the Marvel universe’s most popular superheroes.  Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s Wolverine: Old Man Logan first told the story of a disturbing dystopian Marvel future where the villains have won and Wolverine must take on the gang that is the last legacy of Bruce Banner’s Hulk.

Last year’s Secret Wars, written by Brian Bendis, re-introduced Logan aka Wolverine as an old man 50 years in the future.  On the heels of the success of the now Academy Award-nominated, big screen return of the similar post-apocalypse Mad Max: Fury Road, there’s little doubt the story will be appealing to modern readers.  Fans of Hugh Jackman’s take on Logan will also hear the same voice in this grizzeled and even more put-upon version of the character.

In Old Man Logan Issues #1 and #2, we learn Logan’s past is the same past we’ve seen before–overrun by villains and a world without Wolverine to protect it, Logan is a farmer with a wife and kids, whose life is destroyed when the Hulk Gang kills his family.  But the twist is Logan finds himself back in future’s past, able to change the timeline and destroy all of those who one day will ruin his life.  This Logan is an Old West wanderer and drifter, an update to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name and Unforgiven.

The same art team that created last year’s Old Man Logan series, Andrea Sorrentino and colorist Marcelo Maiolo, now joins writer Jeff Lemire, and the result is Marvel’s answer to Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  Issue #1 even features a two-page poster homage to that DC Universe Futureworld story.  The series so far is gritty and dark and full of the kind of what-ifs readers are looking for.  Logan has etched into the skin of his arm a wanted list and he is unrelenting as he plans to pick off one by one Butcher, Banner, Mysterio, and Red Skull.

Fans of the Marvel Universe that are tired of the publisher’s most popular Avengers and X-Men monthlies, but prefer the types of stories found in the pages of Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Black Widow, should jump onto this series now.

Old Man Logan, Issue #2, is available now at Elite Comics and good comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com