Hunt for Wolverine
"Hunt for Wolverine" is a 2018 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, starring the character Wolverine. The storyline is the follow-up to the Death of Wolverine event, and is continued with ''Return of Wolverine.''
Background
The storyline detailed Wolverine's return from the dead following the "Death of Wolverine" storyline and how the X-Men would cope with this discovery. The lead-up included a "Where Is Wolverine?" mini-story at the end of different comic issues.According to Marvel, each of the stories was designed to have a specific theme to it: Weapon Lost would have a noir theme, The Adamantium Agenda would be an action-adventure, Claws of a Killer aimed for a horror sensibility, and Mystery in Madripoor for a dark romance motif. Following the storyline, Marvel would launch the Return of Wolverine miniseries, which was followed by a new Wolverine series.
Plot
''Where is Wolverine?''
Wolverine acquires the Space Infinity Gem after killing the Frost Giant Snarr, who was targeting it on Loki's behalf. Meanwhile, the time-displaced Jean Grey discovered the adamantium shell in Wolverine's tomb has been broken open and is empty. Keeping a low profile, Wolverine unsuccessfully attempts to rekindle his relationship with his old friends. He walks to a bar where Captain America had been playing pool, only to learn he was no longer there, leaves flowers with a hospitalized Jane Foster after visiting hours but does not reveal his name to the attending nurse, and arrives at Big Ben hours after Spider-Man's confrontation with Scorpio. Following his fight with Thing and Human Torch, a desperate Hydro-Man arrives at a campfire and attempts to rob the person sitting at it, who happens to be Wolverine. Wolverine is seen in Peru, where the Avengers have just battled the Grandmaster's Lethal Legion and Challenger's Black Order. He is one of the heroes frozen in stasis walking down a flight of steps in Peru, once the Avengers' Quinjet leaves.Wolverine also is attacked by minions of Ultron in the wilds of Canada. Easily dispatching them using the space stone's teleportation abilities, he is met by Loki. After losing an eye in the confrontation with Wolverine, Loki pleads unsuccessfully for the Infinity Stone.
Later, he passes by Londell's Restaurant in Harlem, where he detects the scent of Storm, who had been there earlier. Wolverine later encounters an anti-mutant mob as a Sentinel is nearby. Black Widow discovers that he has entrusted her with the Space Gem which he has hidden in a safehouse in Madripoor.
While in Japan, Wolverine watched a broadcast of Amadeus Cho battling and defeating Phalkan. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wolverine arrives at an unoccupied desk to find a long spreadsheet printout. After reading the information, he states that he will be seeing Tony Stark soon.
''Hunt for Wolverine''
Shortly after the X-Men had retrieved Logan's adamantium sarcophagus from Mister Sinister, Forge had built a log cabin in Alberta, Canada to serve as a secret shrine to hold Wolverine. Those attending the quiet ceremony were Jubilee, Colossus, Kitty Pryde, Rogue, Cyclops, Beast, Firestar, Storm, and Doop, having arrived at the secret location via the Blackbird. It was decided that the adamantium shell would be left as a memorial in the shrine.Some time later, the Reavers locate Wolverine's shrine and discover it empty; the X-Men arrive and defeat the aged cyborgs. Kitty notices his burial shroud entangled in the nearby trees and discovers that Wolverine's body is no longer interred, and rallies the X-Men and his other close associates into finding him. Lady Deathstrike vows to hunt down Wolverine after she is notified via Reavers' intel of the empty state of the adamantium statue. Meanwhile, in an unknown location, Wolverine, clad entirely in black, is being commanded by a figure shrouded in shadows.
''Weapon Lost''
The X-Men have enlisted Daredevil into looking into the disappearance of Wolverine's body. While moving through the rooftops of New York City, Daredevil runs into Nur and persuades him to help. In addition, he was told by Daredevil that they are not looking for the "old one," the "lady," the "blonde kid," or the "android." The next person Daredevil recruits is Misty Knight, who knows an information broker that can help them. The trail leads them to Cypher, who agrees to help them find Wolverine. Upon being handed a smartphone by Nur, Cypher finds that Wolverine has been sighted in many of places in the past sixty days.The team investigate the different sightings of Wolverine. At Ranger Outpost Nine at Meadowlake Provincial Park in Saskatchewan, park rangers arrange an airlift for their injured personnel. At the McCarthy Medical Institute in Manhattan, Misty Knight and Nur arrive asking about the person who delivered flowers to Jane Foster; unsuccessful, they head to the next sighting. In Phoenix, Arizona, Nur hears from a biker gang that Wolverine passed through. Back at Ranger Outpost Nine, the outpost is attacked by a man with claws, and Cypher picks up the distress signal. Arriving in Saskatchewan, Daredevil, Misty Knight, and Nur investigate the area while Cypher remains on the Skycharger. They find a dead men but no sign of a woman. Cypher steps out of the Skycharger to translate the smartphone of a dead man but his throat is slashed.
Daredevil, Misty Knight, and Nur arrive at the cabin to find Cypher. Nur uses an Inhuman Medical Suite on Cypher while Daredevil and Misty keepwatch. As Misty Knight suspects that it is Wolverine who did it, and Daredevil has theories that he might be mind-controlled, gone insane, or is possessed by someone. As the get Cypher to the Skycharger, they find someone who looks like Wolverine on top of the Skycharger. Daredevil discovers that the Wolverine-like culprit is Albert, a robot double of Wolverine created by the Reavers. Daredevil kicks Albert off the roof, and Misty destroys his cloak but he wounds her. After being tripped by Daredevil, Albert grabs him by the neck and starts to ask what he did with Elsie-Dee. The group shuts him down and leaves a tip on where to find him for the Canadian authorities. While flying back to New York, a recuperating Cypher discovers they need to go back to Chicago. There, a security guard who Misty spoke to is dead and a bomb nearby goes off.
Misty protects them from the explosion, and the heroes evacuate the burning building. Nur discovers that the security guard worked for a group called Soteira, so they head to one of their offices in Chicago where Daredevil's radar detects the people inside purging their records. A Level Four Killteam arrives to kill the workers as part of their purge. They hold off the Killteam until Cypher gets the information they need. Back in the Skycharger, Cypher deciphers the information - involving Wolverine being interviewed by Soteira. Daredevil calls Kitty to let her know of his findings. While advised by Kitty to come in and meet with the other leaders of the search teams, he tells Kitty about the data on Soteira and states his opinion that "Wolverine should've stayed dead."
''The Adamantium Agenda''
Iron Man assembles Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man, who hear that the genetic material of a hero is going on sale at the black market and go undercover to investigate the auction, which takes place in a submarine. They find the subject of the auction is the genetic material of Danielle Cage, much to the surprise and anger of Luke and Jessica.The masked attendees had hoped that the DNA would be from an actual hero. As the seller claims that Danielle will one day inherit her parents' powers, a masked Tony Stark wins the auction at $30,000; next, a chunk of the Z1 is next up to auction. Stark meets with the seller in a room for the transaction, which is crashed by Mister Sinister - seeking to reclaim genetic material of Wolverine that was stolen from him. As Iron Man works to keep Mister Sinister from killing the seller, he is assisted by one of the disguised auction attendees who turns out to be Laura Kinney as she slices off Sinister's left hand.
Iron Man orders Spider-Man and Jessica Jones to contain Mister Sinister, until Laura cuts off his right hand. After Mister Sinister escapes, the submarine starts to go down as Iron Man orders Jessica to keep an eye on the seller. As Iron Man raises the submarine to the surface of the ocean, Spider-Man and Laura evacuate the auction attendees who are loaded onto South Korea's National Intelligence Service Helicarrier. When being interrogated, the seller Declan Fay states that Mister Sinister is putting together a database of DNA, though he does not know whose DNA it is and directs them to the Kerguelen Islands. Iron Man provides Jessica, Luke, Spider-Man, and Laura with their own Iron Man armors with stealth tech. Entering the hangar, Iron Man's group fights some armed guards. When they reach the room that the database is in, they find swabs of DNA while looking to see if Wolverine's DNA is among them. They discover that Mister Sinister has collected the genetic make-up of every person on Earth.
While Iron Man objects to Laura wanting to destroy the genetic make-up, Spider-Man discovers on the database that no mutant DNA is included. Just then, the group is attacked by more armed guards; they find a room filled with dead personnel, Jessica states that Mister Sinister would never kill his own people and that someone else is behind this while Iron Man discovers a digital mutant database. When Spider-Man suggests they destroy the databases, Mister Sinister arrives and admits to Iron Man that a Killteam stole his work. When Laura asks if he has Wolverine's body, Mister Sinister states that he doesn't. Iron Man has no choice but to destroy the database. Later at Luke and Jessica's home, the group meets up with Iron Fist who was babysitting Danielle. Stark informs Laura that he found some information about her on Mister Sinister's database that indicates she contains more of Sarah Kinney's DNA, making her Sarah and Logan's biological daughter, then informs Jessica and Luke that he saw the DNA of an unknown X-Men member who is not a mutant. He states that the X-Men have a genetically-altered sleeper agent among them.