Wolverine Old Man Logan

[Mr Light]

So after months of anticipation I finally got to read the trade collection. It's written by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven the same super team that made the Civil War event. I love Mark Millar (Civil War, Wanted, Wolverine Enemy of the State) and McNiven is probably my favorite current artist, and it's Wolverine in a post-apocalyptic super-villain ruled world, so my expectations were high!

Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed. Not that it was bad mind you, but I expected a real knock out of the park. I think my main problem is that the story doesn't build to anything. Hawkeye is smuggling a top secret package to DC but that doesn't go anywhere. The villains teamed up and killed all the heroes but that doesn't go anywhere. The mysterious "President" ended up not being important.

I thought I read that this series was going to tie into the Marquis of Death from Millar's FF fun, but there's zero connection.

While the art was amazing, there was WAY too many splash pages. I read this thing in a hot second. That felt like a little of a cheat. Plus, the hardcover is over-sized and costs extra.

I was also hoping to see a bunch of the surviving super-villains, but we only get the Hulk and the Red Skull. That's it. It's too bad because the off-screen story of the fall of the heroes sounded so much more interesting a story.

Also, Wolverine has taken a vow of non-violence and spends almost the entire story following it. Another disappointment.

I'm starting to worry about Millar's work. I found the end of his FF run, which was up to that point stellar, to be immensely disappointing and anti-climactic. And now this.

Has anyone read the third linked story, "Marvel 1985"? Is it any good? Does it link to the Marquis storyline?

 

[Luckyflux]

Wolverine took a vow of non-violence?!?! How the heck did that happen?!

 

[Mr Light]

Spoiler: Why He Did It

On the night all the villains teamed up to kill all the heroes, they sent Mysterio to the X-Mansion. He created the illusion that Wolvie was fighting off forty super-villains but he was really slicing apart and murdering every single X-Man and mutant student in the mansion. When he woke up and saw what he did, he just wandered off into the forest and didn't pop a claw for fifty years. Personally I thought it was a little ridiculous he could take them all out, particularly since Polaris was there and she could stop him single-handedly. Metal manipulation powers, man.

 

[Starbreaker]

Wolverine is stretched way too thin. The only thing I've read from Wolverine v3 is the the first two arcs and Get Mystique (the House of M tie in). I'm not quite up to Old Man Logan yet, though.

And apparently I haven't read anything of Mark Millar's other than Ultimate X-Men. I need to remedy that.

 

[Myasishchev]

I've always thought of Millar as Ellis without the same breadth of imagination. That said, he's usually pretty entertaining. Ultimates was fun--although the first series lost points for the totally original concept of Nazi aliens (sigh), it's does a pretty good job of world building and the real point of the story is to showcase the assholes who comprise our Ultimate Universe Avengers, which is neat although not everyone's cup of tea.

Yet I can't help but wonder how much lower my estimation of the book would be sans the beautiful Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary artwork. Certainly I never read Ultimates vol. 3, before I ever even heard Loeb's writing was beyond terrible.

Civil War is okay, too, although it's pretty obvious whom Millar feels the "bad guys" are, even though they win. I wish Stark had just blasted Rogers' stupid, smug face off.

His Authority wasn't very entertaining, although again that may be because Frank Quitely draws like someone in diabetic shock and who has only seen one rather unattractive face in their entire life.

 

[Mr Light]

I've always found Bryan Hitch's artwork to be incredibly ugly. Well, the backgrounds are beautiful. But he draws the ugliest people, particularly the women, who are usually making some obscene smug face with their tongue sticking out for some bizarre reason.

 

[Myasishchev]

Hitch, or Quitely? I could see that with Quitely. Hitch by contrast (I always thought) is very good with faces and anatomy, and making people distinct.

 

[Mr Light]

They both draw ugly people. Quietly definitely wins the no-prize for ugliest women in comic books, though. With Q it's a squint-eyed sneer... with Hitch it's sticking their tongue out.

 

[broberfett]

Wolverine took a vow of non-violence?!?! How the heck did that happen?!

That's almost like Ron Jeremy taking a vow of chastity at the beginning of a movie or Jack Black vowing to be completely serious at the beginning of a movie. What a really stupid idea.

 

[The Evil Dead]

Wolverine took a vow of non-violence?!?! How the heck did that happen?!

That's almost like Ron Jeremy taking a vow of chastity at the beginning of a movie or Jack Black vowing to be completely serious at the beginning of a movie. What a really stupid idea.

In the context of the series I thought it was actually pretty cool.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah it definitely works within the series, it just makes for a slightly boring story

 

[Ben Sisko3]

I thought I read that this series was going to tie into the Marquis of Death from Millar's FF fun, but there's zero connection.

Has anyone read the third linked story, "Marvel 1985"? Is it any good? Does it link to the Marquis storyline?

Millar's FF, 1985, Old Man Logan and even Kick-Ass all interlink in some form or another. And yes, 1985 is quite good. That, Kick-Ass, Cable & Deadpool, Fables, Sandman and Watchmen helped get my girlfriend into comics hardcore.

 

[Mr Light]

OK I did some wiki-reading and apparently the link is that

Spoiler: blinky

the Future Hulk in the first FF trade is the baby from Old Man Logan.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Wolverine took a vow of non-violence?!?! How the heck did that happen?!

That's almost like Ron Jeremy taking a vow of chastity at the beginning of a movie or Jack Black vowing to be completely serious at the beginning of a movie. What a really stupid idea.

Why, exactly? It's kind of the whole point of the AU, a character being significantly different; in this case, Wolverine's become resigned to the way the world is. Millar's the opposite of subtle, but that characterization I thought he handled quite well.

 

[Checkmate]

Metal manipulation powers, man.

Have they finally broken down and started calling Magneto and Polaris's power "metal manipulation?" I've been waiting for that for a long time, because they sure do manage to find a ton of ferrous metal everywhere.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I've been waiting for the trade myself...I mostly flipped through the issues as they came out and wasn't really impressed. When issue one first came out Millar did an interview with Wizard where he compared Old Man Logan to Dark Knight Returns but it doesn't really feel that way. It is mostly just a really fucked up alternate reality story. Steve McNiven's art is beautiful as always but the story doesn't really compliment it, there's no build up to any thing major except for the end fight. The President mentioned I thought for some reason was Osborne but maybe I'm thinking too much of Alex Ross's Earth X. Mr. Light you forgot to mention Superman: Red Son which is maybe my favourite of Millar's non original stories. I've been meaning on picking up the Kick Ass trade.

 

[Mr Light]

I've actually never read Red Son but it's on my list. I'm waiting on the Kick Ass trade as well.

 

[Ben Sisko3]

OK I did some wiki-reading and apparently the link is that

Spoiler: blinky

the Future Hulk in the first FF trade is the baby from Old Man Logan.

Also, "Clyde's Pit" is a reference to Clyde Wyncham's apparent prison. Wyncham pops up in both 1985 and FF, and his actions in 1985 are referenced in Kick-Ass.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Sorry to bump this, but I finally got around to picking this up after reading this thread awhile back.

I agree with lots of the criticisms. Too much stuff that kind of goes nowhere. It just touches on some interesting stuff then moves on and is forgotten. But in the end I enjoyed reading it.

Spoiler: stuff

It has to be some kind of literary rule that if you mention something like the White Queen using her powers to cast come kind of glamor on herself, you have you at least show a glimpse of her true self. Or if you introduce something as powerful as a suitcase full of super soldier serum, someone better goddamn use it or get killed by it. I was actually hoping Logan would inject himself with all the vials and go all Tetsuo on the villains or something even though it would be kind of predictable. Speaking of which, they seemed to do a decent job of not going with cliche's, only to end the whole book with a huge cliche'd revenge rampage, which in itself was kind of disappointing. In fact I found the whole last book a corny let down.

Can anyone recommend any other elseworld type books? I enjoyed red son, gotham by gaslight, Marvel Ruins, the speeding bullet and I enjoyed Old Man Logan despite it's flaws, so I was hoping I could find some more. Marvel 1985 is probably next on my list.

 

[Frodo Lives]

Can anyone recommend any other elseworld type books?

Have your tried Marvel 1602?

I really enjoyed the first series, a great twist on classic Marvel, and quite gripping. The followup series have been so-so I think, but still, it's a fun and interesting alterverse.

And then of course there's Marvel Zombies, which may be an acquired taste. No pun intended.