Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #1 Review

by Charles Martin on May 09, 2018

Hunt For Wolverine: Adamantium Agenda #1 Review
We're Kraven Essential Updates
CTG's Take On The Hunt For Wolverine

Marvel's suggested retail price for the issues in the Hunt for Wolverine Event has already hit $70, and that doesn't even include the still-mysterious finale yet. 
That is insane. So, as each week brings us a new issue, CTG is gonna deliver a mini-review focused on whether or not the latest chapter is worth your hard-earned dough. 
In addition to our regular 10-star rating, we'll give each issue a basic Buy It or Skip It recommendation based on how essential it seems to the overall Hunt.
There will be monthly roundups to rank the four miniseries and identify the must-reads when/if they show up. We'll also deploy a provisional Wait And See recommendation at the series level for those titles that seem promising but not yet essential.

This week: Adamantium Agenda #1

Writer: Tom Taylor
Penciller: R.B. Silva
Inkers: Adriano di Benedetto with R.B. Silva
Colourist: Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Tom Taylor takes the reins of the Avengers team thrown into the Hunt for Wolverine. He opens with a flashback to the Bendis New Avengers days, when Logan took a heavy hit for teammates Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Spider-Man.

Mr. Taylor's script neatly finesses the fact that "Luke Cage and Iron Man aren't on the same Avengers team" was a Thing back then. Tony is not present for the main flashback, only showing up in the aftermath of Logan's sacrifice. Hopefully, future issues will deliver more flashbacks; there's still a lot of ambiguity about exactly what happened to Logan and what his teammates promised him.

In the present, Tony rounds up the team to investigate the sinister sale of a mystery gene-sequence - Logan's? - on the villainous black market. The team infiltrates a genetic auction on a pirate submarine but runs into a honey of a twist at the end.

R.B. Silva's art is generally amazing, though he leans just a little bit on copy-and-paste in the early scenes to meet the beat-panel-heavy pace of Mr. Taylor's script. Kudos to Mr. Silva for not Krysten-Ritter-ing Jessica Jones here; she's definitely the same brunette sassmom Stuart Immonen slotted into the New Avengers back in 2010.

I don't know whether it was R.B. Silva or Andrea di Benedetto who gave the rear half of the book such glorious variation in line weight. Each character pops inside a firm outline - I hope it becomes the default inking standard in future issues.

The script's pace is a little bit off, with some of the humour feeling shoehorned into place and the plot unfolding slower than it could. On balance, it's still highly entertaining, and this issue does a superb job of prompting an "and then what happens?" reaction.

While this issue doesn't make any cutting-edge Wolverine revelations, it does an excellent job of opening up new mysteries in its retrospective look at Logan's New Avengers days. Formidable art and a dense script that focuses on the "Why are these heroes hunting Wolverine?" question foremost in readers' minds turns this into a winner. Our recommendation for Adamantium Agenda #1: Buy it.

Our Score:

8/10

A Look Inside

Comments

Charles Martin's picture
Pssh, forget hunting Wolverine. The mystery I wanna unravel is, who's the "mutually agreed upon, open-minded friend" who's allowed to touch Luke Cage without Jessica's permission? Danny Rand? It's Danny Rand, isn't it?