Jeff Lemire has put Old Man Logan through his paces since he began writing the character. And with his final story arc of the series, he doesn’t plan to let up. In fact, he’s making the character relive some major milestones in the life of the Wolverine.
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The story arc “Past Lives” will team Lemire with interior artist Eric Nguyen and series mainstay Andrea Sorrentino providing covers. In an interview with IGN, Lemire revealed his intentions for the final arc.
“For me, a large part of writing Old Man Logan has been about taking old Wolverine tropes and stories and then seeing those again but through the lens of Old Man Logan instead, with the different perspective he brings. The other big part of the series has been the ‘man out of time’ aspect of Logan struggling with what may or may not be his apocalyptic future,” Lemire said.
Now Lemire and the team are bringing both of those elements “full circle” as Logan bounces through time. Lemire said that he will revisit his childhood in the 1800s, his first appearance in the pages of Hulk, and his time as a superhero with the X-Men.
In the original series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven, Logan lived in a dystopian alternate future of the Marvel Universe in which the villains rose up and eliminated most of the heroes, sharing control of the United States by ruling over different territories. Logan retired as a superhero and attempted to live a quiet life with his family, but an elder Hawkeye recruited him for a cross-country trip through the Wasteland.
In the Secret Wars miniseries, Brian Bendis and Sorrentino brought this alternate future to Battleworld and gave Logan a tour through the different realities that made up the patchwork planet. The close of that title brought Logan into the mainstream Marvel Universe, a place in which the regular Wolverine had perished and his mantle was taken up by clone X-23.โจโจLemire and Sorrentino continued Old Man Logan’s story, and while the beginning of the new series focused on the character learning about the changes in the post-Secret Wars Marvel Universe, Lemire’s end will force him to confront the moments that made the character who he is.
“For me, I needed to find ways in all of these stories to honor the original story but also do something new with it without altering Marvel history. That was a bit tricky, but I think I managed to pull it off,” Lemire said.
Artist Eric Nguyen returns to Marvel and joins the series for Lemire’s final storyline on the title, and Lemire said he’s happy to have his talents close out his run on the series.
“He’s great,” Lemire said. “I’ve been a fan of his work for a while, so I’m very excited to see Eric bring his unique style to all these different eras of Wolverine’s past.”
Old Man Logan will continue after Lemire’s run ends, so expect a new creative team to be announced in the coming months.
Solicitation text for two of the issues reads:
OLD MAN LOGAN #21
Written by Jeff Lemire
Penciled by Eric Nguyen
Cover by ANDREA SORRENTINO
THE EPIC “PAST LIVES” SAGA BEGINS HERE!
-AN INSTANT CLASSIC FOR THE CRITALLY ACCLAIMED SERIES! Follow LOGAN through the ages โ in the 1800s as a young mutant, to his first encounter with the HULK, to his stint with the X-MEN as WOLVERINE โ it’s all here!
-OLD MAN LOGAN is accidentally sent spiraling through his own past, forced to relive some of his most tragic and intense moments.
-Will he be able to free himself from these living memories? And will he ever return to the WASTELANDS and the young baby Hulk he left behind?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory โฆ$3.99
OLD MAN LOGAN #22
Written by Jeff Lemire
Penciled by Eric Nguyen
Cover by Andrea Sorrentino
HULK SMASH, OLD MAN LOGAN SNIKT
-It’s LOGAN versus a WENDIGO and THE HULK โ all over again!
-And as he continues his journey through his own past, Logan is forced to relive an especially poignant and painful moment from his pastโฆ
-โฆWill he try to change the outcome to save a person he loves more than anyone else?
32 PGS./Parental Advisory โฆ$3.99