Despite Wolverine: Enemy of the State often getting mentioned in lists of the best Wolverine stories, I’ve actually never read it before. So, when the opportunity to pick up a review copy arose, I jumped on it. At the very least, it must sell well, because Marvel keeps re-releasing the paperback collection every few years, always with an inflationary price hike. This 2025 collection once again reprints issues #20-32 of the Wolverine series first started in 2003 under the Marvel Knights imprint. This time, it’ll set you back $39.99 – five dollars more than five years ago – which seems a bit expensive to me, but is pretty standard for a 13-issue, 352-page Marvel paperback. Is it worth the cost?
Well, the popularity of Wolverine: Enemy of the State is probably mostly due to the creative team – writer Mark Millar and artist John Romita Jr. are both well-known and popular names in the comic book industry. But I also don’t want to ignore the contributions of comic book legend Klaus Janson, who inks Romita Jr.’s pencils. His deeper connection to the story will become clearer later.
Truth be told, I’ve never been a huge fan of either Millar or Romita Jr., which is probably why I’ve never read Wolverine: Enemy of the State before. Don’t get me wrong, I recognize that both are skilled creatives who have produced very good, sometimes great work. But both have tendencies and styles that aren’t quite my thing. And Wolverine: Enemy of the State perfectly encapsulates both what makes them so popular as well as what I’m not so keen on. Let’s get into it.
Courtesy of Marvel
Wolverine: Enemy of the State tells one story through 12 issues, split into two halves. The first six issues are the actual Enemy of the State story-arc. In it, Wolverine gets brainwashed by the super-villain team-up of The Hand and Hydra, who turn him into the ultimate terrorist killing machine and send him out to hunt down and kill as many super-heroes as possible in order to resurrect them as brainwashed killing machines, too.
The incredible scope and high stakes of the story impressed me. It easily could have been a major Marvel line-wide event. Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. puts every superhero on lockdown. Wolverine, The Hand and Hydra cause so much terror and destruction, they come close to bringing about the end of the world. The death toll climbs beyond imagination, apparently including many superheroes. Unfortunately, a lot of this is only told to us and not actually shown – probably because the story wasn’t a major event and editorial couldn’t get the approval to actually kill off anyone important. So, we really only see Wolverine go up against certain groups: The Fantastic Four, Elektra, Daredevil and finally the X-Men.
Yes, Daredevil and Elektra. Their inclusion was at first a surprise, but made sense when I realized how much of this story was influenced by Frank Miller’s Daredevil run of the 1980s. The depiction of The Hand comes right out of Frank Miller’s comics. Some of these Wolverine issues are just as much about Elektra as they are about Logan. And we have the direct contribution of Klaus Janson, who drew most of Frank Miller’s Daredevil.
Even John Romita Jr.’s art reminds me of Frank Miller’s – but not from Daredevil and not even from Miller’s original Wolverine mini-series, but rather from Sin City. Unfortunately, this is also my biggest grievance with Romita Jr.’s art. Many drawings, especially of people, are blocky, wooden and flat. Bodies display strange proportions with hands, heads and feet often too big. Some objects have incredible detail while others lack detail completely. And there are often lots of extra, unnecessary lines. On the one hand, I recognize the skill Romita Jr. has – some panels have a strong wow-factor – but on the other hand, too many images just look off. I also wonder how much background detail Klaus Janson provided while inking.
Courtesy of Marvel
Also, although the scope is huge and the events shocking, too many things are over the top – which I consider Mark Millar’s biggest weakness as a writer. For example, every issue includes wild sci-fi technology or incredible powers – even by a comic book’s standards – as if these things were completely common. And everyone seems to have access to this incredible tech. Furthermore, a lot of what happens only makes sense because this is a comic book. Those moments will make you think, “Awesome! That’s so crazy!” but you shouldn’t spend too much time thinking about them. A closer reading will also expose all of the plot details that suddenly appear on the fly, explained in a single line of dialogue.
And then there’s the main villain – the Gorgon – whose abilities are so over-the-top, they sound like Chuck Norris jokes. The Gorgon said his first words when he was two weeks old. The Gorgon composed his first opera by his sixth birthday. The Gorgon defeated hundreds of Hand ninjas blindfolded. My personal favorite: the Gorgon mathematically proved the existence of God. On top of all this, he’s terribly overpowered. Among other things, he has telepathy, a basically unkillable body and he can turn people into stone with his gaze.
I suppose all these wild elements are kind of fun in a way – and some of the crazy ideas are indeed very cool, very creative – but it’s also all so incredulously over-the-top.
Courtesy of Marvel
At the end of the first arc around the middle of the story, Wolverine is simply defeated by the good guys and brought back into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. But since The Hand and Hydra, under the leadership of the Gorgon, are still reigning terror across the world, Wolverine goes on a one-man mission of revenge to bring them all down. Thus starts the second arc: Wolverine: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. What follows is one of Mark Millar’s specialties: an ultra-violent revenge fantasy to the furthest extent Marvel editorial would allow at the time. (Even the final, standalone issue in this collection is a revenge fantasy, placing Wolverine in a Nazi concentration camp during World War 2, tormenting the Nazis in control.)
Now the ultra-violent revenge fantasy has been a very popular genre in our culture for years, maybe even decades, especially in visual media – think Quentin Tarantino movies, the John Wick franchise and action movies like Taken. But I have to wonder what the popularity of this genre says about our society. We apparently have some sort of (unhealthy?) desire for violent bloodshed. At the same time, we’re socialized enough – with a basic core sense of morality – to realize that vicious, merciless killing is wrong. As such, we must somehow justify this bloodlust by creating enemies so evil, their violent death is a righteous act of vengeance – whether they be Nazis or undead ninjas.
In Wolverine: Enemy of the State, Millar repeatedly stresses the fact that the Gorgon, the Hand and Hydra are pure evil. They’ve willfully and proudly committed horrendous, unimaginable acts of torture, murder and oppression. Their sole goal is to utterly destroy any goodness and beauty in the world, simply to spite God – i.e. simply because it’s the most evil thing they could do. They are remorseless and will never change their ways. Don’t villains so horrible deserve the ultra-violent death Wolverine gives them?
Yet I still have a hard time watching Wolverine order a repurposed Sentinel to mass murder hundreds of already defeated people. Yes, it’s well established they are all followers of an absolutely evil mutant death cult. But Wolverine literally commands the giant Sentinel robot to flatten them into blood and paste.
I guess mindless, ultra-violent revenge fantasy just isn’t my cup of tea.
Courtesy of Marvel
I also can’t help but think Mark Millar missed an opportunity to explore deep moral and philosophical questions about the justification of revenge and the idea of a righteous killing. Are Wolverine’s actions done as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. more morally acceptable compared to the similar actions he committed while brainwashed by The Hand and Hydra? We could forgive Wolverine for his killing spree while brainwashed by enemies. But what about his very willful revenge against those enemies? Is there a moral difference between mercilessly killing good guys or bad guys? And who gets to decide who the good guys and who the bad guys are? Who decides if an act of vengeance is righteous or not?
Millar could’ve brought up any of these questions by comparing Wolverine’s ultra-violent killing sprees from the first half and the second half of this collection. But that might not have been as cool as watching Elektra and Wolverine cut off untold numbers of limbs and heads while slashing their way through hundreds of Hand ninjas.
If you like over-the-top, ultra-violent revenge fantasies or other popular works by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., you’ll probably like Wolverine: Enemy of the State. There is enough quality writing and art to recognize why Millar and Romita Jr. are such popular creators. And if you don’t think too much about what is going on, you’re in for a heck of a ride. But I’m not a fan of revenge driven stories, and too many of Millar’s and Romita Jr.’s flaws stuck out for me. Plus, I saw an obvious opportunity to question the morality of violence in the name of justice which Millar never chose to explore. Accordingly, I was a bit disappointed in what many consider one of Wolverine’s best stories.
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