Wolverine #66–72 and Giant-Size Old Man Logan (2008-2009): Old Man Logan

What to say here? This story is great. It also completely messes with my web site because I decided early on not to cover non-616 stories. And this takes place in an alternate future. However, the main character, Old Man Logan, will eventually become part of the 616. So will several others from this universe.

(As do many of the Ultimate Universe characters, I know, and I didn’t cover them on this site. Yet.)

Plus, I just dig it.

So, I’m covering it.

In the future, four supervillains rule the U.S. and have carved it up into nation states.

The four conquerors are Doctor Doom, Red Skull, Magneto and … Abomination?!?

Hm. How did that happen?

Anyway, Red Skull runs the North American continent and he’s killed nearly all of its superheroes, but Logan is in hiding in the California desert, along with his family. These are his landlords:

The Hulk Gang, a bunch of redneck descendants of Bruce Banner.

After getting a beat down from Hulk Gang because he was unable to pay rent, Logan gets a visit from Clint Barton. He hires him to go to the New Babylon to help him deliver a “secret package.”

Wolverine needs the money to protect his family, so he agrees.

They meet lots of other descendants/future version heroes–most of whom will not be seen on Earth 616, so I’m not tagging them. But they are lots of fun. Especially Barton’s daughter, Spider-Bitch…

She’s a badass.

Also in their trip across the country, they meet Moloids and a Venom dinosaur.

Through flashbacks, we learn that Wolverine is now a pacifist–having stopped using his claws after he was tricked by Mysterio into slaughtering his fellow X-Men.

He tried to kill himself after that by lying in front of a train, but he couldn’t die–so he simply killed off his Wolverine identity.

Clint dies along the way (but he’ll get a prequel series later, so I tagged him), but eventually, Logan gets to D.C. and finds out that the secret package was the last portions of the super soldier serum–hoping to create an army of heroes to overthrow Red Skull.

Wolverine kills Red Skull in the end–cutting off his head using Captain America’s shield.

He thus gets through nearly all of this adventure without ever popping his claws.

Until he gets home and finds out Hulk Gang murdered his family.

So he slaughters all of them.

And rides off into the sunset.

Excellent story.