#11: 16th July 2014

I was out for some time and have fallen behind with 3 weeks of reviews. I'll try to post them as soon as possible and get back to my normal schedule.

Book of the Week: Original Sin #6

This year's Marvel event, and apparently not the only one (Axis starts probably in September or October), is Original Sin by Jason Aaron. I have always been sceptic about such events, which are made only for one reason - publisher's financial benefits. That's why I limit myself only to core series, all special tie ins are probably not that good and necessary for the story.

Original Sin no.6 continues Jason Aaron's intriguing work on Watcher's death and its aftermath. Writer suggests us it was Nick Fury who killed him, but I do not believe it. In my opinion some greater forces are at work here and will be revealed soon, rather in #8, series finale. According to Original Sin's events, almost all storylines about Nick were lying about his nature and motives. It was risky for Aaron to completely reboot a character of such importance and history in Marvel universe, but I would consider this manoeuvre as successful, it's series' merit, which keeps readers interested.

Artwork was done by Mike Deodato, incredibly consistent and talented artist, whose style perfectly fits Marvel's vision of recent events. When you look at these panels, you feel this story is supposed to be big. Mike is great, but I would exchange his realistic art to a little bit more artistic and dark by for example Gabriel Hardman. The whole event would have completely another feel, maybe, but necessarily,  better.

There are many other questions to be answered on the horizon. Who? Why? How? How Jason will handle them will be crucial for how Original Sin will be remembered in fan community. For now, it has gathered many positive reviews. In my opinion it has been a solid book from #1, but still I am not amazed and feel, after Thor, Jason can do better.

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #3

Son of Dathomir is the last Dark Horse's Star Wars miniseries and the very first addition to the all-new canon, which was established not that much time ago. Is it a miniseries worth reading? Not necessarily,  I would recommend it only to The Clone Wars animated series fans. For other readers it will be incredibly boring and mediocre.

What's so bad? Jeremy Barlow do not know how to write Star Wars, all characters are soulless. They are a MASS, not CHARACTERS. We have fights on Ord Mantell, alliance between Maul and Dooku, Sidious, lightsaber fight, but narration makes all these, theoretically interesting events static and impossible to enjoy.  Each two pages I was checking how many more are left and after the last one was this big: "Uffff, finally".

Son of Dathomir can defend itself only with artwork, which also wasn't remarkable, however, some panels were impressive. If only Randy Stradley chose another writer to this series... its potential could be used in 100%. I hate reading a book with a feel of wasting my time. That's unfortunate, but true. I hope at least finale will be better than previous issues. Dark Horse should make us miss him as Star Wars publisher.

Cover of the Week: Original Sin #6