Review by Ian Keogh

 Spoilers in review

In 2014 Marvel killed Wolverine. Not before ensuring plenty of substitutes were available, but killed him nonetheless. The prologue chapters here show his grave as empty, and clues point to his possible presence in several different venues around the world. From there four separate stories show different characters investigating, before they compare notes in an epilogue.

The reader wise in the ways of Marvel will cotton on pretty quickly that very little Wolverine is seen outside flashbacks in the almost four hundred story pages, and, spoiler alert, the hunts are unsuccessful, at least as far as the aim of finding Wolverine is concerned. That will require fans parting with more cash for the subsequent Return of Wolverine.

Charles Soule, the man behind Wolverine’s death, is also the guiding mind behind this protracted tease, writing the opening and closing segments and what’s available in paperback as Weapon Lost. More detailed reviews of that along with The Adamantium Agenda, The Claws of a Killer and Mystery in Madripoor can be found by following the links. You don’t have to be genius to figure that a minimum of three of the four are going to result in no Wolverine being found, and strangely, it’s three of the four that provide decent enough reads, with Soule’s own work on a procedural detective drama starring Daredevil just shading the quality peak. The poorest is the X-Men’s trip to Madripoor, with a basic script from Jim Zub and gruesomely stylised art from Thony Silas.

The prologue and epilogue sequences are effective enough, with some more good art from David Marquez, Paolo Siqueira (sample page) and Ramon Rosanas. They tease, and there are definitive sightings of Wolverine. More of these occur in a series of single pages originally scattered around assorted Marvel comics and showing Wolverine in various locations around the world, some of them tying in with the story they followed. That’s a nice touch that doesn’t transfer here.

If all you’re interested in is Wolverine and what he’s been up to when presumed dead, then Hunt for Wolverine is a waste of your time and money and you should head straight to Return of Wolverine. The best advice would be to check out the individual components as paperbacks, because this is very much an all fur coat and no knickers project.