Did grandpa told you about his old adventures?
Old Man Logan is the name of a Marvel Comics storyline written by Mark Millar with art by Steve McNiven, featuring Wolverine and set in an Alternate Universe/Bad Future.The original storyline is an eight-chapter story written by Mark Millar with art by Steve McNiven, set in an Alternate Universe/Bad Future where the villains of the Marvel Universe took over the United States and divided it up into territories. A now pacifist Logan lives with his new family in "Hulkland" (formerly, The Abomination's Territory, formerly California) where the inbred children of an evil Hulk are the lords of the land. Logan is short on the rent, and must team up with a now blind Hawkeye to deliver a mysterious cargo in order to help keep his landlords from killing him and his family.
The storyline was used as the basis for the third Wolverine movie, Logan - although, given that the story greatly relies upon story elements that Fox didn't own the film rights to at the time, the film is a Pragmatic Adaptation that is much more grounded in nature. Further, more fantastical elements are set to be included in the film Deadpool & Wolverine.
For tropes about the character of Old Man Logan, see the character page.
Several later comics (not all of them focused on Logan) were released later, taking place in the setting. See The Wastelands for details about the larger franchise.
Tropes:
- Affirmative-Action Legacy: The new Spider-Girl is Ashley Barton, the mixed-race daughter of Hawkeye. Also the new Kingpin is black. Until Ashley decapitates him and takes over.
- All for Nothing: In true Mark Millar fashion, Logan does manage to acquire the rent money to pay off the Hulk Gang. But upon returning home, he finds out that they got bored and went ahead with killing Logan's family anyways, signifying that he and Hawkeye's efforts to travel across the country for a rebellion that wasn't even real was all for naught. However, Wolvie does take bloody revenge on the sick motherfuckers, that blow is lessened.
- Anyone Can Die: Most major superheroes are killed before the story. During Daredevil, Punisher, New Kingpin, Hawkeye, Red Skull, Logan's family and most of the Hulk Gang all die.
- Arc Welding: Old Man Logan is part of a fairly elaborate web of connecting continuities throughout Mark Millar's tenure at Marvel Comics. The elderly Wolverine that appears here would eventually become the Hooded Man, a member of a futuristic New Defenders along with Bruce Banner Jr., who he adopted as his son. Reality Warper Clyde Wyncham from Marvel 1985 who is also the Marquis of Death from Millar's Fantastic Four run appears here as the new Doctor Doom as confirmed by Word of God.
- Ax-Crazy: The Hulk Gang, most notably Luke.
- Badass and Child Duo: Logan adopts the Hulk's infant grandchild in the end as his sidekick.
- Bad Future: Like you wouldn't believe. Nearly all of the superheroes are dead, and the villains rule America.
- Badass Longcoat:
- Wolverine wears one for only one panel, but it's one badass panel.
- Also Black Bolt and Red Skull.
- Bar Brawl: Defied by Logan, who is in no mood to deal with the idiots trying to pick a fight.Bar Jerk "Well excuse us, ladies. I didn't realize tonight was..." *tackled by Logan*Logan "Go ahead, Bub. Just try to make a joke!"
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Hawkeye dares Tobias to "Do your worst" when the Red Skull's lieutenant has him at his mercy, clearly expecting some sort of torture or mind games. Nope. Tobias does exactly that, and puts a bullet through his head without any fuss.
- Big Damn Heroes: Black Bolt saves Wolverine and Hawkeye by whispering at a Venom-possessed T-Rex.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hawkeye's daughter becomes the new Kingpin, and he later gets killed when his delivery turns out to be a sting. And Logan's family have been killed by the Hulk Gang, but on a positive note the Hulk Gang and Red Skull are dead, and Wolverine is forming an Avengers team. If Old Man Logan does become the Hooded Man that appears in a Fantastic Four miniseries (as is heavily implied), then the future looks even better.
- Blind Weaponmaster: You would think that Hawkeye being blind now would hamper his ability to shoot arrows. You'd be wrong.Hawkeye "That's right, bitches. Just keep making noises!"
- Bloodier and Gorier: A lot of it.
- Book Ends: For Wolverine overall. He was first introduced in an issue of The Incredible Hulk, facing off with the titular green giant. This (possible) finale of his story and character development ends with him facing off against the Hulk and his inbred gang.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: When Wolverine fights in the Red Skull's trophy room, the two use his collection of superhero relics.
- Broken Hero: The reason Logan hasn't popped his claws in fifty years? "They broke me, Bub." They really, really did.
- The Bus Came Back: Logan and Bruce Banner Jr both return in a Fantastic Four arc involving travelers from the future called the New Defenders attempting to save the people of their future by emigrating them to the past.
- Call-Forward: If Old Man Logan is indeed connected to Mark Millar's Fantastic Four run, then Logan and Hawkeye's conversation about Reed and Sue Richards' fates (they were supposedly simply assaulted and tossed into the timestream) potentially serves as a hint as to how the supposedly dead Sue would eventually return and lead the New Defenders in the future.
- Cannibal Clan: You'll notice the Hulk Gang's food of choice is human limbs.
- Canon Immigrant: Old Man Logan was introduced in a stand-alone storyline, and was later introduced into the mainstream Marvel Universe during Secret Wars.
- Car Fu: "It's the Spider-Buggy, dude. She can take her share of knocks."
- Chekhov's Exhibit: Wolverine and the Red Skull fight in a room full of trophies taken from dead superheroes. The latter wields Black Knight's sword, while Wolverine uses Captain America's shield and pieces of Iron Man's armour.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: Without the hat. The Red Skull now always wears Captain America's mask, often combined with his Badass Longcoat.
- Cool Old Guy: It's not called Old Man Logan for nothin', bub.
- Covers Always Lie: The cover of issue 2 shows Hammer Falls as being Thor's hammer surrounded by the costumed bodies of other heroes defeated there. In the actual issue it's just Thor's hammer, and most other heroes' remains are later shown to be in Red Skull's trophy room.
- Crapsack World: Brought to you by President Red Skull! Not much is said about the world outside of the USA, but Red Skull implies that it's even worse off.
- Creepy Child: Dwight, the boy with the Ant-Man helmet who threatens death by ants for those who don't pay his bridge toll. Logan thinks it's a joke, but the bones at the bottom of the chasm prove otherwise.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: Wolverine and Hawkeye. Logan is a broken shell of his former self and just wants to live out the rest of his days with his family. Clint is more optimistic and still trying to find ways to help people.
- Day of the Jackboot: The Red Skull has turned his section of the former U.S. (the east coast) into this, with a dash of Big Brother Is Watching for good measure.
- Death by Cameo: Punisher and Daredevil, albeit as legacy characters.
- Dead Guy Junior: Logan named his son Scotty, after his deceased team-mate, Scott "Cyclops" Summers.
- Death by Irony: Logan offs Red Skull with Captain America's shield, despite the fact that it's original owner has been dead for the last 50 years.
- Divided States of America: After the villains conquered the United States, they divided up the country between themselves. The west coast is Hulkland (formerly The Abomination's territory), the Kingdom of the Kingpin (formerly Domain of Magneto), Dr. Doom's Lair, and the President's Quarter ruled by Red Skull. There are also the unclaimed badlands and an unnamed territory around the Great Lakes.
- Drop the Cow: Bruce Banner throws a cow at Wolverine during their fight. No, really.
- Dug Too Deep: Moloids have become a not uncommon problem, as the subterranean dwellers have started digging up to the surface in order to get away from the things they awoke when they invoked this trope. Presumably, some heroes (probably the Fantastic Four) would have gone on an adventure to the Inner Earth and solved the problem for the Moloids when it started, but they were all, you know, dead...
- Dying Race: There don't appear to have been any mutants born in the last generation, and although Logan's kids are a bit too young for powers to emerge, they appear to be humans too. Emma Frost tells Logan that mutants are not, as they once believed, the next step in human evolution, but just a temporary genetic "blip". Based on this, it appears that mutants are dying out and are likely to go extinct in a few decades.
- Enfant Terrible: Dwight, who uses the Ant-Man helmet to extort a fare for crossing a bridge. Anyone who doesn't pay gets devoured by ants.
- Evil All Along: Ashley Barton, the granddaughter of Spider-Man turns out to be as evil as her father thought she was and just wanted to kill the Kingpin so that she could replace him.
- Evil Is Petty: The Hulks needlessly bully the broken and elderly Logan who they extort for rent and later kill his family before his time limit expired out of boredom. Bruce admits that he planned it just to enrage Logan so he could feel alive again by killing a strong opponent.
- Evil Old Folks: Bruce Banner, Red Skull, Dr Doom and really any of the original supervillains who are still ruling at this point.
- Evil Power Vacuum: It's safe to assume a lot of this goes on. After all, there's a different Kingpin now who apparently didn't have much trouble killing Magneto.
- Eye Scream: What happens to Cap in a flashback.
- Face–Heel Turn: Bruce Banner went from a Hero with an F in Good to a full-blown villain, who killed the Abomination and took over his territory to run it as his own personal fiefdom. He fathered his own clan of inbred deformed "Hulklings" by raping his cousin, the She-Hulk — worse, as she doesn't appear during the story,
Fridge Horror suggests that he ultimately killed her and turned to perpetuating the clan by raping his daughters instead! Oh, and he's turned to cannibalism, and encourages his offspring to do the same. - Fallen States of America: Life in Bad Future America is miserable in various degrees, with the most "well-off" being those living under the Red Skull's Nazi shadow.
- Fate Worse than Death: What the villains did to Wolverine on the day they took over: Mysterio created illusions to trick Wolverine into killing the entire X-Men team under the belief they were supervillains. Wolverine wanders in a Heroic BSoD for days before committing figurative suicide by train.
- Feudal Future: Of sorts. While the Red Skull is technically the one in charge, in practice he and the other villains divided up America among themselves, with President Red Skull himself taking direct rule over the East Coast.
- Foreshadowing:
- Hawkeye claims that Reed and Susan Richards are still unaccounted for on behalf of a third-hand account by the Shocker, but Shocker is among the many villains slain by Wolverine during the battle at the X-mansion. This is a big clue-in on the fact that the villains Wolverine is fighting aren't real.
- Aging seems to have weakened the potency of any character's Healing Factor. Wolverine himself takes hours to recover from a Hulk Gang induced beating, and notes he mostly survived because of his adamantium skeleton and their own comparatively low Super-Strength. This sets things up for Wolverine to kill Pappy Banner by disemboweling him from the inside.
- Glory Days: Pretty much all the remaining heroes can do to cope is to reminisce.
- Gone Horribly Right: Bruce Banner's plan to enrage Wolverine into regaining his killer instinct. He wanted the old Wolverine so he could kill someone cool after becoming bored of his existence as a landlord. Instead, Logan ends up dismantling his entire gang and ultimately killing him.
- Great Offscreen War: We don't see much of America's fall, apart from when Red Skull kills Cap.
- Handicapped Badass: Hawkeye is now blind. He still kicks ass.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: A very dark and horrifying villainous case. Mysterio of all supervillains, the guy in the fishbowl helmet who simply specializes in illusions, is the one responsible for the death of every X-Men except Logan by tricking the latter into thinking the Mansion was under attack from supervillains, making him slaughter all of his friends.
- Heel–Face Turn: Ultron went from genocidal robot to friendly car mechanic and father figure.
- He's Back!: "The name isn't Logan, bub. (DOUBLE PAGE SNIKT!) It's Wolverine."
- Hillbilly Incest: Bruce Banner has gone insane after the villains took over and fathered an inbred clan of green-skinned cannibal hillbillies on his cousin Jennifer. Green-skinned inbred hillbillies are an allusion to the real-life Fugate family of Kentucky, whose rare genetic mutation caused blue skin.
- Hope Spot:
- Discussed and Invoked, separately. Discussed that, while crossing through South Dakota, Logan brings up that even after all these years, Reed and Sue Richards are still unaccounted for. While he admits that the information may be less than trustworthy note , Logan argues that, if this were true, there may be a chance they could come back and fix everything. Hawkeye dismisses it, pointing out it's a little late for this. Invoked in Hammer Falls, Nevada. Thor's Hammer has become a sort of religious/tourist hotspot, a la Mecca. President Skull tolerates it only because of the revenue it produces to the economy. Hawkeye points out that the people crowding around pray to Mjölnir for the hope that the heroes might one day come back. For most of them, hope is all they have left.
- Played straight with Hawkeye at two points as well. When he learns that his daughter went off to overthrow the new Kingpin, he assumes that his old war stories inspired her to free the people. After she kills the Kingpin, Ashley reveals that she was taking control of the area, and Wolverine's intervention was the only thing that stayed Hawkeye's execution. Secondly was near the halfway point, when Logan and Hawkeye finally arrive at New Babylon, it turns out the delivery was a briefcase with 99 vials of the super soldier serum. Hawkeye demanded a vial for himself, and a spot on the inner circle. Turns out it was a sting by S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hawkeye is quickly executed for his efforts.
- Hope Springs Eternal: Despite the terrible state of the world, some people cling to hope that things can get better with Thor's hammer being a popular prayer site. Ultimately, Logan learns to hope for a better tomorrow, in spite of all that's happened to him, by taking the infant Hulk and thinking of training a new generation of heroes.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Emma Frost's reason for marrying her husband, Doctor Doom.
- Indulgent Fantasy Segue: Logan has some uncharitable thoughts about the Hulk Gang.
- Just Eat Him: Bruce tries that with Logan. Apparently, he forgot about the Healing Factor and the Wolverine Claws.
- Killed Off for Real: Before the story starts nearly all of the heroes are dead, including all of the X-Men, as are several villains including the original Kingpin, Magneto (by the second Kingpin), the Abomination and Loki. In story, Red Skull, the second Kingpin, Hawkeye, Bruce Banner, Logan's family, and most of the Hulk Gang.
- Kissing Cousins: The Hulk Gang's descended from Bruce and his cousin, She-Hulk.
- Lamarck Was Right: Zigzagged. For the most part, seemingly subverted; most characters with super-powers do not produce super-powered offspring. The most prominent group of next-generation supers is the Hulk Gang, born of incest between the Hulk and the She-Hulk, and even then they have only a watered-down version of their progenitors' might, with far lesser Super-Strength and Super-Toughness and no sign of a Healing Factor.
- Legacy Character:
- Peter Parker's granddaughter, who becomes Spider-Girl and the third Kingpin. Her allies Punisher and Daredevil are probably not the originals too.
- The Ghost Riders are a biker gang with skulls painted on their faces and flaming wheels on their bikes.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: Logan was really trying to hold back his Berserker Rage for most of the arc since it led to his greatest failure...then they killed his family. The remainder of the comic goes to show why you shouldn't piss off the Wolverine.
- Master of Illusion: Mysterio (duh) plays an important role in the story. Also Emma Frost looks good for her age.Logan I don't get it, how come you're still so young?Emma I'm the most powerful psychic in the world, Logan. Even this place isn't as pretty as it looks.
- Meaningful Name:
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Venom. Symbiote. Bonded. With. a Freaking. T. Rex.
- No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Most of the remaining super heroes of the old days aren't what they used to be, and neither are some of the villains. Double subverted with Emma Frost, who appears the same age, but is actually using her telepathy to hide her aging. Averted with Red Skull; he hasn't changed a bit.
- Noodle Incident: Hawkeye doesn't bother giving any context to the strange or awe-inspiring remains of the Great Offscreen War.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Who was the one who broke Logan and effectively destroyed the X-Men? Fucking Quentin "Mysterio" Beck.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: So many from the war the villains won. Highlights include Magneto and Absorbing Man killing Thor, and a giant-sized Loki somehow being crushed under the Baxter building a few thousand miles away from its New York address! Hawkeye even lampshades the latter one.
- Off with His Head!:
- Spider-Girl takes off the second Kingpin's head with a shotgun handle.
- Also how Logan finishes off the Red Skull, with Cap's shield no less.
- Oh, Crap!: Hulk when he remembers that one of Logan's mutant abilities is regeneration after eating him. Needless to say, it did not end well for Hulk.
- Old Superhero: Wolverine and Hawkeye.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Logan is not as violent or berserky as during his prime. This raises many eyebrows and concerns from his allies.
- Pacifism Breaking Point: Logan completes an epic journey across America to get the money he needs to save his family from the Hulk Gang, all without popping his claws (which he hasn't done since being tricked into killing his fellow X-Men), or using lethal force (except against Red Skull, who barely counts as a human being). When he returns home, he finds the Hulks have murdered his family just because they got bored. As a friend counsels him not to seek revenge, he responds that his name isn't Logan anymore:*SNIKT*Logan: It's Wolverine.
- President Evil: The Red Skull
- Putting on the Reich: The parts of America under the Red Skull's direct rule as "President" are a twisted, futuristic take on the Third Reich.
- The Quiet One: Black Bolt, for obvious reasons.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: One of Daredevil's eyes glows red.
- Refuge in Audacity: The codename given for Peter Parker's granddaughter: Spider-Bitch.
- Retired Badass: Logan has given up on heroics and taken a vow of pacifism, spending his days raising livestock with his family. The loss of that family sees him come out of retirement.
- Ridiculous Future Inflation: Averted. The economy is so heavily ruined that $600 is a small fortune and trying to earn that is what sets Logan on his adventure.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After the Hulks kill Logan's family for fun, you could expect this to be the only outcome. Bruce seems to have invoked this trope to have a good fight again because Victory Is Boring
- Rushmore Refacement: The Red Skull added himself.
- Series Continuity Error:
- Between the first and final issue, two Hulk Gang members suddenly change names from Otis and Charlie to Luke and Beau.
- A minor one, but Cyclops is seen among the dead X-Men after the illusion wears off, and his visor is seen both with it's modern, slim design, and sliced in half. His more classic visor, torn from the rest of his suit, is later seen intact in Red Skull's trophy room.
- Shout-Out: An aging superhero goes on one last adventure, and one of his few companions is (coincidentally) another aging superhero with an archery gimmick. Sounds familiar... While most of the two stories' plots are only vaguely similar, Hawkeye's appearance and personality in this story—where he's portrayed as a wise-cracking Cool Old Guy with long grey hair—is pretty clearly inspired by Green Arrow's cameo in the last chapter of The Dark Knight Returns.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!:Red Skull: Don't make me laugh. You haven't got the guts. (Wolverine decapitates him)
- Small-Town Tyrant: The Hulk Gang counts as this very much, even though they are located in California. The Hulk himself is the corrupt hick leading them and in charge of a territory called Hulkland. They are violent and quite murderous, considering how they murdered Logan's family and left the bodies unburied while he was busy trying to pay off a debt he owed them. Why? Because they got bored. They are a family of cannibals. Oh, and they are also inbred, because Hulk raped his own cousin Jennifer more than once to form the Hulk Gang! Historical flashbacks in the ongoing series show they were stupid, violent, savage creatures; for example, one of their ideas of "fun" was going out to farms and punching livestock for the sake of watching them explode — and doing the same to any farmer who protested this.
- Stealth Prequel: Old Man Logan gets one with Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe Again. It's also one for Mark Millar's Fantastic Four run, which was published concurrently with this storyline.
- Stronger with Age: Zigzagged. Bruce "Pappy" Banner can now wield some of the Hulk's strength without transforming. The Hulk, however, has lost his Healing Factor to an even greater extent than Old Man Logan. Wolverine kills him by clawing his way out of the Hulk's stomach.
- Spanner in the Works: Logan ends up being this for Red Skull. Had Hawkeye come alone or with someone else, he would have stomped out any resistance and kept his power secure. Instead, Logan's healing factor allows him to survive the murder attempt and kill Skull in the escape.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Downplayed.
- The Hulk gang all have weakened versions of Bruce's powers.
- Spider-Man's granddaughter has also at least inherited some Super-Strength, but this seems to be all she picked up from her grandfather.
- Super Serum: The contents of Hawkeye's package. Ninety-nine vials of it, in fact.
- That Man Is Dead: After Wolverine finds out he murdered the X-Men, he runs for a railroad track and lets a train run over him. Since his adamantium skeleton and healing factor are still there, he's still alive, but he considers himself dead. As he puts it, "It didn't kill me, but it hurt a lot, and sometimes that is enough."
- Averted after he comes home to find out that the Hulk gang killed his family anyway, out of boredom. A neighbor comes in and finds Logan staring in shock at the bodies of his family.
Neighbor: (Hesitatingly) Logan, we don't need any trouble here, okay? There's no telling what they'll do next. You just...you just need to bury your family and move on from this, okay? Do you hear me? Logan?Wolverine: (Popping his claws) The name ain't Logan, bub. It's Wolverine. - Thou Shalt Not Kill: Logan adopts the policy, and it's eventually explained why (see Not-So-Harmless Villain).
- Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Pappy Hulk decides to finish off Wolverine by eating him, which is something worked for him before. Unfortunately for ol'Pappy, he failed to take in account Wolverine's healing factor.
- Tragic Villain: How Bruce turned evil in the first place. When California was bombed, the gamma radiation warped Bruce's mind and drove him mad as a result.
- Trophy Room: The President's Office is adorned with items taken from fallen super heroes (Captain America's shield, Iron Man's armor, Spider-Man's mask, etc.)
- Twilight of the Supers: The series happens in the aftermath of a truly massive and blood-soaked example of this trope. A great many scenes have a reference to said massacre, namely the skeleton of a dead superhero, somewhere in the background.
- Unholy Matrimony: Emma Frost is married to Doctor Doom. The Red Skull also mentions having a wife who keeps nagging him about wearing what's left of Captain America's uniform, probably because he appears not to have washed it once since the takeover.
- Unstoppable Rage: When the Hulk Gang killed Logan's family, he proceeds to unleash hell on them.
- Villain World: The villains, together, have conquered the world, killing most of the heroes in the process and splitting America (known as "Amerika") into sectors for each villain in charge.
- Wham Line: Or rather Wham Sound. A massive two page of the iconic SNIKT, where Logan finally pops his claws for the first time in decades, confirming Wolverine has finally returned.
- Wolverine Claws: It's a given, but they don't get shown for most of the main story.
