Old Man Logan's Future, Explained

By the time Wolverine joined the X-Men, he was already an old man. Thanks to a mutant healing factor that slows his aging, Logan has looked like an adult in the prime of his life for decades, even though he was born in the late 1800s. But after villains tricked him into killing his teammates and then took over America, Logan’s healing factor began fading and he finally started showing his age. 

As this Old Man Logan exited his self-imposed exile, he discovered a harsh future he unwillingly helped create. Across the so-called Wastelands, Old Man Logan found friends forever changed by the cruelties of this world, villains with dramatic new roles, and a new generation of heroes ready to fight for a better tomorrow.  

Now, let's take a closer look at Old Man Logan and the heroes and villains of his dark future. We'll also break down what happened to this world and how the world of the Wastelands took two dramatically different paths following the Multiversal chaos of SECRET WARS (2015).

WHO IS OLD MAN LOGAN?

Old Man Logan and his reality debuted in WOLVERINE (2003) #66 by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. When his world's villains teamed up to wipe out all the heroes, Wolverine was tricked into butchering the X-Men by Mysterio, who used his illusions to make Logan think that he was fighting several villains. When Wolverine realized what he had done, he vowed never to use his claws again. 

As villains divided the newly conquered "Amerika" among themselves, Logan became a farmer, married a woman named Maureen, and raised two children. Logan also endured beatings from the Hulk Gang, his landlords and the vicious descendants of the Hulk. 

To pay off the Hulks, Logan agreed to make a delivery with Hawkeye, an aged Clint Barton who had lost his vision to glaucoma. Using the Spider-Mobile, the two old heroes drove across the Wastelands and into a trap set by S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Red Skull, the self-appointed president. After Hawkeye was executed, Old Man Logan popped his claws to kill the Red Skull. 

When he returned home, Logan found his family murdered by the Hulks. The enraged Wolverine tracked down the Hulks and tore through Bruce Banner and his descendants. However, Logan took an infant Hulk, Bruce Banner Jr., and raised him as a son.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OLD MAN LOGAN'S FUTURE

Old Man Logan's future went in two drastically different directions before and after SECRET WARS (2015), when the Multiverse was destroyed and reborn. Before SECRET WARS, Old Man Logan's world became a stable society once again. While Wolverine took on the identity of the Hooded Man, the young Banner grew up to become Hulk Jr., and both heroes debuted as members of the New Defenders in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #558 by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. However, their world was rocked by natural disasters and widespread disease that wiped out most of the population by the year 2509.

Part of Old Man Logan's reality was preserved when the Multiverse collapsed during SECRET WARS, and the Wastelands were fully restored when the Multiverse was recreated. In this renewed reality, Wolverine was seemingly born several decades earlier, but most of his life played out the same as it had previously, up to when he adopted the young Hulk. 

As Old Man Logan’s adventures across the Wastelands and beyond continued in OLD MAN LOGAN (2015) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino, he left Hulk Jr. in the care of Danielle Cage, the adult daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. Although Doctor Doom took over the Red Skull's empire, he was ultimately defeated by Cage, Hulk Jr., and their allies.

OLD MAN LOGAN'S HEROES

Even though most of this world's heroes were killed when the villains took over, several aging heroes survived in both iterations of Old Man Logan's world. Before his daughter evolved into the brutal Spider-Woman, Hawkeye encountered several old allies on his solo adventures, which began in OLD MAN HAWKEYE (2018) #1 by Ethan Sacks and Marco Checchetto. For instance, Kate Bishop formed a community called Bishop's Refuge and helped Hawkeye fight Bullseye. 

When he lost his vision, Hawkeye studied under Matt Murdock, the former Daredevil now operating as Stick, and visited Elektra. While Emma Frost and Black Bolt allied themselves with Doctor Doom, Black Widow (Yelena Belova) survived alone in the Wastelands. After facing the Annihilation Wave, Spider-Man (Miles Morales) worked with Ironheart and was turned into the undead cyborg Deathlok. 

Wielding Mjolnir, Danielle Cage became Thor and, along with the growing Hulk Jr., formed the core of the Avengers of the Wastelands. That post–SECRET WARS team also included a battle-damaged Viv Vision who, empowered by the Super-Soldier Serum, became the new Captain America; as well as the prodigy Dwight Barrett, who used Hank Pym's helmet as Ant-Man. 

The Punisher, Forge, and Speedball all survived for years, but died shortly after encountering Old Man Logan. Since they were not on Earth, Star-Lord and several other cosmic heroes like Beta Ray Bill, Nebula, and Nova also survived while dealing with off-world threats.

OLD MAN LOGAN'S VILLAINS    

After teaming up to wipe out the heroes, the villains of Old Man Logan's world reshaped the United States in their twisted image. The Red Skull ruled the Eastern Seaboard, keeping a trophy room of dead heroes' weapons and commanding agents like Taskmaster and the Winter Soldier. Doctor Doom seized control of the American Midwest and took over the Red Skull's territory after his death, with Madame Masque serving as his second-in-command. 

Magneto and the Abomination controlled large parts of the American West but were killed and replaced by the Hulk Gang and the Kingpin respectively. Like the cannibalistic Hulks, several clones of Multiple Man formed the Madrox Gang, and they later bonded to the Venom symbiote. 

After the Thunderbolts betrayed the heroes to help the Red Skull's takeover, Hawkeye hunted them down and killed them, along with Bullseye. Although Old Man Logan had seemingly killed him years earlier, Sabretooth returned with cybernetic upgrades and an army of clones courtesy of Mister Sinister and the restarted Weapon X Program. 

Non-terrestrial villains like Kang the Conqueror and the Shadow King briefly stepped into the Wastelands to manipulate this world's heroes. In deep space, Galactus found new Heralds in the Universal Church of Truth, which turned the Shi'ar Imperial Guard into their mind-controlled members.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OLD MAN LOGAN

Before and after SECRET WARS, Old Man Logan's fight to save his broken world took him across the Multiverse. When the world started dying in his first timeline, Old Man Logan and Hulk Jr. joined the New Defenders, a team assembled by the Invisible Woman. As that team morphed into Fantastic Force, they moved their world's population to an artificial planet called Nu-Earth in the Marvel Universe. 

However, Wolverine returned to the Wastelands to foster new life. A powerful Jean Grey variant also recruited this Old Man Logan to fight Onslaught with a team of Wolverine variants in WEAPON X-MEN (2024) #1 by Christos Gage and Yildiray Cinar.

Following SECRET WARS, Old Man Logan appeared in the Marvel Universe, where he joined the X-Men and went on numerous solo adventures. When his failing healing factor left him with months to live, this Wolverine returned to the Wastelands in DEAD MAN LOGAN (2018) #6 by Ed Brisson and Mike Henderson. 

Seven years after leaving, Old Man Logan reunited with Hulk Jr. and Dani Cage, and the three heroes took on Mister Sinister, Sabretooth, and their army of Sabretooth clones. Once he killed Sabretooth in their final battle, Old Man Logan died on his farm in DEAD MAN LOGAN (2018) #12 by Brisson and Henderson.

AFTER OLD MAN LOGAN'S DEATH

Although Old Man Logan died, his allies and his world lived on. After Star-Lord took over his father's role as the emperor of the alien Spartax Empire, he returned to the Earth for the first time since the heroes died in OLD MAN QUILL (2019) #1 by Ethan Sacks and Robert Gill. To stop Galactus and the Universal Church of Truth, the Guardians of the Galaxy—dying in battle—urged Star-Lord to travel to Earth and retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier, a massively powerful weapon created by the Watchers. 

Although visions of his late friends haunted him, Star-Lord used Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor to take on the mind-controlled Shi'ar Imperial Guard, but lost the Ultimate Nullifier to Doctor Doom, who had taken over most of Amerika by this point. Ultimately, Star-Lord defeated Galactus with a sliver of the Time Stone and assembled the surviving cosmic heroes as the new Guardians of the Galaxy. 

Elsewhere, Danielle Cage and her allies continued to fight in Old Man Logan's name in AVENGERS OF THE WASTELANDS (2020) #1 by Ed Brisson and Jonas Scharf. When Doctor Doom became terminally ill, he decided to make the new Avengers team his final enemies and lured them into one last battle. 

Once the Avengers took down Green Goblin, Absorbing Man, and a few other villains, they defeated Doctor Doom in Times Square. Although Doom asked them to kill him, the Avengers spared the fallen dictator's life, hoping to set a better example for their world.

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