Original Sin (SPOILERS)

[The Baron]

OK, just read issue #0.  It involves the current iteration of Nova, who is apparently a kid named Sam Alexander, whose father was an old drunk who claimed to have been an intergalactic space hero, and who eventually disappeared. In time, the son discovers that the old man had been an intergalactic space hero and ends up becoming the new Nova himself. I'm not familiar with this version of the character, so I can't say how long he's been around. I remember reading the original Nova nearly forty years ago - I don't have any great memories of him except that he was drawn by Carmine Infantino for awhile.

 

Anyway, our Sam fights a robot version of Tomazooma and meets the Avengers and asks them about the Watcher and finds out that while they know the Watcher watches, they don't know why. So, he goes to the Moon and gives the Watcher a rock and Utau Atua Utapau Uatu shows him his home movies of how his Dad (Uatu's, I mean, not Sam's) was the one who had the bright idea of giving the Prosilicans nuclear energy and we all know how that worked out.  Is this new?  I don't remember it being U Thant Utrecht Uatu's old man who did that. Anyway, Sam asks Uatu just how much he watches and Uatu blows his mind by showing him scenes from old issues of What If.  Anyway, Sam realizes that what Uatu is really hoping to see is a world where his dad wasn't wrong. Sam commiserates and says that he wishes his father wasn't a screw-up, too, then asks Uatu what happened to his (Sam's, not Uatu's) dad, and after a slight pause, Uatu tells Sam that his dad is still alive. (Say, isn't that sort of "interfering", Uatu, old son?).  Sam goes off happy and Uatu puts the rock on a shelf. 

 

A mildly interesting story, and the art is nice enough.

 

Say, the Watcher apparently has an armory - he's really loaded for bear - where he keeps the Ultimate Nullifier. How'd he end up with it? I thought Galactus took that back after Reed made him promise to leave Earth after threatening to blow his head off with it.

 

[John Dunbar]

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

I can't remember those issues at all, I think at the time the FF was comprised of Ben, Sharon, Johnny and Crystal and Reed stuck with the Avengers to help them work on the Vision. Funny thing, characters then wondering if they were good enough to be an Avenger and now I'm hard pressed to think of someone in the mu who isn't/hasn't been an Avenger.

Reed and Sue left the FF in #307 (Oct 1987) (replaced by Crystal and Sharon).  They joined the Avengers in #300 (Feb 1989), but left a few months later and soon rejoined the FF.

[John Dunbar]

Ron M. said:

I think Reed joined after the Avengers broke up when everyone left after Dr Druid took over and turned evil. Somebody apparently thought putting him on the team would help it reboot. I remember they made a big deal about the fact the Avengers was breaking up and then reforming.

Walter Simonson took over as writer on Avengers with #291 (May 1988).  The team consisted of Dr. Druid, Namor, Black Knight, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, and Thor.  By the time #298 rolled around, the team had completely imploded.  Reed and Sue, along with Cap, Thor, and Gilgamesh officially re-form the team in #300.

[Ron M.]

Dr. Druid gets the blame for it but he was being manipulated, by some woman from Atlantis or something. Supposed to be a major new villain but I never saw her again after that storyline. I don't think Druid ever got another chance at a comeback. I was really hoping they were finally going to do something with him then he started acting crazy.

They just happened to reform in #300. What a coinkidink! I'm sure it wasn't planned that way. They'd be doing that now if they'd actually allow a comic book to reach an #100 these days. Thought it was really cool all those years how Avengers was always exactly 100 issues below Thor. But apparently a comic book running 100 issues has become evil somehow.

[Dave Elyea]

Wasn't Dr. Druid being manipulated by Nebula, who was a member of the Krosstime Kouncil of Kangs (and may or may not have been the same Nebula who claimed to be the granddaughter of Thanos)?

[Ron M.]

Dr. Druid still got much of the blame for letting himself be manipulated by her. If she appeared again I either didn't read the comics or she was so dull a villain I don't remember her. In fact all I remember about her is she ruined Dr. Druid's career. I didn't even remember her name or the Thanos connnection, or that she was a Kang, and must have been thinking about another boring villain around that time from Atlantis. In fact all I remember about the Crosstime Kangs was Kang thinking he'd killed all of the Kangs he'd accidentally made through time paradoxes, only to get contacted by even more Kangs that said they'd all killed all of their realities' time paradoxes Kangs. There was an obsession about time travel back then, I remember the FF meeting a time cop and then a lot of gibberish with Franklin and Reed's father time traveling, and suddenly I'd dropped a comic I'd been collecting since I was four.

[Dave Elyea]

Whatever or whoever she was, dull was the word for it.

[Ron M.]

Marvel seemed to have a problem with being dull back then. Every team suddenly turned into a "Force", (X-Force, Fantastic Force, Force Works for the Avengers,) and every "Force" comic was a good cure for insomnia. As horrible as Heroes Reborn was, I can see they realized something was seriously wrong with the company and it was an attempt, as misguided as it was, to fix everything.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Both companies were chasing Image at the time. DC was doing the same thing with its Extreme Justice and similar tweaks to the Justice League books. 

[Ron M.]

And the never ending attempts to fix Crisis.

[Richard Mantle]

I almost hesitate to say this – but I feel I must.......
I actually liked this series and I did think we needed something like this to dispatch Nick Fury appropriately.
I wish this had have been combined with a Nick Fury from another dimension (a la the Ultimates guy he’s modelled on / movie version Samuel l Jackson type) being brought over to the 616 universe.
I wish this had have been used as the mechanism rather than the ridiculous ‘Battle Scars’ series they used that gave us the watered down junior version that the 616 is saddled with.
Nick Fury needed to go.
His era has gone, faded, it’s over. I say this as a tremendous fan of the SHIELD series through the ages up to and including the Secret Warriors swansong for the character.
His day is done though, it happens, the world moves on and the fact that Nick Fury is no longer a relevant force in the modern Marvel universe is not a great surprise.
I can accept his mysterious secret history and I don’t think it changes his more vital appearances throughout the decades at all.
The marketing of the Original Sin series as a whodunit was simply a marketing swipe and the fact that this became more about Fury than about the Watcher I found quite neatly organic.
Everyone agrees the artwork throughout was wonderful and whilst the villains were pretty underwhelming the use of the Orb was a no-brainer and I found it quite refreshing that earth-shattering events can be set in place by less than earth-shattering characters.
This series passed a torch within the Marvel Universe, everyone seems to universally hate this series....but I actually did find a lot to like.

[The Baron]

That's cool.  As for Fury's era being gone, maybe so. I was never that big of a Fury fan, so maybe I'm not one to judge. I suppose it's a problem for any mortal character that's tied in to the WWII timeframe. Even with Infinity Formulae and such, maybe eventually it becomes too much of a stretch to have them still hale and hearty.

[Jason Marconnet (Pint sized mod)]

I liked it as well. I didn't love it as much as you did but I thought as far as events go it was well done. I wish some of the odd combo of teams such as Punisher and Dr. Strange had been explored more but I get what they were doing. All in all I liked it better than Siege, AvX and some of the other recent events. 
 
Richard Mantle said:

I almost hesitate to say this – but I feel I must.......
I actually liked this series and I did think we needed something like this to dispatch Nick Fury appropriately.
I wish this had have been combined with a Nick Fury from another dimension (a la the Ultimates guy he’s modelled on / movie version Samuel l Jackson type) being brought over to the 616 universe.
I wish this had have been used as the mechanism rather than the ridiculous ‘Battle Scars’ series they used that gave us the watered down junior version that the 616 is saddled with.
Nick Fury needed to go.
His era has gone, faded, it’s over. I say this as a tremendous fan of the SHIELD series through the ages up to and including the Secret Warriors swansong for the character.
His day is done though, it happens, the world moves on and the fact that Nick Fury is no longer a relevant force in the modern Marvel universe is not a great surprise.
I can accept his mysterious secret history and I don’t think it changes his more vital appearances throughout the decades at all.
The marketing of the Original Sin series as a whodunit was simply a marketing swipe and the fact that this became more about Fury than about the Watcher I found quite neatly organic.
Everyone agrees the artwork throughout was wonderful and whilst the villains were pretty underwhelming the use of the Orb was a no-brainer and I found it quite refreshing that earth-shattering events can be set in place by less than earth-shattering characters.
This series passed a torch within the Marvel Universe, everyone seems to universally hate this series....but I actually did find a lot to like.