Riding into the sunset

Logan is not the end of the X-Men film universe, there’s a TV series on the way as well as the maybe-connected spin-off Legion, but it is a last hurrah for Wolverine as played by Hugh Jackman, a story set a decade ahead of the last near-future time we saw him and possibly in a parallel universe just in case.

It’s the Unforgiven for his Man With No Name, a story about age in a genre where heroes usually just get replaced by younger actors.

Normal age and infirmity hit Professor Xavier, while Logan’s regeneration is taken from him by his adamantium skeleton, his own immortality replaced by the kind most people have access to, the legacy of children.

Powers fading with age and burning out from overuse are not uncommon. Powers usually run out of control for young characters, so Xavier’s dangerous new ability is an interesting twist as well.

Like Beowulf with the dragon, Logan has one last fight left in him. Like Mad Max, he’s a survivor from the present in a cyberpunk rather than apocalyptic future - the X-Men prevented their share of apocalypses, after all.

Lessons for gaming? They’ve already made Days Of Future Past in this series, which is the closest I’ve come to a coda like this, where time travel lets us go back to our heroes in their prime for another adventure. Looking back years later could be a sobering experience.

And in case it didn’t make me feel old enough, one of the trailers was for the reboot of Power Rangers...