Old Man Logan made his first appearance in the pages of Wolverine (vol. 3) #66 in August 2008. The character and his world were conceived by writer Mark Millar and artist Steve McNiven, the same creative team behind the blockbuster event Civil War. The story was pitched as a dark, futuristic “last Wolverine story,” heavily inspired by post-apocalyptic fiction and revisionist Western films, most notably Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. The initial eight-issue arc was an immense success, lauded for its brutal storytelling, imaginative world-building, and McNiven's stunningly detailed artwork. It presented a Marvel Universe like none seen before—a broken, conquered America divided into territories ruled by supervillains. The concept resonated so strongly with readers that the character was brought back for the 2015 Secret Wars event in a tie-in series, also titled Old Man Logan, written by Brian Michael Bendis. This series served as a bridge, ultimately transplanting the character from his native reality into the mainstream Earth-616 continuity following the event. His popularity secured him an ongoing solo series, which ran for 50 issues from 2016 to 2018, primarily written by Jeff Lemire and later Ed Brisson. This series explored his difficult adjustment to a world that was not his own and his desperate attempts to prevent his dark future. The character's arc concluded in the 12-issue limited series Dead Man Logan (2018-2019), which provided a definitive and poignant end to his journey.
The origin of Old Man Logan is a tale of profound tragedy, set decades in a future where evil has triumphed. It is crucial to distinguish between his comic book genesis and his cinematic adaptation, as they are fundamentally different narratives.
Over fifty years before the start of his story, the villains of the Marvel Universe, led by the red_skull, orchestrated a coordinated, global attack. Dubbed “The Night the Heroes Fell,” this assault wiped out the vast majority of the world's superheroes in a single, brutal evening. The United States was shattered and carved into territories controlled by the victors: the Red Skull became President, Doctor Doom claimed his own fiefdom, the Kingpin controlled the West Coast, and the Hulk Gang—the monstrous, inbred descendants of Bruce Banner—took over California. The X-Men's fate was the most horrific and serves as the source of Logan's lifelong trauma. On that fateful night, a legion of supervillains descended upon the Xavier Institute. Believing his friends and students were in mortal danger, Wolverine unleashed his berserker rage, slaughtering every single intruder in a bloody frenzy to protect his family. It was only after the last foe fell that the illusion shattered. He had not been fighting villains; the master of illusion, Mysterio, had tricked him. Logan stood amidst the corpses of his teammates, his students, his family—the X-Men. He had single-handedly murdered them all. Broken by this unimaginable horror, he walked to a nearby train track, laid his head on the rail, and waited. As the train passed over him, his healing factor pieced his severed head back together. Realizing he could not even die, he resolved that “Wolverine” was dead. He retracted his claws, vowing never to use them again and never to take another human life. He became simply “Logan,” a quiet farmer living on a barren plot of land in Sacramento, California—now part of “Hulkland.” He started a new family, with a wife, Maureen, and two children, Scotty and Jade. Fifty years later, Logan is a broken old man, struggling to pay rent to his landlords, the Hulk Gang. Facing eviction and the murder of his family, he reluctantly accepts a job from a now-blind Hawkeye: help him navigate across the country to New Babylon (formerly Washington, D.C.) to deliver a secret package. Their journey across the dystopian wasteland reveals the horrifying new face of America: a T-Rex infected with the Symbiote roams the plains, Ant-Man's skeleton lies as a giant landmark known as “Pym Falls,” and Mjolnir rests in “Hammer Falls,” now a place of worship. Upon reaching New Babylon, the delivery is revealed to be a case of Super-Soldier Serum, intended to create a new team of Avengers to fight the Red Skull. However, it was a trap; Hawkeye is betrayed and murdered by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents loyal to the President. Logan is taken to the Red Skull's trophy room, filled with artifacts from fallen heroes. After being brutally beaten, the sight of Captain America's uniform finally breaks Logan's pacifist vow. He uses Cap's shield to decapitate the Red Skull's men and then engages the villain himself. After a vicious fight, the Red Skull is killed, and Logan, taking a suit of Iron Man's armor and a case of money, flies home. Tragically, he arrives too late. The Hulk Gang, tired of waiting for the rent, had already murdered his wife and children. All his efforts, all the violence he had sworn off, had been for nothing. With nothing left to lose, Logan finally unsheathes his adamantium claws for the first time in five decades. He hunts down and systematically slaughters every member of the Hulk Gang, saving their patriarch, the now-insane and monstrous Bruce Banner, for last. Banner reveals he'd become a monster just because he was bored, and in the ensuing fight, he devours Logan whole. This proves to be a fatal mistake. Weeks later, Logan's healing factor allows him to regenerate inside Banner's stomach, and he bursts out, killing the Hulk from within. Finding one survivor—Banner's infant grandson, Bruce Banner Jr.—Logan adopts the child. Riding off into the sunset, he declares his intention to form a new team, to take down the despots ruling the Wastelands, and to finally bring justice back to the world. He was no longer just Logan; he was Wolverine again.
Logan's journey to the prime Marvel reality was a direct consequence of the 2015 Secret Wars event. As his universe, Earth-807128, was destroyed during a multiversal “Incursion,” Logan was one of the few beings who survived the apocalypse. He found himself on Battleworld, a patchwork planet created by Doctor Doom from the remnants of dead realities. After traversing several of these domains, he found himself at the epicenter of the final battle against Doom. When reality was subsequently rebuilt by Reed Richards, Logan was not returned to his own timeline. Instead, he awoke in the present day of the restored Earth-616. His immediate mission was singular and obsessive: to prevent his dark future at all costs. He began compiling a list of the individuals and events that led to the heroes' fall, intending to preemptively eliminate the threats. This put him in immediate conflict with the heroes of this new world, who viewed his lethal methods with alarm. His attempts to assassinate a young Mysterio and his confrontation with a very-much-alive Hawkeye highlighted his displacement and the psychological toll his past had taken on him. Eventually, Logan was found by the X-Men, who were reeling from their own recent crises. He reluctantly joined Storm's “Extraordinary X-Men” team, finding a new, albeit uncomfortable, home. He served as a living ghost, a constant reminder of a horrific potential future, and slowly carved out a new purpose for himself as a protector of the generation he had failed in his own time.
While sharing a fundamental power set with his younger Earth-616 counterpart, Old Man Logan's abilities and mindset are uniquely shaped by age, trauma, and the harsh realities of his world.
Old Man Logan is a stark departure from the typical Wolverine. He is defined by a deep-seated weariness and a core of profound sadness. Initially, he is a committed pacifist, so horrified by his past actions that he refuses to engage in any violence. He is haunted, prone to flashbacks and nightmares, and carries the weight of his sins in every action. Upon arriving in Earth-616, he becomes fiercely protective of the younger generation of heroes, viewing them as a second chance to do right by the family he lost. He is gruff, cynical, and emotionally closed-off, but beneath the hardened exterior is a reluctant paternal figure who desperately seeks redemption.
The 2017 film Logan, directed by James Mangold, is a thematic and spiritual adaptation, not a direct translation of the comic storyline. It captures the tone and “last ride” feel of the source material but changes nearly every plot point and character motivation.
The central conflict of the film is the catastrophic failure of Logan's healing factor. Here, it is not just diminished; it is actively failing. He is visibly scarred, limps, and is in constant pain. The film explicitly confirms that the adamantium bonded to his skeleton is poisoning him, and his weakened immune system can no longer fight it off. This decay is the driving force of the narrative, framing his journey as a true final act. His claws sometimes fail to retract or extend properly, and every fight leaves lasting, grievous wounds.
The foundational story by Millar and McNiven. This eight-issue arc introduced the character and the world of the Wastelands. It follows a pacifist Logan as he is forced by circumstance to undertake a cross-country journey with a blind Hawkeye. The narrative is a slow burn, meticulously building the dystopian world and Logan's inner turmoil. The climax, where Logan's family is murdered and he finally unleashes his claws on the Hulk Gang, is a landmark moment of brutal, cathartic violence that redefines the character. It is a self-contained masterpiece that established the themes of regret, family, and the inescapable nature of violence that would follow the character for the next decade.
During Marvel's multiversal collapse event, Old Man Logan was one of the few beings to survive the destruction of his reality. His tie-in miniseries saw him emerge from his fallen domain into the patchwork Battleworld. In a disoriented daze, he broke the laws of Battleworld by crossing its borders, traversing different realms in a desperate attempt to understand what had happened. This journey showcased the horrors of other fallen realities and put him on a collision course with the Thor Corps and God-Emperor Doom, positioning him to be one of the survivors who would emerge in the newly-reborn Prime Universe.
This 50-issue series chronicles Logan's life after his arrival in Earth-616. The initial arc, “Berzerker,” sees him actively hunting down the villains on his list to prevent his future, putting him in conflict with the heroes of the present day. Later arcs see him confront a displaced Maestro (a tyrannical future Hulk from another timeline), battle a new, more lethal version of the Reavers, and even briefly return to a vision of his own desolate future. The series is a deep character study, exploring his attempts to adjust, his burgeoning relationships with the new X-Men, and his slow acceptance that this new world is his home and is worth fighting for.
This 12-issue finale serves as the capstone to Old Man Logan's entire saga. His healing factor is now rapidly failing, and the adamantium in his body is finally killing him. Knowing his time is short, Logan embarks on one final mission: to return to his home reality of Earth-807128 and ensure that the infant Bruce Banner Jr. is safe. His journey sees him settle old scores with his timeline's versions of Sabretooth and Mysterio. In a final, poignant confrontation, he tricks Mysterio into believing he's won, allowing Logan to get close enough to kill him, finally avenging the X-Men. Mortally wounded, Logan dies peacefully, watching the sunset over the Wastelands, his long, painful journey finally over.