Original Sin 2
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)
The Avengers and other assorted New York heroes continue to come across Mindless Ones terrified by what they've seen. They capture one to try to trace their unique energy signatures to find if there are more in the city, eventually leading them to one building. Meanwhile, the shadowy B-team has split up and started to find other corpses, still hoping to trail the murderer through various dimensions. Back in New York, the heroes have surrounded the building housing a dozen more Mindless Ones and find that they're being run by Exterminatrix and the Orb, just about the weirdest villain pairing Aaron could have come up with. The Avengers and company quickly take down Exterminatrix and the Mindless Ones but the Orb finally manages to get the eye of the Watcher that he's been so closely monitoring to open, hoping to reveal the world's secrets.
Story
The murder investigation is open on two different fronts, with the Avengers tracking down the Mindless Ones because they had the Ultimate Nullifier, recently in the Watcher's possession, and the shadowy B-team searching a little more broadly for cosmic-scale murderers on another level. Jason Aaron promised that this series would be more a murder mystery book than anything else and that certainly seems to be the case here. It does feel as if the Orb and Exterminatrix are simply benefitting from the death of Watcher but didn't have anything to do with it (seems particularly true since, you know, it's the Orb) so the Avengers have to deal with that now as well as the explosion of the eyeball truth-bomb. Certainly on the right track here.
5/5
Character
Events are tricky because characters don't tend to get much of a spotlight. You'll see a handful of them playing a big role and then most character defining comes out of their dialogue or out of the tie-in books. There's a big cast of characters in this one so far and Aaron is doing some good work to keep everyone's voice relatively intact. Sometimes it's a little more of a generalized view on a voice, intent on keeping someone's voice separate from someone else's on the same page, but it gets the point across. There are particularly nice moments with the shadowy B-team as very random pairings (Emma Frost and Black Panther, Dr. Strange and Punisher) work together and their dialogue sort of clashes intentionally.
4/5
Writing
The tone is pretty good for a murder mystery sort of story though there's a little too much exposition necessary for the pacing to be what you'd like it to be. There's a lot of jumping back and forth as various crime scenes are checked which I think works really well for a mystery, the sort of chaotic bouncing that doesn't let anyone get particularly comfortable, but big blocks of expository text sort of slow things down. Not sure if the book would be helped by trimming that down or if it would just make things confusing, but it's worth mentioning here.
4/5
Art
Deodato was chosen for this book because he's very talented, can draw just about anyone in the Marvel Universe (and he's asked to here), and he works quickly. In that respect, it's very much a standard Deodato book.
5/5
Miscellaneous
It's hard sometimes to get a lot of personality into an event series because there's just too much happening. In that regard, there are a lot of sort-of action movie-esque jokes threaded through here, very simple one-liners or asides or what-have-you. I'd be fine if we didn't have those. Have to imagine that this is the only occasion I'll have to tag "the Orb" in one of my blog post labels.
Total score: 4/5
Avengers World 6
Spencer (w) and Checchetto (a) and Mossa (c) and Caramagna (l)
Captain Marvel, Thor, and Hyperion have been teleported into Barbuda by Manifold in the hopes of finding and rescuing Sunspot, Cannonball, and Smasher (now, unbeknownst to the team, Messenger for AIM). While Thor and Captain Marvel fight outside, Hyperion finds his way into the city and into one of Forson's main science buildings, the one that houses the Auger, the gateway between dimensions and the door from which Hyperion entered this universe after seeing his own destroyed. Forson does the typical sort of evil villain monologue, telling Hyperion that he realizes that he doesn't belong here, that he's fitting in for now but he knows how different he is and how he'll stand against them at some point, hoping that he'll join AIM's cause willingly. Hyperion, reflecting back to the time he's spent watching the children he's sworn to protect in the Savage Land and the time hanging out with Thor, refuses, destroying the Auger and preparing to attack Forson when Smasher appears and hurls him incredibly far out before grabbing both Captain Marvel and Thor and doing the same with them.
Story
The heavies of the Avengers all seem to be involved in this fight and it's pretty stunning to watch as Smasher handily defeats them all. It's tricky to gauge since her fellow Avengers clearly don't want to harm her but still, she really does a number on them. ANYWAY, it's your standard invade-AIM-Island story but, unlike most AIM invasions, the Avengers don't win this one. Moreover, it's a story of Hyperion, which will be detailed more in "character."
4/5
Character
It's a nice look at Hyperion, one of the newer members of the Avengers that we don't know so much about. It echoes a lot of what we've seen already from him, the strong warrior who lost his entire universe and who is doing what he can, fighting against time, to stop this universe from dying too. I don't know how much new information is in here for Hyperion that we haven't already seen glimpses of but it's useful to get another look on it and a bit of a refined angle on it (the last time we really checked in on Hyperion was just after taking the little children under his protection, now he's had a little more time to think on them). There's a real and palpable sadness to him that comes out pretty nicely in the narration and the art.
5/5
Writing
As I mentioned above, the narration comes from Hyperion and it does its work to characterize him, taking care to show his strength but also to show his sadness. The relationship between Thor and Hyperion continues to quietly be one of the best relationships the Avengers books have shown in some time and one of the most intricate looks at Thor I think we've seen in a while, maybe since his relationship with Loki in Gillen's JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY. You're in pretty good shape with me if I'm comparing any aspect of your book to that series.
5/5
Art
I really like Marco Checchetto's art and it holds up its high standard here. The key here is, even with all the fighting, showing Hyperion and his emotion, even as he tries to remain a little distant with this world that he fears will fall just like his did. It's strong work and it conveys everything it needs to and more.
5/5
Miscellaneous
This book is doing exactly what it promised, giving us a nice window into the personality and the character of some of our lesser-known Avengers. I'm not sure we should be excusing AVENGERS for needing that sort of window, but that's not really this book's fault.
Total score: 5/5
