Welcome back to yet another edition of Multiversity’s coverage of Marvel’s “Original Sin” crossover, Confession Booth. This week, the bullets start flying as the killer all but names his or herself and Rocket Raccoon makes his 33rd appearance in a month.
As always we’ll start with a spoiler-free review followed by a spoilicious recap.
Review
Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by Mike DedoatoThis July, the lingering question will be answered in ORIGINAL SIN #6 – who shot the Watcher? From the very beginning, fans have waited, wondered and speculated who was responsible for Uatu’s untimely death. Now, Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato peel back the curtain on the person pulling the strings as Original Sin races toward it’s heart-stopping conclusion.
Though the Watcher’s killer stands revealed, the knowledge Uatu kept cannot be put back in its bottle. The heroes’ most closely guarded secrets are now weapons in the hands of a terrifying enemy.
How can the heroes of the Marvel Universe cope with a threat that knows their each and every weakness? And who has been manipulating the actions of hero and villain alike? Prepare yourselves as Original Sin kicks into high gear and builds to a game-changing finale that will have everyone talking! No fan can afford to miss the twists and turns of ORIGINAL SIN #6 when it explodes into comic shops this July!
Everybody has one. This is Marvel’s ORIGINAL SIN!
After last week stopped the series’ pace and went into the secret origin of a man who is a walking secret origin, “Original Sin” drops right back into the action with a fast-paced issue that brings us back around to event singularity.
Up until recently, the biggest strength of “Original Sin” has been its epic sense of scale.Winter Soldier, Gamora and Moon Knight find a murdered planet in space? Hell yeah. A flying car-chase through New York where the subject is a screaming Mindless One? Give it to me. Everything to do with The Orb? I will eat that shit up from the floor if I must. Unfortunately, the last two issues seem to have been brought to a stand still; literally because the main characters are standing still in a room with the murderer, demanding to know how he did it before he can go on a crazy tangent where he doesn’t actually say he committed the murder.
And honestly, that’s fine. The appeal of “Original Sin” never really came from its central mystery, more by the fact that it was the craziest event comic we’ve seen in a while, with final pages that were guaranteed to make the reader cackle in their madness. But now we’re reaching the end of the road and we’re finally seeing the story itself pull itself together. Maybe I’m an enabler, upset that my friend is sobering up rather than laying drunk on the floor and screaming about how a small old man lives in space with an army of hunks who look just like him; that’s all well and good, but my clearly insane friend and I need to grow up, stop getting wasted like that, and enter the third act of our respective narratives.
And “Original Sin” doesn’t do a bad job of starting its third act, just sort of a predictable one. The Avengers show up, the bad guy gets his army ready; we’re basically arriving to the conclusion of most comic book crossovers — which isn’t bad, just sort of normal compared to the madcap lunacy we started out with. Yes, there’s a big twist involved that’s going to pay off in some interesting ways, adding yet another layer of intrigue to the story for certain characters, but thanks to the fact that solicitations exist that mystery is all but solved.
Is that the creators’ fault? No, not at all. Aaron’s doing an exceptional job in crafting as many epic moments as he can possibly fit into a script without going into utter Cloud Cuckoo Land. Plus, this is still without a doubt one of the more intriguing event comics in a while; while most even comics fall into the same routines and cycles, it took a while for “Original Sin” to get anywhere close to formulaic. The problem isn’t so much that this is a bad comic, but more that it’s an event comic in a world that needs more insane ones where we end issues by inexplicably tearing off someone’s head.
Continued belowStill, even with the series falling into event-mode, there’s still plenty of moments to love here, mostly due to Deodato, who is rapidly ascending atop my list of favorite artists. His often scattered panel layout reflects the paranoid tone that’s only gotten more prevalent in recent issues and his depiction of certain characters is just unnerving, to say the least. I’m still not completely sold on the Bionicle Exo-Toa Suits™ everyone’s wearing in space but Deodato’s eye (heh) for design when it comes to tone and scale certainly makes up for it.
Is “Original Sin” #6 a bad comic? Not at all. In another event comic, I’d think its spectacular. Maybe we were just spoiled by four straight issues of lunacy, but “Original Sin” #6 is like your friend coming home from college no longer willing to drink bleach at parties for your amusement. Is it the best move for him? Probably. Is it the best move for me? I don’t know. “Original Sin” was a ray of light in a world where event comics felt like they needed to act like they were making sense. He had me the instant he said “What if The Punisher and Dr. Strange hung out?”
You don’t always know when your last kiss with somebody is, and you never know when it’s the last kiss that truly means something. Our last kiss is coming soon, in a month when issue #8 comes out, but the magic might have been lost at the end of #4. I don’t know if it’s something I did but I hope you know, “Original Sin”, that I will be waiting to feel your touch again and hear you whisper into my ears: “WHAT IF AN OLD MAN HAD BEEN MURDERING MONSTERS UNDERNEATH THE EARTH FOR YEARS, WOULD THAT BE COOL OR WHAT?”
With that I feel like I should just leave off with this:
Final Verdict: 7.3 – Still a pretty great comic, all things considered.
Recap
I mentioned earlier in the review how “Original Sin” had gotten considerably less crazy than in previous issues. While that may be true for for a large portion of the issue, it’s not for the first three pages which are, in a word, swagnifcent. This is thanks to the based presence of one Dr. Midas, a mad scientist who looks like a constantly-exploding Ben Grimm and dresses his daughter like a dominatrix because fuck your opinion.
After forgetting he was supposed to show up in this book for a few issues, and also because he needs to find a way to fix whatever illness The Watcher cursed him with, Dr. Midas hijacks a boat out to an unspecified area of the ocean. The captain who sold out the lives of his men, murdered by Exterminatrix and “a bunch of angst-ridden Mindless Ones” who are thrashing around like they just discovered Titus Andronicus, begs for Dr. Midas to spare his life and also pay him for the trip. Unfortunately, Midas had just finished season one of Game of Thrones and knew he could one-up Khal Drogo so he paid the captain by literally turning him into solid gold. Somewhere in the distance, Harry Lloyd whimpered.
Knowing that swag is a journey, not a destination, Dr. Midas continued his reign of magnificence by summoning a butler-spaceship from the ocean and approaching it by walking on water by turning said water into gold.
Somewhere in the distance, Kanye West whimpered. No one man can have all that power.
And indeed Midas doesn’t, as he drops out of the book for the rest of the issue.
Now we’re brought back to Old Man Fury’s space hideout where he’s mourning one of his decapitated robot copies. After everyone finally shoves Grandpa into getting to the real part of his story (why he’s doing what he’s doing now and not that he killed monsters in the 80’s), Fury reveals that the Infinity Formula wore off and he won’t live for very much longer. Duh.
In a flashback, Nick reveals that while falling under the effects of the Infinity Formula failing The Watcher came to him an-
CHRISTNOGOD KILL IT! KILL IT WITH FIRE! WHERE IS DR. MIDAS WHEN YOU NEED HIM!
Continued belowReal talk: if Fury ever shows the heroes a picture of The Watcher’s face right there, he gets full pardon for murdering him. I’ve felt worse swatting cockroaches than I would feel murdering that abomination.
Unfortunately, because this is an event comic, they don’t pardon Fury (who never states that he killed Uatu, but c’mon). Before Fury elaborates on why he killed The Watcher, the reason we’re all here in the first place, he first explains why he chose these miscellaneous heroes to investigate his monster killings (except for Rocket Raccoon who’s there because he has a movie coming out).
“Even me?” says Ant-Man.
“Fuck it,” replies Old Fury.
Before anyone can reply to the sweet job of hanging around robot versions of yourself that you get to name in-between shooting monsters in space, the scene switches to The Avengers who are four steps behind in this diner placemat maze we call an event. They’re dissecting the decapitated LMD that Bucky left behind while Wolverine complains about getting his non-regenerating butt kicked by Team #TrueDetectiveSeason2. The LMD explodes upon Iron Man cutting it open, which doesn’t kill anyone because this is a comic book. Instead, Avengers Tower is apparently completely destroyed with everyone having fallen to the bottom floor? But it’s okay because they got the signal from the LMD to Fury’s space hideout? But also all of Avengers Tower was destroyed and likely a significant portion of Manhattan? Guys, you really don’t need to jump to the space thing so fast when you just caused an event that certainly killed at least one guy and destroyed your town. Have you seen that picture of the Watcher up there? Just be glad he’s dead.
Over at the space station, everyone turns down Fury’s offer because they have no concept of what a radical job is. In response, Old Fury — in an attempt to be as cool as Midas — tasers Bucky, grabs his Uatu eye, sends his handsome LMDs after the other heroes and proceeds to slap around The Orb who may or may not have a connection with the eyes; you know, because he’s an eye.
The Avengers then show up far too late in their space costumes ready to beat down an old man. Unfortunately that old man struts into the room with even bigger space armor that’s just bordering on Cable cosplay, holding two eyeballs. I’d say the scene was gross if it wasn’t also insanely badass.
So Who’s Going To Be The Next Unseen?
Now that we’ve basically confirmed that Fury killed Uatu, who do you think is likely to replace him?
Scott Lang – No
Dr. Strange + Punisher in Space = Comic of the decade
Rocket Racoon + Gamora = Have a movie coming out
Moon Knight – Would do the job for six issues before dropping out
Black Panther + Emma Frost – Deserve so much more than this
Bucky –
Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier #1
• Following the tragedy of Original Sin, what becomes of Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier? Find out in this new ongoing series.
Well we answered that one quickly.
We’ll see you in two weeks when The Avengers savagely beat up an old man before the deus ex machina shows up or something.
