Comic Book Review: WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN (2008)
The Comics industry is very much an insiders’ club. With the recent relaunch of DC Comics, they are aiming more at new readers and a whole new demographic to read comics. However, I’ve always found the best comics to be the one shot stories that don’t relate to or have anything to do with the established continuity of stories.
tell me this doesn’t make you wanna read this?!
WOLVERINE: OLD MAN LOGAN is a prime example of this type of storytelling in comics, which is steeped in established characters, used in new ways that even non-comic fans can love. Written my Mark Millar, OLD MAN LOGAN is set 50 years from now, and we see Wolverine as never before.
Being the bad ass of the Marvel Comics line, Wolverine is known to all as the hot headed, claw popping feral mutant from the X-Men. OLD MAN LOGAN shows us a changed Wolverine who, not only is no longer with the X-Men, but he’s a pacifist!??
oh logan, how you’ve fallen… literally.
The Premise: 50 years ago, all the Super villains united and launched a coordinated attack against all the Superheroes of the world. The kicker is… they won. The entire USA has been split up into territories dominated by Super villains of the Marvel Universe. There are no more Superheroes in the world. And in this tiny corner of the Country, Logan, previously known as Wolverine of the X-Men, lives out a simple life with a family.
Threatened by his landlords (villains of course) for not having enough money to pay rent for his farm (yes, he’s a farmer now) Wolv–Logan finds an opportunity for cash when his old buddy Hawkeye shows up and asks him to drive him cross country for a job that pays very very well. Oh and Hawkeye’s blind now.
blind, but still a badass!
OLD MAN LOGAN is written exceptionally well. The first thing that hits you in the face is the novelty of hearing about everything that’s happened in the 50 years. But it’s all mentioned very casually. Logan’s been out of the game for years, so he doesn’t know anything that’s happened since his self-exile. So he’s the eyes of the audience as we go cross-country through decimated towns, Superhero graveyards… finding out, very casually about what happened.
The story is about how Logan sees what he left behind, and is faced with his past in Hawkeye and has to finally face what caused him to retire. It’s a bone chilling reveal, to find out why exactly Logan disappeared during the fight 50 years ago, and why he gave up.
It’s an awesomely past paced story that follows through America where we meet some legendary characters, or their next generation, along with some great takes on what happened ‘in the past’.
There are a lot of twists and turns, which is expected in a story set 50 years in the Marvel Universe where the villains have won. Millar, as always is in top form writing a horrible setting in the best way possible.
a moment of silence please…
OLD MAN LOGAN is less about the state of the Marvel Universe, and more about Logan and his attempts at trying to do best for his family. Although the ending is so awesome, that it could easily be a continuing story, but alas is just a onetime deal… for now.
This brings up another interesting point of note: With Studios constantly trying to find successful franchises of Superhero stories, wouldn’t films based on one-shot material like OLD MAN LOGAN be a helluva lot successful than trying to adapt decades of canon or Origin stories in 2.5 hours? Hear me out.
A film based on OLD MAN LOGAN, could easily introduce multiple characters, events, storylines, purely through dialogue and back-story, which have the possibility of being fleshed out in spin-off films, within the same Universe. Imagine brief flashback sequences involving the X-Men of an all-new cast, references of Spiderman’s progeny, etc… All these Easter eggs could be developed into their own individual film properties, within the universe of OLD MAN LOGAN as Prequels… or not, doesn’t matter, that’s the beauty of it all.
The comics are adapted in the first place to suit film limitations, (sometimes to the detriment of the story) indirectly creating an individual continuity of its own. So why not adapt stories which are already out of continuity? Just a thought Marvel… if you implement though, I want a ‘Creative Producer’ credit! 😉
6 Comments
Conceptual Muse · September 16, 2012 at 12:18 AM
Reblogged this on marvel comics .
Conceptual Muse · September 16, 2012 at 11:37 PM
Reblogged this on marvel comics .
L. Palmer · September 21, 2012 at 2:18 AM
Seems like a really interesting story. The great thing about one-off’s is the freedom to break the continuity of the canon, and really get into exploring the characters.
Shah Shahid · September 23, 2012 at 10:11 PM
Thanks for the comments..
I completely agree. I wish more films were based on one-offs or individual stories, rather than trying to cram in as much continuity and in-story wink to fanboys as possible. Ends up convoluting most comic book films.
Jamie Insalaco · January 10, 2013 at 10:36 PM
i haven’t read this one yet, but I tend to agree – these types of stories tend to be the better ones. It’s difficult to sustain a story in the monthlies (especially with all the crossovers – that’s probably why X-Factor is so good)
Shah Shahid · January 11, 2013 at 11:13 AM
Check it out. It’s pretty decent. I find these easier to jump into for the semi fanboy, instead of the ongoing stuff.
Haven’t ready X-Factor, but I’ll take your word for it.
Thanks for stopping by.