Enemy of the State

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

Summary

  Fury and Elektra survey the scene of Logan's most recent attack: Stark, Intl. He and a hundred Hydra agents attack the guards and raided and trashed the place. Iron Man is out of town, at the Bilderberg meeting in Helsinki. A SHIELD agent reports that Logan gutted Spider-Man, and then knelt down to pet a dog. Fury wonders why Spider-Man was operating alone, since he put out a warning for the "capes" to work in pairs; he sees the corpse and realizes it isn't him. It's the Hornet, one of the Slingers. Fury notes the guy dies in the line of fire, and nobody gets his name right. Then Elektra decapitates him, to make sure he stays dead.

  Elektra goes back to her hotel to work out. Logan has made 18 significant attacks in three weeks. The Hand, Hydra, and the Dawn of the White Light: all the crazies are working together under Strucker's direction. Elsbeth is his third wife and financial backer, the fourth wealthiest person on the planet, and so smart that nobody knew she existed till now. She's reported to be a Satanist, 175 years old, and well-connected to politicians, corporations, and Mme. Blavatsky (the 19th century founder of Theosophy).

  Elektra jumps out the window and does acrobatics across the rooftops. She realizes Strucker is using Logan in a last ditch attempt to keep control of Hydra. SHIELD counts 4,700 superheroes currently in the US; Logan himself has half the world's security agencies on red alert, and what if Hydra got control of others?

  A passel of Hand ninjas have collected on the roof behind Elektra; she calmly calls for them to attack, though she's unarmed, half-dressed, in the snow. She throws ice shards in their eyes, pries up a pole to defend with, and quickly slices them apart with their own swords. She's faced tougher opponents, but the Hand and she have history, and she gets sentimental as she beheads them. She calls Fury with three perfect plans for nabbing Logan.

  SHIELD guards Xavier's Institute; inside, Kitty confers with Emma about Logan's latest attack, on a cathedral: no fatalities. Kitty can hardly believe Logan's doing this, and she's glad SHIELD is keeping his name out of the papers; Emma knows they're just doing it so people won't panic. She knows the Gorgon, who at the age of 12 had an affair with a 38-year old friend of hers, in Kyoto. He was a lunatic then, and is worse now: the Dawn of the White Light scoff at the Brotherhood and Magneto and are just anti-life. Kitty notices Emma's lips aren't moving: she's speaking telepathically, because of a bit of laryngitis. She enters Cerebra; she's been asked by Elektra ("that psychotic Greek assassin with the very faint moustache") to amplify all the mutant pre-cogs, to get around the Hand's magical block and predict Logan's next strike.

  Georgetown, DC: Strucker's servants clean up after a Satanic orgy. He's annoyed his wife has been ignoring him, even when he sacrificed a child for her, and paying attention to the Gorgon. She scoffs at his plan to use Reed's terraformer as a weapon; it seems desperate. She thinks he's a relic of the Cold War, when he should be trying to cleanse the world of all life, like the fashionable villains. He insists this is Hydra's most successful campaign in half a century, turning humanity's protectors into monsters. She thinks Satan sent mutants to help them usher in an apocalypse, and then she goes to bed with the Gorgon, asking him to play Wagner while they have sex.

  Cap knocks down a bunch of Hydra agents with his shield and then checks in with Fury, who's running short on superheroes. The Falcon concurs they should keep the big guns hidden while less powerful battle Hydra on the streets. Logan has been blowing up banks, killing police, and bombing a "naval liner"; also, he killed two men trying to rape a woman. Cap realizes the good man inside him is battling his Hydra brainwashing; Fury says he's not trying hard enough. Now there's a report of an arson attack on the IRS (note: is that an evil or good deed?), and the psychics predict he's two weeks away from a major act of terrorism, using one of Reed's devices on DC.

  Suddenly, all the power goes out in Manhattan. Logan set off an EM pulse, with a message to SHIELD: he wants a "big-name partner."

  Hand ninjas swarm across the rooftops and into Daredevil's luxury brownstone in Hell's Kitchen. Logan knows he can hear a pin drop a block away, literally, so that's how quietly they have to be to sneak up on him. He puts his fist to Daredevil's head, still sleeping on his couch, and says the Hand has been after him a long time.

  Note: as for satanic symbols in corporate logos, it's not clear what Elektra means: most modern corporations just use stylized versions of their names. Some possibilities: CBS and Time Warner Cable: the eye of Horus; AOL and Fidelity Investments: the pyramid; Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin: the five-pointed star. The creepiest one I could find was Alfa Romeo, with the Visconti snake eating a man.