Old Man Logan #3

By Brian Michael Bendis, Andrea Sorrentino and Marcel Maiolo

Old Man Logan has been one of the more entertaining series in these Secret Wars tie-ins. We’re seeing Wolverine at a time when he is totally fed up with everything, almost like if Clint Eastwood would play him. This has been a character that fans have wanted to see, especially since Marvel really watered down the 616 version of the character. This is a great chance to give Wolverine fans a character they can love again.

With two very good issues of Old Man Logan out, Brian Michael Bendis needed to make sure quality didn’t dip. This issue does take a step back to some degree. It’s not terrible, but there are some problems. Apocalypse comes off pretty rough in this issue. Telling a Thor that he is giving her “a firm but fair warning” seems a bit out of character for him, even if he is an alternate universe version. There is also a problem with the wording in this issue. Doom is referred to by the female Thor as both Lord and Baron, which is confusing. Doom would never be called a Baron, that is the name given to the heads of the battle world domains. Story wise, Logan is written pretty well, but he does make some dumb choices in this issue, which also seem a little out of character for him. Attacking a supremely powerful Thor seems a bit off for him. He’s supposed to be an older and wiser version. One of the better parts of the issue focuses on an interaction with AOA Boom Boom. It’s nice to see her character get some panel time and Bendis allowed her to be free and fun. This was a decent issue, but it definitely didn’t live of to the previous installments.

The pencils in this issue were laid down by Andrea Sorrentino with colors by Marcel Maiolo. These two guys generally work together and they seem to work together well. One of the things that makes Sorrentino so good is his awesome page layouts.The first splash page of this issue is pretty excellent. Some panels are laid out to resemble a wide screen movie. This is a similar style used by Bryan Hitch in his Ultimates run, and it blew everyone away. There are some panels that look like a scene from Sin City, like when Logan tackles a Thor. The background is all red and the characters are silhouettes. Sorrentino is one of the hottest artist in the industry right now and his style is a huge reason why. The pencils get a huge push from the colors of Marcel Maiolo. He’s worked closely with Sorrentino before, so they are on the same page. Maiolo is not afraid to use lots of reds and blues for whole panels. In a sense, he’s just as risky as Sorrentino. A page where Logan gets struck down by a Thor shows a little of what Maiolo is capable of as we get a good palette of colors as Logan falls. This team has logged a ton of time together and it shows that they love what they do.

This is the weakest issue in the series so far, but Brian Michael Bendis is a good enough writer that you shouldn’t worry. Even if you didn’t like the story, the art was still pretty killer. We will all just have to wait and see if the series can rebound from it’s first mediocre issue.