WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #4 by Tom Taylor, R.B. Silva, Adriano Di Benedetto, Guru-eFX and VC's Joe Sabino, on sale now.


The X-Men have carried on without Wolverine, one of their most popular and recognizable figures, since the hero passed away in 2014's Death of Wolverine. While characters like X-23 and Old Man Logan have stepped up to fill the Wolverine void, it's fair to say the Marvel Universe has missed the X-Man and Avenger.

Of course, Wolverine wouldn't stay dead forever, and Marvel dropped the first bombshell in the hero's return story when he made a surprise appearance in last year's Marvel Legacy #1. Since then, a Hunt For Wolverine one-shot and four miniseries have continued the saga by revealing Logan's body to be missing to his friends in the superhero community. Each title took a different angle in the investigation, with Adamantium Agenda seeing the former New Avengers Iron Man, Spider-Man, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage coming together again to track Wolverine's stolen DNA.

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With the help of X-23, the heroes' search uncovered the X-Men villain, Mister Sinister, as the mastermind behind a larger crime consisting of the theft of every person's DNA in the Marvel Universe. Looking back over Mister Sinister's history, this move aligns with his previous actions as a self-appointed expert in genetic manipulation. For example,  Mister Sinister had a laser focus on Summers and Grey family trees when he first debuted, before settling in as a frequent X-Men threat.

This last point is important because while discovering Mister Sinister's surplus of DNA, Iron Man finds smaller databases for mutants and the X-Men. You would think having the DNA of every person on Earth would take top priority, but Mister Sinister only thought to have both a physical mutant DNA collection and a digital mutant database, clearly showing favoritism to those with the X-gene.

Tony almost let his scientific curiosity get the best of him, but his friends convinced him to destroy the databases instead of exploring the juicy information stored within -- but that doesn't mean Tony came out completely emptyhanded. Yes, Mister Sinister's DNA collection is no more, but Tony was able to decrypt two gene files ahead of their destruction.

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The first file dealt with the identity of X-23's mother, which was revealed to be the scientist who gave birth to her cloned body, Sarah Kinney. However, the contents of the second file have a far greater impact on the X-Men and the Marvel Universe as a whole.

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An X-Man Isn't Who They Appear To Be

The information Iron Man found in Mister Sinister's DNA database can only be described as a bombshell for the X-Men. According to Iron Man, one of the X-Men has been genetically altered to appear to be a mutant. For some background information, mutants are classified as individuals born with an X-gene that will typically blossom around puberty, resulting in the manifestation of superhuman abilities which can range from external powers to something as simple as a deformed physical appearance.

Another way to tell the difference between a mutant and an Inhuman -- who the X-Men raged war within the event series Inhumans vs. X-Men -- is mutants will eventually display their powers on their own, compared to Inhumans who have to be exposed to Terrigen Mist for a change to take place.

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Looking at the big picture, Iron Man makes a big leap by assuming since someone masquerading as a mutant in the ranks of the X-Men means the group has a sleeper agent. Looking at the big picture, this potentially means someone either planted the agent to spy on the X-Men to gather intel, or to take the team down from within. Obviously, both scenarios mean trouble for Marvel's merry mutants.

With the world fearing and hating mutants, having someone on the inside that shares those beliefs is highly dangerous. The X-Men have so many enemies that it can become a guessing game as to who could be behind the nefarious plot. Did the individual act alone, or did he or she have the backing of a larger group? It's not made clear whether Mister Sinister is the one behind the deception, but he is a perfect candidate to start an investigation with. Also, Jessica Jones remarked that another group broke into Mister Sinister's stronghold for the database as well, so there are many options floating in the air

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Now that we know an X-Man isn't who they claim to be, we have to ask ourselves who the culprit could be. Taking into account Tom Taylor wrote Adamantium Agenda and is the current writer of X-Men Red, we can start with the title's roster of mutants as suspects. Taylor's X-Men Red is also the most likely place to see this plot thread explored further. In closing, even though Adamantium Agenda began as a Wolverine story, it concluded by teeing up a major conspiracy for Marvel's X-Men franchise.