Wolverine was one of the most tragic of Marvel‘s characters for a long time; the enigmatic loner who endured a horrific medical experiment and had his memory wiped in the process. He lost his name, his past and his very identity. Struggling with his inner demons, Wolverine was a character that many could identify with for multiple reasons; he is the reason I love comics today, and my perception of who he is and what he stands for have probably influenced the person I am today more than I realize.

I tell you this to try to give you some background on just where I’m coming from when reading this comic. 

We’ll get back to that later, though.

Old Man Logan #1, finds the man who no longer calls himself Wolverine, the man who found his family murdered fifty years from now in a world where the villains won, transported back to our time after the conclusion of Secret Wars. The five issue tie-in comic to the event, (to avoid confusion I’ll refer to it as  SW Old Man Logan) was received with mixed reviews. Although were some duff issues there was certainly enough there for me to not regret buying the miniseries, but SW Old Man Logan was far more dependent on you being aware of the happenings in the overall Secret Wars story arc. In  the end I enjoyed  SW Old Man Logan, but I know that there were others who didn’t, and I completely understand why. 

After reading the first issue of 2016’s Old Man Logan ongoing series, twice, I’m already feeling that this has the potential to be better than the Secret Wars tie in. Much better.

With Old Man Logan returning to the current Marvel Universe from a future where the villains rose up to slaughter the heroes, and tricked Wolverine into doing some pretty awful things in the process, he realizes that he has a chance to prevent the future he came from. In a nutshell, that’s the gist of what this series will be about, as near as I can tell, and with Jeff Lemire exploring one of the oldest “what if” questions with this series, that of “if you had the chance to stop something before it ever happened, would you? Should you?” has already marked Old Man Logan as one of my more anticipated titles each week.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt the fact that Andrea Sorrentino‘s art is so perfectly suited to Lemire‘s writing; the atmospherically stunning vistas, the incredibly detailed and varied facial expressions just add another layer of brilliance to this comic. Between the line work of Sorrentino and Marcello Maiolo‘s incredible colouring you really get a sense of just how worn down and battered this older version of Logan really is in the early pages; the emotion that’s conveyed here in the art alone elevates the already strong writing. This is a comic that, honestly, I wasn’t expecting to enjoy as much as the first issue of All-New Wolverine (while I felt the following issues in that series weren’t as strong as the first, that first issue was one of the best Wolverine comics in a long time), yet I’m pretty sure I enjoyed it more than Laura Kinney‘s solo issue.

I am a complete and utter Wolverine fan, I know that. I’m not ashamed to admit it. So even despite my high expectations, this first issue delivered for me. Whether the series will continue to do so, I have no  idea, but Old Man Logan is off to a bloody strong start and I  have high hopes for the next issue.

Story: Jeff Lemire Art: Andrea Sorrentino Colour: Marcello Maiolo
Story: 8.5 Art: 9 Overall: 9 Recommendation: Buy