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Tuesday 6 December 2016

Wolverine: Old Man Logan, Volume 2: Bordertown Review (Jeff Lemire, Andrea Sorrentino)


Old Man Logan continues to be haunted by his demons in Bordertown. Believing his dystopian future might still happen, he heads to a small gravel quarry mining town in the Great White North to protect his future wife, Maureen, who’s presently a kid. But long-time enemies like Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers are surprised to discover Logan is seemingly back from the dead and set out to settle some old scores… 

The second volume of the Old Man Logan ongoing has some decent moments and strong art but the main story is a bit flimsy. I still really like this older version of Wolverine who’s been through the wringer and then some. I totally buy his jaded voice when he sees Deathstrike again, his inner monologue telling him to say the same words he always says, go through the motions he always does – I know he means he’s lived encounters like these before in his past but it feels very meta, like the character is getting sick of doing the same stuff over and over again. And when he meets Jubilee again it’s an awkward but quietly moving reunion. 

His decision to head to his future wife’s town was pretty stupid though. He should know given his advanced age and extensive experience that wherever he goes, trouble follows, and while his intentions were honourable he made things worse by bringing the Reavers in his wake. Logan basically created all of the problems in this story and had to save the town from the danger he brought to it! 

Andrea Sorrentino’s art continues to impress. He does landscapes really well so the snowy Canadian wilderness looks beautiful and the action-packed villain uprising flashbacks in the final issue were awesome too. His work has been of consistently high quality across three volumes now. 

Jeff Lemire’s script comes off as contrived and as generic a Wolverine story as there can be but it has the occasional glimpse of strong characterisation and Sorrentino’s art is great. Bordertown is a weak follow-up to the better first volume - it’s not a bad comic but definitely feels like a pointless addition to the series.

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