The Four Color Media Monitor

The AP/Indiana Gazette's fawned sensationally over Marvel's latest crossover called Original Sin, which sounds all too reminiscent of DC's Identity Crisis:

There’s a murderer at large in the Marvel Universe and it’s not the killing that has heroes in an uproar.

Seriously? They care less about who killed Uatu than about the closet skeletons the miniseries will focus on?

The death of Uatu the Watcher, long a sentinel soaking up every event that has happened — big and small — has heroes such as Nick Fury, Black Widow, Thor and more seeking his killer but also striving to find out who has his secrets and how they can be kept from exploding into public view for all to see.

That's what worries them, and not whether this killer they're looking for will repeat the offense? The worst part is, what if it turns out to be one of the goodies, and a supporting cast member? After all the horrors Identity Crisis beat readers over the head with, we can't put it past Marvel to do the same, and yet, even if it is a villain who committed the crime, that doesn't mean this isn't already a travesty.

Editor-in-chief Axel Alonso says “Original Sin,” which begins with a zero issue in April written by Mark Waid and drawn by Jim Cheung, is a “murder mystery” spanning from near and far, with many suspects and so many secrets. That will be followed by an eight-issue limited series in May penned by Jason Aaron and illustrated by Mike Deodato Jr.

“It’s a whodunit with lots of action,” Alonso said.

Does that action include jarring violence like punching a woman in the tummy and causing her to vomit, like Deathstroke did to Zatanna in IC, one of the most nasty, disgusting moments in that miniseries? That may not happen here, but Waid as a writer does raise my eyebrows, since he went along pretty cooperatively with DC's handling of their miniseries, having taken up a writing job on one of the followups - the 52 maxi-series from 2006 - and his assignment here might have something to do with it.

At the center of the event is the death of Uatu the Watcher, a cosmic figure who observes the earth, its trials, tribulations and victories.

With a vow of never interfering — broken only to signify a story is really important — he has collected information on everyone, good and bad, for as long as Marvel’s heroes have been righting wrongs and avenging the downtrodden.

“This is basically a crime story. A murder mystery. A manhunt. But with the entirety of the Marvel Universe as its backdrop,” Aaron said in a statement.

“We’re taking all the toys out of their packaging for this one. Everyone and everything is in play.

“For some characters, life will never be the same again.

“And it’s only a matter of time before more bodies are popping up.”

One more reason I'll have nothing to do with this monstrosity. Identity Crisis has had the effect of making me dislike murder mysteries, and maybe the whole mystery genre along with it. Original Sin gives me no reason to revise my opinion. And where have I heard that line "never be the same again" before?

The Watcher’s death, Alonso said, is the impetus for the story.

“The Watcher is an eternal figure who is very familiar to Marvel fans, new and old, but, beyond that, really what is relevant is that his death is the inciting incident for our story,” he said. “Once this eternal figure is dead, the secrets of the Marvel Universe, what he’s seen, are loose, are in the air.”

Why not just do a story where somebody breaks into Uatu's computer files and robs all the closet skeletons, and he asks the superheroes to get them back? We've long come to the point where only the death a supposedly worthless character matters, not whether they could develop him/her into something more useful. These deaths are another grave problem: what follows in their wake is truly awful.

And that has everyone mindful of things said, and unsaid, and will leave some classic friendships in ruins, destroy long-standing partnerships and drive new wedges between old teammates, too.

“You’ll see original sins that link characters, their faters intertwined in ways they never knew,” Alonso said of the story event that will branch into core titles over the course of the story’s run. “Some relationships will be changed irrevocably. There’ll be no going back.”

Not with Alonso around, that's for sure. Not unless the Marvel book publishing arm could be purchased by a better business outfit. It's very much like Identity Crisis, which had and led to similar situations with heroes clashing with each other over contrived situations, and ongoing series get a wrench thrown into their already stagnant flow for the sake of a crossover. And the sensationalistic mainstream news coverage it gets is very similar to what IC had a decade ago too.

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, golden calf of death, marvel comics, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, Nick Fury, violence