Do you know what the best comic Marvel are producing right now is? If you said Spider-Man, that’s not the comic I’m thinking of (although I am glad you’re enjoying it). No, the comic that has risen above everything else that Marvel have been releasing since Secret Wars ended is the one I’m reviewing today: Old Man Logan.

Written by Jeff Lemire with art by Andrea Sorrentino and Marcello Maiolo providing the colours, Old Man Logan is at it’s very core a revenge story that has our old time displaced hero trying to save the world before it needs saving by killing the men responsible. That those men also happen to have hurt his family in that same future is an unfortunate coincidence for them.

Yes, he wants to save the world from the future he came from, but his underlying motive seems to be to seek revenge for what  he went through from men who haven’t even done anything to him yet. This burning desire to dish out preemptive vengeance (I won’t say the word “justice”) is a fascinating story device. Is Old Man Logan even remotely close to being named a hero? Even the morally dubious Frank Castle hunts those who have already wronged innocents. Old Man Logan is hunting people for what they might do.

The whole basis for the character’s return to the present Marvel Universe is disguising a philosophical question that we have all asked ourselves at one point or another; if you could change the future by killing somebody before they might do something evil, would you? Should you?

Old Man Logan‘s moral ambiguity is contrasted spectacularly with Kate Bishop‘s bored optimism, and despite knowing almost nothing about the character, Lemire provides readers with just enough to get a sense of who she is, and where she stands. I’m not going to reveal too much of their team up, because it leads to some terrific moments between the two characters as their morals come to a head within Old Man Logan #3.  It has been a long time since we’ve had Wolverine feel this dangerous in his solo comic, and the character’s willingness to embrace the deadly methods found more in the moral grey areas is a something that almost precludes Old Man Logan from being a traditional hero. There’s a reason he’s not wearing spandex.

Old Man Logan is an absolutely brilliant comic that, as a long time fan of Wolverine (indeed, the character is the reason I read comics) I am loving. Despite my initial fears of the quality of the series, especially after the just-above-average tie-in miniseries of the same name from last year, Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino and Marcello Maiolo have put out the best three issues of a Wolverine solo that’ve read in a long, long time.

And holy shit that final page? Issue #4 is going to be amazing.

Story: Jeff Lemire Art: Andrea Sorrentino Color Art: Marcello Maiolo
Story: 9.75 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy

This post has been updated with Kate Bishop’s  proper name, replacing my brain-farted Kate Foster…

After Secret Wars dumped a future Wolverine into the current timeline (it’s comics and it’s easier to just accept that it happened then to try to figure out how and why. I have, because I still haven’t read Secret Wars, and this series has been outstanding so far),  he realized that he had a unique chance to prevent the future where he came from. A future where the villains banded together and killed the heroes, and the Hulk turned evil.

He would kill the villains before they had a chance to do the heroes.

It’s that is the premise behind Old Man Logan, and it’s a question that has always, always fascinated me; if you could change the past by killing somebody before they did something evil, would you? Should you? Old Man Logan certainly thinks so.

If you haven’t read the original Old Man Logan by now, and you want to, then stop here. Buy this issue, the last issue and Millar and McNiven‘s original in trade and settle in for some of (if not the) best Wolverine comics you’ll have read in a long time. After this point I’m going to be spoiling a couple points of the original story that will also be spoiled if you read this series before the original. But, and here’s the beauty of Jeff Lemire‘s writing, you don’t need to have read the original to enjoy this series.

If you’re never going to read the original, then read on, dear reader. Read on.

When his family is killed by the Hulk Gang in the original Old Man Logan  that ran in 2008, the story takes a sudden turn for the slice and dice revenge that Wolverine is somewhat famous for. Needless to say, the front cover of a Hulk standing over the prone body of Old Man Logan was immediately striking, and I couldn’t wait to start reading the issue.

I was not disappointed.

I know I’m a huge fan of Canada’s most well known mutant, and maybe that’s colouring my love of this series, but watching an older, wiser Logan taking on a new Hulk for the first time was, probably, one of the best fight scenes the various iterations of these characters have had in quite some time. Knowing he’s out powered, the older, and arguably wiser, Logan fights as smart as you’d expect when facing off against a being as horrifically powerful as the Hulk. That the encounter never feels as if it’s being written just so the characters will sell the comic, nor does the fight  seem cheap, or cheesy, is a testament to Lemire‘s skill. I’m not going to reveal much more than I have done about the interior of the issues pages (but, honestly, if you couldn’t tell this fight was coming from the cover…), but allow me to say that the internal monologue of Old Man Logan in conjunction with the Hulk‘s spoken words are a highlight of the issue for me.

This would be a solid comic if almost any artist drew it, but Andrea Sorrentino‘s art work and Marcello Maiolo colouring elevate this to the next level. The use of colour during the fight is spectacular, allowing you to easily find the totally awesome giant, where as you may need to look a bit harder for the grumpy old man, which if any fight between a power house like the Hulk and a more savagely stealthy character like Wolverine were to happen would be be how I’d expect it to go down. And yet it never feels as if the characters are lost in the page; the art is never muddied, or poor, but rather makes you work to understand just what Logan is trying to do.

And the last two page spread? Oh boy. The layouts and colouring here give you a fantastic primer for what’ll happen on the final page. It’s glorious, not entirely unexpected, but so fantastic when it arrives. Normally I’m loath to commit to bi-weekly comics, prefering instead to space my comic budget out over multiple different issues each month, but Old Man Logan  is probably the best book that Marvel are producing right now, and I’d be buying it weekly if it was as consistently great as the last two issues have been.

Story: Jeff Lemire Art: Andrea Sorrentino Colour: Marcello Maiolo
Story: 9.5 Art: 9.5 Overall: 9.5 Recommendation: Buy