News: "Original Sin" - Marvel's Next Event

 Frontline News Coverage: 
"Original Sin" Marvel's Next Event - Everything You Need To Know.

By Brian Howard



This event has the makings to be a great jumping on point for new readers who haven't read a comics event before. This article is an up to date compilation of information on the series, its background and what sets it apart from other events of the past.

Many people complain that there are too many company-wide crossover events and that they, as readers, suffer from event fatigue. Inevitably, each event is pitched as, "things will never be the same, ramifications for years to come etc etc."  To a small degree this is true. Mostly however, the effects last for a year or two at the most before almost everything returns to the status-quo.  

So, what makes Marvel's next event 'Original Sin' stand out from the rest? Well, it is not being billed as an end of the world event. Simply put, this is a murder mystery in which everyone in the Marvel Universe is a suspect. A whodunit tale that begins with the death of Uatu, The Watcher. 

The crime scene: Who killed Uatu

Who is the Watcher? A Brief History
For those of you who do not know Uatu...He is a member of the Watchers, which are a extraterrestrial species who are sent throughout space to observe the actions and histories of species throughout their history and existence. Uatu is the one who was sent to Earth to monitor it and our solar system. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he first appeared in Fantastic Four #13 back in 1963. Uatu has been a witness to everything that has ever happened on Earth from his post on the moon. At times, he has broken his vow of non-action to assist heroes during a hopeless struggle. So, it always went without saying that if he shows up, then there is something big that is going to happen and it usually isn't something good. 

"Original Sin" Plot
Uatu's murder is a big deal for many reasons. First and foremost, who would want the The Watcher dead and why? From what we know so far, there is a clear motive. Apparently, the eyes of a Watcher are like a hard-drive and store all the information that he has taken in. The killer removes the Watchers eyes for this reason. Now, the killer not only possesses the history of Earth's events but also every single secret anyone has ever had no matter how large are small. You can imagine what chaos might ensue if suddenly every secret in the universe suddenly became public information. Just imagine in your own life what you might learn about those around you as well as what they would discover about you. It would be chaos. This is an NSA leak on a superhero scale. Secrets: like the locations of hidden artifacts and weapons of great power, secret identities, magical and technological secrets.....all the way down to and including betrayals. (example: The New Avengers mind wiping Captain America after he had moral objections to their plans. Cap might not think very kindly about that revelation).

But, as to who would commit this crime, well that's the fun of a murder mystery and everyone is a suspect. Is his murder intended to cover up something or is it a power grab for his knowledge.

The original Nick Fury is going to lead a group of Marvel heroes to investigate the murder and bring the killer to justice. We see the Punisher, Black Panther and Dr. Strange all lending their talents to the investigation.

Who is guilty?!

"Original Sin #2"

"Original Sin" begins in May 2014 and is by the creative team of writer, Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jr. for the 8 issue series. There will be tie ins throughout most Marvel titles and this time those tie-ins will matter to each character given the nature of the main story and the intimate secrets that could be revealed.

An unlikely friendship

"Original Sin" will have a prelude #0 issue which will be by another creative team: Mark Waid and Jim Cheung. This issue will give you a look into the final hours of Uatu's life and his relationship with Sam Alexander, a 15 year old rookie superhero and last of the Nova Corps. Sam has made a compelling friendship with Uatu recently in his own Nova title. Sam goes to visit the Watcher to talk about his feelings and at times uses Uatu as a shoulder to lean on. Sam as a character, is fresh and just out of the gate. His perspective gives new readers the chance to have the Marvel Universe open up around them while it does for his character. Here we have two people, one at the end of his journey and one at his beginning. How this effects young Sam Alexander will no doubt be emotional. 

The Best Purchase You Can Make

If you are like me and enjoy the old issues of DC and Marvel comics, something you must look into are the DC Showcases and the Marvel Essentials.  These massive tomes collect the early issues of these publishers works in a great and somewhat inexpensive manor.  In each collection, you will get around 500 pages of great past comics.  Here you can see early Bob Kane Batman issues, you can see Cap join the Avengers, see how the Kree / Skrull war unfolded.  These books collect around 20 issues of these comics and additional titles that fill in the gaps of certain storylines.

Some people turn their noses up at these collections because they are not in color.  In all actuality, this makes them that much more enjoyable at times.  You can see the artists work clearer without the addition of the colors. I know I have about 10 of these collections that are remarkable to sit down and read.  Sure, some of the dialogue is dated, but it would be.  You are reading comics from a totally different age.

Coming in at a price point of around $19.99 to $29.99, these can be a steal.  Try and get a copy of Avengers #4 for any where near that amount......I dare you.  Another plus is, at a lot of cons, you can find copies going for 50% off at some retailers, so keep your eyes peeled.

So, turn away from your need from color and delve into this world of great comics from the past and see how your favorite characters became who they are today.

p.s.  If you need color, grab some colored pencils.  You will never find a greater coloring book in your life.

- Great Scott

Why I Love the Guardians (or What A Long Strange Trip It's Been)

Ahh, Guardians of the Galaxy.  If you had an announcement that there was going to be a Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out, I would probably have been one of the 17 people in the country that was excited.  What was Marvel thinking when they were letting these 3 legged mules into the big show?  I wish I knew what was going through the minds of the Powers That Be that made them decide to do this movie.  The comic had been cancelled, they were part of a semi-popular crossover (War of Kings), and that's it.  So why was I one of the excited ones?

I have always been a space cadet.  Ever since I saw Star Wars on the big screen, I was hooked.  Big space ships, strange aliens, and lots of pew pew guns.  Yeah, I loved it all.  I would have presents open on Christmas morning and my parents would not be able to explain one thing to you that I got (ha ha).  So in 1990 when Marvel released the first issue of Guardians of the Galaxy, I was hooked.  Marvel + Space= Two great tastes that taste great together.

The original team was made up of characters that had original appeared as supporting characters in other Marvel titles.  Big names, they were not.  Major Vance Astrovik, Martinex, Charlie 27, and Yondu.  Two (three) characters joined them as well in this new series, the mysterious Starhawk and Aleta (characters who shared the same body) and Nikki, the head strong young girl from Mercury.  They were on a quest to take back Earth from the Badoon in the 31st century.

The thing that made this title so much fun as well was seeing the descendants of current characters in the Marvel Universe.  They meet the descendant of Logan early on in the series.  They meet the future incarnation of Ghost Rider.  Also the run into Galactus, Wonder Man, and Firelord.  It wasn't especially well written, like many new titles being tossed around in the early 90's, but since it was a smaller title, I took a bit of ownership to it.  This was my comic, that I enjoyed. After 62 issues, they finally called it quits and closed the doors on the series.

Flash forward 13 years and the super team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (known for their cosmic styled comics) took the reigns and started a mini series called Annihilation.  This was an event that wasn't taking place in the Marvel Universe per se.  It had no X-Men, no Avengers, no Spider-Man......NOTHING.  Silver Surfer, Nova, Super Skrull, Ronan the Accuser; names that have come up in other more mainstream comics, but never their own series.  The series described how Annihilus, leader of the Negative Zone, was bringing all of his minions with him in an Annihilation Wave to take over the Marvel Universe.  To take this threat away a team gravitated together made of Star Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Phyla Vell (Quasar), Bug, Groot, and Rocket Raccoon.  They were able to fight back the wave and destroy negative zone minions that broke through to the Marvel Universe.

The team stayed together to fight other dangers that would face the universe.  This team had a much more humorous style of writing to it.  Sure, they were dealing with life and death, but still had some clever quips.  This comic lasted for 25 issues culminating in a storyline that I must tell people to check out dealing with a horrible place called the Cancerverse.  Truly a unique storyline.  Once again, star spanning stories were told with big star ships, crazy aliens, and plenty of pew pew guns.  And in the case of Rocket, really big pew pew guns.

Now flash forward to today.  The Guardians are much more recognizable and have started yet another series based upon their adventures.  Sure it is well written, and looks gorgeous, it just doesn't have the fun that the original series had.  Sure I am still reading it and probably will for a long time, but if you get a chance and are a huge fan, check out the old stuff.  That is what is so much fun with comics, they are mini time capsules.  You read those 1990 comics and you get the feel of what was going on in the medium at that time.  The book is really popular right now and will continue to be up to and past the release of the movie.  Oh yeah, and I forgot the one big piece of the puzzle missing form all of this and a key to why their popularity continues to grow.....one of their main villains............

......yep, our buddy from the end of the Avengers, Thanos.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little walk back through history of on of my favorite comics.  Let me know if there are any other old titles that you want to know more about.  Until then......later

-  Great Scott

Deadpool gets married?!

The Informant: News for Jan. 2nd 2014

Deadpool to Wed a Mystery Bride

I am engaged to be married in 2014, but it now appears that so is the Merc with a Mouth. That's right....save the date, because Deadpool is gettin' hitched!
Marvel has announced through teasers  (puzzle pieced wedding photos and invitations) throughout the week. Today, with the puzzle complete, we can see our groom standing next to his bride to be. Her face, however, is still covered. So, let the speculation begin. One thing is for sure - she is biting off more than she can chew and hilarity will follow. Is this a cheap gimmick?  Or, have recent events in Wade's life, the "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" arc, led him to view his life and existence in a new way? Let us know at Sector3 if your thoughts and if you plan to RSVP.

Did you get your invitation yet?

In typical end-of-year promotion, Marvel Comics is promoting an upcoming wedding by giving all of us, the prospective guests, a puzzle.  Granted, the pieces are taking a while to get here, but it looks like a big deal with the characters shown.

If we break this down, let's see what we have.First off, DEVIL DINOSAUR AND MOON BOY, WHAT??  Right off the bat, this seems to be a big character if they are starting off the puzzle with a long time character like this.  Next we see all of Alpha flight, so we know it is an international event.  The Asgardians are looking quite regal in their salute to who we assume is getting married.

Looking around, we see a lot of Avengers and X-Men throughout.  I personally feel bad for Stingray, Silver Surfer really had to photobomb right in front of his face, REALLY??  The other character I find interesting being in there is Forbush Man.  You know it is going to be important if he is there.

So what are your thoughts.  Give us a shout and let us know who you think it is.  And do you think this is a good idea as far as a promotion.  And where can we buy the puzzle after it is complete.

- Great Scott!

Remember When.......Marvel's Secret Wars

In this first installment of Remember When, I am going back to 1984 and the birth of the Event Comic.  This was a comic book that worked to get the non readers into reading comic books, at least in my case.  This was a crazy idea to sell toys.  Mattel approached Marvel Comics then Editor, Jim Shooter, to create a comic to sell toys; that's it, that simple.  This was a 12 issue toy catalog.  But in my eyes, it was AWESOME!!  Here you have a story combining the X-Men, Fantastic Four, Avengers, Galactus, Doctor Doom, and a bunch of other villains into one big story.

The story goes that an all powerful entity wanted to pit the mightiest heroes and villains against each other to see who would be victorious.  He create a world; Battleworld; from pieces of hundreds of different planets.  The heroes and villains were transported from Earth in two separate vehicles to this Battleworld.  What this story also did, other than sell toys, was introduce new readers to a wealth of knowledge to the Marvel Universe and its characters.  The Avengers stayed together and made a formidable team, the X-Men felt that they were going to be judged as they were on Earth and separated themselves from the other heroes.  The villains had similar occurrences.  Doctor Doom thought he was above all the other villains and left on his own to figure how to take the power of this powerful being that brought them there, who we later find out is known as the Beyonder.  Also, Galactus being Galactus, must feed, so he begins assembling his world eating machinery to start to feed on the planet.

The Marvel Universe being what it is, shows us more of the faults that make their characters so intriguing.  The Fantastic Four are transported to the planet, missing the Invisible Woman, thus creating a longing for her from her husband, Reed Richards.  Iron Man was not Tony Stark at the time, but his best friend, Jim Rhodes, in the suit.  The Hulk realizes at this point in time, he is at a weakened state, but the loss of that gave him the intellect of Bruce Banner.  Ben Grimm finds out that he can change from the rocky exterior of the Thing to his normal human self, so he starts to have longings to stay behind since he can be human and not the monster he is seen as on Earth.  All of these things give a more human side to the characters.

Of course, we have battles here, and what is better than page upon page of numbers of heroes and villains fighting together.  After one such battle, Spider-Man's costume is badly damaged.  While wondering about the heroes base, he came upon a lab.  Here he found a machine that would create a new suit for him.  Little did he know that his new black costume would in turn become one of his greatest foes....Venom.

As I said, this was a comic series that truly captured my imagination and gave me a great cross section of the Marvel Universe.  It became a treasure hunt for me at comic conventions to find all twelve issues.  I also remember Marvel released a role-playing game through TSR (same guys who brought you D&D) and had a supplement for Secret Wars.  Everything about this comic was fun, something that is so badly missed from a lot of the comics released today.  Sure, I am still reading, but there is something about this series, that I still treasure to this day as one of my absolute favorite memories of comics.  Go out there, buy the trade, or if you are more adventurous, go to a con, and search out the issues.  The are great fun......that is until Secret Wars II.....but that is another story.  This is a story that I will definitely be revisisting, possibly going issue by issue and breaking down how good, and bad, it is.

- GREAT SCOTT!!!