I'm of THIS mind when it comes to Old Man Logan, the story not the character. At it's heart, it's meant to be the "Dark Knight Returns" for Wolverine. Ever since that came out we've seen it done with a LOT of heroes. They're out of the game for a long while, things get worse, they have to come back and reclaim their place as a hero. Since then we've seen it with Superman in Kingdom Come(Yeah I count that story as "The Man of Steel Returns" in a way), Spider-Man in Spider-Man: Reign, and a few others I'm probably forgetting.
Now does Old Man Logan hold up? No. As a story, or rather concept for a story? Yes it's really interesting. An older and broken Logan is forced to come out of retirement and through a series of adventures ends up finding the will to become Wolverine again. However... It makes the mistake of two things.
1: Wolverine is feared and with good reason, but Millar paint's him to almost "Batgod" levels in the story! Granted it's easier to do when your main character is nigh-indestructible and has claws that can cut through nearly anything like a hot knife through butter. AND while I could see him being feared by a lot of the villains due to, well, the fact he IS nigh-indestructible and unlike many other heroes... he has no qualms about gutting you. But Millar does so many disservices. Punisher and Daredevil are killed off unceremoniously, Spider-Man's granddaughter is a villain, Hawkeye gets axed, and it paints such a... Depressingly bleak world. I mean yeah, I can handle bleak worlds, Mad Max fan right here, but... Damn. Everything is to make Wolverine look good and almost infallible whereas everyone else(Both legacies and characters themselves) are expendable.
2: The Hulk should have just been Maestro. Seriously!!! He was IN the Maestro role essentially!! There was no need to just make some random villain Hulk form for Bruce!! HE ALREADY HAS ONE!!!!!! Maestro would have been far more interesting and logical, and would have prevented Hulk from being the Superman to Wolverine's Frank Miller Batman. Yeah, Hulk is one of those heroes where it's FAR easier to stage a fight between him and another hero due to his anger issues, but if you EVER want a villain Hulk? Maestro is the way to go!!!
In short I don't mind Old Man Logan himself, despite the universe he comes from. I LIKE the idea of Logan being an older, more grizzled, and gruffer man, not even bothering to go by a codename anymore. It let's Marvel keep him around, but not technically go back on them killing the original Logan off either and let's X-23 keep the Wolverine identity.
Log in to comment