Comic reviews March 2009.

This is good. Gritty. I mean Mark Millar enjoys breaking down character bases, especially iconic Marvel characters and their interactions. He destroys the continuity of good over evil in comics, in the case of Wolverine: Old Man Logan it’s evil that overpowered good.

Millar’s Wolverine is an old and wasted man. A terrible incident causes him to be a shell of the man he used to be. Old Man Logan is set in a mixed up future where the bad guys have won and carved up the US into zones. Millar’s scenario is based on a writer thinking about why there are so many more bad guys than good guys in the Marvel Universe.  So what would happen if they were to form a cohesive force? Well in this story the villains did form a united force and won. The good guys (what is left) are just scattered across a broken landscape. Depressing? It seems that popular culture in comics is looking at a bleaker landscape (a sign?). But the essence of a story is endurance and who survives, everyone likes a survival story right? The thing with Old Man Logan is how the hell is this going to end? To me Millar has embarked on a epic journey to turn all this around, so the good guys can come through it all and win. But will they?

Suffice to say it is compelling read and the art is great by Steve Mcniven

More grit. Garth Ennis is gone, Duane Swiercynski takes over and he is kicking out a good solid story with his own style. Keep the horrors of a shitty, exploitative reality of modern day society and mix in some vengeance and the Punisher will always ensure justice is served – with blood. Swiercynski is carrying the torch and he is running with it. Corrupt politicians, corrupt business people, corrupt police, spoilt idiots trying to make a quick buck (by fucking over each other). The Punisher has six hours to kill the lot of them (has a slow release toxin in his blood).

It’s bloody, depressive but rewarding. Art is good by Michel Lacomb, still Goran Palov (Ennis’s last artist) just captured that commercialized cess pool of life so well. Hope he comes back to the Punisher one day.