All you need to know before watching the Logan movie this weekend The Skid Reviewer Wolverine has always been awesome. This bad-tempered, foul-mouthed, Canadian killing machine has been a fan favorite for decades. But what happens when Wolverine trades in his claws for the life of a pacifist? The Wolverine: Old Man Logan storyline began in Wolverine #66 and concluded in the Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan special. The plot in the comics is as brilliant as it is heartbreaking: Mysterio, Spider-Man’s master of illusion who’s often accused of wearing a fishbowl, made Wolverine see pretty much every major villain that the X-Men have ever fought raiding the X-mansion. Unsure of where the other X-Men were or what the villains had done with them, he fought his hardest to try and save his friends. It wasn’t until it was too late that he realized the scents were wrong. It wasn’t super villains he was cutting through – it was the X-Men themselves. This is what led to Wolverine sheathing the claws and becoming nothing more than Logan in the comic. The memory haunted him, and he swore that he’d never pop his claws again. Wolverine — Logan — drops his superhero moniker and costume for a farmer’s life complete with two children and a wife. Taking place 50 years in the future, almost all of the superheroes were wiped out in a single night. Several super villain masterminds banded together to take down all of the crime-fighting masked vigilantes, and then divide up North America for themselves. Old Man Logan was a story of Logan’s fall and redemption, told largely through a cross-country road trip that saw Logan teamed up with a blind Hawkeye. And so their journey begins and we see the extent of the devastation around North America, what happened when the heroes died out, and why the X-Man known as Wolverine no longer exists. If you’re a familiar with George Miller’s Mad Max series, or even post-apocalyptic media in general, you’ll be right at home with Wolverine: Old Man Logan. While it may be clichéd in its utilization of dust bowls, dilapidated structures, and the scourge that live in the wasteland, it is the way in which the story is told. Mark Miller is a master of words and brings characters to life in ways that will not only surprise readers, but make you fall in love with the insanity of the villains… or what’s left of them. As far as the upcoming Logan movie goes, it is obvious from the trailers that the movie is loosely based on the comic book. The mutants are gone, Logan is mostly alone, and the world seems to have seen better days. Any hope and optimism that the good guys would overcome in the previous films seems to have been lost by the time Logan takes place. At the moment a direct movie adaptation of the Old Man Logan comic can’t be made by any film studio due to rights issues; several major characters who appear in the comic (including Hawkeye and the Incredible Hulk) are part of Marvel’s Avengers film franchise, and therefore aren’t available to be used as part of the X-Men movie franchise. The movie seems to center around one last act of heroism for Logan and Professor X: trying to save a young female mutant (Dafne Keen) from being hunted down and captured or killed. It has now been confirmed that Dafne Keen will play as Laura Kinney a.k.a. X-23. Who is X-23? She is a clone of Wolverine. Like Wolverine, X-23 has a regenerative healing factor, senses, speed, and reflexes. She also has retractable adamantium-coated bone claws in her hands and feet. Cloned from a damaged copy of Wolverine's genome, X-23 was created to be the perfect killing machine. For years, she proved herself a capable assassin working for an organization called the Facility. What we’ve seen of Logan so far suggests that there may be a similar tragic back-story to what was featured in the comics, but beyond that it’s telling its own story. There are elements from the comics that we catch glimpses of in the trailer, and some of the overall themes of Old Man Logan seem very much in place in Logan, even if different characters are involved. Logan will miss some of the bigger action scenes from the comics, but will certainly supply its own to replace them; given its R rating, the action will likely be much more brutal than what we’ve seen in previous X-Men films. Even though we won’t see him kill the Red Skull with Captain America’s shield, the action should still be what you would expect from a tired and angry Wolverine. There’s no word yet on whether we’ll see another Wolverine at some point in the movies, though after 17 years the character could certainly use a break. Until he’s recast or otherwise brought back, Logan will stand as the final Wolverine story. Old Man Logan is the perfect inspiration for that, since it gives the character a sense of closure and lets him finally feel the age of all of his adventures. Given how hit-or-miss some of Wolverine’s appearances have been, this is how Hugh Jackman’s take on the character needs to go out: Not as The Wolverine, but as Logan. Watch the video on Logan Origins at: www.youtube.com/theskidreviewer Find the Skid Reviewer at: www. youtube.com/theskidreviewer www.facebook.com/theskidreviewer And at Instagram at the_skid_reviewer (The Skid Reviewer is a YouTube channel run by two comic book fans from Nagaland who make videos about anything that catches their fancy)