Event season is upon us once again, which is odd considering DC’s still not even done with “Forever Evil” and is heading straight ahead into “Future’s End” while I’m still not sure what’s up with “Inhumanity.” (Did that end? Did that even begin?) Regardless, Marvel’s moving headlong into their newest event from Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato: “Original Sin”!
Multiversity’s going to be keeping an eye (or two cut out eyes) on this main series in our new column Confession Booth. But beware: Major spoilers ahead!
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Jim CheungIT’S THE PROLOGUE TO THE BIGGEST MARVEL SERIES OF THE SUMMER! WHO IS THE WATCHER? That’s what Nova is wondering after his latest brush with the moon-dwelling enigma he’s encountered before! But what he discovers will have a profound effect on the young hero, as well as priming the pump for the most cataclysmic event in Marvel history! WHAT DID HE SEE?
Alright so “Original Sin” #0 doesn’t actually seem to be the beginning of “Original Sin.” We (Matt) predicted in the latest MC2 column that this issue would just be a recap of The Watcher’s life — or as Matt put it:
It starts off with the Watcher, and he’s on the moon, and he’ll be all ‘Oh, this is me on the moon, thinking about stuff, and I see things’ And then we spend the next 18 pages of him looking at his past or showing us things from his history that we’d never known, that sorta stuff — basically an issue’s worth of an origin story for a modern audience to get to know who he is. And then the last page will be some kind of coy remark that he knows what’s coming next, that he knows he’s going to die.
Surprisingly, Matt was only about a quarter right. I mean, it’s not a surprise that Matt’s mostly wrong, just that with “Original Sin” #0 Waid and Cheung decided to focus much more on Nova, who’s on a quest to find out what the heck’s up with The Watcher.
We get a quick recap page for Sam Alexander himself (the splash page depicting all the major events of Sam’s admittedly short existence by Cheung is hella by the way). Also, I’ve only been keeping up with the regular “Nova” series but I had no idea that when Sam’s dad left his family and his job as the principal at Sam’s school, the principal made Sam the new janitor and straight up handed Sam the mop and bucket in front of the rest of the school. I don’t know much about child labors law but I do know a dick move when I see one.
Anyway, after his encounters with The Watcher in his own solo series, Nova’s seen in a Native American oilfield fighting an Aztec god. That’s right, it’s Tomazooma, The Walking Death! It took Google three solid minutes to convince me he was a previously established character; he’s a robot created by The Red Star Oil Company (and Stan Lee & Jack Kirby) back in the 60’s to terrorize Wyatt Wingfoot’s tribe into giving up their oilfields. That sounds like a pretty racist (and somewhat crazy) strategy for a business to use but apparently Roxxon’s trying it again in 2014. A comment on the creators’ part about corporations’ policies being stuck in outdated and often discriminatory mindsets, or a poorly-timed attempt on Roxxon’s part to ride that Pacific Rim gravy train? You decide!
After Nova blasts apart Tomazooma, The Avengers (or at least Cap, Thor and Iron Man) show up to congratulate Sam and provide a springboard for his question: “You guys know that bald dude who’s watching our every move? Hell up with that?” The three Avengers respond by looking at each other, realizing that it’s been 50 years and someone should probably have asked by now, and then letting the highschooler who first showed up by crashing to Earth and destroying a plane go find out the true nature of the celestial being who has watched their every move. It’s not like we’re going to look back at this a couple months ago and think we should’ve just let The Watcher alone, right?
Continued belowHopefully not, as Nova immediately goes up to the moon with a gift for The Watcher, a cool continuity nod in the form of a chunk of the battleground where The Phoenix Force was defeated at the end of “Avengers vs. X-Men.” An iTunes gift-card would’ve been cool too, but a two-year old chunk of dirt from that time Scott Summers got punched in the face a lot is fine, I guess.
Uatu goes back into his house in order to check Facebook and see if anyone has a birthday coming up soon so he can regift and Nova follows him. Unfortunately, the interior of The Watcher’s house is like the last half hour of Mass Effect 3 so Sam just kind of trips balls for a little bit, seeing multiple versions or ghosts of The Watcher which may or may not be foreshadowing. For real, I have no idea if that was foreshadowing. It was just kind of weird. Nova also wanders through The Watcher’s armory which is shocking since not only does The Watcher keep tabs on everyone under his domain but he also has the firepower to wipe us all out. That noise you just heard in the distance was Edward Snowden screaming out the word “METAPHOR!”
Nova continues tripping out for another page before finding The Watcher standing atop his “Multiversal Fraction Engine” which powers both his home and his exposition skills. A couple years ago (Maybe a million? Maybe twelve? Who knows.), The Watcher’s race gave nuclear power to a planet and then acted really surprised when they used that power to destroy themselves, and so as a result they refuse to help out other planets even though I’m sure they could just hand out stuff that’s not nuclear energy — but no, if you asked them, The Watchers would probably claim a food drive would result in fourteen mass extinctions or something. With apologies to that public school principal with an affinity for child labor and public humiliation, I think The Watchers might be the biggest jerks in the comic.
This is all actually pretty close to the original Watcher origin with the slight change that the whole idea belonged to Uatu’s father, whose name is ridiculous. Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if your planet’s destruction was caused by a guy name Ikor? Ooh, you could never live that down!
It seems The Watcher hasn’t lived it down. After showing off his Marvel Daddy Issue™, he shows Sam how he sees the Multiverse: in a bunch of scattered panels that let Jim Cheung be a total show-off. A brilliant damn show-off. Of the notable multiversal cameos are Spider-Man on the Fantastic Five, Iron Man 2020, that faux-Fantastic Four with Gray Hulk, Ghost Rider, Wolverine and Venom as well as Nick Fury and Dum Dum Duggan shooting some alien guy while wearing space suits. I have absolutely no idea where that scene is from or if it’s even happened yet, but if you dear readers know then shout out in the comments. I want to read something like that ASAP.
Nova begins to become overwhelmed by all the universes flashing before his eyes until he recognizes the one constant in all these universe: Ikor mourning the death of that world he destroyed by giving it nuclear energy, which real talk is still not that valid an idea. Still, Sam recognizes something within The Watcher, who for years has been going through infinite universes only to find one tragic constant. Nova turns to The Watcher and tells him “I wanted my dad to be right, too.” That other sound in the distance? Edward Snowden reeling from all these feels. (Also from the secret police who’ve come after him now that he blew his cover by screaming “metaphor” at you. Really, I thought he’d know better.)
Back on the moon, Nova asks The Watcher if he knows whether or not Mr. Alexander is alive which, after some awkward silence, The Watcher confirms that Sam’s dad is alive. Nova rockets off with a smile on his face while The Watcher morosely decides to not re-gift Nova’s chunk of rock and instead places it on a podium, the only memento he has of his tenure as The Watcher. It’s a pretty sad moment that’s made all the more tragic by his heavily telegraphed death. That and the fact the final gift ever given to him is a chunk of dirt from “Avengers vs. X-Men.” I think that actually might be a worse gift than nuclear energy.
Continued belowFinal Thoughts:
Okay, so this issue wasn’t exactly the start to “Original Sin” so much as a very vague prelude. Granted, that’s what the #0 numbering implied so I don’t think I feel surprised so much as defeated. Still, it was actually a really solid prelude considering Jim Cheung could draw literally any space-oriented comic and I would pay money for it. Mark Waid also made this more an adventure than just a bunch of characters sitting around talking about The Watcher, especially with the amazing inclusion of Tomazooma. Plus, the relationship between Nova and Uatu felt oddly organic, even pretty damn touching towards the end. If you’re tired of event fatigue like everyone else in the world this may not be the comic that turns things around, but “Original Sin” #0 was still a fun emotional journey.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – A very well-made comic that was a pretty neat lead-in to “Original Sin” and would’ve made an awesome issue of “Nova.”
So Who (Will) Killed The Watcher?
Every week we’re going to go down the odds of which character likely did in Marvel’s voyaging voyeur and we invite you to join in with your theories. As of “Original Sin” #0, the suspects are:
Vanilla Fury: The original Director of SHIELD is going to lead the investigation on The Watcher’s death, is effectively being replaced by his son Samuel L. Jackson, and if this doesn’t all come full circle with Nick Fury justifying killing The Watcher with a speech that’s meant to parallel Edward Snowden and The NSA then I owe Jason Aaron a live human.
Odds: 3:1
The Other Watchers: “Original Sin” #0 introduced a lot of new Watchers, including one who believed in non-interference but was ultimately banished by Uatu’s dad. Could he come back in some capacity, even a lethal one?
Odds: 10:1
Tomazooma: I simply refuse to think this is the last we’ll see of Tomazooma: THE DEATH THAT WALKS!
Odds: None:1
