A year after a mysterious explosion destroyed the Xavier Institute and broke up the weary X-Men, an embittered Wolverine has lost himself on the open road, haunted by the unexplained fate of the missing Professor X and Jean Grey.

But his efforts to keep a low profile end when he's brought back into the crosshairs of the Mutant Response Division (MRD) after rescuing a family from a fiery train derailment. When the family shows kindness to Wolverine, however, they're arrested by the MRD, charged with harboring a fugitive mutant.

Galvanized into action, Wolverine enlists the help of Beast and together they infiltrate the enemy's lair, successfully liberating not only the innocent family, but a dozen captured mutants as well. But Wolverine knows these kinds of problems won't be going away, and so he's left with one option: bring back the X-Men.