Original Sin #8 Review: The Eyes Don’t Have It

I’ve always thought that the most difficult part of writing event comics would be sticking the landing. So many big super hero stories start out strong and keep some momentum through the second act before fizzling out at the end.

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In the case of Original Sin, I’m not even sure it got to do its final dismount (and with that, I’ve beaten the gymnastics analogy into the ground). We started out with a decent enough premise, one particular twist that reverberated through various Marvel comics when the “truth bomb” went off, and some stellar character interactions.

By the time we got halfway through, though, it was clear things had gone off track. It didn’t help that the central mystery was almost completely unimportant, nor that the main bad guy, Dr. Midas, was probably the least interesting event villain in recent memory. Even worse, writer Jason Aaron had to sacrifice some of those character moments on the altar of the plot, and after Nick Fury revealed what he’s secretly been up to for all these years, there wasn’t a whole lot left to care about.

Original Sin #8 wraps things up in perfunctory fashion, turning many of the heroes into mere bystanders as things happen around them. I will give Aaron credit for resolving all of the loose ends, even if some of them were predictable. And the lasting effects of this particular tale basically amount to a shuffling of the deck, but that’s still better than some other events.

Special props to Mike Deodato for finding new and sometimes disturbing ways of incorporating eyes into action scenes and transformations.

Let’s get down to the nitty gritty of this finale …

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

With a group of Watchers in place to do what they do best, it’s time for the final, final battle. Dr. Midas thinks he can seize power for himself, but his supporting cast of Exterminatrix and the Orb prove to be somewhat unreliable. At least he has the Mindless Ones to sic on the heroes, effectively leaving them out of the last showdown.

During the melee, we learn what the story hinted at a while ago but decided to wait until now to confirm: Fury did kill Uatu, but it was more like assisted suicide than anything else. I’m not sure I like the thought of the Watcher giving in to his burden, but it’s not my story.

Eventually, Midas is defeated via the old “give him more power than he can handle” gambit, and while it seems like everyone else dies, no one really does except for Uatu and Midas.

The rest is merely one person taking over for another: Fury is the new Watcher, and the Winter Soldier takes over as the new “man on the wall.” Exterminatrix takes over as the new Midas if anyone cares about that. And the Orb now has one of Uatu’s eyes embedded in his chest for extra voyeuristic action! Poor Black Panther never gets to beat anybody up, and Ant-Man isn’t even sure what all just happened.

One big thing to note is that Mjolnir seems to be stuck on the moon with Thor unable to pry it free. We were never told exactly what he did to become unworthy, but Aaron is sure to run with that development in the new Thor #1, which comes out next month.

Favorite moment: Bucky to Fury: “Nick. Put the eyeball down. This is finished.” That’s something you don’t hear all that often.

Final thought: I’m kind of torn about this series. I can’t figure out if the weird pacing would have been better with two less issues or if we would have been robbed of the best parts that way. I guess it just is what it is.