Comic Vine Review

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Old Man Logan #1

3

Logan is cleaning up the place in this new Secret Wars book

The Good

Logan kicks some butt, finds an Ultron head, talks to Emma Frost, and decides to leave his territory, heading into the unknown.

The main reason to pick up this issue is simply for the art. Andrea Sorrentino and Marcelo Maiolo are quite possibly my favorite art team in comics. They deliver some of the best art of the year in this issue, right from the start when Logan takes on Gladiator and a whole group of people dressed in Daredevil outfits. Spoilers, kinda... The two-page spread of Logan stabbing Gladiator is the image of the year, which is tough to say, since we're only in May. Artistically, this book never takes its foot off the gas and Maiolo delivers some of his patented moves by doing a few panels and pages in his signature flat style to emphasize the moment. In addition, Sorrentino and Maiolo give readers some wonderful establishing shots of the landscape that have a photo-realism feel to it which are wonderful transitional scenes.

As a fan, it is great to not only see this character again but the world of Old Man Logan as a whole. The original story, by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, set up so many great places this could go and we catch glimpses of greatness right off the bat in this dystopian future where masks rule the world, in a sense.

The Bad

The actual story for the issue doesn't feel very believable with this character. In the Old Man Logan story line, Logan is pushed to do the things he does in order to save himself and those close to him. In this SECRET WARS tie-in, he's become almost an investigator and savior for people. It feels like a complete change for the character's personality. Understandably, this are going to be a little shaken up here because it's technically not the exact character from the original storyline.

Aside from that, the story of Logan trekking his way towards and up the wall to find where the Ultron head came from just doesn't feel like it works. It feels like the story was crafted to force the character to go somewhere else rather than the character moving the story forward. I'm having this knack for getting very excited for Brian Michael Bendis stories and getting let down in the actual execution in quite a few of his books recently.

The Verdict

Every ounce of the Old Man Logan fanboy in me wants to love this book. I was incredibly excited to jump right into this book and while the art was nothing short of brilliant here and the world that Millar originally created is just as brilliant, the character of Logan is completely different from the original and the story here feels forced and not worth the effort of the main character. If you're looking for a book with great art, check this out. Otherwise, you may be a bit disappointed once the fanboy excitement fades away.