Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Andrea Sorrentino & Marcelo Maiolo
Publisher: Marvel
When “Old Man Logan” was announced as a series, I was immediately excited to see the world that Mark Millar and Steve McNiven had created years ago again. The world was fascinating mostly because Millar only ever teased what happened the night that the heroes fell and the time after things became near-post-apocalyptic. Half of the appeal was how badass Logan while the other half was the world-building I’ve spoken of. Unfortunately, we only get to explore one side of the story arcs appeal in this sequel.
Continuing almost directly after “Giant-Sized Wolverine”, the book begins with Logan doing what he set out to do; clean up the mess that his world is. Logan is still a three-dimensional character and he deserves to return. But this is where it deviates, since he happens to land upon an item that brings the book out of Logan’s world and into the overall “Secret Wars” event. The book almost forcibly feels tied into it all though, with mentions from Logan of Doom and the Thors. The opening, extra-long action sequence was fascinating, but the rest of the issue falls into the “first-issue-itis” problem with its need to set up constantly. But what the book has going against it is that it isn’t very new-reader friendly. Characters are introduced into the story that felt more like a nod to returning “OML” readers while barely touching what made Logan’s world so great.
Everything is so pretty though. Marvel rarely fails to hire terrible artist and Sorrentino and Mailolo kill it in this book. This is, visually, a gritty western with lots of brown present and lots of violence. This book is indeed for mature readers, with ears and jaws flying off. There was one two-page spread that felt confusing involving a flickering light. Maybe it was intended to be disorienting, but that never really works well in comics.
This was indeed a disappointment for me. The adrenaline of a thrilling action sequence isn’t enough to sate the want for a well-rounded story. Maybe the next issue will clear things up and carve its own path, but for now it isn’t enough.
