Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Original Sin #5.5/Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I have to say that I'm disappointed with this issue.  I finished it feeling like it had the potential to be amazing but unfortunately fell far short.

First, it's a shame that we lose Bianchi halfway through this issue, particularly the fact that we lose her exactly on the page where Odin identifies Angela as his long-lost daughter, Aldrif.  It would've been nice if she could've at least hung in there for one more page to take us through the reveal.  I'm not only intrigued by what she would've produced in terms of conveying everyone's reactions, but the switch itself was jarring.  Honestly, it ruined the moment.  Given that this entire mini-series was around said moment, I have to really question how the editors' decision to switch artists on exactly this page.

Second, we don't really learn anything new, despite this issue concluding this mini-series-within-a-mini-series that promised so many revelations.  Odin recognizes Angela, but we don't really get any information about her past.  Most importantly, we never learn how she survived the Queen's attack in Asgard.  We see an angel carrying her to the reactor of the angels' ship as they depart Asgard -- to throw her body in there, as the Queen instructed her to do -- and then Angela miraculously revives.  How, you ask?  No idea.  Moreover, we learn nothing of her life in Heven after someone obviously took her there.  Did the angel carrying her to the reactor return to Heven with her and raise her as her own daughter?  If so, did no one ever question why she was born without wings?  Moreover, wouldn't someone have noticed that the angel hadn't been pregnant?  I'm not exactly sure how a realm populated only by female angels handles reproduction, but someone probably has to be pregnant at some point.  In other words, it seems like a hard place just to appear with a baby that doesn't look like everyone else.  But, Ewing never even remotely tries to answer even one of these many pressing questions.

My only guess why we're left with so many questions is that Marvel clearly wants us to pick up Angela's new series.  But, in going for the money grab, it seems to have forgotten that I'm only going to pick up that series if I'm intrigued by the story that it'll likely tell.  Since I don't even have the basic information that I need to be intrigued, I'm going to pass.  It's a shame, because it seemed to be the only cool thing to come from "Original Sin."  Instead, it somehow dips below the Hulk and Iron Man mini-series that also ran through this title, since that one at least gave us some sort of resolution (as absurd as it was).  Sad, but true.

** (two of five stars)

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