Pardon me for being behind in times, but as some of you know I only read the Hard Cover and TPB stories and I stay away from any reviews until after I read the stories I'm interested in. That said, I just bought the HC Old Man Logan story and I have a few questions to those of you collectors who were following this monthly. 1. How in the hell did this story devolve from one of the most intriguing Wolverine stories ripe with character development and a fully concievable reason for a pacifist Logan, to "Just another Wolverine hack and slash?" 2. Did Millar really finish this book or was he taking cues from Loeb with his cliffhanger issue endings and unecessary action scenes just to camouflage lack of story development? I heard that there were many unpleasant delays between issues, was there ever any explanation as to why and did that impact the story development such that everything went to hell the way it did? 3. Can we get a "What if: Old Man Logan" series soon that addresses the following- "What if the Old Man Logan story ended in the same flair that it began with?" Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the story, but at first it seemed like it was going to be exactly what the slogan one of the critics on the back of the hard cover claimed it would be: "The greatest Wolverine story ever told!". Close...but no cigar.
Honestly, if you thought it was going to be any different, you were just expecting too much. Logan is a one trick pony, hack and slash. It's nice to think he can be someone different, someone better. But it will never happen. Honestly, this is probably as close as we'll ever get. And I thought the story was good, I like the ending because it made sense. And the scene of him hitting the Red Skull with Cap's Shield was awesome and fitting.
The Red Skull part was great, because he showed ingenuity he otherwise wouldn't because of his commitment to not pop his claws. I was hoping to see more of this fleshed out through the remainder of the story. Using Caps shield and then donning the Iron Man armor was awesome! Logan is only a one trick pony because he's being force written that way. This is a guy with so much history, much of which is still not known or told entirely, that potential is there. Up until the hillbilly Hulk family massacre, it seemed this potential might have been realized. The ending definitely made sense, I never said it didn't. I just said it went in a direction contrary to what I was expecting based on the way it started out (or, as I so colorfully put it, "it went to hell"). A pacifist Logan is definitely only compelling for so long, but a Wolverine who will stand up for himself and still not pop his claws like in that Red Skull scene, now there's something I'd like to see fleshed out. abandon the flailing I'm just gonna go ape shit and slash you with my claws Wolverine and bring out that Samurai training, Special Ops training, Assassin training, X-Men training, you name it he's done it training and let's finally realize that this guy can be something more than the norm. Just because it hasn't been done, doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done. Just saying.
