Wolverine Became A Pacifist — Old Man Logan
When you think of the X-Men, your mind goes to Wolverine. This is most likely due to Hugh Jackman’s portrayal, as he has been in every single X-Men movie, no matter how good or bad, or even how unnecessary it is. But sadly, Hugh Jackman’s role as Wolverine has seemingly concluded with Logan. Logan is undoubtedly one of the best superhero movies of all time. This is because it comes from one of the best stories, that being Old Man Logan. And be forewarned, I will be spoiling all of the Old Man Logan story. Also, there are some images that aren’t for the faint of heart, so read on at your own risk.
Old Man Logan takes place when Logan is, well, an old man. This story takes place on Earth-807128, where all the villains teamed up to kill the heroes. Logan has never used his claws since that night, and the Wolverine persona died then. The United States has been split up between certain villains. The territories belong to the Hulk (formerly Abomination), a new Kingpin (formerly Magneto), Doctor Doom, and the Red Skull, who has named himself the President.
Logan lives on barren land in Sacramento, California in Hulkland. Logan lives with his wife Maureen, and his two children Scotty and Jade. However, the story is kicked off when Logan is running short on cash to pay off his landlords, the Hulk Gang. The Hulk Gang are the incestuous grandchildren of the Hulk and his first cousin She-Hulk. Logan is approached by a now blind Hawkeye to help him travel east to the capital, New Babylon. Logan doesn’t know what’s being transported, but takes the job, because the money will help him pay the rent. So, Hawkeye and Logan go on a cross country road trip in none other than the Spider-Mobile.
Hawkeye and Logan drive and encounter ruins where San Francisco should be. That’s when they see the Moloids, who are responsible for sinking entire cities. Just as they’re about to leave the ruins, Logan and Hawkeye are attacked by a gang of Ghost Riders. They’re both knocked down, and Logan is attacked, but doesn’t fight back and just takes the beating. Then, as the Ghost Riders are about to take the cargo, arrows start flying into them courtesy of Hawkeye. Hawkeye then realizes that Logan’s serious about never using his claws again.
Hawkeye and Logan drive into Hammer Falls, where people pray that the heroes will rise from the dead, as they used to in the days of old. Tons of superhero memorabilia is sold, and Mjolnir (Thor’s hammer) is prayed to like a god.
But while in town, they’re stopped by Tonya, Hawkeye’s third ex wife, and Peter Parker’s daughter. Tonya tells him that their daughter Ashley was trying to take down the Kingpin, but she got captured and is soon to be executed.
Hawkeye and Logan drive the Spider-Mobile right into where Ashley is being held, and Hawkeye proceeds to kill all of the guards. Hawkeye frees Ashley, and as the Kingpin walks in she chops his head off. That’s when Ashley reveals that she actually came to seize control of the Kingpin’s domain, and she’s about to kill Hawkeye when Logan drives out of the building, grabbing Hawkeye on the way out.
Hawkeye and Logan start to get chased by cars and even dinosaurs imported from the Savage Land. But, Moloids destroy the ground under them, and everybody falls into the depths of the Earth. Luckily they used the Spider-Mobile, because they drive right up the wall, after passing all of the Moloids eating the other people.
And finally, Logan reveals what happened on the day when Wolverine died. The X-Mansion was attacked by tons of different super villains like Shocker, Stryke, Doctor Octopus, Mr. Sinister, and many more. Wolverine starts killing everybody, but he keeps calling out for all of his fellow X-Men like Cyclops and Storm, but he can’t find them. The final villain left was Bullseye, with him and Wolverine fighting for over an hour. But when he finally killed him, it was revealed that it was actually Jubilee he killed. Then Mysterio reveals that he tricked Wolverine into killing all of the X-Men by portraying them as super villains. After that, Wolverine went and laid down on a train track as a freight train was coming along, but his healing factor wouldn’t let him die.
Logan and Hawkeye get back on the road when they start getting chased by a dinosaur that has fused with Venom. After it almost reaches them, Black Bolt appears in front of them, and stops the Venom dinosaur by saying one word, stop. Emma Frost then teleports those three away, and talks to Hawkeye and Logan while fixing up the Spider-Mobile.
The duo finally make it to New Babylon, where Hawkeye gives the supply to the consumer, and it’s revealed that the product was vials of Super Soldier serum. Logan gets riddled with bullets and Hawkeye gets shot in the chest when it’s revealed that these are undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who set this meeting up. Hawkeye is then killed by being shot in the head.
After that we see Red Skull in a trophy room full of superhero items, very similar to the Maestro’s trophy room in Future Imperfect. Red Skull is wearing Captain America’s costume and is reflecting when the undercover agents come in bringing in the corpses and the super soldier serum. Red Skull is preparing to put Hawkeye’s corpse with those of other heroes, when Logan starts healing. Logan takes out the agents when the Red Skull starts beating him up. Red Skull throws him into the trophy case, where Logan picks up Captain America’s shield and fights back. Logan gets Red Skull on the ground and chops his head off.
Logan then grabs the money from the deal and uses pieces of Iron Man’s suit to fly back to his family. He gets back to his house when he’d told that the Hulk Gang came two weeks early for their money, because they got bored. Logan sees his family dead on the ground, and then knows what he’s going to do. He pops his claws for the first time in fifty years, as Wolverine is back from the dead.
Two Hulks are washing their wounds in a sewer grate when Wolverine kills them and cuts them up into pieces. We see three more Hulks in a bar where Wolverine slaughters them.
Wolverine then goes right to the home of the Hulks, preparing to take them all on. Wolverine kills all of the Hulks in a gory, but very satisfying set of panels. Then we see Bruce Banner start fighting Wolverine, much more powerful than he’s ever been in his human form. Wolverine hurts him enough to make him angry, and Bruce turns into the Hulk, and straight up eats Wolverine. Wolverine then bursts out of the Hulk’s back after healing, finally killing Bruce Banner.
Wolverine goes back and buries his family, and he says that he’s going to take down the villains and bring law back to the world. He’s also going to build a team to help him, and in a form of poetic justice, takes Baby Bruce Banner Jr. as his first team member.
Now, this started as part of the Wolverine comic series, but everybody loved the story enough that the Old Man Logan series became a thing in 2016. Now, I’m not going to talk about that, but it shows how great the original story was. Now, I didn’t do the story justice in my explanation, and you really should go read it. The art perfectly compliments the dark story, and it’s really cool seeing how the world has changed after 50 years without heroes. The dynamic between Hawkeye and Logan is also a good one, which makes their road trip much better.
Overall, Old Man Logan is so beloved because of what it accomplishes. It’s much darker than other dark future stories like Future Imperfect, and done better than later stories like Age of Ultron. As long as comics are being made, dark future stories will be made, but Old Man Logan will always be known as one of the best ones.
