Note: This article contains spoilers for Logan. But c’mon, if you’re here you’ve already seen it, right?
I’m actually amazed that I’ve been running this site for nearly six months now and haven’t written about a single superhero movie. Because if there’s one thing I love to while away the hours with, it’s superhero movies. I was a proper little comics nerd as a kid, and I loved it. Less so during my teenage years (thank you high school bullies for crushing my self-esteem), but since moving away from all that and growing up a little bit, I stopped giving a shit – now I embrace nerd culture with everything I can.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m obviously not saying every superhero movie ever made is a masterpiece, or even that they’re all good (looking at you, Thor: The Dark World) – but for the most part they’re harmless fun, providing audiences with a few hours of escape from the outside world. Some of them, though, manage to be more than that.
James Mangold’s Logan is one of those movies. It’s a comic book movie, yes, but its quality is so far above that of the usual genre fare. It’s so far above even the X-Men movies that have come before it – and indeed after. It’s easily the highlight of the series, and it’s so much better than most other movies from either Marvel or DC. Honestly, I think superhero movies might have peaked with Logan.
Someone’ll come along
It’s so hard to pinpoint one thing that makes Logan this good, because everything about it is basically perfect. If you’re somehow unaware of the basics, Logan is Hugh Jackman’s swan song in the title role, having played the character since 2000’s original X-Men. It’s 2029, and mutants are basically extinct. Logan himself is scraping a living as a limo driver while looking after an ailing Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). When a genetically engineered mutant called Laura arrives on the scene asking for Logan’s help, a road trip across the country ensues to get Laura to her friends before the scientists who created her reach them first.
It’s not as fun or adventurous as that sounds. It’s a brutal watch, relentlessly grim and endlessly upsetting. The dour mood is made all the worse by the heartbreaking deaths of both Charles and Logan, each murdered by an enhanced clone of the latter – the so-called X-24 is nothing but a beast, all rage and power, but no emotion. In short, he’s Logan before he joined the X-Men.
But somehow, this unrelenting brutality is what sets Logan apart. In early 2017 Marvel Studios hadn’t yet begun to truly experiment with the MCU, while DC were on the verge of a J*ss Wh*don-shaped crisis. It’s no coincidence that the George Stevens film Shane is mentioned as a cultural touchstone: Logan is a western at heart, taking the best aspects of the comic book genre (its heart, characters, action, and emotion) and morphing them into something else entirely.
It’s a bold move from Mangold and co, but it pays off incredibly well. Not only is the film an undisputed masterpiece, anchored by stellar performances across the board and some of the bloodiest action we’ve ever seen from a Marvel property, but it’s the only comic book movie in history to have ever been nominated for an Academy Award in a writing category. The Academy have made no secret about the disdain they show for comic book properties, but Logan’s nod for Best Adapted Screenplay shows the film must have done something right.
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther picked up a myriad of nominations the year after (including a historic Best Picture nod), but there’s no denying that Logan opened the door. Maybe the Academy are starting to take comic book movies seriously after all.
Someone has come along
In a sense, this doesn’t matter: superhero movies have never been made to win big at the Oscars, and that’s alright. But the fact that one was acknowledged in such a prestigious category was a real watershed moment, and is a testament to Logan’s strength as a film.
This was the first time we’d said a true goodbye to a comic book character we’d known on the big screen for years, and it’s an incredibly powerful ending to Hugh Jackman’s time as Logan. Now, I love Iron Man’s snap as much as the next fan, and Steve Rogers getting his dance with Peggy will never fail to leave me a teary mess – but there’s something so beautiful and understated about Logan’s death.
He dies fighting for the future he never got for himself, and for the daughter he never had. All his rage, selfishness, and anger are put to the side as he fights only for what he loves. We see him on his deathbed, covered in his own blood, holding his heart in his hand – just like Yukio predicted in The Wolverine all those years ago.
But Logan’s heart isn’t his own– it’s Laura. He holds her hand as he takes his last breaths, and utters his final words: “So… this is what it feels like.”
Ugly tears. Every time.
You still have time…
The thing is, this movie devastates me so much that I honestly can’t bring myself to watch it more than once every few years. Until recently it had been about three and a half years since I saw it last, and I think it’ll be about the same before I watch it again – and I’m not totally sure why that is.
I love sad movies. Especially sad superhero movies; I’ve honestly lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Avengers: Infinity War, even though its ending leaves me a wreck every single time. But Logan hits different.
It’s a film that’s so brutal and powerful that after it finishes it’s about all I can do to sit and catch my breath, my vision clouded with tears. It’s perfect, and no other comic book movie gets me quite like this one.
So yes, in summary: I think superhero movies peaked with Logan.
Images: 20th Century Studios.