Enemy of the State

• Writer - Mark Millar
• Penciler - John Romita Jr.
• Inker - Klaus Janson
• Colorist - Paul Mounts
• Lettering - Virtual Calligraphy
• Lettering - Rus Wooton
• Editor - Jennifer Lee
• Executive Editor - Axel Alonso
• Editor in Chief - Joe Quesada

Summary

  Hmm. I liked Mark Millar and John Romita Jr's first issue of Wolverine, but the second part of "Enemy of the State" leaves me much less certain.

  There's basically two parts to this issue. The first half is the mind-controlled Wolverine running around the SHIELD Helicarrier causing chaos, outwitting his opponents, fighting off Elektra, and generally getting into good old-fashioned action. This stuff works. It's silly, it's over the top, but that's precisely why it works.

  But the second half is dodgy. The plot is fairly straightforward, which is fine, since it's really just a spine for some action sequences. Wolverine is under Hand mind control. The Hand want him to kill some superheroes. Then, they're going to revive them as mind-controlled Hand zombies. Silly, but it's a B-movie, so whatever.

  And then we get page after page of the X-Men, SHIELD, the Fantastic Four and so forth going into lockdown, because the mighty Wolverine is coming for them. This is where the book overplays its hand. If you're going to do a high-octane romp in the Marvel Universe, you're stuck with some of the Marvel Universe's ground rules. It might make logical sense to get this paranoid every time an attack was expected, but in practice, they never do. So in effect we're being asked to believe that a visit from a mind-controlled Wolverine is the most devastatingly terrifying thing that these people have heard of in years. And that doesn't ring true at all.

  More worryingly, these scenes don't come across as if they're meant to be fun; they read like a sincere attempt at ratcheting up tension and drama. But this storyline doesn't work because of dramatic tension. It's worked because it's a silly, crazy action story. Don't try and make me care, for heaven's sake. It's far too stupid for that. The scenes come across as Millar hitting you over the head with a sledgehammer and yelling "Look! It's tense! Tense, I tell you!" Well, it isn't - and the result is something which all too often mars Mark Millar stories, a comic which is so busy telling you how good it is that it forgets to actually be good.

  Please, Mark, just go back to the claws and the ultraviolence. That worked for you.

  Rating: B

Summary

  SHIELD guards try to shoot Logan, but he slices through them before they can. Elektra told them to get down; she waits patiently for her opening. Logan tries to stop himself, but the voice in his head goads him on with such affirmations as, "Life is suffering forced upon us by a merciless God. Death is our only reward." Elektra knows she'll only get one chance; she lunges and sticks her knives into Logan's deltoid, paralyzing him. She tells him he's been brainwashed by Hydra, but SHIELD can fix it. He chuckles; he had time to get to the munitions room earlier, and now it explodes, knocking her off him. He slashes through her sais, but she uses the nubs of them to stick his neck, slowing him down. His plan is still on target, however, and the deck is flooded with rushing water. The surviving SHIELD agents are knocked against the bulwarks and killed, but Logan knows Elektra will survive; he hopes to drown her and locks the hatchway. Elektra, unable to open the door, finds a radiation containment suit. Logan swims out the hole in the hull; sharks are already eating the SHIELD corpses, and Logan has to fight them off.

  SHIELD reinforcements arrive via helicopter; Elektra warns them their security was breached, and they confirm Logan took defense codes, Pentagon files, White House security details. Elektra tells them this was all planned.

  On the Helicarrier above New York, Fury holds a conference, while Elektra sits calmly, reading Joyce's Ulysses. Logan survived. Emma Frost detected his brainwaves on the East Coast but can't pinpoint him: supernatural shielding from the Hand. He introduces Elektra, who was trained by the Hand; she says their M.O. is to kill their opponents and resurrect them. The 16 superhuman targets (see last iss.) are to become zombies. Fury orders all superhumans on high alert, and all their civilian staff evacuated. The President is en route to the Helicarrier, and the Pentagon has been evacuated on non-essential personnel. Elektra says this is all karma; if you make a man a living weapon, you can't complain if someone else pulls the trigger. Just then, Air Force One lands above them, and even Fury is awed.

  At Xavier's Kitty has the smaller children in one big room, with a laser grid security system. She tries to calm them but admits even the teachers are freaked out. She phases past the lasers; she and Storm are bunking together, and Kitty says their prayers worked for Colossus (Astonishing X-Men III:4), so now she crosses her fingers for Logan.

  The Baxter Building: employees have been ordered to evacuate, and two carry out their boxes, wondering what could be so bad as to threaten the Fantastic Four. One tried to talk to Reed Richards, but he was balled up in his think tank; they're both freaked by that, and by the burning man and the orange monster. Outside in the rain, Sue overhears but remains invisible and silent. They see her form walk past them, outlined by the rain; they think she's beautiful.

  Ben checks that everyone is accounted for and turns on a force field that shields the entire building. Nobody gets in or out till SHIELD gives the all-clear. He doesn't know Logan is already in the air ducts, claws ready.