WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Wastelands: Star-Lord #1, on sale now from Marvel Comics.
The dystopian future seen in Old Man Logan is one of the most tragic and dour versions of the Marvel Universe to date, with only a handful of heroes left to protect the ruins of the once thriving world. Along the way, a handful of villains have revealed just how monstrous they really can be when unleashed on a largely unprotected world.
Wastelands: Star-Lord #1 (by Rick Douek, Brent Peeples, Cris Peter, and VC's Cory Petit) sees Star-Lord go up against the terrifying X-Men villain the Shadow King, who proves to still be one of Marvel's most dangerous villains.
In the world of Old Man Logan, the heroes were more or less wiped out especially on Earth, where an alliance of villains eliminated the majority of their enemies. The space-roaming Guardians of the Galaxy were temporarily spared due to being off-planet at the time, but eventually they met dark fates as well. Peter Quill (aka Star-Lord) is the last surviving member of the Guardians of the Galaxy in this dark future, having finally returned to Earth and regained his heroic edge. After helping save the world, Quill decides it's time to pay tribute to one of the lost loves of his life -- Kitty Pryde, who was among the X-Men slaughtered by an out-of-control Wolverine. Visiting the ruins of the Xavier Institute, Quill is shocked by the apparent ghosts of the X-Men, who taunt and attack him over his failure to help them years earlier.
Soon joined by the other ghosts of other dead heroes, Star-Lord makes his way to Cerebro, where he discovers that the source of these horrible manifestations is the Shadow King, a psionic villain who has spent years trapped within Cerebro. The Shadow King had hoped to use the device to locate a new host to feed upon, giving him the chance to escape his prison, and sees Star-Lord as the perfect vessel. In exchange for his submission, Shadow King offers to leave Star-Lord's mind trapped in a single perfect memory. Star-Lord refuses to give up his rediscovered resolve however and instead destroys Cerebro, seemingly ending the threat of the Shadow King as well.
For a long time, the Shadow King was considered one of the X-Men's most ruthless and terrifying villains. This has changed in recent years, with the psionic mutant finding new hope on Krakoa in New Mutants. Even his incarnation in FX's Legion television series displayed more depth and layers for the character than he'd previously been afforded. But none of this wipes away the Shadow King's previous actions. His vendetta against Charles Xavier has seen the evil mutant become one of the X-Men's most dastardly foes, inflicting chaos and pain on the heroes just for the fun of it.
Although the Shadow King has been shown in a softer light recently, Wastelanders: Old Man Quill serves as a good reminder of just how dangerous this villain can be. It takes something as powerful as Cerebro to contain him, and even then the mutant is still able to inflict misery on others. The Wasteland version of the Marvel Universe is fortunate that Quill was able to end the threat before it was able to take possession of someone else and use them to spread even more destruction throughout this already terrifying vision of the future.