‘Wolverine : Old Man Logan’ – Millar, McNiven (Marvel)

 


Page Count: 256 Pages

Long ago, there lived a Graeme who was having a pretty rough time and bought loads of comic books to cheer himself up. Some tough lessons, about the transient nature of money, followed but the comic books stuck around for a little longer so, things (kind of) balanced out ;o)

One of those comic books was the collected ‘Old Man Logan’ and it was an awesome read (yes, I was that Graeme, in case you hadn’t worked it out). Thanks to the aforementioned transient nature of money, and the need for more, I had to get rid of my old copy but a couple of weeks ago, I saw another copy for sale and figured that it was time to pay ‘Old Man Logan’ another visit. When eBay is full of overpriced second hand copies, it’s nice to see Marvel do the decent thing and publish a new edition. Or, more likely, see an opportunity to make more money. Either way, I have a new book so I’m happy :o)

A future world savaged and sundered by super villains, the United States ain’t what it used to be.

In California, now a wasteland controlled by the evil Hulk Gang, the former Wolverine seeks a life of peace. He’s retired, finally free from the violence of his former existence as an X-Man – and he wants to keep it that way. If only the world would let him… Logan and an aged, blind Hawkeye are forced into a cross-country journey, through villain-ruled lands, on a collision course with the worst of them all… Can Old Man Logan maintain his pacifist vow and make his last stand without doing what he does best?

I’ll be honest… After not making it through ‘The Babysitter Lives’, I really needed my next read to be one where I’d polish off the whole thing. ‘Old Man Logan’ was a bit of a ‘cheat’ then as although it had been a while since that last read, I knew I’d enjoy it. I’d forgotten just how good it is though…

Millar’s story isn’t a new one by any means; think ‘aging cowboy forced into picking up his guns one last time’ and you’ve got yourself ‘Old Man Logan’. It’s the Marvel Universe though and there is always room to take a ‘what if’ and run with it, just to see where it ends up. That’s what Millar does here and the result is just superb and easily as impactful as it was the last time I read this book.

Starting with a fairly straightforward concept (supervillains outnumber the heroes, what would happen if the villains all worked together?), Millar expands the scope to show us what America would look like ‘after the fall’ and then zooms in again, showing us a Wolverine who not only contributed to that fall but now, must live in this world as a consequence.

And what a world it is… I’ve got a real soft spot for those ‘what if’ moments and the whole premise of this story has to be one of the biggest ‘what ifs’ of them all. It’s all realised here with Millar’s vision brought to life by some gorgeously drawn artwork from Steve McNiven. Neither writer or artist pull any punches here and that honesty really comes across in the plot. Life in this ‘new America’ is as brutal as you’d expect and there’s also a real defining sense of a number of individual stories playing out, in the background, while the ‘main event’ takes place. As a piece of world-building, it all really helps the reader to just sink into all that background and go with the flow.

And then we have Logans arc.. Like I said, it’s a very familiar arc but Millar moves past that familiarity to show a Logan who has spent 50 years living under the weight of his actions and a promise never to repeat them. The irresistible force of Logan’s animal nature is constantly channeled into holding itself back, it’s a hell of a feat and we are left in no doubt as to what it means. It’s no spoiler to say that this can’t last and when the inevitable happens, well… Millar proves to be just as good at writing ‘regular Wolverine’ as he is at writing ‘pacifist Wolverine’. It’s all nothing short of compelling, right from the off. Not only when seeing Wolverine but also the survivors of this ‘New world’. Again, it’s no spoiler to say that you are going to meet familiar characters behaving differently here.

I’ve got a busy day ahead of me so I’m going to stop here. It has been far too long since I last read ‘Old Man Logan’ and I’m very glad that I finally did somerhing about that. I won’t leave it so long next time…

If you haven’t read ‘Old Man Logan’, do something about that as soon as you can. I think you’ll really enjoy it.

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