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rfmcdonaldI've read and re-read Wolverine: Enemy of the State, a 2008 graphic novel collecting the various issues of Wolverine in 2004 and 2005. Scripted by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., Enemy of the State tells the story of what happens when HYDRA gets their hands on Wolverine and brainwashes him to by their mass-murdering agent of the apocalypse.
I have to agree with the reviewer who said that Enemy of the State is an exciting if shallow romp through the Marvel universe. I'd go further and say that the whole thing--Wolverine's lethality, HYDRA's aims, the revelation of the terrors hidden beneath the facade of the Marvel Universe--takes on the qualities of a highly violent camp style.
Take HYDRA, for instance. Initially, it is headed by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a moderate. What does he do? He complains that his wife does not love him in his diary, mourning the loss of his love even as he mentions in passing how he engages in the blood sacrifice of children.
What of Baroness Elisbeth von Strucker, his Satanist wife nearly two centuries old who ends up taking HYDRA away from him? Her aims are simpler.
Millar does some things well. He does not do subtle, complex villains.
Another example of this camp comes in the middle of the arc, when Wolverine breaks into the X-Mansion and tries to force Rachel Grey to use Cerebro to kill the American president. As she seemingly sets to work, obeying the man who threatens to use a terraformer developed by Reed Richards to kill everyone in Westchester County, Wolverine's brainwashers try to convince him to rape Rachel. After all, she looks just like her recently-dead mother Jean ...
This is not a good plan.
(The above image comes from a Scans Daily post collecting some images from Alan Davis' run on Excalibur, this one coming from Excalibur #61.)
"Hey, HYDRA-brainwashed Wolverine. What are you doing?"
"Oh. You're planning on raping the beloved only daughter of the feared cosmic force that burns away what doesn't work."
"Yes, sure. She's been radically depowered. She's no longer capable of draining the life-energies of the future universe to brutally beat up Galactus. She's much weaker."
"Sure. She's just one of the most powerful telepaths and telekinetics alive. But you've got claws. Go get her! I'll just stand over here."
Possibly Millar was trying to evoke a previous fight between Wolverine and Rachel, in Claremont's Uncanny X-Men #207, when Wolverine stabbed Rachel to prevent her from murdering a villain. My takeaway from this is simply that Wolverine, as guided by HYDRA, was making an almost hilariously bad decision.
Finally, one thing I've noticed in Millar's other books, like Kick-Ass, is that the actions of violent characters usually receive approbation by normal people, by people rooted outside of the realm of the superhero or the vigilante who approve of this violence because it is directed against people who deserve it. In this book, this role is played by Fukuko, a Japanese wife and mother whose only child was abducted by HYDRA as part of a ploy to lure Wolverine. (Her son was later murdered, fed to pigs, and buried on a barren hillside.) When Wolverine phones her and his husband to let them know what had happened and that he vows vengeance, she has only this to say.
Never ask Wolverine rhetorical questions.
Yes, the above is a picture of Wolverine riding a Sentinel into a mystic hidden city in Japan so he can kill ninjas by the hundreds.
Enemy of the State is a fun book, but I have problems taking it seriously. I think you can see why.
I have to agree with the reviewer who said that Enemy of the State is an exciting if shallow romp through the Marvel universe. I'd go further and say that the whole thing--Wolverine's lethality, HYDRA's aims, the revelation of the terrors hidden beneath the facade of the Marvel Universe--takes on the qualities of a highly violent camp style.
Take HYDRA, for instance. Initially, it is headed by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, a moderate. What does he do? He complains that his wife does not love him in his diary, mourning the loss of his love even as he mentions in passing how he engages in the blood sacrifice of children.
What of Baroness Elisbeth von Strucker, his Satanist wife nearly two centuries old who ends up taking HYDRA away from him? Her aims are simpler.
Millar does some things well. He does not do subtle, complex villains.
Another example of this camp comes in the middle of the arc, when Wolverine breaks into the X-Mansion and tries to force Rachel Grey to use Cerebro to kill the American president. As she seemingly sets to work, obeying the man who threatens to use a terraformer developed by Reed Richards to kill everyone in Westchester County, Wolverine's brainwashers try to convince him to rape Rachel. After all, she looks just like her recently-dead mother Jean ...
This is not a good plan.
(The above image comes from a Scans Daily post collecting some images from Alan Davis' run on Excalibur, this one coming from Excalibur #61.)
"Hey, HYDRA-brainwashed Wolverine. What are you doing?"
"Oh. You're planning on raping the beloved only daughter of the feared cosmic force that burns away what doesn't work."
"Yes, sure. She's been radically depowered. She's no longer capable of draining the life-energies of the future universe to brutally beat up Galactus. She's much weaker."
"Sure. She's just one of the most powerful telepaths and telekinetics alive. But you've got claws. Go get her! I'll just stand over here."
Possibly Millar was trying to evoke a previous fight between Wolverine and Rachel, in Claremont's Uncanny X-Men #207, when Wolverine stabbed Rachel to prevent her from murdering a villain. My takeaway from this is simply that Wolverine, as guided by HYDRA, was making an almost hilariously bad decision.
Finally, one thing I've noticed in Millar's other books, like Kick-Ass, is that the actions of violent characters usually receive approbation by normal people, by people rooted outside of the realm of the superhero or the vigilante who approve of this violence because it is directed against people who deserve it. In this book, this role is played by Fukuko, a Japanese wife and mother whose only child was abducted by HYDRA as part of a ploy to lure Wolverine. (Her son was later murdered, fed to pigs, and buried on a barren hillside.) When Wolverine phones her and his husband to let them know what had happened and that he vows vengeance, she has only this to say.
Never ask Wolverine rhetorical questions.
Yes, the above is a picture of Wolverine riding a Sentinel into a mystic hidden city in Japan so he can kill ninjas by the hundreds.
Enemy of the State is a fun book, but I have problems taking it seriously. I think you can see why.
