Tweet

Old Man Logan is dystopian tale of violence, regret, and a hero’s place in an alternate world without heroes. It is a dark, gritty Marvel version of Kingdom Come, and it is just as poignant. The new movie Logan is a spiritual adaptation of the story, emphasizing the themes of age, mistakes, and redemption without some of the more ridiculous aspects (the spider buggy).

However, there are major differences between the film and the comics that reveal how the movie is promoting a very different message. The comics, though dark, is a personal struggle of finding your place in the world and how to redeem yourself. The film, by altering the original dark event, displaces the characters and becomes a nihilistic tale as a result. The film, though good, leaves little hope, and we will cover this in a later article.

The original storyline itself is in three parts: the first is the original story of a Wolverine no more than once again; the second is the “Warzones!” cross-over return to the original story; and the third is a continuation of the character following the “Secret Wars” storyline in a new world. Each tale has a different purpose, but all three reveal facets of the “Old Man Logan” character.

In terms of storytelling, the “Old Man Logan” series is about dealing with your past. This is what the Logan film focuses the most on, but the film ignores the desire for personal redemption. “Old Man Logan” is Logan because he personally failed. He let the world down, and he has to come to terms with that mistake and make things right. Logan, in the film, is not to blame.

This will contain spoilers, but plot details do little to convey the true tone of the comics. Nothing can truly spoil the Old Man Logan stories. However, there are some basic details that might spoil the beginning of the film.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan

The story itself is absurd. It is the superhero version of melodrama. A lot of people die, brutally. Like a B Horror movie, bodies explode with almost little provocation. Events pass by quickly, existing more as a playful nod to other characters and stories than anything meaningful to progress the central storyline. They are a distraction, and they encourage the reader to let his guard down.

The bad guys are bad: the redneck grandchildren of a decrepit Bruce Banner run amok in a wasteland that was once California. They are abusive cannibals who represent the worst. The are caricatures of comicbook villains. Ultimately, they only exist to allow the story to have some sense of completion.

There are other villains, temporary figures that exist only to be killed in the journey East. Salvation lies in that direction; not the closed gates of Eden, but the promise of a small sum that would allow the former Wolverine to live peacefully with his family. But, like Eden, those gates are barred, and the effort was for nothing.

With Hawkeye as his companion (or is Logan the companion of Hawkeye?), he seeks a means to continue his pacifist ways but only finds the opposite. He witnesses the degradation and horrors of a world without heroes, and he feels compelled to act. His reluctance, in part, is due to his self-loathing for having played a part in the end of heroes.

When the villains originally rose up and killed all the heroes decades before the story takes place, Wolverine was manipulated into killing the X-Men. It is uncertain how he was able to accomplish this task, and the story is incredibly improbable. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that Wolverine was responsible for the death of his team and family, and he lets the world burn as he tries to start a new life.

But if you feel guilty about causing the death of your family, then that guilt can’t be aleviated by starting a new life with a new family. Even if Logan felt secure or at peace, the inevitable death of his family at the hands of the monsters running the world is ultimately only fitting. Deep down inside, Logan recognizes it. He becomes Wolverine again, and he kills the Banner family (all 100+ members).

Ultimately, it is a story of redemption, but a dark one based on loss. A hero must be a hero because the world needs heroes. Wolverine is not Logan’s to keep or give away at will. It is his duty and obligation to the world as a whole. Only through utter destruction and loss, external and internal, does he realize that point. In his final moment, Logan/Wolverine leaves with Banner’s infant grandchild in hope that he can redeem them both.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan: Warzones

As part of the Secret Wars event that merged many deprecated storylines, Logan returns once again. The story begins with him killing a gang of thugs who don the outfits of deceased heroes. His attempt to save others goes poorly, with many too far gone to understand what it meant to be free.

His final words as he departs from the scene are, “I’ll be back here. And I damn well better see something that looks like something. Or I will burn this place down and let someone else start all over again.”

There is little hope in his words, little hope that people can improve. Logan’s world is lost. He returns back to his new family, his redemptive family where he is raising the Banner baby, but it is not his family.

Logan goes on a new journey, leaving the baby with the wife of the now deceased Luke Cage as he goes to investigate the appearance of an Ultron helmet that does not match his world. He mentions “Thors,” who did not exist in the Old Man Logan universe. Instead, he is part of the new one, with his memories revised.

With the new world of “Secret Wars,” the end of Logan’s old, dying world is complete. There is no possible way forward and the Banner child is a distant memory as Logan’s investigation takes him to a dying Emma Frost. She represents the end of mutant-kind and the conclusion of that dark universe. Logan knows he cannot fix his world, and there is nothing left except to travel to the other lands of the merged universe.

From there, the series becomes extremely complicated, like all “Secret Wars” related comics. Logan finds other universes where alternate versions of his friends are still alive, and they are near the age that he knew them before the villains took over. It is a confused new reality, but through the series he tries to become a leader. His path of redemption is one that crosses many universes, but it is no longer connected to his own. Although it is unsatisfying that his original story is abandoned, Logan is able to become a true hero once again.

Wolverine: Old Man Logan (All-New All-Different Marvel)

After everything is rearranged following the “Secret Wars” storyline, Logan becomes one with the younger continuity. However, none of the characters or locations match his or even that of much earlier incarnations of the Wolverine character (as Marvel changed most of them). The story transforms from one of redemption to almost a meta-commentary on older readers trying to experience a new continuity.

Logan is convinced that he is in his past, and it takes time for him to adjust. For a while, he lives in fear of killing the X-Men, and this is made worse by the X-Men confusing him with their own version of the Wolverine character.

Eventually, a version of Jean Gray (with her own strange time issues) guides Logan through his version of the past as they match with this new reality, visiting locations key to the events that led to the death of the various heroes. Eventually, Logan convinces himself that, though the villains might still attack, he will be prepared for them.

Although Logan is given a second chance, the series is really about the second chance of Marvel. The resetting of the universe allowed Marvel to keep characters and storylines that mattered while discarding many that caused fundamental issues or problems. The “Old Man” version of Logan, as a fan favorite, is able to see this attempt at improvement first hand. Although he still lives in his past, he is eventually able to adjust.

The Film Logan

In our article on the film Logan, we will discuss the ramifications of altering the murder of the X-Men by Wolverine’s hands to more accidental murder of them by Professor Charles Xavier. Of these, the film transforms the culpable but victim Wolverine into the frail, inculpable Xavier.

This removes any ability to redeem from the whole story. Unless Xavier can be regenerated, he is always a dangerous weapon, revealing that time ruins all things. This is a nihilistic world of degradation, not one that could ever receive a semblance of improvement.

At the end of the original story, there is a chance of things to get better, but the “Warzones” version seems to crush that idea. The “Old Man Logan” character personally seeks redemption and to preserve a new world. In the film, Logan is trying to preserve the end of his kind and possibly help a new generation, but he is not responsible for what happened. There is no personal story. He is not a hero. He is only a survivalist.

Logan is a film of survival, not hope nor redemption.