On Wednesday, I had the honor to pick up Wolverine #66, which begins the new story arc written by Mark Millar (Civil War, The Ultimates, Wanted). Now, I have been a pretty big fan of the Wolverine book since I started reading it. It has always been written really well and, let’s face it, you can write a lot about Wolverine. He has countless stories that can be told about him. Just look at how many Wolverine one-shots have been coming out lately. And there of course was the recent Logan mini-series that talked about his past in Japan. So, I was slightly surprised, with all this backstory that can be written about him, that Mark Millar decided to write a story about the future of Wolverine. And coming off of the outstanding “Get Mystique” arc, I was nervous how this would turn out. However, after reading the first issue, I can tell you that it seems like, as usual, Millar’s judgment is spot on.

The first issue of “Old Man Logan” starts with us getting a glimpse at what Logan is up to, 50 years after some mysterious event that caused all (or most) of the superheroes to die. It seems that Logan has decided to drop his Wolverine pseudonym and gets a little uptight when someone tries to call him it. We are then introduced to the children of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross, who seem to be Logan’s landlords, and it appears that Old Man Logan is having a little big of financial troubles. We get a couple of pages of Logan ripping the Hulk gang to shreds, only to realize that he was just imagining it. Instead, Logan gets the shit kicked out of him. It appears the pacifist thing really took hold. Finally, Hawkeye (who is ironically blind) comes to visit Logan, telling him he has a job for him that involves driving across the country. We get a nice full page map of what the US looks like now, with lots of funny names thrown in. The comic ends with Logan saying “get ready for the ride of your life.” It appears that this is going to be one epic arc.

Other than the art (by Steve McNiven, who worked with Millar on Civil War) and Millar’s outstanding writing, I was struck by how clever the concept of this story is. I mean, Wolverine is the biggest killer in the Marvel universe and something happened to make him give up that life. It makes me very excited to see where Millar is going to take this story. Obviously, we will get some nice backstory of what happened to all the superheroes. And my guess would be that we will see Wolverine pop the claws a few times before the story is told, but I think Millar is talented enough to really craft a story about Wolverine without resorting to excessive violence. If you look at Logan, which was an outstanding book, you can see how a less violent Wolverine story can be told and told very well.

I strongly recommend picking up Wolverine #66 and following Millar’s run. You won’t regret it.