Original Sin Event Coverage: July 9, 2014

Thanks for checking out Comic Booked coverage of Marvel’s Original Sin Summer event. This week was a big week. Five books were released for this massive Marvel crossover.

What we know so far: The Watcher is dead, killed in his home on the Moon. His killer is yet to be found, but the Orb was found holding one of his eyes in New York City and it exploded, scattering secrets across the people gathered there. Now we have many heroes who know things that are changing their very perception of reality.Also, someone has been killing beings from all planes of existence and it turned out to be an aged Nick Fury, who had taken the job of protecting mankind through stopping problems before they became threats.

Let’s continue our exploration of the Original Sins of the Marvel Universe.

Reviews

Original Sins #3 – This has been a very interesting book, as it is made up of different stories from various characters in the Marvel U. Previous issues have included stories about the Black Knight, Deathlok, and the Young Avengers. In the first story of this issue, we see Lineage, one of the new Inhumans. His power is to manifest the faces of those ancestors who had died and be able to talk to them. This means that he has information that other people would never have and, in his words, “knowledge is power.” We find out one big secret in this story, that Black Bolt is alive and started a war with the Kree. Not that they didn’t deserve it, since they continue to experiment on different races, killing some and irrevocably changing others. In the second half of this comic, we continue following the Young Avengers as they are talking with the Hood. In the end, he convinces Prodigy to build a Cerebro-like machine to help extract the information from the heads of the people in the building who were effected when the eyeball bomb exploded. The final secret of this issue is a dark one that Jonah Jameson has kept buried for many years. Rating: 3.5/5

Deadpool#31 – This is really a great issue. Agent Preston found Deadpool’s daughter, Ellie, in Winnetka, Illinois. She is living with Butler’s estranged brother who has raised her as his own child. As Preston tries the legal method of taking care of business, some other guys decide to take things into their own hands. An army of mercenaries in white outfits, masks, and black berets show up to kidnap Ellie and get their butts handed to them by Preston going full-on robot mode. The fight is bloody, but she really needs some backup. Deadpool, still in New York and killing vampires with Dazzler from the past, finally gets Preston’s texts and takes off to try to find help. No one is around, except Thor who agrees to send Deadpool to find his daughter. There are a lot of jokes, as usual, and a lot of blood and guts, as usual, but this is a solid Deadpool tale and really moves the plot along closer and closer to Deadpool being united with the daughter he never knew he had. Rating: 4.5/5

Original Sin #5.1 – Thor & Loki: The Tenth Realm #1 – Jason Aaron brings us to a point I have been waiting for since Angela first came on the scene several months ago in Guardians of the Galaxy. The secret that Thor learned from the Watcher’s eye is that there is, or was, a tenth realm and that he had a sister. Freyja tells him the truth, that there was a war with the angels in that tenth realm and they took their daughter and killed her in front of Odin and Freyja. Odin, in his rage, used his power to seal the tenth realm and remove it from Yggdrasil. Loki had an inkling about this because of a map that he had seen. Thor and Loki head off on Thor’s goat-wagon and find the scar in space. With their power, they open the seal and head off to find their sister. We, at least those of us reading Guardians of the Galaxy, already know that Angela has crossed into our universe and is currently traveling with the motley band of space rebels. This should be an interesting story as the older version of Loki has his own agenda, wanting to see his own future come to pass, so let’s see where this one takes us. Rating: 4.5/5

Fantastic Four #7 – Currently, this is one of the saddest books in the Marvel Universe. Every time I read it I choke up. This series has truly brought the mighty First Family of Marvel down to rock bottom. Johnny is powerless, Sue and Reed have lost the children to the government that sees them as unfit guardians, and Ben Grimm learned a secret. The secret is that Johnny tampered, albeit unwittingly, with a device that Reed had created to cure Ben back in the early days after their transformation. Although Ben accepts that he is the Thing and has done a lot of good, he is still burdened with the regret of all those years that he could have been “normal”. After un-friending Johnny, the Thing goes to a local bar to drown his sorrows. A text from Alicia pulls him out of his funk and he shifts to full protection mode. He races to save her from her stepfather, the Puppet Master. On the way, he calls Reed for help, but what Reed finds when he gets there is a scene that is truly hard to believe. Just when I think this is as bad as it can get, something else happens to make it worse. Rating: 4/5

Avengers #32 – This has been a tough storyline. All the time hopping has become part and parcel in the current Marvel Universe, but the conflict between Captain America and Iron Man and the rest of the Illuminati has become something of a monster as Steve has awakened to the tampering that went on when Doctor Strange erased certain of his memories to cover up what he had done in the name of saving the world from the incursions that have been happening. Alternate dimensions have been passing into ours and the only way to deal with it has been to destroy the other worlds. Now, with all the Infinity Gems shattered, the Avengers are being hurtled through time from the effects of the Time Gem. Their latest trip plunges them 5,045 years into the future where we find Black Widow, Captain America, and Starbrand in a beautiful garden. At least it seems we will finally get answers, or the promise of them in the form or Franklin Richards, adult Franklin, a man who says he can never die. The tale told by Franklin is one of the inevitability of fate and that, basically, because of who Steve Rogers is, the future will happen. We even get to see future Groot. In  the end, another hop will leave Cap all alone 51,000 years in the future. Rating: 4/5

Digest that, baby. There was so much happening this week, so many threads have been let out, so many branches to this maze. We must keep running. there must be cheese at the end! Please come back next week for another installment and click here if you need to catch up. Thanks for being Comic Booked.