Well, the bad news is that the Watcher is still dead and one of his eyeballs is missing. The good news is that I have coverage of the entire week’s worth of the Original Sin Event from Marvel Comics for you here on Comic Booked. This week we have three comics to review for you, so let’s get started.
Reviews
Fantastic Four #6 – James Robinson continues the story of the Fantastic Four as their lives slowly collapse around them. Last issue, with the fallout from lawsuits and investigations, the children of the Future Foundation were taken out of the care of Reed and Sue, having been proved unfit guardians. This is a devastating blow to Marvel’s first family, who have always prided themselves on their parenting… even if it was a little on the unconventional side. Add to that the fact that Johnny has lost his ability to flame on and that Ben Grimm now feels like he is losing the only family he knows. It is a dark day for the Fantastic Four. Upon returning to the Baxter Building, Reed, Sue, and Johnny just want to get some sleep. The Avengers meet them and tell them they are now not allowed to enter the building instead of just being blocked from certain floors. Let’s just say that Sue, having already had a really bad day, does not take this very well. Meanwhile, the kids have been relocated to Camp Hammond. They are distraught because they have been told that Dragon Man was to be turned off permanently, the same as murder for an android. Two days later, Ben shows up on Johnny’s doorstep and accuses him of lying. We then enter a really cool flashback from the team of Dean Haspiel and Nolan Woodard that has a great classic FF look to it. In this we see Reed attempting to undo the mutation caused by the cosmic rays in order to return Ben to his loveable self. Things don’t go exactly as planned. Stay tuned to find out what happened and what the secret was that was revealed to the Thing when the Watcher’s eye exploded.
Original Sin #3.1 or Original Sin: Hulk vs. Iron Man #1 – This was a weirdly titled comic book, but you get the gist of it. Mark Waid and Kieron Gillen start us right off with a kick in the pants fight between Hulk and Iron Man that turns out a little differently than you expect, even with Iron Man and his Hulkbuster weapons. Enter the flashback. The one thing that Original Sin seems bent on doing is offering us some alternative history to what we thought we knew about the Marvel Universe. Maybe we can just say, “Oh, well, this is the All-New Marvel NOW!” Anyway, this flashback shows us a time where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner were lab buddies, working together to create cool sciency stuff. This was just to set the stage for why Tony would get involved in trying to help current brain-damaged Banner. Arno, Tony’s recently uncovered brother, created an experimental cure using Extremis. The cure worked, maybe better than anyone could have hoped, and now Banner was creating things left and right. Things seemed to be going fine right up until “Exploding Eyeball Day”, where the Watcher’s eye spewed forth its chunky goodness of secrets onto all present. Bruce’s memories were shared and scrambled up with Tony’s and they both remembered something that had happened right before the gamma bomb test. Banner pitches the results of his work and talks about the upcoming test, but all General Ross wants is results. Tony Stark comes in and gives his evaluation, stating that Banner was deliberately limiting the bomb. Banner stated he was just trying to further gamma research and the bomb would perform as expected. As Stark wakes up in the now, he realizes that if his memories were shared with Banner, then they both now know that Tony made changes to the gamma bomb that may have caused the creation of the Hulk.
Original Sins #2 – I see this as the companion book to the Original Sin storyline, detailing more of the minor characters, but also acting as the launching point for new series coming soon from Marvel, as with last issue’s Deathlok story. The first story this issue focuses on the Black Knight. The story of the Ebony Blade is that every Black Knight who has wielded it has succumbed to the addiction of the blade and eventually died by it. Everyone except Dane Whitman. Not to say he is not suffering because of it, but maybe he has his reasons. Does this mean there will be a new Black Knight series from Marvel? That would be cool. The second story is continuing the adventures of the Young Avengers as they confront the Hood. It’s been a while since I had seen the Hood, a two bit thug who stumbled on a demonic ritual and shot the demon in the face thus being able to steal his hooded cloak and boots. They have all kinds of powers, one of them being able to turn him invisible, but only when he holds his breath. Turns out the Hood was actually trying to do something semi-good by protecting his addict brother and other people who had been living in an abandoned building. They had all been effected by the knowledge bomb and their minds were full of secrets. Now, the Hood wants to use Prodigy to create a Cerebro to read all their minds. The last two pages are a short story of Howard the Duck, “the greatest example of wasted potential in the known galaxy.”
Great stuff this week, but still no clues about who really killed the Watcher. Well, some clues, but not quite enough to piece it all together yet. Be sure to come back next week for our continuing coverage of the Original Sin Event from Marvel Comics.
i really need to get fantastic four back on my list. i love robinson and he seems like a perfect fit for the team.