We've watched Wolverine take beating after beating, from getting shot in the head to enduring Colonel Stryker's Weapon X experiments, yet we haven't "Logan" is the most battered we have seen our regenerative hero. Stripping away the superhero persona now a trademark of James Howlett, the film challenges Wolverine with the duties of a father and the role of a son. Within the first few minutes, we see a scar-ridden Logan unable to heal gunshot wounds fully, having to push them out with excruciating effort. With Professor Xavier's declining health, Logan is tasked with looking after him, working as a driver to afford medication and a means of escape for them.
This humble lifestyle normalizes him, forcing him to drive teenagers and laying as low as possible to avoid capture because of the professor's seizure attacks which emit an extreme pressure around him,hurting anyone within the radius. In a way, the struggles of taking care of Professor X's human and mutant needs prepares Logan for fatherhood. The squabbles they have equate to a usual son and father relationship with them bickering about regrets, disappointments, and overall guilt of their situation.
One scene will strike close to home for many viewers, of the professor accusing Logan of simply waiting for him to die so he wouldn't be a burden to him anymore and Logan's retorted accusation that the professor sees him as a disappointment. Even when they and travel with Logan's newfound daughter, the arguments continue and sometimes are fueled by her presence.
But Logan's tough persona is constantly challenged by his love for the professor and his need to adjust to his daughter, Laura. He reluctantly accepts his fatherly duty, but because she is an experiment like him, she knows almost nothing about the world other than killing.
In one scene Logan stops Laura just inches away from killing an innocent store clerk who tried to explain that she was stealing. While his methods are rough, he is still forced to parent her. Later we see her returning the favor when they arrive at the safe house to which the rest of Laura's friends and cellmates who were experimented on have escaped. Logan's sickness is overwhelming him as he needs more and more rest to heal his wounds. But Laura and her friends slowly nurse him the best they can.
Logan's unnamed "sickness" that keeps his healing factor from letting him fully recover is akin to his old age and graying hair. His harrowed appearance constantly reminded me of my own father after a long day of work, exhausted, glazed over, and large back hunching. Yet the very next day he goes to work again. Logan now lives a very adult life that we all feared and must grind out to. In a different way, in a human way, he is relentless. He does not give up. In a fatherly way, he keeps fighting for his family--even when that means sacrificing his own life.
