Old Man Logan #1 Review

Old Man Logan #1

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Andrea Sorrentino
Color by Marcelo Maiolo
Published by Marvel Comics

When Old Man Logan first appeared, it was amazing. Marvel had found a way to fuse together the world of super heroes with the science fiction of dystopian futures and the old western tale of the hero forced to return to a life he tried to put behind him. After it ended, we had Old Man Logan embarking on the hero’s journey once again after losing everything that made him settle down and look for peace. In the time since, the dust from the old world threatened to blow away, but lived on in our memories of what stories our favorite heroes can tell us when we allow them outside of their boundaries. Now that we have a new Old Man Logan, it does not disappoint.

While other Secret Wars books seem to rely on their connection to the crossover, Old Man Logan #1 barely acknowledges it. Secure in the setting he gets to play in, Bendis lets us fall back into the world of Old Man Logan without missing a beat. Here we find our weathered hero continuing his lonely journey in a world without heroes going forth to set right what has been wrong entirely too long.

Everything here is birthed from both this world’s corruption of the world that came before and Bendis’ own love for it. The nanny who looks over Baby Banner while Wolverine is away is a nod to a pair of Bendis’ favorite characters, while Old Man Logan’s conversation with the last of the Flying Devils felt like not only a fitting homage to Daredevil, but the way one might interact with a world that seems intent in twisting everything you used to know and returning it to you in broken and horrible ways.

Logan where he belongs, in a hail of blood and bullets.

As much as this book needs the writing of a Bendis to effortlessly tie in the details of the Marvel Universe that was, with a dusky afterworld short on hope, it also relies heavily on the artwork by Andrea Sorrentino. In Sorrentino’s art, we find characters given personality in smaller panels with the tilt of their faces. Sorrentino’s choices between smaller and larger panels are easy to follow but allow the action to be simultaneously grandiose and gritty. His attention to Logan in these fights helps him transcend beyond gritty brawler. It is like watching a mythological figure operating in his prime. Here we find a story in every face shown and every face the artist chooses not to show. The landscapes are dry and seem to stretch on forever, yet every place we visit seems to have its own feel, without ever piercing the mood of the book.

There is a scene where one of the characters tells Logan that she thought he was “the angel of death” there to claim her life. It is in this scene that we truly find a frame for this hero. After disappearing for 50 years, this mini-series puts him on a path to right old wrongs left in a world without super heroes. Since then, things have begun to shift. Vacuums in power have caused others to reach for it. Here, Logan is no longer the hero, but an avenging angel, killing off a world that has choked and enslaved the innocent entirely too long. This issue feels like the beginning of an epic journey, and to be perfectly honest, I haven’t been this excited about a second issue of a comic in a long time.

Old Man Logan #1: A+

Next: More Secret Wars: Spider-Verse #1 Review

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