Over the wall...
Old Man Logan is a 2015 Marvel Comics limited series written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Andrea Sorrentino.
The series is part of the Secret Wars (2015) event, set at a time when reality has been remade and the only remaining planet is Battleworld, a patchwork of different realms held together by the will of Doctor Doom.
Living in his own Battleworld domain following the events of the original story, trying to bring law to the people, Logan's life is upended when an Ultron head falls out of the sky. Feeling a need to investigate, Logan scales the wall separating his domain from the others, and from there on, things only get weirder.
First, he falls in a domain based on the Age of Apocalypse, then in the Marvel Zombies one, then a technological utopia led by Tony Stark, and a crossover with Ultimate End (a domain that mixes Ultimate Marvel and the regular Marvel universe). By the end of the story, he does not return to the Wastelands, but rather wakes up at a new unknown world... the post-Secret Wars Marvel Universe. His adventures would continue in an ongoing comic, Old Man Logan (2016).
Old Man Logan (2015) provides examples of:
- Action-Hero Babysitter: Subverted. You may had expected that from the ending of the first miniseries, but nope: Wolverine got a babysitter, Danielle Cage, to look after the Hulk baby.
- Atop a Mountain of Corpses: The cover of issue #3.
- Beyond the Impossible: Logal has climbed the wall and saw Battleworld beyond his domain. A Thor showed up immediately. She says that this was forbidden, and in fact supposed to be impossible.
- Big "NO!": The Gladiator's son, after Wolverine killed his father.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Averted. The series is just as gory as its original counterpart, to the point of the eponymous character graphically dismembering his first on-panel foes.
- Canon Foreigner: Age of Apocalypse, Ultimate End and Marvel Zombies are all known Battleworld domains, with their own tie-in comics or reference in the main story. Technopolis, the domain led by Tony Stark, is something made up for this story.
- Canon Immigrant: At the end of the story, Old Man Logan wakes up in the restored Marvel universe.
- The Chosen One: At the end of the series, Emma says that they need a bastard to defeat an even bigger bastard, noting that Logan is who they need to help take out God-Emperor Doom. This is exactly what Destiny had foretold in Wolverines.
- Closest Thing We Got: The X-Men that Logan knew are dead. The Age of Apocalypse X-Men, the Ultimate X-Men and the main universe's X-Men are not the same guys... but they are the X-Men.
- The Constant: The city still has a crashed and abandoned SHIELD hellicarrier.
- The Dog Bites Back: Apocalypse is a good and loyal servant of God Doom, but when a Thor shows up in his domain and starts giving orders around and attacking his mooks... things will get nasty.
- Fish out of Water: Logan's journeys into Apocalypse's domain have a hint of this, since while he's experienced that kind of stuff before, he's out of practice. A more straight-up example when he visits Iron Man's domain.
- A Glitch in the Matrix: Wolverine wakes up at Xavier's school, but he knows that it has long been destroyed. It was Emma Frost, who took him to a happy memory setting (or close to), to talk to him.
- It's All About Me: Emma is aged and decrepit, but thanks to her mental powers she can make everyone see her as beautiful as she was at her heyday.
- Killed Off for Real: Emma Frost, by the Punishers. Wolverine even carries a conversation with their ghost, shortly before the reveal that they've been dead for presumably weeks...
- Let's You and Him Fight: Wolverine picks a fight with Storm-Thor and War Machine-Thor for seemingly no reason other than for the writers to have an excuse to send Logan over the Shield into Zombie territory.
- Not Me This Time: The X-Men of the Age of Apocalypse domain rescue Logan from Sabertooth, but he returns with Sinister and the Infinites... and the elusive X-Men have finally been found. Magneto shouts "You brought this upon us!" and throws him away with his magnetic powers.
- Post-Script Season: The series takes place after the original story.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Old Man Logan retains his memories and is very confused when he encounters a Thor (The only Thor in his universe is dead), which only raises more questions in itself.
- Series Continuity Error: In the first issue, Logan specifically refers to the Thors, the police force of Battleworld. But in the next, he doesn't know what the Thors are.
- Shout-Out: In issue #1, Logan's conversation with Gladiator's son is taken almost word-for-word from the Bride's conversation with Nikki Bell. Fitting, considering that that film's New Old West aesthetic fits in well with the Weird West of Old Man Logan.
- Skepticism Failure: At the Age of Apocalypse domain, Logan breaks and refuses to believe everything that's happening. It must all be a mental trick from Emma. This keeps happening several times in the story.
- So Crazy, It Must Be True: Emma Frost, from the Age of Apocalypse domain, have found Logan and is reading his mind trying to figure things out. For her, she and the X-Men have just found him, an aged Wolverine. And in his mind, he thinks he has killed all the X-Men 50 years ago, all except her, who saw dying some hours ago; and spent the rest of his life at a farm since then, until Hulk killed his wife and kids, and now here he is. Not being aware of Battleworld, it makes so little sense...
- Stealth Sequel: Initially it seemed to be just another of the several Secret Wars miniseries, modeled after an old story. Actually, the purpose of it was to prepare the ground for moving Logan to the main universe, where he would get an ongoing series.
- Title Drop: In issue #2, Wolverine is rescued by the X-Men of Age of Apocalypse and the X-Men are shocked by who he looks like. When asked for a name, Iceman jokingly says "What? Is your name 'Old Man Logan'?", then quickly backtracks as he fears it is his name.
- Victory Is Boring: The hookers are free from their slaver, but what now? What are they going to do with their lives? A long return trip to Santa Fe?
- Weird West: The aesthetic of the series, complete with a man in a cowboy hat riding a white horse riding across a wasteland.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: We never get to see the punishment given to Baron Apocalypse, who defied the Thor.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Wolverine ordered a human trafficker to remove his daredevil mask. He's nothing like Matt, nothing at all. He tried to excuse himself: he has no idea who was Daredevil, he uses the look simply by Rule of Cool. Wolverine sliced him.
- Wolverine Claws: Logan's not shy about using them anymore.
- Wolverine Publicity: Issue #2's cover depicts Old Man Logan fighting a version of Wolverine (almost all characters from Secret Wars are just versions of the original) who looks exactly like the Age of Apocalypse incarnation. That Wolverine appears nowhere in the issue, nor does Logan meet any other Wolverine. So yes, it technically counts because the cover lies to us about the amount of Wolverines.
- You Killed My Father: The Gladiator's son's motivation for shooting at Logan. Logan says he did the kid a favour, and says if the kid is still pissed when he's an adult, he can find Logan and they'll finish things.
