Original Sin 5

Original Sin 5
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

On top of his usual roles as soldier, spy, and head of SHIELD, Nick Fury has also long been keeping an eye on the extraterrestrial plains insofar as they concern Earth. Since the days of Howard Stark and newcomer (though dead now, but newcomer to this universe in this flashback) Woodrow McCord, Fury's spent some time in a secret base monitoring alien life and intercepting any who strayed too close. How did he manage to be a one-man SWORD and head of SHIELD? Oh right, those LMDs he has in droves. Fury's secret war (well, at least this secret war) has been carrying on for some time and now his team is a little concerned that maybe it put him at odds with the Watcher, though Fury has no real comment on that. Instead, he believes maybe it's his turn to die as well as the Watcher's.

Tons of never-before-seen history for Nick Fury as the world's most secret secret agent reveals another facet of his life that might be more engaging if SWORD didn't currently exist. I think it's still somewhat engaging here because it's just another "well, Nick Fury does everything, I suppose" kind of story and a good Fury story tends to be a story worth reading but with SWORD in play (though often more than a little incompetent) it's hard to really get a scale for the invasions he's been holding off. Aaron also pulls the "for every one invasion we see, dozens more are stopped by this last line of defense" bit, which is essentially saying "look, we know there are a lot of invasions in Marvel but there would have been even MORE if not for this retcon." Deodato does some solid work and Frank Martin continues to deliver with all of his books (I'm particularly high on Martin right now because EAST OF WEST is one of the best books I think I've ever read). Real atmosphere book meant to give us a sense of the scale of this story if not to drive it along more.

Total Score: 4/5