Logan's Oscar Nomination Is Big Moment for Superhero Movies

The announcement of the 2018 Oscar nominations brings both good and bad news for superhero fans. The bad news is that Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman has been completely shut out. To those who know their Oscars history, the absence of Wonder Woman from the "top tier" categories such as "Best Picture," "Best Director," or any of the "Best" or "Supporting" actor/actress categories won't come as a big -- or even small -- shock. But it is surprising to see the DCEU's most critically acclaimed film to date missing from the categories that superhero and fantasy films usually manage to sneak into with relative ease, such as "Best Achievement In Visual Effects," "Best Makeup and Hairstyling," "Best Sound" or "Best Visual Effects," the latter of which Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has been nominated for this year.

The good news, however (and it's really good news) is that Logan has picked up a nomination. It's a significant one, too -- "Best Adapted Screenplay" for writers Scott Frank, Michel Green and James Mangold (who also directed the film) making it the first superhero movie to be nominated in the category. The nomination alone marks an important turning point for a genre that attracts as much flack as it does adoration. A win would be even more remarkable, and, despite being up against some stiff competition, not outside of the realm of possibility.

The first thing to get out of the way when discussing the nomination is the use of "Adapted" vs. "Original," the latter of which some fans might have been expecting the film would have fitted better into instead. It's true that Logan is not a straight adaptation of one particular source in the way that, say, its category rival The Disaster Artist is a direct adaptation of Greg Sestero's book of the same name.

Like most comic book movies, Logan borrows from many different sources, chiefly (and loosely) from Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's's Old Man Logan story, but also, where Laura (X-23) is concerned, from stories penned by Craig Kyle, who was also responsible for writing her very first appearances in the X-Men: Evolution animated series, along with writer Christopher Yost. In fact, James Mangold stated during a behind-the-scenes feature on the film's Blu-ray release, "In terms of narrative, we were actually taking more from the Craig Kyle X-23 series of comics than we were from Old Man Logan." Though its sources may add up to more than is traditional for the category, they clearly had enough of an impact on the shaping of the film not to be ignored.

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In the same comment, Mangold did also shed light on what it was in Old Man Logan -- other than, you know, a grumpy, old version of Wolvie -- that affected his approach to the film. "The most powerful effect [it] had on me was its setting and its look. [...] The story is very bleak and I wanted to make a film with heart. There was a time when the action movie [genre] was still character-based and not spectacle-based."

That "spectacle-based" approach to the character was very much the route that the previous two cinematic solo outings for Wolverine took; particularly the much maligned Origins, which included a slow-mo scene of Hugh Jackman walking away from an explosion without a single trace of irony and used antagonist Deadpool as a Mr. Potato Head of "spectacle based" X-Men powers.

With Logan, James Mangold did something pretty incredible. He turned a critically-panned trilogy around in its final chapter, trading empty spectacle for gritty, street-level brawls; frothy melodrama for emotional gut-punches; two-dimensional characterization for living, multi-layered flesh and blood (a lot of blood.) Much like its titular hero popping a bullet out of his skull, Logan brought Wolverine back to life just in time for his swan song. For film fans, it was a fitting tribute to every ounce of sweat and liquid adamantium Hugh Jackman has poured into the role for over fifteen years. For Marvel Comics readers, it was a satisfying -- and long-awaited -- testament to a beloved character that finally rang truer to decades' worth of development in the comics.

But it's not just great comic books that the film pays tribute to. During a period of downtime in a hotel room, Professor X and Laura turn on the TV to watch an old favorite of Xavier's -- the 1953 Western, Shane, which is also a favorite of numerous filmmakers. Explicitly inviting comparison between his superhero movie and a cinematic "masterpiece" demonstrates Mangold's confidence in Logan's maturity and quality.

Logan has also been compared visually to the acclaimed dystopian thriller, Children of Men and narratively to the depression-era, road movie classic, Paper Moon; as well as thematically to Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. The fact that these comparisons have even been made at all, let alone actually hold up, is further proof that Logan not only belongs in the Oscars nomination mix, but that it deserves to win, too.

After all, if Suicide Squad can bag a gold statue, then can't Wolverine, bub?