Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Graphic Novel Review- Wolverine: Old Man Logan

That's right, after last week's Wolverine: Origin we're here at the end, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, written by Mark Millar with art by Steve McNiven. You can catch that review here, bub.


Story-wise, it actually manages to do something original with the idea of an old man coming out of retirement for one last job, a trope which frankly does my head in whenever I see it now. This is especially true when it's not even old men doing one last job any more- just look at the trailer for Fast and the Furious Five. The key thing is that Logan here has decided to retire himself, living out his days on a farm with a family and never popping his claws again, for reasons that are refreshingly different to simply being "too old for this shit".

The reason for his abstinence from violence, *SPOILERS* having murdered every last X-Man and X-Woman under the illusion they were supervillains taking part in the uprising thanks to Mysterio, is so ingrained in the Marvel Universe it doesn't feel tacked on, but rather character-driven and meaningful. "They broke me, bub."


It doesn't mean that when, inevitably, Logan has to break his vow to get out of s sticky situation and when get a page-sized panel reading, simply, "Sniiikt!" it doesn't feel awesome. The set up of Logan as a pacifist who gets dragged kicking and screaming back into the feral, violent life he used to lead which led to the death of any friends he had brings an excellent pay-off for the rest of the story. Retribution is swift as Logan tours the rest of the broken United States, divided among Red Skull (now president), Hulk, Kingpin and Magneto, leaving a trail of blood and dismembered corpses in his wake.

This isn't a graphic novel I'd let kids read. The art is excellent, McNiven really capturing each location (be it dustbowl, rundown metropolis or ruined capital city) and each character, but it's realistically drawn to the point where the gore would get a bit much. Case in point-
I can't tell you what's going on here, it'd spoil the story, but you can probably work it out. The "old" versions of familiar characters are pretty epically realised.

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