Review: Original Sins #1 (of 5)

Warning: Spoilers Dead Ahead!

Riding on the coattails of the fantastic Original Sin story by Jason Aaron, comes this double tale book that flounders even at the attempt at mediocrity.

The “Mighty Marvel Machine” churns out another failed attempt at making money off of its numerous crossover books, but this time it actually has NOTHING to do with the core book it supposedly spawned from! The first story, I use the term story loosely since it was a mere ten pages!, is all about promoting the new Deathlok series coming in October. The only thing that links this tale even remotely with Original Sin is the fact that a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was nearby when the Watcher’s eye detonated and he saw the secret of who Deathlok really was. Long story short, again ten pages, Deathlok kills the guy!

The second story is about Young Avengers, Hulkling and Prodigy, going to space to retrieve Marvel Boy so that they can stop Marvel Boy’s ex-girlfriend, Exterminatrix, from fighting the Avengers in New York. On the way back to earth they eat pizza and Hulkling shape shifts into Agent Coulson so they can fly back undetected by S.H.I.E.L.D. After we sit through more corny banter between the three heroes, they are attacked by the Hood in an apartment. Original Sin connection? They show Captain America and Exterminatrix fighting via a Smartphone!

I’m all about cross merchandising your product with “big event” scenarios but, please, make it worth the time and money readers dish out on it. This book does nothing to move along the core story or build upon the secrets that are now floating throughout the Marvel U. It is, at its base level, a book that could not stand on its own as a well crafted tale, or tales, and needed the Original Sin banner just to get published. If Marvel is trying to bring in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  watchers in the fold of reading comics by drawing them in with a new Deathlok series, then do a one-shot that is 22 pages about that, not a ten page advertisement for the new book poorly linked to a disastrous tale that has nothing to do with it! And even if you are the world’s largest Young Avengers fan, this story does not deserve your attention. From prose to art, it is just a simple book with nothing to offer.

Do not spend $4 dollars on this book, you will regret every penny of it if you do! ’nuff said!