Original Sin #7 Review: Nick Fury Vs. Everyone

Though I was tempted to start this off by falling back on the old “started with a bang, ended with a whimper” adage, that’s not exactly what’s happened over the course of Original Sin. Instead, it’s more like this Marvel event started strong, limped a bit through the middle and started to pick up steam again. Maybe it should have been six issues instead of eight.

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It’s not as important now since we’ve reached the penultimate issue with Original Sin #7. Artitst Mike Deodato gets to stretch out his action muscles more than ever, as a big chunk of this installment is a gigantic brawl between Nick Fury and the Avengers. Even the flashbacks recount a previous battle on the moon.

For anyone wondering how Fury could credibly fight off an entire team of ticked off Avengers, there are a couple of factors at play that make it believable: the fight is in space (pulling some heroes out of their comfort zones), Fury has a bunch of alien tech on his side, and he’s got those eyeballs that used to belong to the Watcher.

Jason Aaron juggles what’s happening now with what happened to Uatu to lead us down this road in the first place, and it appears the Orb might not be the insane patsy he looked like earlier. It’s worth noting, once again, that we were promised we’d learn who killed the Watcher in issue #6. We’re past that now, and …

Aw heck, let’s go to the …

SPOILER ALERT!

Remember those Watcher eyes? Despite a valiant effort by Spider-Man to wrestle them away from Fury, they end up turning the tide in his struggle with Captain America’s squad. Giving Nick every last chance to give up, Cap reluctantly orders Thor to strike, and it looks like the God of Thunder might win the day until Fury whispers a secret in his ear. Mjolnir makes a beeline for the surface of the moon, and if you’re looking for lasting repercussions from Original Sin, I think we’ve got ourselves a winner. Female Thor, get ready in the green room!

Oh, and here’s a special “shaking my fist at the heavens” at Aaron for pulling the rug out from under us again when it comes to Uatu’s killer. It was the Orb! Oops, no,  just shot him and took one of his eyes. My guess? Uatu doesn’t want to be burdened by something he saw and asks Fury to finish him off. But we’re going to have to wait until the bitter end to find out for sure.

The interplay between the heroes that Fury originally gathered, which was so strong in earlier issues, makes a brief return here as they debate what to do. Doctor Strange thinks they should stand together, but there’s little chance of that. Hopefully they finish arguing before the series ends, though it would be funny for them to show up on the final panel of the last issue to discover they missed the dramatic conclusion.

If Original Sin fizzles out, it would hardly be the first event to do so, but this one had such a promising beginning that it would make the disappointment especially bitter. At least Deodato has been consistently great. His panel layouts during the action scenes here really caught my attention for some reason.

Favorite moment: With everything at stake in the final battle against Fury, Wolverine is most upset that Nick “violated the sanctity of ‘meat night.'”

Honorable mention: Rocket Raccoon, who like Dante in Clerks, wasn’t even supposed to be here, leaves and says, “I just know I hate all of you.”

Final thought: Is it just me, or does the old Fury on the cover look like an older, cyborg Bruce Willis?