Original Sin 6, Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man

Original Sin 6
Aaron (w) and Deodato (a) and F. Martin (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Nick still won't confess or deny the murder of the Watcher but he admits that he called all of them there (aside from Rocket, who turned up on Moon Knight's and Gamora's behalf) in the hopes that at least one of them would want to take up his mantle, that these are the people most able to do his job. Fury Prime, who also reveals that the Infinity Formula keeping him young is now gone and he's aging rapidly as a result, returns to his work and begins interrogating the Orb on how to make the eyes talk. The team he left behind fight the other Furys in the hope that they'd get to the other Fury just as the Avengers also arrive only to find Nick waiting for them in a battle suit.

Look, who killed the Watcher? I don't want to say that there wasn't interesting stuff in here because I think there still was but I've often chided events for lasting too long and I think this event is suffering from that in this very issue. Aaron does a solid job keeping the pace of this issue moving but you're not in an event to see the rest issues or to reset for a minute. You're in an event because something huge is happening. Nothing huge happened in this issue. It felt like a recap of the last one and a prep for the next one, which will be the penultimate issue. Not a lot more I can say about it. AND YET, this review took SO LONG TO WRITE. I'm a little out of it, you guys. Long day. ANYWAY, don't let that cloud your judgment of my Total Score.

Total Score: 2/5


Original Sin 3.2 - Hulk vs. Iron Man
Gillen and Waid (s) and Gillen (w) and L. Ross (a) and Guru eFX (c) and Caramagna (l)

Tony buys an unsuccessful motel nearby to where the original gamma bomb went off, trying to remember what happened there back when he and Banner once yelled at one another there, as Banner goes to Arno to work on a tweak for Extremis. Tony remembers back to a time with Thunderbolt Ross wherein he was officially paid to help Banner, back to the fight the two geniuses had, and back to his decision to knowingly sabotage the bomb. Meanwhile, Banner's tweak worked and he's off and running.

I liked this issue a good deal more than the first for a couple reasons: first and foremost, it's an actual addition to the story as opposed to just kicking things off with information solicits and interviews told us (again, not Waid nor Gillen's fault there, but still made for a more boring read). Second, though, I really do appreciate that Tony very clearly is the villain here. We all know that Tony was a war profiteer and an arms dealer and, you know, still rather Tony but drunker and less ethical. To then have Gillen make Tony completely at fault for what's happening, a pretty major "completely at fault," is pretty gutsy, particularly where this is still a well-liked "hero" character. Strong move. Still some slowness to the plot as we build to the climax (there was some good new information and information that colored the story a bit more, but by and large, it didn't give much new).

Total Score: 4/5