By Kiel Phegley
Every good road trip starts with a pair of adventuresome buddies, a course full of wild destinations and a little bit of danger—Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's recently launched "Old Man Logan" story in the pages of WOLVERINE will prove no exception.
In fact, this week's WOLVERINE #66—the first installment of the seven-part arc—laid all its claw swingin', arrow slingin', road trippin' cards on the table in the form of a teaser-filled map of what the post-catastrophe America Logan and his road buddy Hawkeye will travel through looks like.
"Every single thing on that map is something that we touch on, and also there are other things that we don't mention," teases Millar. "It was quite a nice idea to drop little teases like they do in maps in fantasy stories where you get a hint of what's coming up. And part of the excitement is asking questions like 'What is Hammer Falls?' Hopefully, it isn't what you expected when you read part two and find out what it was."
To help unpack the jaw-dropping amount of hidden hints held in the two-page spread, we went straight to Millar for an in depth look of what's coming up in the future of "Old Man Logan" stop by stop.
HULKLAND
While the gamma-irradiated, redneck Hulklings that rule Logan's current home of the former California may have already reared their ugly emerald mugs in the story's first issue, Millar notes to not count on things remaining quiet for the family Logan left behind.
"There are a couple of big moments with the family," the writer promises. "So they're definitely going to be seen. I gave him a son and a daughter for very specific reasons, and that becomes part of it as we go along. It's an unfolding mystery."
THE KINGDOM OF THE KINGPIN
One of the most intriguing stops on the tour looms right around the corner as Wolvie and Hawkeye hit a territory once controlled by the X-Men's greatest foe.
"50 years have passed, so I wanted ["Old Man Logan"] to be a rich history of what's been going on since the present day Marvel Universe," Millar explains. "It's clear that Magneto got that territory at one time, and then Kingpin offed Magneto. It's very much a big part of episodes two, three and four. It's a story unto itself. Everything's worked out in detail."
And the details of that story may surprise fans as the man they think of when they hear "Kingpin" may not be nearby when the boys come calling.
"It may not be the same Kingpin because the Kingpin is just a guy who runs a specific area," continues the scribe. "It's just the Kingpin of Crime, but that's not necessarily Fisk. It might just be a new one. It might not be the big fat bald guy."
THE WASTELAND
Much like the classic Old West, the long stretch of desert between the West Coast and the Midwest will prove to be one of the deadliest and most unpredictable stretches of road—especially with detours to places like the Negative Zone Opening and the Kree Haven.
"That's quite an optimistic route, the one they're going on," jokes Millar of the red line marking the heroes' planned trail through Paste Pot Creek. "The thing is, the plan is to stay on course, but sometimes they're going to end up deviating. So if all goes well, they'll stay on that route, but sometimes they're going to get dragged off it. They might get kidnapped along the way or one of them might get killed and the other taken away."
DOOM'S LAIR
With a name like "Doom's Lair," shades of the second person-spouting super tyrant are sure to creep into readers' minds, but Millar promises to never deliver what's expected:
"Every one of these characters has a big part to play as this story unfolds, but again, it might not be quite who you expect," he says, zeroing in on the territory's Mutant Forbidden Quarters. "For example, Namor's a mutant, which we kind of forget sometimes. The Inhumans are mutants too. So it might not always be who you think."
OSBORN CITY
No matter who controls the sliver of space once called Michigan and Ohio, with the name Osborn involved, it's a certainty that they'll be 12 kinds of crazy.
"Obviously, they're Osborn's kind of grandchildren, but I like the idea of doing that because I haven't really seen it in the past," notes Millar. "I'm sure somebody's done it somewhere, but the idea of second and third generation [super villains] in the Marvel Universe seems quite interesting. People maybe inherit after a generation one set of powers, but they might not always be nice people. Some of the children and grandchildren of the villains might be alive. So I'm going to have a lot of fun playing around with that."
NEW BABYLON & THE PRESIDENT'S QUARTER
The battle royale that will cap off "Old Man Logan" when the story arc races to its big finish next year takes place in a city that, despite its classy name, spells big trouble for all involved.
"It's the worst place in the whole U.S. because at the end of the war between the heroes and the villains, the heroes all get killed—and [Wolvie and Hawkeye] do find out halfway through the story exactly what went down—[and] Washington and New York were kind of destroyed," Millar recaps. "And this big horrible super city was built in between the two, which is just a hellhole where anything goes, and it's run by the worst of the villains. The President is there in what remains of the White House. There's a mystery to who the President is, but we find out in part six, and that is the root of all evil in the story."
But don't expect the villainous reveal to be the biggest one in the series, as Millar salivates at the prospect of some last minute madness:
"There are two big shocking things in the last couple of issues that are definitely the best parts of the whole story. One of them takes place in New Babylon, and I'm still waiting on the other for someone to go, 'You can't do this,' but nobody's said that to me, which is cool."
In the end, fans who really dig the made over Marvel U in "Old Man Logan" might not have to worry about whether or not they've gotten their fill. Like most things he writes for Marvel, Millar has big plans for Logan's world.
"I've left some room open because I've got kind of an idea for a sequel, and it'll explore what happened to other parts of America but also explore other parts of the world," says the Scotsman. "If America's completely broken down and taken over by [super villains], what would it be like over in Europe or China or India too? So I think the sequel will be literally a world of possibilities. It's like Marvel Zombies. I like the idea of introducing something that other people could play with later."
WOLVERINE #67, the next chapter of "Old Man Logan," ships on July 9. Check out Millar and McNiven's previous collaboration on CIVIL WAR with Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited.
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