Everything that has begun must end sometime. This time we've finally reached the end of the Old Man Logan series by Jeff Lemire. Let's check what the Past Lives look like .
Time travel
After the events of Old Fears , Logan decides to return to the Wasteland to find Bruce Banner’s grandson and Luke Cage’s daughter and save them from the dangers that await them. However, it is easier to think than to do. None of the friends, starting with Illyana Rasputin and ending with Dr. Strange, want to help Wolverine. The risk that something could go wrong is too great. The hero, however, is determined and asks for the support of one of the villains. The choice is Asmodeus. The consequences of this decision were certainly not foreseen by Rosomak.
Mix of times and characters
For the script for Old Man Logan: Lives Pastreplies Jeff Lemire, the author who created five of the six notebooks starring the elderly Wolverine. You can see that he had a consistent vision from the very beginning and decided to end the whole thing with a bang. The main task of the notebooks was to introduce the Rosomak from another plan to Earth-616 and explain why, despite initial resistance, he decided to stay on it. This play has certainly been successful. Throughout all six volumes, we travel with our hero in different countries, returning to his memories, but at the same time getting to know a completely new story. Thus, Logan begins to understand that it is time to leave the past behind and go on living. Fate has certain plans for him, which he will not change in any way, so it’s best to accept this fact. Despite this, the mutant tries to rebel once again. So Lemire throws him through the next most important events in his life. We have the war of 1812, when our hero fought for his homeland, Canada, there is a return to Department K and work on weapons X, there is also a trip to Japan or Madripoor, and events fromPhoenix Dark Sagas known to all fans. Personally, I enjoyed the return to issue 181 of The Incredible Hulkwhere Wolverine made his first appearance in Marvel history. In addition, we also get guest appearances of a real galaxy of stars from the House of Ideas. Not only do X-Men with Ice-Man, Beast and Storm at the head of the scenes, but also Black Panther, Wiccan, Spider-Man, the already mentioned Doctor Strange or even Victor von Doom. Each of them tries to explain to Logan why his plan is wrong. Ultimately, Wolverine has to find out for himself, experience a few touching moments and understand that it is not always as we would like it to be. This way we get a few sentimental and sad scenes, and in the end we would like to be able to pat the hero on the shoulder and say “everything will be fine”.
Recreations and more
Filipe Andrade and Eric Nguyen are responsible for drawings for Old Man Logan: Past Lives . The first of them has already had the opportunity to work on the series in question, and we could see his works in Old Fears. Even then I liked his style and I am glad that he has not changed. The characteristic line with perhaps caricatured characters’ heads looks very original. The second artist, in turn, had to reconstruct scenes known to fans of the X-Men and Logan himself. The task was not easy. After all, he had to show the iconic fragments of the most famous notebooks with Wolverin in the lead role. He succeeded in this play. Maybe we are not dealing here with outstanding pictures, but certainly correct ones, which cannot be criticized for. Good color saturation, interesting fight scenes and refreshed characters will not disappoint the audience.
It is also worth adding that Andrea Sorrentino was the main cartoonist of the five previous albums from the Old Man Logan series . And although I did not like the Italian’s work personally, I felt a bit sad that he did not finish the cycle. As a consolation, however, it should be mentioned that the artist contributed to the sixth volume. It was he who created all the covers for it.
From Waste Land to Haven X
Old Man Logan , created by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, is a true Marvel classic, rightly hailed as one of the House of Ideas best alternative stories. No wonder that with Marvel Now! 2.0, it was decided to return to its plot and bring the hero to Earth-616. But is the script created by Bendis and Lemire as good as the original? Definitely not. But let’s not forget how high the crossbar was. However, the whole series with the aging Wolverine should be considered good. The cycle had its ups and downs. The introduction, i.e. the War Zones and Berserkers , looked great, and an interesting ending was also planned. The Last Ronin turned out to be the weakest herebut also this part did not fall below the average level and should be described as above average. Therefore, the whole thing can be assessed really high and with a clear conscience recommend it to fans of Wolverine, but also to all people who like comics about mutants.
A good farewell
Old Man Logan: Lived Lives is the last volume in the series. The authors made sure that we could experience an interesting adventure together with the older version of Wolverine. There was a lot of fighting and bloodshed, which is what Wolverine got used to. There is also a lot of nostalgia that mutant fans will surely appreciate. In addition to all this, there are a few touching scenes that will make us not only remember the whole cycle fondly, but also regret that there is a time of separation ahead of us. As a consolation, it is worth adding that it will not be for long! We can meet the hero in the latest editions of Astonishing X-Men , and Egmont has already announced that Deadpool versus Old Man Logan will soon come to us ! So there is something to wait for!
