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X-ual Healing: Old Man Logan #39, The One Where Glob Herman Gets a Date

Published Sun, 13 May 2018 10:00:05 -0500

Sworn to sell comics for Marvel executives who feared and hated the fact that Fox owned their movie rights, The Uncanny X-Men suffered great indignities, but with a corporate merger on the way, the X-Men can finally get back to doing what they do best: being objectively the best franchise in comics.

Each week, armed with the joy, heartbreak, and frustration of 30+ years of reading X-Men comics, we read every new X-book that comes out, recap the events, provide the historical context so you can read it on Marvel Unlimited, and wonder when Marvel will let Chris Claremont write something again.

It's the way X-Men comics were meant to be read! It's the column that can only be known as…

For more about the column, check out the reboot issue here.

OLD MAN LOGAN #39
ED BRISSON (W) • Ibraim Roberson (A)
Cover by MIKE DEODATO JR.
LOGAN isn't healing the way he used to. Something is wrong — recent fights are leaving their marks, in ways he's never experienced before. Beaten down, Logan goes to the one people he thought he could always count on for help…The X-MEN.
But when an old pupil of Logan's asks for his help, it's Logan's enemies who will learn the hardest lesson: This old dog still has bite.
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99

We're kicking off a new storyline in this issue, and it opens up with Old Man Logan arriving at the Xavier School. He's not exactly happy to be there because he feels his X-Men days are behind him. A group of students including Shark-Girl, Glob Herman, Anole, and Rockslide greets Logan, happy to see their old teacher. They tell him that Glob has a date that he met on Mutant Mingle, a mutant dating app. Logan tells the kids that not back to become an X-Man again. He just needs to see Dr. Cecelia Reyes.

Logan meets with Reyes and tells her how his healing factor has been "slowing down," you know, like in the movie. His eye, which Bullseye took out with a bottle cap in the previous storyline, hasn't healed. Reyes tells him the eye is dead, but she has some good news…

Burn! Meanwhile, Glob is chatting online with his date, a purple mutant named Sasha. He's nervous about the date, on account of having see-through skin, but Sasha is nervous too and she likes him for what's on the inside… literally. Shark-Girl gives him a pep talk and convinces him to go.

Back at Logan's doctor's appointment, Reyes scolds Logan for purposely showing avoiding his former teammates, the X-Men, by visiting while they're out saving the city and also for leaving without saying goodbye in the first place. She also notes that he has high levels of toxins in his body, including adamantium poisoning and something else which Logan identifies as "Regenix" (see the Red Samurai story arc from a few issues back).

In Midtown Manhattan, Glob Herman buys a rose from a florist for his date. Back at the Mansion. Logan breaks out some X-pository dialogue about Regenix, the Japanese healing factor drug his resurrected ex-fiancee Mariko, the Red Samurai, injected him with a few issues back when he was nearly dead in Madripoor. The drug eats away at the user's insides, even after its effects have faded. Reyes tells him he needs to take it easy or he could incur an injury he can't recover from.

Outside the school, Shark-Girl, Rockslide, and Anole are gossiping about Glob's date. They agree that Glob's newfound success at romance bodes well for their chances as well. In Long Island, Glob arrives for his date to find the door open. Invited inside the dark home by an unseen voice, Glob finds the Long Island chapter of the Purifiers waiting for him and holding his date hostage. Uh oh!

Back at the mansion again, Dr. Reyes tells Logan that they might not be able to cure him and he should consider retiring. We know that's not gonna happen. In Long Island, the Purifier leader smashes Glob's phone and lets him talk to Sasha in return for his obedience. At the school, Logan tries to leave, but the kids stop him and ask him to wait until Glob gets back so he can ~~be present for the next chapter of the story~~ learn how his date went. In Long Island, Glob apologizes to Sasha as the Purifiers drop some X-position. They're tired of getting beaten by the X-Men, so they're going to attack the school while the X-Men are out and kill the kids.

How are they going to do that?

Well, you know what they say. The only way to stop a bad mutant with a bomb strapped to their chest is with a good mutant with a bomb strapped to their chest.

It's nice to see Logan back at the Xavier school, interacting with these students, reminiscent of the Wolverine and the X-Men book (this Logan is from an alternate future, but whatever). It's also good to see him with a nerfed healing factor, which adds drama potential. This book can't last much longer with the original Wolverine on his way back, but we'll continue to enjoy it while it lasts.