Wolverine wraps up "Enemy of the State" with issue #25, although since it leads directly into another six-parter, we're really only halfway through.

So.  Hmm.

Wolverine, you'll recall, is a brainwashed slave of HYDRA, and he's meant to kill the President tonight.  His clever plan, such as it is, is not to go to Washington and kill the President.  His clever plan is to go to the X-Men Mansion, threaten to set off a bloody great bomb, and then force Marvel Girl to kill the President remotely, using Cerebro.  Naturally it all goes tits up, and a big fight ensues, which Wolverine loses.

And.  Hmm.

The thing is, this is a dumb action story.  There is nothing wrong with dumb action stories.  It's nicely paced, it's got plenty of momentum, it's got a strong central concept, it's got quality art.  It's got a lot going for it.  Okay, the plot falls apart upon cursory inspection.  Why didn't Marvel Girl just zap him telepathically and then read his mind to find out how to dismantle the bomb, for example?  But you can kind of get away with that sort of thing if you're doing a dumb action story, because people read dumb action stories for dumb action, and they don't really care if it makes sense, just as long as it flows nicely.

But, as so often, Millar doesn't seem quite happy with that.  A big dumb action story isn't quite enough for him.  The climax needs something more.  Faced with this problem, do you (a) introduce a new plot element where, for example, Wolverine tries to sabotage his own mission; or (b) kill Northstar?

Millar goes for (b), so poor old Northstar is wheeled out, given a couple of lines of dialogue, and stabbed gently through the chest.  I'm not going to jump on Millar for killing the Marvel Universe's token gay.  It's more fundamental than that; killing off an underused supporting character is a cheap and lazy way of adding weight to the story. 

Because in the context of this story, he's nothing more than a generic redshirt, just like the SHIELD guys in earlier chapters.  He's shoved into the story, he has nothing to do, and he gets stabbed in order to make the story seem important.  But whatever importance his death has stems entirely from other stories by other writers, who actually did something with Northstar.  If you care about the poor bastard, it's certainly not because of anything Millar writes for him in this issue.

This is borrowed importance, lending spurious weight to a story which would be better off without any.  The moment is hollow.  It's meant to feel like something big is happening, but in fact it just makes me roll my eyes and go "Oh god, Mark Millar's trying to be shocking again."  Millar is never truly shocking, precisely because his desire to shock is so utterly transparent.

Still, though.  The fighting's good.

Rating: B

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