Inside ORIGINAL SIN: A Killer Revealed! A Mystery Deepens!

Issue #2 of Marvel’s big event is out and here’s our weekly look at all the rumpus:

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Original Sin #2. Writer Mike Jason Aaron. Artist Mike Deodato. Color Artist Frank Martin. Last issue was all set up, but Issue #2 of Original Sin was all full-speed-ahead, cosmic-mystery-solving at its finest. Every character from Nick Fury to Spider-Man, from Punisher to Dr.Strange has their own distinctive voice. Aaron writes a particularly fabulous Nick Fury and the sequence of Fury fighting a Mindless One in the super spy’s trademark flying car was particularly fun.

The pairing of Frank Castle and Stephen Strange is unexpected and somehow super fun. This is the type of thing Aaron does to keep Original Sin from becoming your typical crossover. I would seriously read a buddy book every month starring these incongruous crusaders.

Speaking of the unexpected, the revelation of who has the Watcher’s eye was stunning to say the least. Aaron pulls out the unexpected, and I won’t spoil it here: Let’s just say don’t expect it to be a villain akin to Thanos or Dr. Doom. It’s the small evils that sometimes leave the greatest impact.

The only problem I had was with the pacing. Nick Fury’s investigation was great, as was the stuff with the Mindless Ones freaking out because they are experiencing the horrors of sentience for the first time. But, there was a great deal of Fury finding something out about the case, saying “get ‘em guys!” and a horde of heroes springing into action without distinction of who is doing what or why. Yeah, this gives Mike Deodato a chance to show off, which is always a pleasure to see, but this sort of thing has become a narrative obstacle for the subgenre of the super-hero crossover — the horde of heroes in cool poses springing into action without rhyme or reason, with no structure or purpose. Just pointing and punching without cluing the reader on who these guys are or what they can do. It’s non-inclusive and becoming wearisome.

What isn’t wearisome is the mystery of Original Sin — we sort of know whodunit but we are waiting for why. As for this issue, it was an entertaining way to get from Point A to Point B — but with some pitfalls into tired crossover tropes.

Grade: B

Author: 13th Dimension

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