Old Man Logan #2

Old Man Logan, Issue #2 sees the aged Wolverine from the future tracking down the villains of the present who might go on to destroy his world.  In the first issue, he kills a minor criminal who would go on to become the Black Butcher and attack his family.  In this issue, he's after the man who would become the most evil villain of them all, David Banner, the Hulk.  "No one knew," Logan narrates, "for sure how Banner went bad.  All I do know is that whatever it was that kept Bruce Banner from giving in to the mindless Hulk died when the super villains took over."  The comic flash-forwards to the future, when the Hulk's children and grandchildren are terrorizing poor farmers.  Old Man Logan wants to help, but his wife talks him out of it.  Back in the present day, he comes across the Hulk helping with a minor traffic accident.  Old Man Logan, now as Wolverine, attacks without mercy, only to find out that the New Hulk is Amadeus Cho.

The series is definitely rewarding to those who've kept up with the Marvel universe.  I can't say that I'm a Marvel expert, but I caught a couple of the cues and hints.  Old Man Logan is a very flawed hero, killing and attacking people in cold blood because of what they might do in the future.  One can't help but be reminded of a superhero Dick Cheney or George W. Bush.  In the future, Logan escaped the superhero life and let the Hulk Gang run over the world, and that's part of his flawed nature.  I thought the Hulk looked and acted differently than the usual Hulk, but I didn't make the connection that another Hulk was around.  If Old Man Logan doesn't know that there was a New Hulk, how can he be trusted to know it was the Banner Hulk who actually did all the bad deeds that caused the Villain's Uprising?

What I like about Old Man Logan the most is that it tickles the imagination.  Is Logan even in the same universe as before?  I've always been a fan of Jeff Lemire's writing, but the knock on him is that he doesn't do as well with other people's work as he does with his own work.  This series destroys that notion.  Even in a dark tale like this one, Lemire finds time for humor, as Shakespeare did with the fools in Hamlet.  Andrea Sorrentino's artwork and Marcelo Maiolo's colors are fantastic as well. Maiolo contrasts the green of the Hulk and the dark of night with the red of blood. Cory Petit does the lettering, and he uses a lot of mild italics and bolds to emphasize certain words.  I'll definitely continue reading this title.