Original Sin Companion

Original Sin

by Jason Aaron, Al Ewing, Brian Michael Bendis

The shockwaves from the release of the Watcher's secrets are felt across the Marvel Universe! The Avengers face their future as the Invaders struggle with their past! Deadpool has a daughter! Luke Cage investigates the Mighty Avengers from 1972! Learn truths about Nova's father and Daredevil's mother! How is Iron Man connected to the Hulk's origin? How is Angela connected to Thor and Loki? Can the Thing handle the truth about the Human Torch? Can Spider-Man cope with Silk? And could Professor X's will destroy the X-Men?

COLLECTING: Avengers 29-34, Deadpool 29-34, Mighty Avengers 10-12, All -New Invaders 6-7, Nova 18-20, Original Sin 3.1-3.4, Original Sin 5.1-5.5, Fantastic Four 6-8, Daredevil 6-7, Amazing Spider-Man 4-6, Uncanny X-Men 23-25, Guardians of the Galaxy 18-20, Original Sin: S cret Avengers Inf nite Comic 1-2

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Fiction

968 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2015

About the author

Jason Aaron grew up in a small town in Alabama. His cousin, Gustav Hasford, who wrote the semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers, on which the feature film Full Metal Jacket was based, was a large influence on Aaron. Aaron decided he wanted to write comics as a child, and though his father was skeptical when Aaron informed him of this aspiration, his mother took Aaron to drug stores, where he would purchase books from spinner racks, some of which he still owns today.

Aaron's career in comics began in 2001 when he won a Marvel Comics talent search contest with an eight-page Wolverine back-up story script. The story, which was published in Wolverine #175 (June 2002), gave him the opportunity to pitch subsequent ideas to editors.

In 2006, Aaron made a blind submission to DC/Vertigo, who published his first major work, the Vietnam War story The Other Side which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Miniseries, and which Aaron regards as the "second time" he broke into the industry.

Following this, Vertigo asked him to pitch other ideas, which led to the series Scalped, a creator-owned series set on the fictional Prairie Rose Indian Reservation and published by DC/Vertigo.

In 2007, Aaron wrote Ripclaw: Pilot Season for Top Cow Productions. Later that year, Marvel editor Axel Alonso, who was impressed by The Other Side and Scalped, hired Aaron to write issues of Wolverine, Black Panther and eventually, an extended run on Ghost Rider that began in April 2008. His continued work on Black Panther also included a tie-in to the company-wide crossover storyline along with a "Secret Invasion" with David Lapham in 2009.

In January 2008, he signed an exclusive contract with Marvel, though it would not affect his work on Scalped. Later that July, he wrote the Penguin issue of The Joker's Asylum.

After a 4-issue stint on Wolverine in 2007, Aaron returned to the character with the ongoing series Wolverine: Weapon X, launched to coincide with the feature film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Aaron commented, "With Wolverine: Weapon X we'll be trying to mix things up like that from arc to arc, so the first arc is a typical sort of black ops story but the second arc will jump right into the middle of a completely different genre," In 2010, the series was relaunched once again as simply Wolverine. He followed this with his current run on Thor: God of Thunder.

Reviews

[J'aime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the murder mystery of the Original Sin event, but it was the consequences of the secret revelations that I was most eager for. This Companion is huge – nearly 1000 pages and has stories across a dozen+ different series. As is usually the case with such a large collection, some stories were excellent, some mediocre and some…ugh.

One issue I had with the entire volume was that though the secrets caused fights/discord, it was usually resolved when the “whole story” came out. When Orb detonates the Watcher’s eye, secrets are revealed to everyone but most only get the beginning of the memory. I felt this was a bit of a copout, but not so much that I didn’t enjoy the stories.

I think the best stories were the ones that didn’t involve the main Avengers team: like Deadpool, Nova and Blade/Luke Cage/Blue Marvel. These tales had consequences that were not immediately resolved and big emotional stakes. Daredevil was especially good for once again showing him using strategy over his "powers." Even heroes I wasn’t familiar with, like Radiance, had good stories that kept me engaged. Of the core group - Thor’s tale was the best. It introduced a new Realm and had revelations concerning Angela. And any tale with Loki is always entertaining! The rest of the best known heroes were meh. The reading of Xavier’s will was hugely anticlimactic – Xavier is dead, but still had a “sin” to reveal. The X-Men bicker about it. Cap’s secret tied directly into the Avengers’ Incursion arc, which I thought horrifically boring and his time travel road trip didn't change that. Hickman takes technobabble to a whole new level. Bruce and Tony’s sin amounted to a weak retcon. Not bad stories, just not equal to the heroes involved.

Overall, this is a solid collection with some real gems and just a few clunkers. It’s an excellent value for the price considering the sheer amount of material (most of it very good) and the gorgeous production - sewn binding, full color wrap-around covers and dust jacket. Highly recommended.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun collection to read, overall. Some of the artwork was solid, some of it was mediocre, and some of it was not to my taste. It is supposed to involve several of the primary characters and some side characters who may or may not have been involved in Original Sin miniseries. It was “funny” how frustrated I became while reading it, on the one hand. This is because of how, after each “sin” was revealed and resolved, the “arc” ends on a “cliffhanger” - so I have to go and find the subsequent issues if I want to find out how those arcs end, hahahah.

It is funny - the “sins” committed are more like “clickbait” than actual “sins”, but it worked as it got me to buy this companion (for a far less price than it would have cost me to buy all of the individual titles that tie into the series). The “sins” are more “misunderstandings” than “sins” as most of the memories tend not to be an actual memory of the person “seeing” this memory for the first time but the memory of somebody else taken out of context. So, obviously, there are going to be be misunderstandings until each hero begins his or her search for answers and discovers “the truth” behind each “sin” and realizes what each person thought was a “sin” was not truly a “sin” (well, not everybody, but most of them).

A breakdown of each “story” in this collection:
Nova’s story - I enjoyed this story more than I hoped to. I’m not familiar with this character, being more familiar with Richard Rider as Nova. I enjoyed his teaming up with Rocket Racoon to find out the truth about his father, if his father truly murdered another Nova officer. The artwork is not the best, in my opinion, but I still enjoyed the story and how Nova used the computer at the bunker to find out the “truth” behind his father stored in the personnel files at this site. It was also fun to see Cosmo and his interactions with Rocket and this “new” Nova. Now I want to pick this series up to find out if he rescues his father or not.

Deadpool - I have never been a huge fan of Deadpool, to be honest, so I could have taken or left this story. It involves time travel and has a beautiful cover of Dazzler for one of the issues. This story is super dark and pretty horrific, as some villain tests how much Deadpool remembers by having Deadpool murder his own parents. The thing is - Deadpool seems to clearly remember something about this house as he is shown stopping and remembering things - like an extra key for the house hidden under the front doormat, his pulling out a baseball glove and looking at it, and looking at items around the house, before he burns the house down. Hopefully, it turns out later that he didn’t really kill his parents, but that is what it is made to look like. Not only that, but Sabertooth is strangely reticent about Deadpool killing his own parents. I thought that was somewhat out of character for him. Then there is the whole sidestory of the Flagsmashers (not following Deadpool, I have no idea why they’d be after him), the various vampire nests, and Deadpool having a daughter given up for adoption. There was a lot going on and the “original sin” aspect of the story felt shoehorned into the miniseries event. I will say this - I “loved” how Deadpool swapped uniforms with one of the dead Flagsmashers - I did think that was clever and well done, to be honest. I truly did not see that one coming.

Mighty Avengers - to be honest, I was not really reading comics during the time this miniseries came out, so I was not aware of a team of “Mighty Avengers” fighting the good fight and being led by a character known as “the Blue Marvel.” That being the case, I could have taken it or left it, except for the times involved. The story involving Luke Cage’s father takes place in 1972 when his dad was twenty-six years old, yet Luke Cage’s introduction as “Power Man” and an escaped convict started in 1974. Soooo . . . . how old was Luke’s father when he supposedly got Luke’s mom pregnant? Luke is clearly in his 20s when his series starts in 1974. I did enjoy some of the “one-liners” (taglines?) in issue #10 (like how you can “never unsee a baby Modok”) and the artwork during the fight in NYC, but I was fairly ambivalent about everything else. It was an interesting retcon in how it provided a look into Luke’s father’s life as a police officer, The Bear was an interesting character, and it was amusing how often Greg Land uses the same poses for the characters he draws (especially the women) (but I still love his work). Also, it was “stupid funny” how Luke’s father chastises Luke for using foul language, and then Luke’s father turns around and uses foul language himself.

Uncanny X-Men - this was after the stupid “AvX” series and Scott Summers killed Xavier (too bad Xavier didn’t stay dead!). Xavier’s last will and testament is to be read, and all of the X-Men listed in the will have to be present for it to be read. Xaverier’s sin is that after he discovered a mutant who can destroy reality, Xavier attempted to do to this mutant what he did to Jean Grey - he attempted to put psionic shields around Michael Mallory to prevent him from destroying reality. However, the shields and everything eventually fail, and Michael is once again accidentally killing people and destroying reality whenever he gets emotional. It was interesting to see the animosity between the two different groups of X-Men as well as the anger and animosity at what Xavier did (his justification being that he was not going to allow the fears of “normal” humans be realized and justified because of what Michael Mallory was capable of). He asks a team of X-Men to go and take care of the mess Xavier created before the rest of the will can be read. Now, as bad as the artwork is, there are some choice lines in these issues. When Scott wonders aloud of he should go after Dazzler and speak with her, both Emma Frost and Illyana Rasputin say “NO” at the same time. The students Scott leaves behind to attend the reading “joke” about repopulating the mutant race through procreation was pretty hysterical. Bobby warning Scott that if Scott shoots him again with his eyebeams, Bobby will freeze Scott’s colon for starters. Then there is Logan how comments on how he wants somebody to acknowledge how well he is behaving (especially in light of how poorly Scott is behaving). This one’s cliffhanger really bugged me the most, to be honest, hahahah. I was “You did not just do that to me! I can’t believe it!”

All New Invaders - I was ambivalent about this one. I had never heard of “Radiance” before these issues, and I do not think I have heard about her since. Still, though, she looked and sounded like a pretty cool character I wouldn’t mind seeing more of and learning more about. I think these kinds of arguments are silly and non-productive, though, when it comes to “should the atomic bombs have been dropped or not” - it is easy to be an armchair general looking back and second-guessing those who had to make hard decisions in the moment. In any case, it was an okay story; the artwork was excellent, and I enjoyed the shot of Supreme Radiant Friend and Jim Hammond fighting the kaiju. That was pretty cool. I was surprised to see this story took place after the original Cap and Bucky had been lost and presumed dead; this story featured their first replacements. Granted, I find it hard to believe that Golden Girl was truly stronger than Namor and could have fought him to a standstill like she does in these two issues; that kind of retconning is super annoying, unnecessary, and takes away from the all characters involved because of how demanding it is. It was cool to see Jim Hammond “alive and well” and in the thick of things, so to speak. I enjoyed his character in the original Invaders series as well as his later appearances in the West Coast Avengers and the second Heroes for Hire series, so it was good to see him again in these two issues. Hopefully they bring Supreme Radiant Friend in a future issue; it would be interesting and fun to see her actually in action and teaming up with other heroes or working alone as necessary. In any case, it was an interesting perspective to have this Japanese-American visiting NYC when the Orb set off the Watcher’s eye and her experiencing part of her grandmother’s memories.

Fantastic Four - I had actually read these issues in a separate compilation; I could actually see Johnny doing something that stupid to one of Reed’s experiments and it adversely impacting Ben like it did. Sue was awesome to behold in the issue where she exploded in anger and nearly took out the other heroes opposing them. On the one hand, it was kind of stupid to me that the FF had their children taken away. It had already been proven previously that the safest place for the FF’s children was in their custody - I don’t remember what happened prior to these issues to have the government make what seems to me to have been a stupid decision. I wish I could remember how the issue with Ben being accused of murder is resolved - another “cliffhanger” if I decide to pursue reading it. I had forgotten the team switched to red uniforms for a bit, and Sue looked good in red. Still, though, I was not a huge fan of the artwork in this story (although I did appreciate the attempted “retro look” of the artwork from the time period when this test of Reed’s would have taken place). I prefer the artwork from the “modern period” more than the retro look; the retro look was a little distracting for me.

Daredevil was an interesting story, I guess. The best line of that story had to be DD “mocking” Maria Hill asking “:are you sure you want to do this?” to a blind mind as he jumped out of a perfectly good airplane at 10,000 feet wearing a parachute into an African jungle. It was amusing to me that he was able to survive the Wakandan forces for as long as he did, as it seemed to be a bit of “plot armor” to me because of how “superior” the Wakandan forces tend to be presented in different issues. I also liked Matt’s line how he was going to lawyer his mother out of “prison” and obtain her freedom. I also enjoyed Shuri saying she did not want American military forces to find her standing over a dead American nun. Matt did have a solid plan, though, in blackmailing the Wakandans as well as the forces in the American government trying to get around the law to have illegal experiments performed. Granted, it was crazy that Matt kidnapped the American general and brought him to Wakanda with him, letting the general land in a box dropped by parachute into the jungle. Would have been a shame if the general’s chute hadn’t opened, would it? In any case, the “sin” in this case was easily explained away as Matt misunderstanding what he was seeing in what I assume was his mother’s eyes (as the Watcher should have clearly seen that Maggie slipped and feel, that Matt’s father never struck Matt’s mother). The artwork was a mixed bag for me; some if it I liked and some was okay, but overall it did not detract from the story.

Amazing Spider-Man - those were some interesting issues. These issues take place after Doc Ock has relinquished control of Spider-Man’s mind and body back to Peter, and now Peter has to rebuild his life and repair damaged friendships and relationships. In these issues, it is revealed that another student was bitten by the same spider that bit Peter, but Cindy Moon was locked away for years to prevent Morlun from killing her. Ezekiel Sims trained her to use her powers for six years, which helps explain why her reflexes are faster than his and her “spider sense” is much more sensitive than Peter’s. I can see why she is a beloved character with her introduction and how cool she is, how smart, strong, and powerful she is. I think her addition to the Marvel U is a great retcon and one of the better changes made during and after this “event” (granted, it was weird how her clothing kept disappearing every time she webbed herself up to “put on her costume” in these issues). The “sexual tension” between Peter and Cindy was a bit of a surprise as well; I am not sure how I feel about that or how well it played into the overall story arc. I also liked that Peter was trying to “find” a cure for Electro and restore his humanity. That was pretty cool. The artwork is so-so; it has moments of coolness but overall I was not a big fan of it. Jameson blowing his chance to reveal the identity of Spider-Man to the world was hilarious; still, though, I was surprised he did not look at Spider-Man’s face to see who Spider-Man is.

Hulk vs. Iron Man was one of the better story arcs in my opinion. It reveals the “friendship” between Bruce and Tony from their college days. It was also interesting that not only did Tony mess with Bruce’s bomb but he altered it so that it would be less powerful and not more powerful (and thereby kill everybody in the area). It was interesting how Bruce used Extremis to up the Hulk’s intelligence and made the Hulk a genius; probably the only reason why Tony survived. I also enjoyed the artwork in this story arc (as well as the alternate cover for issue #1). I know it’s not a huge retcon, but I still enjoyed it. It’s also interesting that Bruce still ends up being responsible for what happened to him, and yet Tony protected Bruce by not telling Bruce the entire truth - that had Bruce read Tony’s letter, he might have double-checked the bomb and altered it again, thereby ensuring the Hulk never existed. Tony’s calling out to Banner “to try Thor. I hear he’s the strongest there is” followed by Bruce’s “careful” was pretty hilarious to me, and nicely played. Also, Hulk saying “Hulk got you smashed” was funny, too (considering the context).

I had mixed feelings about the Thor & Loki storyline. Perhaps if the author had chosen something other than calling the tenth realm “Heven” and the inhabitants “Angels”. It did not sit well with me. The artwork was decent. It was good to see Loki setting up the forces of Heven to lose like he did (or, should I say, “she” did) (where “she” convinces the head of the Angels to give Loki an invasion force, and Loki then convinces the invasion force to destroy itself ramming into Asgard’s defenses).. It was also interesting to see Thor bide his time like he did - getting his teeth kicked in, so to speak, to the point where he had the “hosts of Heven” right where he wanted them and then brought the rain of his wrath upon this realm. Loki finds Odin where Odin has imprisoned himself to keep Cul imprisoned as well, and when Odin arrives he recognizes Angela is his first born, Thor’s older sister and the daughter he thought he lost so many eons ago. It was an okay story; it had its ups-and-downs for me, and I really was not a big fan of Thor getting his teeth kicked in like he did, but that could have merely been his plan to get what he wanted in the end (i.e. - information about his sister and whether or not she was truly dead or alive). It was harsh how Angela was treated by her sisters, being “cast out of Heven” like she was (sounding similar-but-different to another being who was cast out of Heaven for his open rebellion; the key difference being Angela was not being rebellious). Despite my misgivings, it was still one of the better stories in the compilation, to be honest.

I had read the Guardians of the Galaxy issues in a prior compilation, so this arc was not a big surprise to me. I still am not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. It was okay. The artwork was solid. It explained how Drax, Thanos, and Quill ended up back in the 616 universe without Richard Rider. I felt bad for Gamora; she had come to love Richard and learned he loved her deeply as well only to sacrifice his life to save their universe. It’s a shame the Cancerverse could not be destroyed during one of the incursion events that occurred with increasing regularity in the Avengers series during this time.

The run of Avengers issues was . . . meh for me. While I don’t know what it would be like to make a decision to destroy another planet to save my own, Cap really comes across as an arrogant @$$ again in these issues (just like he did in the first Civil War event). I know Tony is portrayed as being “the villain”, the “bad guy”, but Cap is a complete and utter jerk in my opinion as well. Overall, I did like the artwork in most of this story arc; I think Lienil Francis Yu has come a long way since he started working with Brian Bendis on Bendis’s Avengers run and Secret Invasion. It is always a struggle to write about and present future histories and the advanced societies that may or may not come into existence; these futures were pretty hit-and-miss for me. However, I do not believe Steve could have broken free like he did in one of the “final futures”. It was also funny to me how characters from prior futures were giving Steve the means “to defeat” future futures when it really made no sense that these past beings/entities knew how to defeat the future societies/civilizations (unless it was one of the two Kangs or Immortus who was providing the information in the past). Marvel should do a “What if” issue in which Steve Rogers has to figure out how to stop an incursion event on his own - he’d die a pretty quick death and two universes in the process as the two earths collided. Too, it felt like Marvel ripped off DC “again” with the “incursion events” and Stephen Strange wiping Captain America’s mind like he did (a la Infinite Crises on Infinite Earths and Dr. Light having his memory wiped in Identity Crisis. In any case, I was both entertained and ambivalent about these issues, which made it interesting reading for me, hahahah.

Part of me wanted to reread the miniseries again itself, considering how long it has been since I last read it. However, it really was not necessary to enjoy this compilation, and I am glad I finally got around to reading it.

[Jamahl Bennier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an epic read. Almost 1000 pages, of many different short stories. All secrets revealed by the Watcher's eye. Some stories were awesome, while others lacked the 'wow'. Over all, impressed by the content.

[JohnIV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great supplementary collection of this Original Sin crossover event.
Had this sitting on my OHC shelf unread for about four years, laugh. Finished Original Sin and moved on to this to wrap it up. Some great stories and art to be had. Of the collection I liked Spider-Man meeting Silk, Thor and Loki heading to Heven to collect Angela, and the weird and wild time spanning Avengers yarn at the end... as Cap said, shades of H. G. Wells. Construction and binding were very good as was the paper quality. Recommended! (j4.)

[Brad Parsons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this event in the suggested order and it was good. I'm glad I invested in the Companion book. I want to read the GOTG Run and the Uncanny X-Men run from 2013 now.
The binding of this started to come undone, so be extra gentle with it. I've read others say this was a problem with their copy too.
The art is good, but the story was a little let down, it could have been so much more. It came down to the secrets weren't that impactful.

[boofykins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original Sin: Companion collects all the tie-ins from the main event. All the arcs collected in this massive volume are spin-offs so they aren’t necessary for reading Original Sin, but they do provide context for understanding exactly what happened and what the repercussions are. This is a pretty fantastic collection of Marvel arcs across several titles, if you ask me.

[Will Fenton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot, even if not everything was essential.