Old Man Logan #5

Old Man Logan, Issue #5 starts the new arc, "Bordertown."  After rejoining the X-Men, Old Man Logan leaves to be on his own.  He heads far north, to Killhorn Falls, in the Northwest Territory of Canada, bordering Alaska.  At Killhorn Falls, Wolverine remembers his past, meeting Maureen, his wife in another universe, on another Earth.  The younger girl he meets is named Maureen, and I doubt this is a coincidence.  He wants to keep her safe, but will his presence cause more danger than his absence would?

I've read a number of Canadian cartoonists, including the "Big Three" of Chester Brown, Joe Matt, and Seth, but none of them capture Canada the way Jeff Lemire does.  That doesn't mean I haven't enjoyed his comics that have nothing to do with Canada, like Descender, but the "Big Two" publications have always tried to put Lemire in Canada, like with Justice League United, which takes place in Moose Jaw, Canada.  Or maybe, it's the other way around.  I shouldn't really comment on comic-book politics.  "Bordertown" more clearly captures small-town Canada than Justice League United does because this issue actually takes place in a Canadian town, rather than a hole in the ground that could have just as easily been in Venezuela.

Old Man Logan also is the better for the artwork of Andrea Sorrentino, who portrays snowfall in a classical way, with large blobs of snow.  While this is reminiscent of artists from Charles Schultz to Jacques Tardi, Sorrentino puts his own spin on the genre with help of colorist, Marcelo Maiolo.  Snow near the view is larger, of course, but the smaller snow farther away also has a blueish tint to it. It's a beautiful comic, and my favorite piece of artwork in it is the two-page spread with five vertical panes showing Old Man Logan's motorcycle in five different climates, along with a sixth, horizontal plane showing Logan in Canada, finally.