Welcome true believers to Marvel’s murderous 2014 Summer Event! I could review it and or bore you with why I chose this mini-series to get back into Summer events after getting burned with Siege, but I’ve decided it would be way more fun to play detective.
As such this feature will chronicle my thinking and my suspicions concerning the murder of Uatu The Watcher. It may also be used for newcomers to the Marvel Universe trying to get a grasp on the weird concepts and characters in the story. I have chosen not include an overview of Original Sin issue 0, as it was just a story to introduce Uatu to new readers.
I am also not going to write about the tie-in issues, because I believe this story, and every comic book event, should be able to tell a complete story in the main book, especially here as we have a murder mystery.
I expect all the clues to be in these 8 issues. Along with these typed words, you will find a copy of my notes on the issue. I apologize in advance for my horrendous handwriting.
Crime Scene: Uatu’s home on the Blue Area of the Moon. An alien superstructure operated by Uatu’s mind, resting on a part of the Moon with Earth-like air. Along with being a residence, Uatu’s home is a treasure trove of weapons and other contraptions thought too dangerous not to keep hidden. Iron Man reports that the place was ransacked.
Time of Death: Unknown at this point.
Body discovered by: Thor.
Weapon: A gun not found at the scene of crime. Black Widow found green glowing fragments thought to be the bullet.
Stolen Items (Those we know so far)
Uatu’s eyes: The Watcher’s eyes are missing from his skull.
Ultimate Nullifier: One of the most potent doomsday devices in the Marvel Universe. The wielder must have complete focus on his or her target. Failure to do so will result in the destruction of the target, the wielder and the galaxy in which the Ultimate Nullifier is used.
Team: This secondary ‘‘shadow’’ team is lead by an unknown male shown holding a glowing green shard. He is shown getting Black Panther to join his team by using cryptic language, according to Black Panther, and sharing a ‘’trail’’ he says he’s been following. Said trail leads to what he calls the ‘‘Original Sin’’, which he says is, ‘‘unseen’’. The rest of the team is composed of Emma Frost, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Dr. Strange, The Punisher, Moon Knight, Winter Soldier and Gamora.
The ‘‘Eye’’ Crew: At the very end of the issue, we see The Orb, a C-list villain, and a redheaded woman kept in shadow. They are shown to have one of The Watcher’s eyes, a heap of alien tech and a small army of extra-dimensional beings known as Mindless Ones.
Clues
So far, the only clues we have are the glowing bullet shards, if they are indeed part of the bullet, and Fury’s observations. He notes that the murderer knew what he or she was doing and that the hand that killed Uatu was experienced. What I want to put in the records is that Thor found the body, Black Widow found the shards and that Tony reported the thefts.
Suspects
Our suspects are everyone, hero or villain, with access to powers or technology that would allow to go on the Blue Area of the Moon, including the two investigation teams. I’m thinking I can write off street level characters, but I may be changing my mind on that in the future. My first impulse suspect is Dr. Doom. I don’t believe The Orb is the killer. It’ll be a few issues worth of clues before we can have a cool conspiracy theory setup with billboards and strings and archive video of the grassy knoll.
Questions
Who leads the ‘‘shadow’’ investigation? It’s somebody Black Panther knows and someone Moon Knight could have sworn was dead. That person has to have some connection to people in high places like Dr. Strange and maybe even know about the Illuminati, the secret group of heroes who sometimes do questionable things, like erasing Captain America’s memories of their existence, as he was a member for a short time and had issues about how they operate.
What is nature of the glowing green shards? I have no idea how big the Infinity Gems are, but maybe the ‘‘bullet’’ used was the green Soul Gem, reported destroyed last year, by the Illuminati.
How are The Orb and the Mindless Ones connected? The Mindless Ones are being you have to summon with magic. That does not fit The Orb’s powers. The redheaded woman kept in shadow has to be involved somehow. Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if Original Sin was about Sin, the Red Skull’s redheaded daughter?
What made the Midless Ones evolve? While the redheaded woman kept in shadow posits that The Watcher’s stolen tech is responsible, the Mindless One fought by The Thing and Spider-Man points the finger at ‘‘The Man on the Moon’’ and says making them smarter was his revenge.
Who shot The Watcher?/ Who committed a sin so vile he or she had to kill all the wtiness?/ What did Uatu have that was worth his murder? We’ll have to get back on that one once we’ve established a clear motive.
What is the Original Sin? Issue 1 of the story opens with Romans 6:23: ‘‘The Wages of Sin is Death.’’ If the other issues open with Bible passages, I may try to find clues in them, but not right now. What I want to address here is what the Christian Original Sin is. Allow me to assume most of my readership has passing knowledge of the book of Genesis. They would then know the story about Adam and Eve and the snake that tempts Eve with the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. What they might not know is that once Eve and Adam tasted the fruit, they realized they were naked. This is why a lot of scholars associate the forbidden fruit with knowledge. And I think this is where the series is going, in a way. Uatu knew everything and this may be what got him killed. Before taking the case, Nick Fury warns Captain America that the investigations can unheard things that may be better left unknown. The punishment for the Mindless Ones is to know what they’ve done.
Closing Statement
Original Sin is shaping up to be a hell of a read, if only as a fun mental excessive. I very much liked the first issue, though, Jason Aaron being one of my favorite writers at Marvel and of comics in general right now. Hope you’ve enjoyed both the issue and this article and that you will come back again when issue 2 comes out.
