Today, Marvel had a press conference about their next big event, entitled Original Sin, wherein our beloved superheroes have to figure out who killed The Watcher in a murder mystery that spans the cosmos. Here is the new official solicitation information, to give you more detail about the 8-issue series from Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato.
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ORIGINAL SIN #1 (of 8)
Jason Aaron (W) • Mike Deodato (A)
Cover by Julian Totino Tedesco
Variant cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
INTERLOCKING BATTLE VARIANT BY ART ADAMS
VARIANT COVER BY ED MCGUINNESS
YOUNG VARIANT BY SKOTTIE YOUNG
Teaser Variant also available
BLANK VARIANT ALSO AVAILABLE
WHO SHOT THE WATCHER?
The Watcher, the mysterious space-god who’s been watching us from the moon for as long as we can remember… is dead. Thus begins the greatest murder mystery in Marvel Comics history.
As Nick Fury leads the heroes of the Marvel Universe in an investigation, other forces are marshaling as well and other questions are arising. Why is Black Panther gathering a secret team of his own, including Emma Frost, the Punisher and Dr. Strange? Who is the Unseen? What was the Original Sin? What was stolen from the Watcher’s lair? And most importantly, who now holds the Marvel Universe’s darkest secrets in the palm of their hand?
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
ORIGINAL SIN #2 (of 8)
Jason Aaron (W) • Mike Deodato (A)
Cover by Julian Totino Tedesco
Variant cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
INTERLOCKING BATTLE VARIANT BY ART ADAMS
Teaser Variant also available
WHO HOLDS THE EYE? WHO KNOWS ITS SECRETS?
The cosmic manhunt for the Watcher’s killer continues. More bodies are discovered. The killer’s trail leads to the far corners of the universe and beyond. And just when Nick Fury and the Avengers think they’ve cornered their murderer…EVERYTHING EXPLODES, unleashing the Marvel Universe’s greatest secrets.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
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Uatu is gone! Who will watch us now? Black Panther has a secret team that’s NOT the Illuminati? Original Nick Fury is the star – might this be his swan song to allow Nick Fury Jr. to be the only Nick Fury left because of movies? All sorts of questions abound, and here are some of the information given during the press call today. Jason Aaron, Tom Brevoort and Axel Alonso were on the call, as it happened.
– It starts on the moon with Uatu The Watcher, discovered by a variety of Marvel heroes. The murderer has made off with technology and information, Watcher secrets. The secrets will shake the Marvel Universe to the core.
– The Watcher’s eyes are gone when they discover the body. The Watcher’s eyes are the secret to unlocking everything he’s witnessed, so the holders of the eyes are able to “explode a bomb full of secrets.” Brevoort calls it “The ultimate NSA leak of the Marvel Universe.” Watcher knows where the bodies are buried, even bodies the “Marvel readers don’t know are there.” It all comes out in issue #2 – darkest secrets of some of the main heroes. (Might this include the Illuminati stuff?) The secret revelations will be what spurs the tie-ins. Spider-Man secrets, Daredevil secrets, Hulk secrets, Avengers secrets lead to tie-ins in their respective titles, etc. The worst skeletons in the closets will be revealed, causing crazy trouble. It’s also the “TMZ” of the Marvel Universe – scandalous secrets come to light, putting all characters through the ringer – a lot more emotional. Infinity was a big story in scope and scale, but these stories are much more personal and about individual life choices. Revelations may change points of view and perspectives on being heroes or villains.
– The main series is independent of the tie-ins and stands alone without reading the spin-offs, but hopefully you’ll be very interested in the secrets and their impacts.
– Teases! Captain America will learn that his mind has been tampered with – the Illuminati did it with Dr. Strange in “New Avengers”! Huge impact on his relationship with his teammates.
– Teases! We learn that there was somebody else who was bitten by the same radioactive spider that caused the origin of Spider-Man back in the day. That will kick off with the new Amazing Spider-Man #1, and we’ll find out who that is in the main Original Sin issues, and it goes back to that very first day of Peter Parker’s bite.
– The paths of two characters intersected in ways they didn’t know, and it will change their lives forever.
– There will be a Hulk, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, Deadpool stories, etc. No mainstay will be left untouched by the secrets revealed by the eyes of the Watcher.
– The cast of Original Sin includes Moon Knight, Gamora, Punisher, Emma Frost.
– There are two investigations going on in this story – the Watcher murder mystery with Original Nick Fury as homicide detective, but the more clandestine one involves Black Panther and the aforementioned secret team. This is not the first time our killer has murdered someone, so we follow a murder trail to a lot of different corners of the MU. The depths of the planet, outer space, other dimensions. That’s one of the most fun part of writing it for Jason Aaron. Dr. Strange & Punisher together is like a buddy cop story in The Dark Dimension. Winter Soldier and Gamora, Ant-Man and Emma Frost are cool pairings that are much fun.
– Aaron says BP’s team was assembled for a very specific reason, not a lot of overlap in M.O. and expertise. They’re assembled to cover all the bases.
– Characters will be pushed out of their comfort zones. The playing field is completely altered once the secret bomb goes off in issue #2 when very serious personal issues arise. The course of the investigation is thrown “ass over tea kettle” a bit, thanks to sudden, deep, personal concerns to deal with. It’s along the lines of Spider-Man having to fight Doc Ock while having to get Aunt May her pills. Each clue leads to another revelation that kicks the story in different directions. Brevoort says “it’s cunningly devised” and says Aaron has a steel trap mind for things like this. Mike Deodato is bringing “extra game” to this, adding noir mystery Steranko-esque layouts to the “superhero oomph.” It’s different from the events they’ve done before.
– In deciding the secrets to reveal, they’d have discussions about how to do this without breaking anything too much. Sometimes they had to pull it back, other times they turned it up a few notches – dangerous waters were allowed, because “that’s where the juice is.” The secrets had to have emotional impact, and they tried to get close to the cores of the characters with the secrets, but they dug deeper than they might have otherwise.
– The tie-ins were very organic coming out of retreats from different creative teams. Jason Aaron says “Mark Waid doesn’t need my help writing a Daredevil story.” The editors of the individual titles came back with the secrets to be revealed, so there was no dictation from Aaron and the OS crew. The creators on the books came up with them. It’s all a group effort.
– Original Nick Fury’s involvement – the Marvel Universe is big enough for two guys named Nick Fury, but this is the kind of story where our worry that Old Nick Fury might be on the way out is helpful to getting us interested in the story – Aaron is writing it, and he loves Fury, but you never know what will happen. (It seems like this will be his swan song, but that’s just me).
– The idea came up at the retreats, with remnants of Ed Brubaker’s Point One story from a couple years ago, but Aaron eventually took the seeds there to write his own event, that came as far back as Fear Itself, Allen Heinberg contributed seeds as well back then, before Ed wrote his story. Joe Quesada had tons of ideas on this, too – he had three different documents on ways to do things. They gave all the stuff to Aaron and had him find the story he wants to write out of it. He’s writing his story, not Ed’s, Allen’s or Joe’s. They seeds didn’t start growing until Aaron owned them and became the author. Allen and Ed didn’t “walk away from it,” but Aaron was the guy who owned it. It almost happened instead of AvX, as soon as Alonzo came on board as Editor in Chief.
– It felt like the good change-up to the usual big events that they’ve been doing the past few years.
– Is this a real-world allegory thing like Civil War, with the NSA mention? Brevoort says the allegory isn’t as “in your face” as Civil War, but it is kind of ripped from the headlines, despite bodies on the moon and stuff. It’s a privacy issue, like Wikileaks and NSA and all of that. It’s definitely there, but it’s not as blatant. It’s mostly about a giant bald space god, though, but the real-world stuff isn’t paramount.
– Aaron hasn’t written Nick Fury before, so that’s been fun. Ant-Man as well. The most fun is Dr. Strange and Punisher for him – it might seem weird, but we’re not making Punisher something he’s not. In his head, it’s the Garth Ennis Punisher hanging out with Dr. Strange, and that contrast has been very fun for him.
– The Watcher has a mate and an unborn child in FF. They will be involved in a Mighty Avengers tie-in.
– What are the TMZ kinds of secrets being revealed? There’s at least one that comes easily to mind to Alonzo, there may be two to three involving major Marvel characters.
– What is Thor’s role, since Aaron writes that as well? He’s the guy who discovers the Watcher’s body. Thor has a big juicy secret that’s about to land on his head that will also run through the Loki book as well, and “TMZ will definitely cover that one.”
– It won’t be as silly as “Wolverine and the X-Men” stuff has been. It’s closer to the first couple arcs of Thor, when he was tracking down Gorr The God Butcher serial killing gods. “A sprinkling of Dark Kirby and Grant Morrison.” It’s a murder mystery. A huge fight scene in issue #1, and a bigger, crazier fight in issue #2. It’s not Nick Fury waiting for lab results or anything. Very operatic. There’s some very heavy secrets coming out – it’ll be a thrill ride. Characters are going through the crucible for your entertainment and will come out the other side in “some kind of shape.”
– The timetable for the event is 8 issues twice a month from May through August or September. April has a #0 issue with Mark Waid and Jim Cheung, a completely new story revealing secrets about the Watcher himself and Nova.
– Killing The Watcher wasn’t just ‘the most interesting Watcher story we had,’ but the secret-holder aspect was very compelling to do something new with him.
– Issue #3 reveals what happened to the second eye, even though the solicitation for #2 mentions “Who Has The Eye” as if there is only one.
– Will the heroes involved in the investigation become aware of each other’s deep dark secrets? Not necessarily – but they affect villains, supporting cast members, the man on the street. It can affect stories for months and years to come.
– Should bald people in the Marvel Universe be worried after Xavier and Uatu? “Bendis has nothing to worry about.” Aaron’s been bald since 1994, so he has nothing against bald people.
– No salacious details of Black Panther/Storm secrets. He’s there for a very specific reason. He’s one of Aaron’s favorite characters, and he loved the Secret Invasion tie-ins about Skrulls and Wakandans. That’s the same sort of tone of what Aaron is doing here.
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That’s the end of the call. There you go, my friends! Do what you will with this information.
