Exploring the ‘Original Sins’ of the Marvel Universe

(CBR) Marvel Comics' June 2014 Solicitations included a great number of issues set for the publisher's “Original Sin” event, including a classified limited series called “Original Sins.” Marvel has revealed “Original Sins” as somewhat of a jam-piece anthology series with each of the five issues containing three all-new stories from Marvel's talent pool, including James Robinson, Charles Soule, Mark Bagley, Dan Slott and more.
To more fully flesh out the extent and mission of “Original Sins,” Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso and Executive Editor Tom Brevoort joined reporters for a special press conference call, discussing the origins of the series, teasing the secrets that “Original Sins” will explore and more.

Marvel PR guru Chris D'Lando kicked off the call with a quick introduction on the “Original Sin” concept and how “Original Sins” follows from Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato's core series, which contains even more of the secrets revealed from the fallout of the Watcher's death.

“Like the ultimate NSA leak, the Watcher — regardless of whether you're a hero, villain, innocent bystander — the Watcher has seen everything you've done,” said Brevoort. “He's seen it and he knows all, and there's so much that affects so many players in the Marvel Universe that apart from the spine of the murder mystery proper and the impact on characters that have their own titles, there was still grist to deal with characters of all sorts throughout the Marvel Universe.”
The core of the “Original Sins” limited series will be the Young Avengers as they deal with The Hood, written by Ryan North with art by Ramon Villalobos. “Additionally, we'll see characters old and new — at least one old Marvel Universe face will make an appearance in a vastly new form in the first issue of 'Original Sins,'” said Brevoort, who also noted that Rick Geary would be doing a story in the limited series.
Alonso stepped in to remind readers of the massive scope of “Original Sin,” which will “transform the lives of most of our Marvel characters.” Coming out of the event, there will be 5 brand new titles launched as a result, and at least three of the core Avengers-level character titles will be profoundly affected.
Plus, Deathlok will be making his return to the Marvel U in the first issue, according to Brevoort. “Nathan Edmondson and Mike Perkins are doing a tale of where Michael Collins has been since we last saw him,” said Brevoort.
The Young Avengers were chosen as the through line of “Original Sins” because of their strong fan base and strong following. “Just due to the nature of the way their series has worked over the years … we haven't felt the need to publish it at all times, but there's always a drive to have more 'Young Avengers' material,” said Brevoort. “Additionally, there are characters in the Young Avengers that have connections to characters in the 'Original Sin' series.” It will become very apparent by the second issue of 'Original Sin' as to why the Young Avengers were the right choice.
For the most part, creators will work in their own wheelhouse — Robinson will do a Dr. Doom story, Soule, an Inhumans story; and Slott, a J. Jonah Jameson story.
“Original Sins” was the place to tell these stories, rather than the core solo series, partially because there's more than one story involving those characters. “It's as simple as it doesn't all fit,” Alonso said. “Charles Soule has just launched an Inhuman book, he's in the middle of an arc, and it doesn't make sense to upend all that to do an 'Original Sin' story.”
The first cover of “Original Sins” has quite a few characters on it, but Brevoort said that it was more illustrative than representative — that said, “there's a Lockjaw story in 'Original Sins' #1 and a Howard the Duck story in 'Original Sins' #2.”
“I will remind you, too, that there's a Doop series we're launching next week,” said Alonso.
“The Black Knight himself does have a story in 'Original Sins' #2, but I don't think we touch on any of the MI-13 members,” said Brevoort. “I don't want to swear to that yet, but there's still that outside chance that lightning will strike and we'll find a way to work them in.”

In terms of diversity of creative talent contained in “Original Sins,” Brevoort said there were a million different ways of doing a comic. “An event like 'Original Sin' allows us to give an opportunity to some folks a chance to come into the Marvel Universe, play with the toys we've got and get their feet wet,” said Brevoort. “Everybody kind of forgets it now because he's been around for so long, but Brian Bendis was an indie creator for years before he was Marvel's top writer. That's a testament to his skill level and that he got to come into the sandbox and play. There's every hope that someone we bring in now could be the next Brian Bendis.”

“I'm so excited about the diversity of the All-New Marvel NOW! launches,” said Alonso, praising the artists in particular on each of the new books. “The worst thing you can do is suggest that there's one way of doing things. Any creator out there can be a hit in the right hands.”
One of the major different aspects of how “Original Sin” was built is structure, which allows creators to tell their own stories that are related, but distinct from the core event. “It's a much simpler and cleaner structure than we've done before,” said Brevoort. “Part of the reason this is so appealing is because we haven't done it before. … It also means that the core story can focus on the core situation, which is the death of the Watcher, the murder, the investigation of the killer.”
“The story by Jason and Mike is, in itself, an original sin,” said Alonso. “The core idea for this story was something we concocted years ago — it went from a high concept to a story at the hands of Jason. I think you're going to see in the quality of stories we brought to the table that these aren't stories we did in two weeks.”
According to Brevoort, each “Original Sins” story will have a distinct favor to them, which will hopefully make for a satisfying reading experience.
In terms of the artist pool, Brevoort said Mark Bagley would be teaming up with Slott and Raffaele Ienco is drawing the Black Knight story.
The individual issues will be regular-sized issues, and the size of the stories will vary in length to fill. All told, there are 11 different stories — two new stories per issue with the “Young Avengers” serialized story. “These are all short pieces. Some of them are 8-10 pages, some of them are very short — like two pages,” said Brevoort.
As for the upcoming title launches post-“Original Sin,” Alonso said that readers should expect the same diversity both in titles and in characters. “Look for another launch with a female lead character, as well,” said Alonso. “We're zoning in on an eighth, so keep buying those books.”
Brevoort said the length of the series and individual stories is designed to cover as many creative teams and characters as possible. “Much like the Point One books we've been doing, there's as much expectation as we sit at the top of the call that we'll be doing a Deathlok series,” Brevoort said. “The same could be true of any other one of these that are in ['Original Sins'].”
The series will span three months and five issues — two issues in the first two months, with one issue in the third. Right now, it is not be planned for the same weeks as the “Original Sin” core series.
As the call wrapped, D'Lando stated that those hoping for more information on “Original Sin” and “Original Sins” should pay attention to news coming out of C2E2.
“Original Sins” #1 starts in June.
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