Original Sin Annual #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

After the horribleness of "Original Sin," I was on the fence about getting this issue.  In the end, I got it mostly to see if it could somehow redeem the series.  It was probably an unrealistic expectation, but Latour at least puts in a good effort.

We get the story of Woodrow McCord, the Man on the Wall who passed the title to Nick Fury.  Latour wisely goes for a pulp-fiction approach to the story, given that he's writing about alien invasions taking place in the 1930s.  It's still a little hard to believe that no one noticed the Men on the Wall saving Calcutta from an alien invasion in 1913, but Latour successfully encourages you not to think too critically about it.  It would've also been nice to learn why it was OK for us to have multiple Men on the Wall in 1913, but McCord and Fury were forced to do the job on their own.  But, Latour doesn't really have time to try to explain a concept that the main series failed to flesh out fully.  His real goal is giving us some more information about McCord.  He does just that and closes the book on the whole sorry episode that was "Original Sin."

In the end, this issue doesn't really accomplish much, since McCord is dead and Fury is gone.  It definitely wasn't worth $4.99.  But, I give Latour credit for trying.  If anything, my main problem with the issue was Cisic's difficulty in distinguishing between Fury and Stark, but, after all the water under the bridge on this event, it's a minor complaint.

** (two of five stars)

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)

Original Sin #8 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Jesus, can Marvel not fuck up an event?

I was mostly happy with this event until issue #7.  Until that point, Aaron was doing a great job of solving one mystery only to reveal another one.  It seemed like we were building to some amazing revelation that would shake the foundations of the Marvel Universe.  Over the course of the series, the story had slowly started to focus increasingly on Nick Fury, but this focus seemed reasonable given the likelihood that Master o' Secrets Fury would be instrumental in bringing about said revelation.

However, last issue, it suddenly became clear that this series was really all about Nick.   It was a weird realization, since Marvel had already pushed aside Nick and brought his son to the fore in order to bring the comics more in line with the movies.  Maybe they wanted to give Nick a proper good-bye?  It seemed plausible, but it didn't leave me feeling happy.  If I had known that this mini-series would just boil down to a love letter to a character that I didn't really like in the first place, I would've passed.

Moreover, the tie-in issues were still focusing on the secrets related to the Marvel Universe's other characters, making it all the odder that the main series increasingly became focused on Nick.  For example, Thor is still in Heven in the "Thor & Loki:  The Tenth Realm" mini-series running concurrent with the regular series, though we see him in this issue struggling to pick up Mjolnir.  Give that this development will directly lead to the introduction of the new Thor, it seems reasonable to think that we would've actually spent time on exploring it in the main series (particularly given all the time dedicated to Midas and the Orb).

In the end, though we're left with the anti-climatic revelation that Nick did kill the Watcher, though we're not told why he did so.  Did he do it because he realized that he could use the secrets contained on his eye for good?  No one actually says that.  After all, we still don't know what secrets Nick wanted on the eye, so it's hard to speculate what good that he could've done with them.  Aaron hints that Nick had to kill Uatu because he knew something about Nick, but it couldn't have just been the Unseen, since Nick himself revealed that information to the handful of possible replacements that he picked.  As such, despite eight issues dedicated to the subject, we really have no idea why Uatu had to die.

Instead, we're left with an insane Orb running around the place with Uatu's eye embedded in his chest and a seemingly alive Nick Fury staying on the Moon with Uatu's other eye embedded in his empty eye-socket.  The main problem that I have with this ending is that these developments seem unlikely to have any impact on anything.  Is the Marvel Universe going to devolve into following the escapades of a crazed and deformed Orb?  We don't even have a logical series to pick up his "adventures."

In the end, this event fells like it would've been better done as "Acts of Vengeance," allowing each series to handle the topic on its own rather than forcing an eight-issue mini-series on top of it.  We probably could've just had a one-shot that ended with the Orb detonating the eye bomb and be done with the framing story.  Instead, we spent eight issues telling a story that really only affects a C-List and D-List character.  I can't exactly call that time and money well spent.

* (one of five stars)

Original Sin #5.4/Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

My, but this issue is fun!  Aaron and Ewing just deliver a great treat here.  Loki uses Heven's fleet to break open the barrier surrounding Asgard so he can beseech Odin to return to fight the angels.  (He maybe forgot to mention to the Queen that the Asgardians don't live on Asgard anymore.)  Mjolnir finally arrives in Heven, freeing Thor and setting up a pretty epic battle.  Angela begins to wonder (thanks to some totally innocent questioning by Loki) why she agreed to trade in the ability to explore the cosmos to become the Mistress of the Hunt, functionally trapped on Heven.  Along the way, Loki hilariously talks about murdering babies.  No, really, it's hilarious.  Anyway, just read the issue.

***** (five of five stars)

Original Sin #7 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I've liked this series for the most part, a significant feat given how over events I am.  But, Aaron loses me here as we descend into nonsensical blather.  It's like "Gravity" with too much talking.

Nick Fury has always been the guy that knew all the secrets worth knowing.  In fact, the sub-text of this entire event has been taking that proposition to the extreme.  But, when we reach that extreme in this issue, we're crossed the line into ridiculous.  How does Fury know the words that somehow render Thor unworthy of holding Mjolnir?  With the hullabaloo over the upcoming debut of a female Thor, I had assumed that Thor did something to render him unworthy.  Instead, Fury just whispers a few words and strips godhood from a god.  Did I mention that he also knows the override code for Tony Stark's armor and that Logan murdered his "children?"  Fury implies that he knows these secrets because he managed to open the eyes, but I thought that he was still struggling to do that the last time that we saw them.

The problem with these revelations is that it's still unclear why we care.  Fury uses this knowledge to take down the Avengers (I guess Logan just went into a guilt coma), but we still don't know what he wants or why he doesn't want the Avengers involved.  If Fury was the one to steal the Watcher's eyes in the first place, why did he do it?  Did it have something to do with being the Man on the Wall?  These two plots are feeling increasingly isolated from one another, but I have to assume that Aaron will bridge the gap at some point.  But, even if he doesn't, we definitely need to know what secret Fury is willing to risk everything to know.  Doesn't he know enough?  If he knows enough to strip Stark of control of his armor or Thor of his godhood, what secrets could the Watcher's compound hold that he doesn't already know?  Also, why can't the Avengers help him?

Why do I feel like I'm not going to be happy with the answers if we get them?

* (one of five stars)

Original Sin #5.3/Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Despite my natural inclination to want to rush to the end of the story, I'll admit that Aaron and Ewing are doing a great job of letting this story unfurl at its own pace.  Angela and Thor are still clueless about their relationship, but we do get a better sense of how we got where we are.

Loki and the Queen of Heven have a cup of tea (literally), and the Queen reveals that Odin's betrayal came for failing to pay the angels for their service, namely protecting young Earth from his own subjects seeking the fun of plundering it.  However, Odin had a pretty good reason for betraying them, since he discovered that the angels took money from Jotunheim to develop a strategy to defeat Asgard (and concluded that it should unify all the other realms against Asgard).  Aaron and Ewing have done an impressive job of developing the ethos of Heven in a short time, and I'll admit that this revelation feels pretty consistent with the portrayal of Heven and its mercenary Queen so far.  The problem is that it doesn't exactly make the angels into sympathetic characters.  Their commitment to such extreme capitalistic ideals seems excessive, and it's hard to argue with Odin's decision to lock away the angels somewhere where they'd be less able to sow discord.

The surprise ending of this issue - Loki becoming the "Mistress" of Strategies - is clever, though it's pretty clear that Loki is playing both sides.  It's still unclear how they're going to get the Queen of the Angels to reveal Angela's heritage, and, even when she does, how Angela is going to react.  It seems unlikely that she's going to collapse into Freya's arms crying about finally finding her family.  But, Aaron and Ewing are letting us know that they're getting there, and I'll try to be patient.

*** (three of five stars)

Original Sin #3.4/Hulk vs. Iron Man #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Despite everything that we've been led to believe over the last three issues, we learn here that Tony didn't create the Hulk.  Sure, he tampered with Bruce's bomb, but he actually discovered that the extra shielding that Bruce had installed to make sure that the bomb didn't kill too many people would've done the exact opposite, since it would've built up too much pressure.  In fact, Tony saved Bruce's life, because the blast with the shields would've killed everyone in the observation bunker.

Technically, Gillen has been pretty careful to make sure that we only ever confirmed that Stark tampered with the bomb throughout this mini-series.  However, it's hard not to feel like he pulled a fast one on us with this revelation, reversing everything that we already seem to know to be true.  On several occasions, Tony has accepted blame for creating the Hulk.  Given the amount of techno mumbo-jumbo that we've seen throughout this series, we've been mostly forced to accept his word for it.  So, it seems weird to learn that he didn't actually mean it.  He learns the truth at the end of last issue, and Gillen seems to want us to believe that the guilt that he feels then comes from the fact that his alcoholism meant that he passed out before he could warn Bruce about the "morphogenic" potential of the bomb.  He instead sends Bruce an e-mail to that effect before he passes out, an e-mail that Bruce didn't read given his fury at Tony.  However, we were clearly led to believe that this guilt came from confirmation that he had, in fact, created the Hulk.  As such, again, it feels cheap when it's implied that the guilt came from Tony's passive, and not active, responsibility in the Hulk's creation.

To make matters worse, I'm extrapolating a bit there.  Tony never exactly says that he still blames himself for not being sober enough to warn Bruce.  I'm just trying to make his guilt at the end of last issue make sense, mostly because I like Gillen and hate to think that he just simply went all soap-opera cliffhanger on us, where everyone comes back Monday to discover that the gunman had no bullets in the gun and the threat is resolved in 30 seconds.  Moreover, it's hard to feel like this passive guilt would've been as extreme as the guilt that we see on Tony's face at the end of last issue when he realized "the truth."  In other words, Gillen and Waid may have overplayed the certainty that we've seen over the last three issues regarding Tony's role in creating the Hulk, because the revelation at the last minute that he didn't create him feels like a ret-con (even after only three issues).

Finally, we also somehow are left with the loose end of the effect that Arno warned the Hulk that the use of Extremis to upgrade him would have.  In other words, despite the talent of both writers involved in this project, it winds up just a mess.

** (two of five stars)

Original Sin #3.3/Hulk vs. Iron Man #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This series so far seems to just be repeating the same story again and again, as Tony tries (but fails) to prove that he wasn't responsible for the accident that created the Hulk.  We get another fairly unbelievable bit of technology meant to reconstruct the events of that night to break through Tony's alcoholic haze, and, this time, it not only proves Tony's guilt over creating the Hulk but also for some other crime that he committed against Bruce.  The only new twist this issue is that Arno implies that Bruce's use of the Extremis virus to merge his consciousness with the Hulk's body has some sort of side effect, but Hulk immobilizes him before he can reveal what it is.  I think that next issue is the last one, so all will, presumably, be revealed.  But, if Tony is as guilty as it appears, you do have to wonder how it could all possibly be resolved...at least without the Hulk smashing him to bits.

*** (three of five stars)

Original Sin #5.2/Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Aaron and Ewing waste no time setting up the meeting between Angela and Thor.  I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised by this development, since I figured that we'd have to wait several issues before the pair actually met.

Of course, the meeting isn't exactly a friendly one.  Not surprisingly, the angels of Heven view Thor as the Son of Evil, and, upon realizing that the door home has been opened, Angela returns to Heven to confront him.  I'm intrigued how Thor is ever possibly going to convince Angela, known as the Wingless One in Heven, to return to Asgard, given the hatred that the angels have for it.  Are we simply going to explain that Odin is gone, so it's all good?  I guess it depends why the angels were fighting Asgard in the first place.  We learn here that they believe that Odin betrayed them, and it seems to be Loki's task to wheedle the details from the queen.  Ewing does a great job capturing both Thor's naivety and then dangerous impatience as well as Loki's scheming but practical nature.  How those dispositions will combine into a happy ending remains to be seen.

As intriguing as the plot is, the art is even more of a selling point.  Bianchi and Dall'alpi's Heven is a sight of beauty not often seen in comics.  You understand why Thor views Heven as a paradise full of fair maidens, and his battle with them in the skies over Heven is equally awesome.  The art really infuses the issue with the appropriate grandeur that a fight between gods needs, and it earns the issue a fourth star in my book.

**** (four of five stars)

Original Sin #3.2/Hulk vs. Iron Man #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue features a lot of techno mumbo-jumbo, but, in the end, it essentially contains two major developments:  first, Tony realizes that he did, in fact, create the Hulk by sabotaging the gamma bomb, and, second, Bruce uses Extremis to upgrade himself into a more self-controlled Hulk.

The first development is pretty well explained, even if it isn't all that believable how Tony gets there.  Tony buys the motel where he and Bruce had their fateful argument and uses droids to catalogue the room, creating a sequence of events to jar his memory.  I think that it's pretty unlikely that triangulating the location of a Scotch bottle thrown ten years earlier could accomplish such a feat; this sort of hand-waving is why I generally don't read "Iron Man" comics in the first place.  But, whatever, I get the fact that it's part and parcel of an Iron Man story.

The Hulk development is odder.  Bruce uses his access to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files to confirm that Thunderbolt Ross hired Tony to make the gamma bomb more lethal, and this revelation drives him to upgrade himself.  First, I'm not really sure why it's all the worse that Ross hired Tony to make the bomb more lethal.  The main problem is that Tony sabotaged the bomb, not that he was working on the bomb at Ross' behest in the first place.  Second, you have to ask why Bruce was waiting to upgrade himself.  Wouldn't he already have wanted a more controllable Hulk, even if he wasn't inspired to create one to kick Tony Stark's ass?  Why did he wait?  Also, I'm not sure why he didn't want Arno to know what he was doing.  Wouldn't Arno be OK with Bruce making the Hulk more controllable?

I have a sinking suspicion that we're not going to get answers to the Hulk questions, particularly once this mini-series within a mini-series dissolves into a Hulk/Iron Man slugfest.  It's a shame, too, because this sort of illogical jumping from one event to another one -- despite little actual connection between the two events -- is exactly the sort of lazy storytelling that can drag down a story.

** (two of five stars)

Original Sin #6 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is the first one in this mini-series where I felt like Aaron was stalling for time.  Stuff happens in this issue, but it doesn't seem to get us any close to where we're going.

The most important development is Nick revealing that he sent the three teams of heroes to find the corpses of his previous vitcims because he wants one of them to succeed him.  I was glad that Aaron answered this question, since I was moderately worried that we'd skip over explaining Nick's motives for sending out the teams in the first place.  Although he doesn't particularly elaborate this point, Nick makes it clear that he wanted everyone there to get a firsth-hand sense of the responsibilities of the job before one of them agrees to take it.  It works from a narrative stand-point, but the fact that we know that Bucky takes over the job admittedly dampens the sense of drama that the moment should otherwise have.

With this loose end tied, the main question at this point is why Fury is so committed to avoiding telling the heroes the truth about the Watcher's murder.  I get that he's essentially on a suicide mission at this point, since it's clear that the failing of the Infinity Formula means that he doesn't have that many days left.  But, his mission is clearly not just designating a replacement.  He apparently also wants to open up the Watcher's eyes to see their secrets.  However, he seems to be jeopardizing that mission by not revealing what he knows about the Watcher, since his three teams and the Avengers are now gunning for him.  Even if he doesn't want to tell them the truth, why not send them on a wild-goose chase, buying him time to open up the eyes?  It seems uncharacteristically straight-forward for Fury.  (Also, I'm having trouble remembering how he wound up having possession of both eyes.  If I remember correctly, he already had one, and Bucky had the other one.  But, how did Bucky get that one?  Was it from the Orb?  Or, did Nick get the Orb's eye?  I can't remember.)

Basically, we need to know who killed the Watcher, why s/he did it, and why Nick Fury wants the eyes' secrets (beyond Nick's obvious love of secrets).  We also have this side of issue of Dr. Midas, Exterminatrix, and the Orb all "evolving," but it's unclear how that development connects to the larger story.  I'm still giving this issue three stars, but it would've been nice to get a little more information here, like we've gotten in the previous issue.

*** (three of five stars)

Original Sin #5.1/Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I've always loved Thor stories, and I have to wonder why I've never really subscribed to any of his various titles.  After reading this issue, I'm particularly confused why I'm not subscribing to "Loki:  Agent of Asgard."  I'm going to have to remedy both those problems shortly.

Obviously, I enjoyed this issue.  Aaron gives us a great plot, Ewing provides an excellent script full of real emotion but also lighter moments, and Garbett manages to capture each character's personality in simply their evocative facial expressions.  Moreover, Bianchi's two-page splash panel showing the grandeur of the Tenth Realm was a brilliant addition.  Strong, strong, strong.

I love the idea that Angela is Thor's sister, because it takes a character awkwardly inserted into the Marvel Universe and really explains it in a way that actually makes sense.  She was unknowingly held captive in a Tenth Realm that Odin removed from the rest of the realms after its leader seemingly killed Angela during a war with Asgard.  We still don't know why the "angels" from this Tenth Realm and Asgard were at war, but Aaron will presumably get there.  But, it all makes sense, like Marvel planned "Original Sin" specifically to bring about this revelation.  It's unusually tight storytelling, and I have to applaud Marvel for how much of All-New Marvel has changed characters' status quo in ways that feel innovative and organic.  The House of Ideas feels on firmer foundation than it has been for a while, and this issue really demonstrates that.

I can't wait to see where we go from here.  The idea that Thor and young Loki have needlessly entered the Tenth Realm (and, presumably, reconnected it to the other realms) is exactly the sort of bone-headed rush into a problem that you expect from Thor.  I can't wait to see what sort of trouble that it invites.  If you decided not to get this series due to your (understandable) Point One exhaustion, change your mind.  

***** (five of five stars)

Original Sin #5 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This book continues to be full of win.  Aaron keeps up the excellent storytelling, answering just enough existing questions to leave us satisfied while introducing enough new ones to keep us engaged.

We learn a lot about Nick Fury here.  At some point, some shadowy group that included Howard Stark offered Nick the job of secretly protecting the world from alien threats.  He accepted, but also kept up his day job at S.H.I.E.L.D.  Given the fact that he's aged, he clearly swapped out his S.H.I.E.L.D. self with a L.M.D. at some point, though it's unclear if he actually controlled said L.M.D (or said army of L.M.D.s, in all likelihood).  A philosophy professor could probably teach an entire class on the question of identity using Nick as a case study.  Aaron implies that Nick might've killed the Watcher in order to hush up his activities (since Uatu was the only one that knew about them), but it seems more likely that the assassin is actually also after Nick.

But, as I said, we still have questions.  First, we don't know why Nick sent the teams to find the "victims" of his activities in the first place.  Couldn't he have just approached them directly about his connection to the Watcher's death, whatever it turns out being?  It seemed like Nick didn't want them to discover that he was behind the murders, but, if that's the case, why send them to find the bodies in the first place?  Also, if Nick didn't kill the Watcher, why would someone want both of them (Uatu and Nick) dead?

The good news is that Aaron delivers all this information -- and raises the new questions -- in an organic way.  It never feels particularly expository, since it makes sense that Nick is telling his story to the assembled heroes.  Moreover, I loved how Aaron uses their responses to Nick's story to show who they are as characters.  Dr. Strange claims that Nick couldn't have committed these "crimes," Emma disagrees with that assessment (without showing any real disapproval), and the Punisher doesn't even see them as crimes in the first place.  Great stuff.

With the announcement that the Winter Soldier is getting a new series to become the Earth's protector, it's pretty clear that he's taking up Nick's role, one that works well for a guy trying to pretend to be dead on Earth.  But, it also leaves open Nick's fate.  With his son working for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Bucky taking over his galactic responsibilities, do we really need Nick Fury anymore?  I guess we'll see.

**** (four of five stars)

Original Sin #3.1/Hulk vs. Iron Man (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I'll admit that I was skeptical about this mini-series within a mini-series.  It seemed clear from the start that they were going to connect Iron Man to the creation of the Hulk, since it's likely the only thing that could really enrage Bruce to the extent that we saw in issue #3.  But, then I saw that Kieron Gillen and Mark Waid were writing the mini-series, and I found myself hopeful.  Then, I thought about it some more and realized that it was probably a good thing if the plot was so obvious to me before I picked up the first issue, since it meant that the story might actually be believable.

The good news is that believable it is.  Tony sabotages Bruce's gamma bomb from a combination of jealousy over someone being possibly as smart as he is and anger over a confrontation they had where Bruce accused him of being a drunk war-monger.  Waid gets the emotions exactly right here, reminding us of the impulsive young man that Tony was during this era.

The only hitch is that I continue to find eye-roll worthy Marvel's recent decision -- mostly in light of the "Avengers" movie -- to make Bruce and Tony long-time "science bros."  It's not really true, and it feels exactly as ridiculous as the introduction of Nick Fury's African-American son.  But, Marvel has been at this game for a while, so I'm not going to hold it against Gillen and Waid.  After all, it's actually more or less believable that Tony would've had knowledge of the creation of the gamma bomb, and the rest is a history that we'll see unfold over the next few issues.  If all these "Original Sin" ret-con stories are as good as this one, I'll be a happy camper.

**** (four of five stars)

Original Sin #4 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This issue is an elaborate ballet of super spies dancing in the shadows, but it all leads us to the same place as we were at the start, with Nick Fury in charge.

Bucky (of course) didn't kill Nick Fury; he killed a LMD version of him, as anyone who's read a Marvel comic in the last 15 years knew from the start.  He took the head to track the signal to the source, because he realized that he was being played.  The Black Panther and Dr. Strange have similar (and simultaneous) epiphanies and similarly trace signals -- magical and technological -- to the hidden space station where we discover that the real -- and older -- Nick Fury is.

The revelation that the real Nick Fury has aged is likely to be the most lasting development coming from this event.  However, other than the interesting existential question of whether LMD Nick Fury was acting independently of real Nick Fury, it doesn't really leave us anywhere all that different.  Cap and the Avengers will be able to continue their investigation without the LMD Nick Fury, and the three teams have gathered the information that they were sent to find.  The only real question is whether the real Nick Fury is the murderer; based on his appearance in the last issue, he's at least the guy in control of the irradiated bullets that someone (possibly him) has been using to be killing monsters, planets, and people.  Of course, if he were the killer, it seems unlikely that he would've sent the teams to gather this information in the first place.

I'm not sure what this revelation means in terms of the second half of this series.  If Fury is the murderer and can justify the killing, the three teams don't really have an action to complete; they'll just know that he's the murderer.  We may get an explanation of why he sent them on their missions, but that seems pretty secondary at this point.  Moreover, even if Cap discovers the real Nick Fury is the murderer, he, too, would likely just hear Fury's justification.  I mean, are they really going to arrest the real Nick Fury for killing the Watcher or some sort of inter-dimension monster?  For those reasons, I'm assuming that Nick isn't the murderer and we'll move into the next stage of the mystery next issue.  Otherwise, I guess Deodata is just going to draw three issues of everyone watching cat videos.  (That would be totally awesome, actually.)

Finally, I have a few small bones to pick with the creative team.  First, Aaron never really tells us how the Black Panther, Bucky, and Dr. Strange realize that they're being played.  They just all magically realize it at one point.  One of the worst pitfalls of these sorts of super-spy stories is that the author goes the route of just making everyone able to see through secrets, despite the fact that we, the reader, haven't seen any evidence that would lead them to these conclusions.  Sherlock Holmes might've made some great leaps, but Arthur Conan Doyle eventually described how he got from Point A to Point B.  Here, we're just supposed to take on faith that the three of them got to Point B for totally believable reasons based on something that they observed, even if we're not privy to the observation.  It's very tell not show.  Second, Aaron has Logan say that he thought that Bucky was dead, but he knew that Bucky was alive; both Hawkeye and Wolverine learned that he's alive in "Winter Soldier" #10.  Bad editor!  Bad!

** (two of five stars)

Original Sin #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

All right, let's get right to the story, shall we?

We've got someone killing cosmic and mythical entities with irradiated bullets.  The Punisher tells Dr. Strange that only ten people could make the shot that killed the creature that they're inspecting, and, as I mentioned in a previous review, several of the people on the mysterious boss' teams are likely candidates.  Not surprisingly, Aaron narrows down the list here to Bucky, seemingly the most obvious candidate from the start.

But, it clearly isn't that simple.  Bucky and his team had just discovered that someone killed a living planet, and he's the one that put the pieces together to make that discovery.  It seems unlikely that he would purposefully reveal the answer to a mystery if it would make him a suspect.  Along those lines, he seemed to be possessed by the point that he goes rogue; Deodata certainly drew him as somewhat deranged when he "kills" Nick Fury at the end of this issue.  Moreover, we actually see the image of the person shooting the planet (though it's unclear from whose perspective we're seeing this image), and it appears to be Star-Lord doing the shooting.  It bolsters the idea that Bucky and possibly Star-Lord were acting under someone's influence when they committed their crimes (if, in fact, they committed them).

Even if they are actually our killers (or part of them), it's unclear who's pulling their strings.  The Orb claims that he didn't kill the Watcher, seemingly establishing that he and Dr. Midas (his employer) got to the Watcher's "mansion" on the Moon after he was killed; they likely just harvested the eye.  We actually see the guilty party here, though he's, of course, cloaked in shadows; we only really learn that he appears to be the head of a larger organization.  We also have no motive.  After all, if the mysterious figure killed the Watcher, why leave behind his eyes, particularly if they can reveal the secret that you killed him to keep hidden?

The only real secrets revealed in this issue are done so thanks to the Orb activating the Watcher's eye.  Marvel is clever in using the eye not only to fuel the various tie-in issues, giving them more of a reason to exist than your usual tie-in issue, but also to show that the chaos coming from these revelations undermine Nick's attempts to get to the truth.  Everyone is busy dealing with their own stuff, and Nick is left to wonder why he himself didn't see anything as he tries to stay on target.  Of course, the fact that Bucky allegedly kills him at the end of this issue will make that a little harder.

I'm generally enjoying this issue, but it's probably time to stop relying on shadowy (literally) figures.  Between the "mysterious boss" and the mysterious villain, it's getting hard to tell who's who.  I don't want to rush the reveal, particularly since Aaron's done a good job answering some questions before raising other ones so far in this series.  But, the story is a little muddled at this point, with everyone's motivations largely unclear.  We'll need a little more clarity soon lest the plot gets too murky to stay in sight.

**** (four of five stars)

Original Sin #2 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Aaron gets right to the point again in this issue, ticking off the answers to a number of mysteries that I feel like we'd usually have to wait issues to see addressed.  In doing so, he introduces a number of new mysteries, making this series generally compelling and not just a series of rehashing the same questions (***cough***"Batman Eternal"***cough***).

We get confirmation that the mysterious figure who assembled the teams of detectives last issue is NOT Nick Fury, raising all sorts of questions about his or her motivations.  We learn that the mysterious figures likely to be the Watcher's murders are Oubliette and the Orb, and we get confirmation that they're not only in charge of the Mindless Ones but likely used them to kill the Watcher.  We also get confirmation that all the Mindless Ones are experiencing the same cognitive awakening that drove the other one to commit suicide last issue.

But, these answers don't really reduce the number of outstanding questions that we have, because Aaron adds layers of mysteries here.  We learn that someone connected to the killers has been killing "giants and monsters" for a long time, both at the center of the Earth and in the dimension "somewhere far beyond the realms of man."  Moreover, we don't really know how this other killer is connected to the Watcher's killers, with the Black Panther simply saying, "The facts will make me certain.  Once we have them."  Also, Oubliette and the Orb are working with an apparently other dimensional Thing, and Oubliette is apparently attached to him.  (Is it her father?)  Plus, the narrative boxes announce that the Orb changed the world when he revealed himself, but he doesn't really seem to have anything.  It's clearly referring to his efforts to open the Watcher's eye to get its secrets, but it's unclear how.

All in all, Aaron is spinning a great detective story, and we're moving at a good clip.  Good stuff.

*** (three of five stars)

Original Sin #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Aaron delivers a strong start to this series by not taking the Hickman approach and making the questions as mysterious as the answers.  Instead, we know exactly what questions we need answered right off the bat:  who killed the Watcher and how did s/t/he/y do it?  By starting this way, Aaron gives this series the feel of a police procedural, putting characters like Nick Fury in the unique position of not knowing the answer to a question before it's even asked.

But, Aaron makes it clear that we questions beyond just the obvious ones.  It's not entirely clear that it's Nick Fury playing the role of the "boss" dispatching the teams of detectives that assemble in this issue.  Moreover, the teams themselves -- Dr. Strange and the Punisher; Ant-Man, Black Panther, and Emma Frost; Gamora, Moon Knight, and the Winter Solider -- are full of people with blood on their hands.  It's even possible that one of them did it.  As Nick Fury says, the list of people who knew the Watcher existed and could find a way to kill him is small.  When you narrow down that list to people who've killed before (per Fury's hypothesis that the killer had done so before, given the cleanness of the murder), you suddenly find yourself with a list of people with some significant overlap with the roster of the detectives.  We also have this "original sin" business, the truth that the "boss" -- be it Fury or someone else -- has been tracking for a long time, establishing a secondary goal for the detectives beyond just finding the murderer.  We're also left wondering why the culprits wanted Uatu's eyes.  Aaron establishes a possible motive, implying that someone might've had to kill Uatu because he saw something that he wasn't supposed to see (again getting to this "sin" idea).

In terms of the art, Deodato and Martin strike exactly the right sort of tone.  I've always been on the fence about Deodato.  Although his dark inks are perfect for this sort of gumshoe tale, they can occasionally make it difficult to follow the action, as I found at times on his run on "New Avengers."  But, Martin counteracts that darkness with some really inspired colors, not only making the action easier to follow but injecting some warmth into the shots.  It's clear that this series is going to be about the relationships between the various heroes, learning each other's secrets while trying to keep their own secrets hidden.  It's why Aaron started the issue with the chummy dinner-club meeting of Black Widow, Captain America, Nick Fury, and Wolverine.  He's reminding us how deep the connections go, and Deodato and Martin together convey that impression of darkness and coziness.

All in all, it's a strong start.  Of course, Marvel often starts strong:  even "Age of Ultron" had me on the edge of my seat in the beginning.  The biggest questions now is whether I'll be as happy at the end.

*** (three of five stars)