Old Man Logan #7 puts him in a position to murder cyborgs while protecting an alternate version of his future wife. Again, not an asshole, but he can't help but be in situations where he has to stab other assholes. That's what makes him Logan and that's a big part of what makes him awesome.
There are a lot of qualities that make Logan who he is, but what makes Old Man Logan a unique kind of Logan is the brooding. By Odin's beard, this man broods and unlike 99 percent of the other brooding assholes in comics, he deserves to. He killed everyone he cares about in his world. That shit still haunts him in ways that seeing your parents' sex tape can't match. Once again, Andrea Sorrentino provides visceral art that helps symbolize what Old Man Logan endures. Some of it comes in the form of flashbacks. Some comes in the form of fucked up visions that can only be treated with obscene amounts of whiskey. It's powerful shit, but it nicely conveys just who Old Man Logan is.
Why is this such an important quality to belabor? Well that's because one the Reavers are holding Maureen, Old Man Logan's future wife in another universe, in front of him as target practice. I'd say there are easier ways for cyborgs to kill themselves, but I guess some just want to go the extra distance.
As haunted and fucked up as Old Man Logan is, he's still Logan. That means if you try to hurt someone he cares about, he's going to fuck you up and piss on the entrails. The Reaver who tries to hold a civilian hostage learns that the hard way, although I don't think anyone has a right to be shocked when Logan guts someone for threatening an innocent person. That doesn't make it any less satisfying though. Brooding or not, Logan being overly violent in solving his problems is still more satisfying than a cold beer on a hot summer day.
Once the civilians are safe, Old Man Logan stops hesitating and starts kicking ass, as only he can. Sorrentino really plays up the tormented psyche of Old Man Logan here, more so than in previous issues. It isn't just in the brutal way Old Man Logan maims the Reavers. We've seen Wolverine do that any number of ways for decades. It's the way the violence and bloodshed haunts him that really stands out. He broods about how violence and chaos always finds him, but he doesn't let that stop him from fighting back.
This is the core essence of Wolverine. This is the great appeal of Old Man Logan. This guy isn't just concerned with busting Cyclops' balls, trying to bang married women, and making Storm horny every other day. He's a brutal, jaded, broken old fart who only knows how to keep fighting. Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino just convey this struggle in the most awesome way possible. It's the best version of Wolverine there is and we can only hope that Hugh Jackman gets to embrace this version in the final Wolverine movie.
Old Man Logan has just a few more lives to save and, fittingly enough, they happen to be Maureen and her mother. Sure, she's his future wife from another timeline, but those are just details for him. He came to Canada to protect them and now they're in the arms of Lady fucking Deathstrike. So I guess that means he half-failed. Any effort that ends with loved ones in the arms of a vindictive cyborg has to involve failure on some levels.
There's a nice, heated exchange between Old Man Logan and Lady Deathstrike. It really doesn't matter that he's from an alternate universe. Lady Deathstrike still wants to make him suffer. It might be the only thing that makes her panties wet these days. The drama with Marueen and her mother is wonderfully portrayed here, putting Old Man Logan in a dramatic position where he can't be as brutal as he needs to be, at least not at first.
This is where Old Man Logan sets himself a part from his younger predecessor. His younger predecessor would've probably just gone full berserker, stabbed anything that pissed him off, and apologize to the loved ones he put in danger, if there's anything left of them. Old Man Logan, not being nearly as agile or tough as his younger self, gets help from the sheriff he recruited in the last issue. This sheriff, who deserves a fucking metal for having the balls to team up with Old Man Logan, manages to shoot Lady Deathstrike before she can hurt Maureen and her mother.
That's right. A sheriff saved the lives of civilians instead of busting teenagers for pot. That helps give me some faith in the justice system again. It also means there's nothing keeping Old Man Logan from brutalizing the shit out of Lady Deathstrike.
It's as brutal and visceral as it sounds and ought to be. The sheriff takes care of Maureen and her mother. Old Man Logan takes care of Lady Deathstrike. It's bloody. It's brutal. It's violent. It's basically everything we want in a Wolverine comic. It's Wolverine facing one of his most pissed off and tenacious enemies. Lady Deathstrike isn't like Sabretooth. She's not just a brute who grins before eating a live puppy. She's mean, vindictive, and sadistic in how she fights her enemies. It helps give the kind of weight to this battle with Old Man Logan that can't usually be achieved without Cyclops' balls being busted in some way.
Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike have always been pretty evenly matched when they fight. However, Old Man Logan is way past his prime and this battle does show that pretty clearly. Lady Deathstrike clearly has the edge this time, as she should. It adds more weight to the battle and more brutality. In any battle with Wolverine from any world, there can never be too much of that.
For a moment, Lady Deathstrike kicks Old Man Logan's ass and sets her sights on Maureen again. True to form, it's just not enough for her to bloody Logan's ass. She wants to make him suffer while she shits bricks on his soul. It's enough to piss Old Man Logan off enough to forget for a moment that he's way past his prime. He's able to apply the necessary brutality to take Lady Deathstrike down in a way that'll sicken those with a weak stomach and astonish everyone else. Sure, Old Man Logan ends up overdoing it and passes out in a way his younger self never did without a fuckton of whiskey. He still saves those he cares about roughed up Lady Deathstrike. He'll never be too old for that shit.
Lady Deathstrike still managed to fuck him up enough to make him pass out after the adrenaline wears of. It would've been nice if he woke up in Jean Grey's underwear drawer or in a Japanese brothel, but instead he's woken up by the sheriff. I guess at Old Man Logan's age, he has to take what he can get.
He finds out the Reavers are gone and the people are safe. So despite having drawn the Reavers here in the first place, he succeeds. It's almost worth getting bloodied, battered, and fucked up on a level he's way too old for. It's also bittersweet though because while he'd definitely get a hug from Maureen and possibly a blowjob from her mother, he decides not to even say goodbye to them. It makes for an emotionally powerful moment, Old Man Logan choosing to leave Maureen and everyone in this town behind. He understands that his presence only fucks their lives up and he doesn't want that. It's the kind of thing that makes Old Man Logan a lovable character, especially for an old fart.
There's more brooding, but it's a very relevant and meaningful kind of brooding. Old Man Logan makes sure that Maureen and the civilians are taken care of from afar. He takes care of the bodies of the Reavers for good measure, knowing that the only good killer cyborg is a dead, burnt, and completely charred cyborg. He also comes to a few painful realizations about what it means to be stuck in this world. He's still going to attract the kind of shit storms that put the people he cares about in trouble. He can't avoid it so the best he can do is keep stabbing it. That's Wolverine at his best, my friends. Take note, Hugh Jackman!
So...is it awesome?
It's dark. That's for damn sure. It's also bloody, violent, and brooding in ways that'll make plenty of enemies at a typical PTA meeting. It's also perfectly in line with what we've come to expect from Old Man Logan. This isn't just the pissed off, hard-drinking, hard-living version of Logan we all know and love. This one is haunted, traumatized, and maybe a little suicidal. He sees all the crazy shit he's done in his life and hates himself. Yet somehow, that makes him even more badass and more likable than his predecessor.
Once again, Jeff Lemire brings out the best in Old Man Logan. He builds on the connections he has with his world and this new one. He also makes it clear that this version of Old Man Logan is on a very different path. He had a chance to meet the woman who would be his wife in his world. He also had a chance to brutally maim Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers. Overall, that's a pretty productive day in the life of an old, grizzled Wolverine. Old Man Logan #7 keeps the brutality, the brooding, and the drama flowing beautifully. For that, it warrants a classic yet contemporary brand of awesome.
Final Score: 9 out of 10
Loved the issue it really is one of the best books coming out in Marvel right now.
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