Welcome to the first installment of Team Venom's Greatest Graphic Novel Guide. This week we're going to spotlight and review Marvel's Old Man Logan. Firstly let's kick off with some key information
Published: 2008-2009 by Marvel Comics
Original Format: Wolverine (Vol. 3 #66-72 & Giant-Sized Old Man Logan)
Writer: Mark Millar Artist: Steve McNiven
Overview: Old Man Logan sees an aged Wolverine living out his retirement as a farmer and, more importantly, a pacifist determined to keep his head down and live out the rest of his days with his wife and kids on his farm.
The story starts off by establishing Wolverine's status quo and showing that while he's been keeping himself to himself, the whole world had gone to hell by way of a super-villain uprising which saw all of the Marvel villains band together to take out all of the planet's superheros.
Some heroes survived including Clint Barton aka Hawkeye who is now blind and Logan's best friend. Due to those two factors and Logan's own financial troubles we see Clint strong-arm Logan into take a cross country road trip to deliver a package to a mystery benefactor.
Along the way we get to see what made Logan give up on violence, what happened to various heroes and how that all ties in with the bigger picture.
Influence In Other Media: Old Man Logan is viewed as one of the definitive Wolverine stories so it came as no surprise when Fox announced that they were going to be making a movie based off the quintessential book, however due to licencing and movie rights Fox were unable to adapt "Old Man Logan" outright and instead kept the idea and created a fresh story in the 2017 movie, "Logan"
Our verdict:
Rory Bailey "I was pleasantly surprised by how good Old Man Logan was (and still is). At the time of release I had been avidly following all things Wolverine and had every issue up to that point. I was initially annoyed that Marvel was going this route as I'd been thoroughly enjoying the on-going Wolverine title and by Marvel announcing that this new story was set in an alternative timeline and would take up the next year's worth of Wolverine issues, I was not impressed. Then the first issue dropped. Mark Millar's writing and world building skills were in full swing and Steve McNiven's artwork blew me away. I was instantly hooked and now 'Old Man Logan' is my go-to Wolverine book when recommending the character to newer readers. 9/10"
Dave Burston: "Old Man Logan was not what I was looking for when I went into the comic shop. Now I will be honest, I don't buy single issues anymore only trades, so I missed All the buzz about the book. The first thing that got me was the cover - it was eye catching with heroes and villains that looked familiar but different at the same time, I was just hoping the art inside matched the cover and I was not disappointed. My next thought was could the story match the art - in a word yes! You know something has gone very wrong in the world right from the off, villains rule and Wolverine is not what he used to be. The book is very much in a dark place but very enjoyable and I would definitely recommend this book. I would give it a solid 8 out of 10"
Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Good list, there's certainly some I hadn't thought of on there. I think Watchmen is the only one that's on my first batch of reviews. There are definately a few others on your suggestions that I'd like to review (namely Fear Itself and Dark Knight)
Ok then. I'd have to have the following spotlighted:
X-men days of future past
Barman Year One
Dark knight returns
Daredevil born again
Watchmen
World war hulk
Fear itself
Sinestro corps war
Identity crisis
Justice league tower of babel
Of course, they may not necessarily get spotlighted as this is an opinionated feature but I would certainly be interested in seeing your suggestions
Ah ok. That makes sense. Can I make some suggestions?
Surprisingly not - It will be on the list eventually, just not on the initial 10. It's not a ranking though, the numbers are purely for the release of the columns