Things may happen quickly in the Marvel Universe but they rarely come out of nowhere. The first part of this series deep-dives into some of the earliest examples of the Marvel heroes gradually pushing toward their Civil War. Let’s jump back into it now and examine the next batch of cases…
Cover to Wolverine, Vol.3 #20, cover-dated December, 2004. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts
WOLVERINE: ENEMY OF THE STATE/AGENT OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Wolverine, Vol. 3 #20 – 31 (2004 – 2005): One-part spiritual homage to a discarded Chris Claremont X-Men plot. One part swipe from Akira Kurosawa. Prior to properly writing the MU’s “cast of thousands” in Civil War, Mark Millar backdoor-pilots his ambition through this saga (accompanied by future Kick-Ass co-creator, penciler John Romita, Jr.). Spread out as it does over twelve issues, it actually has more in keeping with Kill Bill.
Like Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic two-parter, each half has its own distinct flavor. You don’t exactly get a grindhouse-esque “revenge flick/cowboy flick” but what you get is a super-hero “action/suspense/horror story” followed by a “action/spy-fi/revenge-thriller”. And ninjas. Such ninjas, omg…
If you have a penchant for crying “Rip Off!”, please note that Millar springboards the entire run by wholesale lifting the logline from the 1963 Japanese film High and Low (well, maybe not the “shoe company” part). Wolverine easily grafts into the scenario: the chauffeur of the wealthy businessman is the cousin of Mariko Yashida, Logan’s deceased ex-fiancee. Wolverine feels honor-bound to get the cousin’s abducted-in-a-case-of-mistaken-identity kid back BUT- Admiral Ackbar-senses tingling– It’s a trap!!
Turns out the gangsters actually kidnapped the right kid. The ransom was never the thing- they wanted the one with tangential ties to Logan. Double twist: these goons are also the little fish. The real masterminds: a diabolical consortium of HYDRA, the deadly Hand ninja cult and a nihilistic extremist mutant faction called The Dawn of the White Light (which actually sounds more like an underground gothcore band that releases all of its music exclusively on hand-written cassettes…).
Triple twist (the really sad one): They killed the kid off-panel prior to the ambush…
“This is how boastful The Gorgon is, defeating you in the third person!” (Wolverine Vol. 3 #20, cover-dated December 2004. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
Thanks to the Hand’s ninja magic (as seen on the Netflix Daredevil series), the bad guys resurrect Wolverine after somehow killing him. Don’t ask how one sword to the back is supposed to take out a guy with a mutant healing factor, shown to have taken far worse on multiple other occasions. But, okay, disbelief suspended for the sake of seeing where this is going…
Brainwashing the ol’ Canucklehead into being a cybernetically-monitored murder puppet, he’s Trojan-horsed back into the world. Picked up by a S.H.I.E.L.D. freighter, Logan feigns injuries acquired during a falsified escape from captivity. Taken to the infirmary, he soon unleashes a campaign of bloody hell while gathering intelligence data and sinks the ship! Old white Nick Fury appoints unlikely anti-hero, Elektra Natchios, freelance field leader of a special task force and places all of herodom on double-dodeca super-secret lockdown.
Better get used to these guys and their “big ideas”… (Wolverine Vol. 3 #22, cover-dated January, 2005. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
One of Wolverine’s next big targets is the Baxter Building- home of the Fantastic Four- to steal as many theoretical designs for potentially-destructive superscience gadgets as he possibly can (like a terraformer that Reed Richards just happens to be working on at the moment). While this infiltration is happening, Reed is seen in virtual teleconference with Tony Stark and Hank Pym. Seems incidental in the moment but it’s a think-tank gathering that Millar revisits at length during Civil War.
“Gratuitous appearance?! Do you know whose book yer in, bub?!?” (Wolverine Vol. 3 #24, cover-dated March, 2005. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
During a(nother) fake-out ploy to bring Daredevil over to the dark side (‘cuz Matt Murdock versus The Hand is such low-hanging fruit), The Gorgon and company acquire their real objective: killing and resurrecting Elektra. (What was that about low-hanging fruit, again?)
Bringing the nightmare to a crescendo, Wolverine is outfitted with a weaponized version of Reed Richards’ terraformer. Utilizing it as blackmail, he stealths his way back into the X-Mansion and demands that one of the resident psychics (Rachel Summers/Grey) use the X-Men’s Cerebra telepathic amplifier to remote-control mentally kill the US President.
Being telekinetic as well as telepathic, Rachel turns the tables by mentally contacting Reed Richards instead and learns how to safely dismantle the device. Wolverine begins cutting a destructive swath across the school and its grounds, pursued by a combination of X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and heroes such as Cap and Iron Man.
“Oh my god, you killed Northstar!!” (said in mock ‘South Park’ fashion. By no one ever…) (Wolverine #25, vol. 3 #25, cover-dated April 2005. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
Eventually, their efforts prove to be enough to take Wolverine down (Cap gives him a pretty fierce slam with the shield from behind) but not without casualty. On-loan Alpha Flight mutant speedster, Northstar, is fatally stabbed during the round-up. (Canadians sticking together, eh?)
Side ‘B’. (Cover to Wolverine, Vol. 3 #27, cover-dated June, 2005. Cover art and colors by Greg Land and Richard Isanove. Homage to cover of 1968 Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #4 by Jim Steranko)
Back in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, Wolverine undergoes a rehabilitative process to dial him back to pre-abduction levels of hairy mutant psychopath. During this time, the bad guys change up tactics. In addition to absconding with and resurrecting Northstar’s body, they begin “recruitng” from the less-organized costumed villain population. Amassing a small army, The Gorgon then turns his legions onto S.H.I.E.L.D. and its Helicarrier as either a manuever to liberate Wolverine or to outright cripple the organization. Either way…
Fury is severely injured in the raid but not before Wolverine gets commissioned to get back into the field as the best there is at what he does. What he does next is criss-cross the globe with fully-sanctioned S.H.I.E.L.D. assets, kicking ass and taking names.
“Shut your eyes, Marion. Don’t look at it no matter what happens!” (Wolverine, Vol. 3 #31, cover-dated October, 2005. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
Eventually, he catches up with the bad guys. It’s revealed Elektra’s been a deep-cover plant since her abduction (because Elektra gets brainwashed by The Hand?! Pffftt– sooo been there, done that…). Wolverine also manages to turn The Gorgon’s mutant “turn you to stone” stare back on him using the old Clash of the Titans trick and the reflectiveness of his metal claws.
So, all’s well that– oh wait, the kid’s still dead. Man, kinda hard to put this one in the “win” column, huh?
The impact on the Civil War landscape: This is probably the last story wherein S.H.I.E.L.D. operates in a “passive alliance” capacity with individual masked heroes. Certainly the last with “classic” old white Nick Fury at the helm.
Time was, the Old Warhorse would just show up with his red shirt bit players, roll up his sleeves and lend a helping hand to whatever shenanigans were going down- didn’t matter if you were Cap, Kitty Pryde or frikkin’ Howard the Duck. Sure, he’d grumble about loose-cannon vigilantism but everybody’d just go on their own way at the end of the adventure. After this story, though, seems like it might not be the case much longer…
“Why don’t you jump on the team and come on in for the big win?” (Wolverine, Vol. 3 #30, cover-dated September, 2005. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
The idea that “capes” would just organically fold into a paramilitary organization as superhuman “assets” is one Millar institutes in his Ultimates run and it kinda seeps in here- particularly the expeditious and somewhat offhand manner in which S.H.I.E.L.D. “deputizes” not only Wolverine but more questionable costumed characters such as Elektra, Rhino, Tombstone and the Constrictor. This trend of using villains willing to play ball with “the man” is one that will prevail into Civil War and beyond. But yeah, Millar is sure chomping to push some big, unified “us versus them” super-police force thing…
Another sign of that this indeed a “through the looking glass” post-9/11, post-Ultimates Marvel is the facility with which superscience equals WMDs; particularly that of Reed Richards, which, until this point, always held a certain naive/kitschy retro-tinged panache. However, the 21st Century seems to be all about pervasive notions and the air is now rife with conceptual genies that refuse to go back in the bottle. Indeed, it’s at the very core of the current Invincible Iron Man series as Brian Michael Bendis ramps into 2016’s Civil War II.
Wolverine is an evil bastard man. (Wolverine, Vol. 3 #25, cover-dated April 2005. Words by Mark Millar. Art and colors by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson and Paul Mounts)
Final note on this story: Wolverine as a villain is one scary mofo! You get impression that the regular people of the Marvel Universe probably should get up every morning and thank him just for fighting on sides of angels. Just sayin’. Oh, and he does go back and rough up the White House again later, though. That’s all with the intent of smoking out operatives of a guy named Romulus responsible for jerkin’ Logan’s chain since his near-literal Day One. Given how long Wolverine’s been around, that’s a long-ass time. This is all chronicled in the Wolverine: Origins series…
Couple of parting sidebars: Elektra drops off the grid during the big final boss battle with The Gorgon. Some time later, she evidently reappears, having reorganized The Hand around her. In actuality, Elektra is kidnapped and replaced. The reordering is really the handiwork of shapeshifting alien Skrulls, playing a “long-game” revenge against Iron Man and Reed Richards. Hank Pym is also swapped-out for a Skrull shortly after this story. This is all detailed as part of the Secret Invasion saga, though. Maybe we’ll talk about that one day…
Note: The Gorgon in this story (stone-stare mutant Tomi Shishido) is not to be confused with the classic Lee/Kirby cloven-hooved, stompy Inhumans character of the same name. In fact, the article “The” serves as clear and commonly-recognized distinction. At any rate, The Gorgon reconstitutes and goes on to serve on HYDRA’s high command council in Jonathan Hickman’s 2009 Secret Warriors series, wherein Baron Strucker turns up as well (as not a clone. Not like in this story…). You can read more about that here.
Speaking of “Secret Warriors”(but not the ones you’re probably thinking of, though)… [MORE→]
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