Dead Man Logan #7
Logan returns to the Wasteland in Dead Man Logan #7, by writer Ed Brisson, artist Mike Henderson, colorist Nolan Woodard, and letterer Cory Petit. After being gone for so long and being in a weakened state, can he survive the dog eat dog world he left behind? Especially when dog eats dog gets literal.
Logan finds himself in Florida, in the Lizard’s territory, and attack some of his men, stealing their truck. He begins his cross country jaunt to Sacramento, encountering villains the whole way. Wolverine triumphs over them, but is taken by a group of cannibals, who find him to be the perfect prisoner. He’s rescued by Dani Cage and Bruce Jr, who he had left behind before being inadvertently transported to the prime universe and they aren’t at all happy with him. Back in the Lizard’s territory, a familiar foe comes looking for news of Logan.
It’s incredibly fitting that Logan can cut his way across the Wasteland, dealing with villain gangs, but is finally taken down and imprisoned by a group of desperate people with booby traps. It’s not that he doesn’t know they are there- he has super senses- it’s just not an attack he expects. In the Wastelands, the most significant threats have always been the villains and their gangs, but Brisson takes a second to show readers what a world run by villains would really be like for the ordinary people trying to survive. The cannibals aren’t ostensibly bad people or at least didn’t start out that way, they’re just trying to survive. That doesn’t excuse their actions or absolve them, but it’s something that would definitely happen in a world where the central authorities were replaced by supervillains and their descendants.
Beyond that, Brisson lays out a big surprise when Logan finds out from Dani exactly how long he’s been gone from the Wasteland. Seven years have passed since his disappearance. That’s a big deal, and as far as it goes, Logan wasn’t exactly quiet in his trip before the cannibals captured. Dani was able to track him, and as the end of the issue, someone else was as well, and it’s here where Brisson plants the seed for what may be the book’s endgame. The man tracking Logan is very familiar to any reader who has paid attention to Wolverine in nearly any media he’s appeared in and definitely promises an exhilarating ending coming up. The only real nitpicks about the issue is that readers have been told how bad Logan’s healing factor is, yet he’s still able to fight his way across America and get cut on for weeks by the cannibals without completely shutting down. Brisson references this at one point, but with all the doom and gloom about Logan’s healing factor that has been built up lately, it feels like maybe Brisson and company underplayed it for the sake of this issue.
Mike Henderson’s art continues to impress. His style has always been pretty cartoonish, and at first, it doesn’t really seem like it should fit the Wastelands, but he’s able to capture the action and the blood very well. As with previous issues, his character acting really sets the tone. There’s a madness to the cannibals’ expressions that makes sense when one thinks about the world they’ve inhabited for so long and Henderson’s facial work nails it. The pain of the ordeal is etched all over Logan’s face the entire time he’s their prisoner. Henderson is a rising star.
Dead Man Logan #7 continues to subverts reader expectations. It’s highly doubtful that anyone guessed that the biggest opening threat to Logan in the Wastelands would be a group of non-powered cannibals, but this Brisson and company throw it out there, and it works rather well. Henderson’s art continues to be top-notch, with grade-A character work really selling Brisson’s scripts. It does feel like the story is ignoring how bad Logan’s healing factor is to make the issue work, but that’s a small nitpick. Finally, the book’s two reveals, of the time of Logan’s absence and the return of a familiar foe, should excite readers for what’s to come. As always, Dead Man Logan is a treat.
