Review- WOLVERINE- OLD MAN LOGAN VOL. 2: BORDERTOWN

WOLVERINE- OLD MAN LOGAN VOL. 2: BORDERTOWN (Marvel, Second Printing, 2017; Softcover)

Collects Old Man Logan #5-8 and Uncanny X-Men #205 (cover dates May, 1986- September, 2016)

Writers: Jeff Lemire and Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men #205)

Artists: Andrea Sorrentino and Barry Windsor-Smith (Uncanny X-Men #205)

Colorists: Marcelo Maiolo and Barry Windsor-Smith (Uncanny X-Men #205)

Old Man Logan's quest to keep his future from happening is making it apparent that this has either become a divergent timeline or that he arrived in a different timeline to begin with. The date where the heroes were killed by a united villain front has come and gone. Logan encounters his wife from his timeline, Maureen, only she's still a child. What could have been creepy was instead quickly turned into another of Logan's personal tragedies.

Old Man Logan heads to the great white north to get away from it all, only to be hunted by Lady Deathstrike and The Reavers. It's kind of weird to see how important Deathstrike has become to the Wolverine mythos. Old Man Shaw moment: I was buying those issues of Alpha Flight and Uncanny X-Men when she was introduced and didn't think that she was anything special as a 12-going-on-13 year old kid.

Logan also encounters the teenage Jean Grey/Marvel Girl/Phoenix from yet another alternate timeline since, like Wolverine, she is dead in this current continuity. This sentence shows why modern Marvel sucks. Wolverine is dead (for now), and Jean Grey is also dead (also for now, since she is returning judging by the current cycle of December solicits), so alternate timeline versions are brought in, both from different points in their life (Jean Grey from an alternate past where she is a teenager, and Logan from 50 years in the future of his timeline). It's the cheesiest aspects of Silver Age DC and beneath the dignity of the House Of Ideas.

I am enjoying this series in spite of that criticism. I read this title almost as it's own universe. This is 1980s Wolverine, only decades older fed up with it all. I am also decades older from the halcyon days of the 1980s and equally fed up with it all. This is the superhero version of Grumpy Old Men. Both Old Man Logan and I feel out of touch with the modern world through no fault of our own. The world has a way of changing around you. Like Old Man Logan, I am not prepared to give up on life without a fight. Screw with me and I'll pop my claws too, metaphorically speaking of course since I don't have claws.

The padding factor of Volume 1 in this line of trades continues, with Uncanny X-Men #205 added to bolster the page count. At least this issue is related to the events in this arc, with the first encounter of Wolverine and Lady Deathstrike. I can reread '80s X-Men a thousand times. Indeed, I have.

So far so good with this series. I will continue on my journey with this title. Will Old Man Logan find the peace which has eluded him his whole life? Will I ever quit buying comic books? Old Man Logan and Old Man Shaw are both too stubborn to know when to quit, so the answer is likely no to both questions, but let's find out together.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- I am surprised that this book received a second printing, as Marvel typically allows material to go out of print so that it can be repurposed in Omnibus hardcovers and, once those go out of print, fat Complete Collection trades.

Paper stock: Fair weight coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Perfect bound trade paperback. This book is on the thin side and feels like a fat periodical.

Cardstock cover notes: Laminated cardstock.