What happens when the world's most dangerous mutant Wolverine gets brainwashed and turned against the world? One, you get to see how much the world is really scared of the five foot three hirsute Canadian. Two, you also get one heck of an amazing story arc. Considering that it's a Mark Millar comic, it's not shocking at all. Every comic book fan or fan of Wolverine already knows what Logan is capable of when he is let off the chain. There's a reason that En Sabah Nur (Apocalypse) once made Wolverine his Horsemen Death and didn't need to do anything but give him his Adamantium back and hand him a bad @$$ sword. It's because Wolverine is just what he says he is. He's the best there is at what he does and what he does isn't very nice. So when the story came out that Wolverine was going to be a villain, how could we all not be attracted to this idea?
It all started when Wolverine gets a phone call from his dead fiancé's cousin that his son had been captured and the kidnappers wanted more money than he could pay. So of course Wolverine is going to help a friend. It's that predictability that gets Wolverine caught up in a trap that lead to his death, resurrection, and eventual reprogramming from hero to agent of Hydra and The Hand. But, who is so good that they could kill Wolverine before he could even have a chance to react? A character created just for this book by the name of Gorgon. A guy with super speed and strength, telepathy, and can turn you to stone just by making eye contact with you (that last power is overkill). This guy was specifically built to take out Wolverine and he did a damn good job doing it.
John Romita jr. does a great job capturing Wolverine in his more ruthless state. A lot of art work with him lurking in the shadows, showing off Wolverine's underrated agility, and also how scary he looks even in his mask. There are two scenes in particular that stick out when thinking of Romita's work in "Enemy of the State". The first happens in book two when Wolverine is still underwater after a S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft carrier is sunk. The voice in Wolverine's head tells him to escape and he is surrounded by sharks. Wolverine easily guts one of the sharks before making his escape. You could see the intensity in the full page picture of Wolverine stabbing the shark. The blood seeping from the shark's open wounds into the water just added to the pic. The next is a simple, but beautiful picture of Wolverine in the vents of the Baxter Building (home of the Fantastic Four) stalking the team in the shadows. It looked very creepy and the text that went along with it added to the eerie feeling of being watched.
Rating: 8
"Enemy of the State" is a great story. It catered to a lot of fans that really wanted to see what Wolverine would do if he really went bad. Not only was this story good, the "What If" version where Wolverine was never deprogrammed was just as good if not better. All in all, it is a great arc to pick up.
