Marvel Pick Of The Week – May 27, 2015 [SPOILERS]

Pick Of The Week:

Old Man Logan 1, by Brian Michael Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino

We had every reason to fear Secret Wars. It’s massive and sprawling, with over fifty books in the whole event. It has the potential to disrupt beloved continuity or stop the development of characters we’ve been falling in love with. It’s helmed by an architect whose run on Avengers was not to everyone’s taste. It’s named after some of the most notorious creative misfires Marvel has ever seen.

And it has been awesome. The main concept is interesting but streamlined, and it’s allowing creators to shuffle up and revitalize concepts the way that Marvel NOW! brought such life to decent-but-stalled books. This week’s Old Man Logan is a shining example of the best of this event.

I did not read Millar’s original work. I wasn’t following Wolverine’s solo book at the time, and an alternate future where he fights the Hulk didn’t seem all that relevant to the current adventures I was buying. So I thought I’d feel lost reading this exploration of the piece of Doom’s Battleworld that continues this story.

Bendis delivers a clearly told fusion of Western and Crime genres, sending the title character up against a trio of human traffickers in Santa Fe, then tracking down an old teammate to help understand how an Ultron head made it into his territory when Doom has forbidden anything to cross the borders between kingdoms. The opening scene is raw and violent, showcasing Andrea Sorrentino’s gorgeous skill as a storyteller with minimal dialogue. The second half is a classic Bendis noir dialogue between Logan and his teammate, full of lines that could have dripped slowly out of any of the great femme fatales’ poisoned lips. The android head should not fit in with either of these tones, but it does, and it does so seamlessly.

This issue shows everything that’s so, so right about the Secret Wars event. It pays respect to previous stories, it explores the limits of comic book genre and story options, and it does so in the explicit framework of the main series. You don’t have to read Hickman’s book to love it; you don’t have to read it to get Hickman (so far). This summer at Marvel has turned out to be a love letter to the medium, and we are lucky to be a part of it.

Honorable Mentions:

X-Men ’92 1, because a generation of fans can see this crowd in a mall and have the cartoon theme song play at full volume in our heads. The show has not aged well, but the exuberance is timeless.

Secret Wars Journal 1, because this book gives us a story reimagining the Young Avengers as Robin Hood…

… then pits the X-Men, as Egyptian slaves, against a bunch of mummified werewolves dressed as Moon Knight. Secret Wars has been a creative explosion, and stories like this are a great example of that.

Secret Wars 2099 1, because future Hercules has amazing game. The future feels safer now.

And he’s learned something in the last century!

All-New Hawkeye 3, because Ramon Perez shows us why fans need to add “the Kate Bishop Hawkeye” to our Marvel movie requests. Her Black Widow impression is spot-on.

Catch up on all the Picks Of The Week here!

Pick Of The Week:

Honorable Mentions:

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