Original Sin 4, Avengers 31

Original Sin 4
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

As the mysteriously led groups converge on a single location, led there by various data, each small group discovers it's part of a larger entity. They also find Bucky, the first one to arrive at the small station on the blue side of the moon. Though tempers flare (Gamora and Moon Knight aren't so pumped to have been ditched by Bucky and had to catch a ride with Rocket Raccoon), particularly as Bucky reveals the head of Nick Fury, things are explained a bit when Gamora stabs the head, shorting it out and proving it's a sophisticated LMD, and when an elderly Nick Fury emerges from a door in the station with several other LMDs.

The various groups have converged and are looking for answers, understanding now that maybe they've been lied to and suddenly they recognize how tenuous their groupings are and how distrustful they are of one another. There's a lot of sniping as everyone tries to feel each other out and tries to figure out his or her own role in this investigation. As such, the tension is written pretty well and Deodato's ability to draw just about any character in any situation pays off as he's forced to draw plenty of team scenes and fights and powers and so on and so forth. The book moves as fast as any of these issues have and Aaron's love of The Orb continues to shine through as he has the heroes bring the nonsensical root of all this along with them. Strong issue. Still unsure about the scale of this book (it doesn't feel like an event in a lot of ways, though so many are involved) but that's not a concern the book really needs to answer and, as such, doesn't affect an overall good performance.

Total Score: 5/5


Avengers 31
Hickman (w) and Yu (p) and Alanguilan (i) and Gho (c) and Petit (l)

The Avengers have been sent 500 years in the future now and Hawkeye, just as his future self predicted, won't go any further, falling away in the timestream and aging to dust. The Avengers aren't worried about him unduly, believing that this is what the Hawkeye they just met predicted. They're more worried, though, when they end up trapped in the future and when they learn that Ultron controls the planet with about 30 million humans surviving and future Thor working for the AI (who he claims is also the All-Father). The Ultrons take Cap and Black Widow away and plant a bomb in Cap while the future equivalent of Black Widow speaks in guarded language about wanting her own freedom. Enter time gem, sending Cap, Black Widow, and Starbrand (Thor and Hyperion fall away as Hawkeye did, ending back in Stark's lab with Clint) some five thousand years into the future.

The glimpses of the future continue to be interesting, if a little confusing. I think it's to Hickman's credit that we land in each future for less than an issue's length, just as it's to his credit that all of the future talk isn't winks and nods to the audience, as so many future time travel books are ("this event could happen!" or maybe "this Avenger has died!" or so forth; this book is doing a little of that by the way each future looks and occasionally a quick aside about, like future Thor saying he remembers when he was worthy of Mjolnir, but there are very few explicit, hitting you over the head kind of moments, which I appreciate). There's a lot to try and keep up with and it reads like a story that will make more sense in time, as is so often true with Hickman. Certainly more than readable now as is (and there are some good character moments, particularly as Cap is knocked out and dreams of the Illuminati, undoubtedly only enraging him further) but the true plot has yet to really come across.

Total Score: 4/5