The penultimate issue of any series is a bittersweet one. In most cases this is due to it not giving you all the answers (and in some cases no answers), because it has to let the last issue speak for itself. So often these second-to-last stories are filler more than anything. So is this one filler? Is it good?
Original Sin #7 (Marvel Comics)
If you’re just joining us you haven’t missed a lot. This series has been a bit decompressed, especially after issue #2 and can be summed up rather quickly: The Watcher was murdered and an investigation was started with a select crew because, “the Avengers aren’t detectives.” Mmmkay…anyway, The Orb and Dr. Midas are involved, made obvious because they have one of Watcher’s eyeballs. The eyeball contains all the secrets he’s seen and it’s used to kick start the event’s main concept. That being, all the sins of the heroes are now laid bare. That was the good portion of the series. Now it’s all about Nick Fury revealing himself to be some cosmic policeman. A job he’s been doing for decades. He’s got some kind of beef with The Watcher too, but eh, who really cares. Last issue ended with most of the heroes taking on Nick Fury, in all his 80 year old self’s glory, whether he likes it or not.
Hey, you shut up! That’s breaking your one rule!
I can’t help but think this series has morphed from what it was going to be, into whatever this is now. It’s not so much a bad thing now, but it’s certainly not what I signed up for after the first two issues. It appeared to be a big mystery thriller, but now it seems to be more about Nick Fury and his dirty past. I no longer really care who killed The Watcher and I think that’s one of the major failings of this series. That was the driving force in the beginning, but it’s been thrown to the side as we are hammered over the head with Nick Fury stuff.
It’s hammer time!
This issue does give us a sense of what is going on with the Orb and Dr. Midas, although it’s all in flashbacks, so really no meaningful events take place during this issue. No, most of this issue is Nick Fury fighting all the heroes. It’s hard to believe this old man has a space suit capable of taking on every single one of them. A problem with how the fight sequence is rendered becomes apparent rather quickly: He’s knocking them aside like they aren’t skilled at fighting at all. Given, we’ve recently learned Nick is a skilled fighter—he’s basically a cosmic warrior, after all—but how it’s portrayed in this issue is anything but tactical or good. The only real sense of his power comes from a moment where Thor slams his hammer into his glass helmet…and the thing holds up. I guess he’s just retrofitted with the best alien tech ever and that’s how he’s taking on so many heroes at once.
Writer Jason Aaron has some cool moments within so it’s not a complete loss. For instance, Fury simply utters a few whispered words into Thor’s ear and not only takes him out of the fight, but makes him incapable of using his hammer. Now that’s badass. On the flip side of things, there’s no explanation for what is going on with the Orb. He seemingly has cosmic powers now and there’s no explanation. The problem with this issue is that it can be summed up with one sentence. We find out who attacked The Watcher in the first place, not really much of a reveal at all, and Nick Fury beats up the Avengers with ease.
The art is once again dark and moody from Mike Deodato Jr. Not sure it really fits the story anymore though, because his dark shadows are rendered pointless when it’s no longer a mystery. Really what we have is our cliched, “the heroes must fight each other but will soon team up” formula. I can’t help but think his layouts are stretching out the story here. There are many panels that run the entire length of the page that don’t tell us anything new or even look that spectacular. They are there to fill the page because honestly, there isn’t a lot of story to speak of.
Give characters cosmic powers…because plot.
Is It Good?
It is abundantly clear the purpose of this series is to reveal the ultimate sin from Nick Fury and to focus on him. For an event series though, where are all the other characters? The setup seemed to suggest it’d involve many characters, but really this is a solo book about Nick Fury and nobody else. Bah to that.
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