SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Hunt For Wolverine: The Adamantium Agenda #1 by Tom Taylor, R.B. Silva, Adriano Di Benedetto, Jesus Aburtov and Joe Sabino, on sale now.
Wolverine is inarguably one of the most popular X-Men, but his membership with the Avengers caught the attention of fans and reinvigorated interest in the hero. In 2005, Marvel made headline news with the announcement that Wolverine and Spider-Man would officially join the New Avengers team, where they would fight alongside the likes of Iron Man, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.
The five heroes formed a bond during their adventures, which is why they have a personal interest in figuring out what happened to Logan's corpse in the Hunt For Wolverine one-shot. The Adamantium Agenda miniseries sees Iron Man get the band back together to fulfill a promise and secure Wolverine's remains, and amazingly enough, what the former New Avengers discover in their search is somehow far more creepier than the theft of a dead man's body.
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New Avengers Assemble
Before the heroes get to the task of tracking their former teammate, we jump back some years to one of their early adventures in Tribeca, where a bomb is set to go off. After some investigation, it seems the bomb's blast radius can be shortened to a few hundred feet if a lever is pulled to set it off early. The only problem with that is someone has to sacrifice themselves in order to make that happen.
Enter the mutant with a fast-acting healing factor.
Of course, the bomb, Wolverine and the block go kablooey, but something surprised Wolverine right before the explosion. Unfortunately, we never get the answer, as the story then jumps to the present-day and Iron Man assembling Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones at the behest of Kitty Pryde.
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Tony Stark gets the foursome invited to a black market auction, where the top item is someone in the superhero community's entire genetic code. Sounds like just the place where someone would look to make some major cash off of Wolverine's DNA, right?
Well, no...
Whose DNA Is For Sale?
We end Adamantium Agenda #1 with the New Avengers off the coast of Guam, stuck in a submarine filled with mercenaries, hate groups and supervillains all wearing the masks of their "favorite" superheroes. Only one representative can attend the auction, which leaves Tony to go mingle with the enemy.
Someone dressed like a guard from the Hellfire Club takes the floor to offer up the first item of the night, and without mincing words, he presents the entire DNA sequence of young Danielle Cage, the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones.
To call this a surprise would be an understatement. Not once in the issue was a reference made regarding Danielle being in danger, or the supervillain community being interested in her genetic code. However, the bigger question is how this is tied to our Tribeca incident from earlier, and the shocked look on Wolverine's face right before the bomb exploded.
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Since Luke and Jessica were listening in on Tony's open channel, they heard the startling revelation and were rightfully upset. As public superheroes, they're aware that their family will always be a target, but to go after a child in this manner takes planning and a level of vindictiveness that's true unsettling. While our heroes set out to uncover the mystery of Wolverine's disappearance, they've stumbled upon something that could have a far greater impact on the Marvel Universe, depending on who the person is that's selling Danielle's DNA.