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Wolverine: Old Man Logan


But a train couldn't kill you. Not with your healing factor. 
No, but it hurt... an' sometimes that's enough.

After Mark Millar and Steve McNiven cooperated on the monumentally successful; Civil War, the dynamic duo teamed up again to take on an eight-issue Elseworld's story within the main Wolverine run, setting the Marvel universe several decades in the future in an alternate timeline where the villains successfully massacred the heroes and took over the United States. The former U.S.A. has since been dubbed "the Wasteland, " and sections of the country have since been split into boroughs, each ruled by a supervillain. The country is a blend of Marvel and the Fallout franchise of sorts, featuring wacky developments as survivors try and scrape by, with several locations calling back towards older icons of Marvel.

The worldbuilding is the most interesting element of "Old Man Logan," a cross-country journey where an aged Wolverine and blind Hawkeye attempt to transport a mysterious package from what was once California to the new Washington DC. Each stop introduced a new and engaging feature of the Wasteland and Millar's slow revelations as to what exactly transpired left readers eagerly awaiting the next issue. The setting is a bleak, post-apocalyptic world devoid of hope, which is the ultimate driving factor for Hawkeye but something Logan himself needs to find. Wolverine was symbolically executed along with most of the other heroes back when the villains attacked, and Hawkeye's hopes for his companion to unsheath his claws again end up being fruitless. Logan serves as little more than navigator in this warped, hillbilly-esque land.

"Old Man Logan" is a beautiful tribute to the character and also a compelling examination of guilt, which Logan and Hawkeye both deal with in different ways. Millar creates a touching, albeit understandably violent, epic that involves a surprising number of cameos and twists, and by the end of the story, the Wasteland feels lived in and like a regular piece of the Marvel Comics universe. This is incredibly well done given the plot itself follows the traditional hero's journey from start to finish (for more information on what this is, Google Joseph Campbell). Those who are fans of the Fallout video games or Mad Max movies will be right at home here.


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