Welcome back to Confession Booth, Multiversity’s ongoing analysis of Marvel’s “Original Sin” event! Once again, we’re going to start off with a spoiler-free review and then a super-spoilery recap! Also, because the series quickly went from a “Whodunnit” to an “Insane Maelstrom” we will be forgoing the “Who Shot The Watcher?” segment of the column for another “Wait, What The Hell Happened?” section. Let’s proceed with the spoiler-free review!
Review
Written by Jason Aaron
Illusrated by Mike DeodatoTRUST NO ONE. NOT EVEN YOURSELF.
• One hero goes rogue. Another loses his head.
• Dr. Strange and the Punisher team up for a daring raid.
• And all trails now lead to one suspect.
• But he… how is that even possible?
I know I just said this a minute ago but I want to just reaffirm: “Original Sin” is the craziest Marvel crossover in a while, right? Like, if comic books were TV shows, “Original Sin” would be professional wrestling. Just characters jumping in and out, left and right, kicking off some wild stunts while the initial plot of The Watcher’s murder just sort of shifts into the background. That’s incredibly evident in the latest issue where most of the plot revolves around the eclectic cast of characters realizing “Hey… maybe we should find out who’s employing us to solve this murder.”
That thought process leads to the typical amount of inter-conflict among heroes you’d expect from a Marvel event. As truths come out and loyalties are called into the question, the pace of the issue slows down since everyone has to take the time to fight before finally getting along. This type of issue seems contradictory with the other issues of “Original Sin” that moved at breakneck speeds, and while a slow issue might be necessary to catch readers up, that’s not really done here. Instead, more questions are brought up through what is, no joke, one of the most game-changing last pages of the week. Of course, said twist comes at the end of a slowly paced issue so it has that element of absolute whiplash that still makes for an entertaining issue.
Speaking of which, despite the slower pace this was still a really fun issue of “Original Sin”. The Orb is hands down one of the funniest characters to get brought onto the main stage, and every scene with him here is gold — as is the long-awaited team-up between two fan favorite characters. Really, this is probably the funniest issue of “Original Sin” yet, as shown by Deodato’s art. His characters are ridiculously expressive and are worth an entire tumblblog’s worth of reaction pictures. Though he only receives one or two chances to really have some action during the issue, Deodato uses these sequences to great effect. The second action sequence featuring one character trying to get ahead of the other deserves some recognition.
Despite the fun, this was probably a low point for “Original Sin”, at least in terms of pacing. Despite the majority of the issue revolving around everyone sitting down and finally talking, not much got explained except for one moment which only raised an infinite amount of questions (as seen below). I still enjoyed it; I’ll enjoy anything that can be accurately described with the words “madness”, “decapitations”, and “The Orb”. “Original Sin” has never been a perfect series, but it’s here that the faults started to show just a little bit more.
Final Verdict: 7.2 – I am still all in for this series but this issue’s pacing was just all over the place.
Recap
Now! For the super-spoilery recap and haiku detailing last issue’s event!
Winter Soldier Earned
Over $700 Million
And Nick Fury’s head
And the actual recap for issue #4:
As I mentioned before, a large majority of this issue focused on characters talking about recent events and trying to figure out what’s going on. They also all talk about how much they hate Winter Soldier, who was presumed dead until last issue when he chopped off Nick Fury’s head. That type of hate seems undeserved for such a beloved character until this moment:
Continued below
Was Frank Castle’s family cremated because either way they just got burned.
Before Frank and Bucky meet up so they can talk about his dead kids, Punisher’s off with romantic interest/partner Dr. Strange. Team #TrueDetectiveSeason2 is on edge because The Punisher thinks Dr. Strange is accusing him of being the murderer; “the” being the operative word there. Again, Frank Castle is absolutely a murderer. Then they both remember “Oh, hey. Weren’t there a bunch of other teams assembled by some shady dude whose identity we’re not sure of but it’s still probably Nick Fury?” and off they march to go find Fury and the other teams so someone can explain what the hell’s going on.
Unfortunately, the former is out of commission because Bucky is carrying his head around, teleporting it to the moon, and whispering into its ears that he’s out to get somebody and that he’s bringing a friend, referring to the decapitated cranium of Nick Fury who wasn’t a good friend when he could speak and still isn’t.
Bucky may seem crazy all you want, but at least you could say he’s a head of the game. Wait, didn’t I use something like that in the review section? Uh… getting a head. Cool. Saved it.
Speaking of weird heads though, apparently Black Panther can’t have anyone read his mind because he’s just too cool or something. Was that always a thing? I thought his only powers were heightened senses and being the best character in any room at any given time. Alright, second best, but only because The Orb exists.
Team #TrueDetectiveSeason2 recognizes the greatness that is The Orb, breaking into Avengers Tower and kidnapping him, incapacitating Hulk and Wolverine in the process; the former by shooting sticky explosives Hulk’s torso and then propelling him out the window. The Orb, instead of being rightfully impressed, proceeds to babble about his own cryptic stuff (something about The Unseen? That’ll probably be important) instead of paying his respects to Frank Castle, a man who saw Nick Fury’s decapitated corpse and basically just went “Cool.” This irritates Punisher who threatens to kill The Orb even though they need him for whatever vague plot is going on here. Frank-ly, he couldn’t give a damn.
Then every character goes into space. Who cares, they all have rocket ships and whatever — everyone save for Moon Knight and Gamora (who were stranded by Winter Soldier (who everyone is now accusing of being a traitor and a murderer)). To be fair, dude did just come back from the dead, blow up Moon Knight’s ship (now that Ellis and Shalvey left it’s all he has) and is still carrying the decapitated head of Nick Fury. But that’s all cool because Moon Knight and Gamora show up after getting a ride from Rocket Raccoon.
Do you know how much it hurts to have already used #TrueDetectiveSeason2 on Punisher and Dr. Strange? Do you feel my pain?!
Anyway, Gamora tries to kill Bucky for that whole “left for dead in the cold vacuum of space” deal but before this can turn into a Marvel Misunderstood Heroes Fight, Gamora cuts open the decapitated Fury head, revealing that it’s full of wires and is in fact a Life Model Decoy, confirming what literally every reader thought was likely to happen. Hell, while Black Panther is saying something about how these three teams “are the secret” the mysterious boss walks out and, surprise surprise, it’s Nick Fury. Way to go Marvel, you keep trying to pull these twists on us but we fans can see your twists coming from a mile awa-
Fuck.
Wait, What the Hell Just Happened?!
I have no clue what’s going on in this series and I say that with a sense of excitement in my voice.
Since I sincerely have no answers as to what’s going on, let’s just pose some questions of our own, no?
- Was the Infinity Formula a lie? Has Nick Fury been watching over Earth from his fancy satellite since World War II and sending Life Model Decoys down in his place ever since? Because if so, that’s leading credence to the whole “Old Fury will become the new Watcher” rumor. Continued below
- If the Infinity Formula is fake how does that affect all the other characters who’ve taken it? AKA every other Marvel character?
- Will Dum Dum Duggan simply turn around, realize the Infinity Formula is fake, and then crumble into dust because I’d buy that comic?
- Is Nick Fury really the killer?
- Black Panther mentioned that the three teams involved “were the secret”. Is there something they can’t remember? Did they kill Uatu?
- The Orb mentioned “The Unseen”. Since none of these characters have been affected by The Watcher’s eyes (either in this series or their own) could they be The Unseen, gathered by Fury to take out Uatu?
- Wait, back to the LMD thing, Nick Fury has kids so how did that happen?
- Did Fury jump back to Earth and swap out with his LMDs exclusively to hook up with women because if so that’s the most baller retcon in recent memory?
- If he didn’t, did Nick Fury Jr’s mom sleep with a LMD? It happened before between Hawkeye and a Scarlet Witch LMD post “House of M”.
- If Mrs. Fury Jr. slept with an LMD how did she get pregnant from that? Did Fury load up the robot with his own personal Nick juice?
- Oh god… Oh god, he could have spent decades alone up in that satellite. There’s probably hundreds of robots.
- Why did I pursue this train of thought?!
I’m off to spend the next two weeks dousing my brain with hand soap. If you’ve got anything to add regarding the turn of Old Snake/Nick Fury or any other theories, True Detective Season 2 pairing, etc. feel free to discuss in the comments below.
