Secret Wars: Old Man Logan #3 Review

Old Man Logan #3 Cover

One of my favorite Secret Wars tie-in comics has been Old Man Logan. Brian Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino have been able to nicely weave the concept behind Old Man Logan into Secret Wars’ Battleworld setting. With how the older Wolverine turned the Age of Apocalypse world on its head the last issue I’m fully expecting something similar to happen in his visit to the Battleworld’s Armor Wars. Now find out how things turned during Wolverine’s visit to Armor Wars with our review of Old Man Logan #3.

Creative Team

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Andrea Sorrentino

Colorist: Marcelo Maiolo

Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

The Good: What Old Man Logan does better than the majority of Secret Wars tie-ins is that it keeps things simple. Even as we visit world’s that tug at the heart strings of old school Marvel fans Brian Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino keep things centered around Logan’s journey. By keeping a clear focus in mind they are able to keep visits to the Age of Apocalypse and Armor Wars realm from overshadowing the story.

Click for full-page view
Click for full-page view

The way that Bendis keeps the story from not overshadowing Logan is by not escalating things beyond the character. Old Man Logan #3 is a fine example of the way Bendis is able to keep the focus on the star of this series. Each character that gets time on screen during the course of this issue is reacting the way they are because of Logan’s presence. The type of reaction that Logan is able to elicit adds to the whole wildcard nature he brings to the Battleworld setting.

That’s shown right away with how Apocalypse took offense to one of the Thor’s appearance in his realm. Even though the main conflict was the power struggle between Apocalypse and Thor which was all brought to the forefront by Logan. And through all of this Bendis is able to keep things in line with how you would expect characters like Apocalypse to react.

This also speaks to the greater political strife running across most of the Secret Wars comics. Seeing how Apocalypse and Armor Wars’ Tony Stark reacted to the Thors showed how much the power struggle on Battleworld is reaching a boiling point. It’s something that adds to the greater conflict behind Hickman’s Secret Wars as we are able to see in comics like Old Man Logan #3 that Doom is losing some control in the world he has created.

This type of power struggle also makes the anticipation for Logan reaching Doom grow even more. We have already seen Logan be someone that has caused great frustration for one of the Thors. Now we have seen how he has done the same for the Armor Wars’ Thor which only has to add to the headache he is causing for Doom.

Click for full-page view
Click for full-page view

What makes that anticipation even greater is how much we are seeing Logan go through in order to reach Doom. As has been brought up many times in the past, this version of Wolverine is not as powerful as other version. But even with that fact well known it has not stopped Logan from pushing forward with his attacks on the Thors. This attitude makes you believe that this version of Logan is the most dangerous since he is taking everything on without a sense of fear.

Bringing all of this character work to the forefront is Andrea Sorrentino’s fabulous artwork. It’s Sorrentino’s artwork that brings the story to life. The artwork throughout this issue makes you feel how bad things are in realms like Age of Apocalypse. There is a dark, hopeless feeling to the world that is made even greater by the aura that Apocalypse carries. Sorrentino also does a great job making you feel the pain that Logan fights through as he is thrown around by just about everyone.

The Bad: Nothing.

Overall: Old Man Logan #3 does a fantastic job fully utilizing the concept behind Battleworld and using it to its full potential. Brian Bendis has been able to carve out something unique with his wandering samurai approach to detailing Old Man Logan’s journey to meet Doom. The way that Logan is able to effect world’s like Age of Apocalypse and Armor Wars helped to add to the greater story being told in Secret Wars. It doesn’t hurt that this series features Andrea Sorrentino’s jaw dropping artwork.