Warning: This article contains spoilers for Dead Man Logan #12, by Ed Brisson, Mike Henderson, Nolan Woodard and VC's Cory Petit, on sale now.
Old Man Logan never had it easy. While Wolverine is one of Marvel's oldest heroes thanks his regenerative healing factor, this alternate reality version of Logan was even older and hailed from a dark, dystopian future where Marvel's villains finally won and took over the world.
After his family was slaughtered, Old Man Logan set out on a quest for vengeance that made an unlikely detour into the main Marvel Universe. After effectively taking the main Wolverine's place for a few years in the X-Men and starring in an acclaimed 50-issue solo series, Old Man Logan's healing factor started fading after decades of combat, and the X-Man began to die from adamantium poisoning.
Over the last several months, Marvel has chronicled the final days of Old Man Logan's life in the aptly-titled Dead Man Logan miniseries. After making his way back to his home reality, Old Man Logan teamed up with Dani Cage, the super-strong adult daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, and Hulk Jr., the young son of the sadistic Hulk Gang.
After a final battle that saw Dani wield the power of Thor, Old Man Logan finally dies in Dead Man Logan #12.
In Mark Millar and Steve McNiven's original Old Man Logan story, the Red Skull was behind the master plan where Mysterio tricked Wolverine into killing the X-Men as Marvel's other villains took over the world. However, an aging Mister Sinister claimed to be the true mastermind behind the plan after Sabretooth and his resurgent Weapon X Program kidnapped Logan and his friends in Dead Man Logan #11.
While there's no way to tell if Sinister was being truthful or engaging in some characteristic boasting, those two villains became the final targets of Old Man Logan's wrath as his body began to shut down. Although he had been temporarily augmenting his healing factor with Regenix, his last dose was barely enough to get him through his final bloody fight with Sabertooth.
The combined toll of that battle, the adamantium poisoning and the lethal side effects of Regenix that had already accelerated his death sentence were finally enough to mortally wound Logan.
After Dani finishes off Sinister with a single strike of Mjolnir, she and the young Hulk take Old Man Logan back to his late family's homestead, where he tearfully passes away at the graves of his wife Maureen and his children, Jade and Scotty.
While that might be a tragic end, it's the same tragedy that defined much of Old Man Logan's life. In many ways, Old Man Logan was the living embodiment of Wolverine's worst fears coming to pass multiple times over. Where Wolverine always worried about losing control of the feral beast within, Old Man Logan was tricked into unleashing his full fury on his adoptive family, the X-Men. While Wolverine has always been a protector, Old Man Logan couldn't protect his wife and children.
Even though Old Man Logan still cared about people and wanted to make the world a better place, his regret over those twin tragedies defined him on a fundamental level. Even in his relatively chipper Marvel Universe adventures, the weight of those character-defining events gave Logan a somber, wearied quality that Wolverine doesn't usually have.
Those qualities also informed 2017's Logan, where the death of Hugh Jackman's cinematic Wolverine bears a striking number of similarities to Old Man Logan's final moments. Doomed by failing healing factors and haunted by absent friends, both Jackman's Wolverine and Old Man Logan used lethal power-boosting substances to make one last stand against a dark reflection of themselves and save the next generation of heroes.
Although there's no telling if X-23 and the young mutants Jackman's Logan died saving will return, Dani, Hulk Jr. and their ally Ant-Man are set to carry on Logan's heroic mantle as the Avengers of the Wastelands. Even though Old Man Logan might've died thinking about the past, his final sacrifice still helped give his lost world a real chance at having a future.