X-Men Questions — Part 3: Old Man Logan & Wolverine
This is part of a series on X-Men questions posed by my buddy Rene. Check out the previous parts: 1 2
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Rene’s question for this post was asking about Old Man Logan:
Old Man Logan. How?
That’s a big question. I’ll try my best to answer it. And in this, I’ll also answer this one:
X-23, still Wolverine?
Wolverine one of the most iconic characters in recent history. Not just comics, in general. Like, I’m not sure if any character will be able to have “claws” ever again without someone (likely in a post just like this) pointing out its derivation from the iconic Wolverine.
I’m probably missing some history about Wolverine, so I should just shut up about that right now.
What I can say is: I know some about this Old Man Logan character — at least his origins and how he came to be in the Marvel Universe as we know it today. I don’t read the ongoing book (though I should as it was Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino), but I do see the character in at least three of the other X-Men books I read.
Note: I’m going to answer these questions to the best of my ability and opinion with the help of Google, UncannyXMen.net, Wikipedia, and a few other sites.
Before we start, I want to warn you: There will be full spoilers for all X-Men titles as of August 16, 2017.
The Oldest Man Logan
I wish I could have been a fly on the wall when Mark Millar pitched the idea for Old Man Logan to some editors.
The big ordeal about this book is that it took the current Marvel Universe (616) and broke it into a dark dystopia where a lot of really bad stuff happened. Wolverine had killed all of the X-Men (pretty much), all of the villains beat out the heroes, Doctor Doom, Kingpin, and Hulk all owned chunks of what we know as the United States, and the story gets real serious about nicknames.
Hawkeye, Red Skull, and a bunch of other characters show up. It’s a romp. It’s in your face. Really cool, really gritty, comic book nerdom at it’s peak.
Even with the shipping delays up the wazoo, the book was pretty well loved (or so I remember). The final issue of the run was a Giant Sized issue that wrapped up a pretty bombastic fight.
In the end, Wolverine has to go kill the bad guy (not gonna spoil the whole thing), he wins (okay, sort of), and rides off into the sunset.
I honestly do not know how it became the final (sort of) issues of the Wolverine book, but it did, and (similar to DC’s Superman: Red Son — also by Millar) it became a very iconic take on a very popular character.
Semi-Secret Wars
Enter Secret Wars (2015).
Ever take a bunch of play-doh and mash it together to see what it would look like? Yeah. That’s Secret Wars.
I won’t touch on this too much, but I really did enjoy this wild and crazy goofy monster of a story. Jonathon Hickman built a beast of a story from scratch, evolved it, added a dash of paprika and cumin, baked for 85 minutes at 450*C and sliced it up into 8, no, 9 parts.
Let’s be clear here: Doctor Doom is my favorite villain, so this book was practically made for me. I read all of the lead-ups (Avengers & New Avengers) and was mentally prepared. But I won’t go into all of that (I go into sad, shamed-detail on few older episodes of IRCB).
But where does Old Man Logan fit into this?
As part of the Secret Wars event where all books ended (with a few exceptions) and everything got wiped away, all sorts of worlds started getting mashed together — particularly the Ultimate Universe and, somehow, Old Man Logan’s universe.
I’m certain I’m missing a dozen other fun references. (I think Spider-Ham shows up?)
But Old Man Logan is here. He gets his book. It’s a story about him realizing he’s not supposed to be there.
In the end, Doom is defeated — sort of — and the universe gets reset. But due to some magicks concocted by Hickman, there’s only one universe left and it’s the 616. Everything sort of resets, but with some stragglers who survived the universe-play-doh-merging-experience™.
One of those stragglers is Old Man Logan. With some movie magic and time skipping, the X-Men stories end up taking place 8-Months in the future. Some of the work from Hickman’s other monster event, Infinity, is causing run-off and the X-Men are in trouble — mutants are dying because of a globe-sweeping cloud of Terrigen mist is flowing in the jet stream.
Comics, people.
Cyclops did something bad (started a war) and the X-Men are trying to save mutants across the globe. It seems that this reset of the universe has also undone some of the work House of M did — aka “No more mutants.”
Oh, but, also, Old Man Logan is in tow with the X-Men.
Really, this isn’t hard to believe. He knows everyone, and they, kind of, know him. There are, obviously, some unspoken issues, but what are X-Men comics for, if not to figure out some drama as a team, nay, as a family?
So, who is Wolverine?
Post-Secret Wars, we had a few stories (Inhumans Vs. X-Men, Extraordinary X-Men) where Old Man Logan is kind of a dick. It works. He’s older, kind of a curmudgeon, and, well, he did kill all of his friends. But it’s more that the writers embraced that this isn’t the same butt-head who was Wolverine.
I don’t read the Old Man Logan book (I should, I know), but I’m guessing this is probably true there, too. However, as of X-Men Gold and Weapon X, this Old Man Logan is a defacto Wolverine. His interactions feel like the old Wolverine. His approach to battle feels like the old Wolverine.
So, maybe, he plays the part of Wolverine now, just by a different name: Logan. As far as the X-books are concerned, sure.
But, to me? This is Wolverine:
Laura Kinney. She’s taken the mantle and, honestly, I like her more than Logan. She’s brutal, but caring. She’s battle-ready, clever, and has more heart than most characters could dream of having.
Her book, All-New Wolverine, is by far one of the best X-books out there right now. If “young” Logan never returns, that’s fine. Really. Laura is doing the job. We’re good.
So, to answer the question? X-23 still Wolverine?
Yes. And she’s the best at what she does.
For more of my thoughts on the X-Men and comic books in general, make sure to checkout the I Read Comic Books podcast where almost every week I find a way to bring up the X-Men on the show.
