Wolverine

We're just a few days from the release of X-Men: Wolverine III: Logan: The Adventures of Logan, the X-Man Wolverine, Hugh Jackman's "final" time in the role. So it seemed like a perfect time to review Old Man Logan. With incredible powers of strength and healing, Wolverine reveals his retractable claws and uses them to slash down opponents. N-no? No he doesn't. That's sort of entirely the point. "Old Man Logan" was a storyline in Wolverine, written by Mark Millar and drawn by Steve McNiven. Set 50 years in the future, the story sees the ex-Wolverine living in a world where the supervillains have won. The night the heroes died, Logan sheathed his claws and vowed to never use them again, living as a total pacifist and a farmer, starting a family. So talking about how Wolverine uses his claws in this bio is the equivalent of talking about how very much Superman loves Kryptonite or the way Batman uses guns. Of course, that's assuming this is meant to be the "Old Man Logan" Old Man Logan, and not the Old Man Logan Old Man Logan. What a confusing sentence! "Old Man Logan," in quotes, is the name of a storyline; Old Man Logan, italicized, is the name of a comic series that spun out of Secret Wars, in which Wolverine woke up in the present day. In "Old Man Logan" he wore a duster, while in Old Man Logan he wears a leather jacket with a fleece collar, which is precsely what this toy gives us. It's entirely a new sculpt, because even if any other characters had worn a jacket like this, none of them are as short or as wide as Wolvie is. At 5⅞" tall, this toy is too big for the 5'3" Logan, but it's still shorter than average. As previously mentioned, Old Man Logan has a wonderfully scowly face. It's perhaps not as haggard as McNiven drew him, but then, it's not based on McNiven's art. No, this is a mildly cartoonish take, showing influences of Humberto Ramos' Extraordinary X-Men art. He's frowning and his face is covered in wrinkles, and he's got the close-cropped gray hair. Despite his new (and unlikely to be reused) body, OML has all the same articulation we want from our Marvel Legends: a balljointed head, hinged neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, double-hinged elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, hinged torso, swivel waist, balljointed hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge/swivel ankles. Yes, an extra swivel in the ankles, because there isn't one in the shins. He has enough articulation to do the claw pose, but we won't take a picture of that because 1) no claws, and 2) it's three years too early. That's not to say the figure doesn't include claws. He does. They're the removable claws we like so much, and he does use his claws now that he lives in the present, but you have the option if you want it. The prototype on the back of the card showed the hands with ports on the back where the claws would come out, but the final figure just has normal hands. He doesn't come with a piece of the Series 3 Build-A-Figure, Warlock, probably because his body uses so much new tooling. Still, it's a shame they couldn't include a baby Hulk for him to carry around, like the Marvel Universe version did. After a long gap, this makes two series in a row with a Wolverine. You've never had a 6" figure like this before, though; and if nothing else, it'll give Spider-Girl someone to hang out with in your display. -- 02/27/17

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