Original Sin #0 (Marvel)

writer: Mark Waid
artist: Jim Cheung, Paco Medina

via Inside Pulse

Original Sin is the current Marvel crossover event.  I guess it's about guilt or something (kind of like the pain Sybok frees people from in the always-popular Star Trek V: The Final Frontier).  Otherwise it's also known as a story that actually revolves around the Watcher (Marvel's version of the Observers from Fringe, which technically would be the other way around).  Except it's a story that revolves around his murder!  So, bummer.

I picked up this prelude on a whim during Free Comic Book Day (yes, I bought comics on Free Comic Book Day).  While the actual mini-series is written by Jason Aaron (whom I still prefer to remember as the guy who did Scalped which, I'm just saying, would make an excellent TV series), this is issue is from Mark Waid.

Hey, Mark Waid!  I love that guy!  Wait, I used to love that guy.  I've been of the opinion lately that he hasn't exactly been living up to his potential.  No sweat, though, because there's not too much heavy lifting for him to do here.  So what is he doing in the issue?  Actually...writing a Nova story, apparently.  Nova, as in the star of a reboot from last year that I loved...for exactly one issue.  The reason I loved that issue so much is touched on in this story, but then Waid seems to forget what the moral of Sam Alexander's journey to date has been when he concludes that Sam always wanted to believe in his father.  Which is kind of the opposite of the heart-tugging arc Jeph Loeb introduced and which has basically been discarded...for no reason in particular.

It's funny, because Nova is our guide in the story much in the way the Watcher famously was the guide for so many Marvel stories in the past.  That was basically the character's claim to fame.  I don't know if Waid and/or Jason Aaron came up with Watcher's backstory for Original Sin, but that's in this issue as well, and that's pretty cool.  Adequately explains the character.  That's good.  

I don't have a particular opinion about Original Sin as a whole, however, because I'm not sure how much this issue really has to do with the rest of the story, because again, the event itself is about what happens after Watcher is murdered.  He is not even bleeding by the end of this issue (what???).  I really have no idea why Waid wrote this rather than Aaron.  I guess because Marvel decided to have a prelude and Aaron was busy having already written his story.

Anyway.  The thing about this story is that it also serves as Waid's return to juvenile superheroes.  Famously, he created the character of Bart Allen, who started out known as Impulse and then Kid Flash, and I'm of the opinion that Waid and Humberto Ramos's Impulse was one of the indisputable finest comics of the '90s.  (Ramos is currently best known for his work with another youthful character, Spider-Man.)  I'm not sure the Waid I remember from Impulse shows up.  I know, it's good for a writer to evolve, to not repeat themselves.  But it seems like the Waid in this issue came from a young adult book, Suzanne Collins in The Hunger Games maybe.

Yeah, plenty of people would consider that a good thing.

Me, I had to look for other reasons to stay interested.  Fortunately there was also artist Jim Cheung.  Cheung is another guy who's done teenage comics before, Allan Heinberg's Young Avengers.  So I'm always happy to see Cheung in action.  His work is surprisingly versatile for a style that hasn't really changed in a decade.  That remains true in this comic.  

Of course, he's no more the artist in the rest of Original Sin than Waid is the writer.  Go figure.

Was this worth reading?  I guess.  Even though it's Nova running around doing stuff and narrating throughout the issue, it's the Watcher who comes off best.  A pity that the story this is attached to brings his future to an end.