Creators: Mark Millar & Steve McNiven
This is a special one shot that concludes the “Old Man Logan” story which ran in Wolverine #66-72 over the last year or so.
The background. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future (are there any non-apocalyptic futures in the Marvel universe?) where the bad guys have won. Most of the heroes are dead, and the US is divided up into sections controlled by the major baddies. Logan has survived, but has retired from the hero business. He and his family eke a living from the California soil, while paying rent to the hulks, Bruce Banner’s murderous gang of inbred thug-offspring. The Wolverine issues are some of the best work Marvel has put out lately, and come highly recommended.
In that main story, we witnessed a cross-country trip that ended with a climactic battle in Washington, DC. It seemed as if that would be the end, but we were teased with a final chapter, wherein Logan finally embraces his inner mustelid. Thus, the giant sized one shot and thus, the final chapter, and it is… um… well, let’s just talk about the plot for a moment.
The Plot. Heres the plot. Ready? Here we go.
Logan kills everyone.
Now this isn’t a terrible story idea, as story ideas go. It’s a revenge story, which is a time-honored tradition in prose, comics, and movies. With a revenge story, you don’t really need a plot. The plot sort of assembles itself: awful thing happens to good guy, good guy snaps, good guy sets out to get even. This usually means a series of grisly fights. A few more bad guys end up dead after each one, until there’s just the big bad left.
Problem #1: Like I said, it’s fine as a story idea. But it isn’t really a plot. It’s just one long (and admittedly fabulous) fight scene. If you don’t mind paying five bucks for one long fight scene, then don’t worry about it. You’re fine. Those looking for the internal depth that the other issues had will be disappointed.
And that’s problem #2: this is all just a hyper-violent coda to a story that was already great, and already done. If Wolverine #72 (minus the last couple of pages) had been the end of the story, the world would have been no worse off.
So what’s good about Giant-sized Wolverine? Plenty. First, while this one particular chunk of the story is lacking in direction, the overall story is quite compelling. If there do wind up being more stories set in this world (and with the company that just recently finished a House Of M offshoot story, it seems likely), then this was a necessary step forward.
In addition, plot points aside, Steve McNiven’s art is jaw-dropping, as always. It’s detailed but never too busy. Facial expressions are incredibly detailed. He lavishes as much attention on trailer parks and cow entrails as he does on explosions and wreckage. And possibly at Millar’s direction, the depictions of the hulks as trailer trash are absolutely hilarious: bad teeth, receding hairlines, mullets, you name it.
If you haven’t read the whole Old Man Logan story, you should. Once you have, this is a fun–if slightly brainless–addition to it.
Michael is old enough to know better, but still reads comics. He writes about them to make himself feel less nerdy. 
