Marvel's Original Sin Prose Novel

by Gavin G. Smith

This thrilling Marvel murder mystery is packed with shocking twists and turns in an exciting re-imagining of the comic crossover sensation .

Uatu the Watcher, a mysterious being who observes mankind from the Moon, is dead. Nick Fury leads a cosmos-spanning investigation into the murder, forging unlikely alliances and sending Marvel's mightiest heroes to the farthest corners of the universe.

To uncover the truth, Doctor Strange and the Punisher must cross deadly dimensions, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Moon Knight and the Winter Soldier head into deep space, and Emma Frost, Ant-Man and Black Panther journey to the center of the Earth. All the while, Unseen forces gather, and just when the Avengers think they've cornered their murderer, everything explodes—unleashing the Marvel Universe's greatest secrets and rocking the heroes to their core!

In this novelization of the epic storyline by Jason Aaron and Mike Deodato Jr., truths will come tumbling into the light and the original sins of our heroes will be exposed for all to see.

Genres: Marvel, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published December 6, 2022

About the author

Gavin Smith was born in Dundee in the same year that Iron Butterfly recorded Inna-Gadda-da-Vida. He has also lived in Camberley, Hayling Island, Portsmouth, Hull, Leamington Spa and is currently living a near feral existence in Leicester (if you see him in the streets he will write science fiction for sweeties). Anyone who has been to any of these places will understand why his fiction is like it is.

He has a degree in writing for film and a Masters in medieval history. Veteran is his first novel but he is patiently waiting for one of the 2.5 scripts that have been optioned to be turned into films.

He likes to travel and dive when he can afford it and in his free time he enjoys getting the s**t kicked out of him whilst practicing Silat. He is hoping that his books do well so he can buy a motorbike.

Reviews

[Runalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fun novel version of a Marvel crossover event that Smith managed to make flow with action yet always focused on the not quite so black and white characters in this story. I really enjoyed it

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Titan for sending me this book for an honest review.

Overall this was a fun installment and a first marvel novel for me. I enjoyed reading about some of my favourite characters in a fast paced murder mystery. I felt like we got to see a different side to them from what we see on TV. I believe there are some historical differences between the comic characters in this story vs. their personas on TV which has accounted for this and it did make it quite enjoyable.

I felt a little confused at the beginning as I had no idea what to expect or if I should know about certain things going on and certain places but I felt this was easier to follow once the story really kicked off.

Hopefully I get a chance to read a few others in the Marvel universe! It's nice to see some different stories, worldbuilding and characters I've not encountered before.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this novelization of the core series of this Marvel "event." I'm not sure how much of this event really matters anymore in the Marvel Comics U, but that is neither here nor there. In terms of the novelization, I thought the author did a great job of capturing the mindsets, attitudes, and character of the characters from the story. He also did an impressive job of expanding upon and even building the characters in the book; something that is always difficult to do in a novel based on comic book characters and all of the retcons that take place. It moved at a fast pace; it held my interest throughout; and it helped enlighten me on some events that occurred in the limited series that I wondered about.

One thing that really surprised me was how much the author "humanized" Frank Castle aka the Punisher while showing how hyp0critical the other heroes could be at times. I thought this was really amazing, to be honest, 'cuz of how Castle tends to be portrayed in the comics. I especially liked the "idea" of how Castle is what you get when the heroes screw up so badly that somebody like the Punisher is needed to clean up their mess. Castle was well-written in this book and definitely a "highlight." One of the better moments of the hypocrisy being revealed has to do with Frank questioning Dr. Strange's methods, especially with how Strange had no problems killing non-human entities and yet condemned Castle for his methods of protecting humanity.

The book describes a lot of retcons that take place where events are created to create "secret sins" that everybody is keeping from each other. One of these days I will order the Original Sin Companion Omnibus and read those to find out what all of these "secret sins" truly are. The ones that are revealed are interesting, however (even though there is no resolution or whatever to the sins revealed in the book). We discover that Johnny Storm monkeyed with a device Reed Richards had created that would have worked and transformed Ben Grimm back into his human form for good had he not messed with it; he confessed his "sin" to Reed and Reed promised to keep it secret from Ben as well. We learn that a drunk Tony Stark messed with Banner's experimental bomb to make it more powerful and thereby helped cause the creation of the Incredible Hulk. Another person was bitten by the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker and that person (a young girl) is living in a secluded prison. Those are the "big sins" that stand out to me that I remember; I don't remember what else was revealed.

The "team-ups" in the story were fun in that it was an interesting mix of characters who are sent out to perform the secret investigations into why the Watcher was killed. Dr. Strange and Frank Castle. Gamora, Bucky, and Moon Knight. Black Panther, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), and Emma Frost. I think the best parts about the descriptions of each team's experiences was that the book went into more detail as to what was going on - what they were looking at, what they discovered, and what their thoughts and emotions were at the time. I realize a lot of this is probably pure conjecture on the part of the author, but he did a great job with the internal thoughts and emotions and interpersonal relationships that were going on with each team. I had forgotten that these characters were selected to replace Nick Fury as "the Man on the Wall" and these missions were tests to find out who the best candidates to replace Nick would be. So it was fun to read about Nick's mental processes on how various potential choices turned out to be poor choices to replace him and it ended up coming down to Castle and Bucky in the end with the Black Panther close behind [if I remember correctly]).

Dr. Strange is as arrogant as ever, and that arrogance really comes across in the story. So the author did a great job capturing this aspect about this hero was well. Captain America comes across as . . . I don't know . . . naively ignorant? Perhaps he expected too much out of each of the heroes he worked with, be they members of the Avengers or not? I still think it was crap that Thor could no longer wield Mjollnir for a period of time following this series, and the book sadly does not explain why Thor cannot hold his hammer, how he "lost his worthiness" while facing off against Nick Fury. At this point, I don't think what Nick whispered to him really matters in terms of it needing to be hidden in the novel, but whatever. Granted, Thor's intelligence, strength, and power levels are always all over the place it seems like, and that holds true in this storyline. He is only as intelligent as he needs to be, never mind he is how many thousands of years old and has more experience than anybody else on the team, and he is only as strong as he needs to be for Nick Fury to be able to stand against him and "win" (or fight Thor to a somewhat of a standstill, which is still a win for Nick). I don't believe Nick should have been able to stand against Thor, but neither do I believe that the Hulk is truly "the strongest there is" and should be able to stand against various gods and celestial beings and universal beings like he has and survive to tell the tale. Emma Frost was fun in the book; I'm still not really sure why she was chosen or how much of an impact she had in the book, but she was still a fun character to use and was a nice foil against Black Panther and Ant-Man. Black Panther was as mysterious as ever; his intelligence and wealth hinted at in the book as well as Wakanda's wealth, power, and advanced technology. So that was nicely done. It is interesting that Bucky is described as always enjoying violence and killing his enemies, that it started back in WWII when he discovered he was really quite good at killing Germans and/or Nazis and other enemies of the American people before he was transformed into the Winter Soldier. It was an interesting moment of character development for him, and it made me wonder how Steve would have handled it if he had found out this part of who and what Bucky is - that he likes killing, enjoys violence, and is willing to take the steps that Steve won't take to protect the U.S. of A. as well as humans in general.

There is a moment that really hit me more in this book than in the omnibus collection - it was when Fury was listening in on some "hog-like aliens" discussing how Earth was a delectable bounty waiting to be harvested and eaten. It really reminded me of Damian Knight's short story "To Serve Man" (that was also made into an episode of the Twilight Zone); however, the aliens in this story are Knight's aliens placed on steroid and sent to hell and back. But, yeah, I felt that scene was a really cool homage to a classic sci-fi short story.

I also liked the explanations of how bullets traveled, of how ballistics in space were a possibility. It reminded me of one of the things that David Weber does such an excellent job of describing in his Honor Harrington books - how you would have to use missiles, drones, or some kind of modified bullet that can travel on its own to strike a target because of the "extra dimensions" and forces involved in space battles between warships. Fury, Bucky, and even Thor are described as having to use skills and whatnot to utilize their weapons of choice, and the paths of orbits in conjunction with the various gravitational pulls of solar objects - be they man-made or natural - impacting said orbits or trajectories is discussed. It was pretty cool.

I also enjoyed the explanation of how the Watcher spent something like 42 minutes in a kind of "suspended animation" to allow for everything he had seen to be downloaded into whatever mechanism it was that the Watchers' civilization used to record everything ever seen by a Watcher. it is not something I ever thought about - what did he do with all of that information? What was especially cool about the number "42 minutes" is that the number "42" is the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy novel (and subsequent books). So it is fitting that the Watcher spends 42 minutes (out of every day, wasn't it?) downloading his memory of everything he saw before he starts the next period of being some kind of galactic peeping tom. I was also surprised to learn that Uatu was married; I did not know he was married. Did he have any children? One wonders what that would have been like in a Watcher household - do they take their vow of non-interference seriously when it comes to their own children/offspring? Are their spawn able to do whatever they want to do because the children know their parents will not do anything to stop them or their actions? I think the Watcher vow of non-interference only goes so far, to be honest, as they have opposed members of their factions who have tried to interfere or actually did interfere and were subsequently punished in some way for it.

I also loved that the Watcher's eyes were a kind of bomb and were used in "the best way possible" in the story. I had forgotten that aspect of the miniseries, so it was both cool and horrific to have those moments in the book where the eye(s) exploded and there was some kind of catastrophic even as a result. It was a crazy concept, and it was well done and well executed, as far as I am concerned.

The Orb was pretty creepy. I don't think I'd ever heard of him, but he assuredly went from Z-list to something much higher on the list. Or, maybe he didn't (in terms of future comic issues in which he may or may not appear). For some reason, I thought he had died in the series; I forgot that "horrific" moment at the end where he walks into the apartment to watch the woman killing her husband with a butcher knife and he only wants to watch it. The image in the book is well done, but the image in the comic is "much better" because of the horror it generated in me - one of the Watcher's eyes had bonded with the Orb and transformed him into something even ghastlier than he had been before.

It will be interesting to find out if Bucky remains "the Man on the Wall" and if Nick Fury remains "the Unseen" and stuck on the moon. I kinda doubt it, but maybe I'll take the time to look into it at some point.

I felt bad for the Mindless Ones that gained a higher level of intelligence and wanted to go back to being "mindless" again. I think they were truly the only sympathetic characters in the book (story), and I felt a bit of sorrow for them, for how they were forcefully made more intelligent against their will and did not know how to handle it.

I have read other books that have characters who talk about how there has to be a person or group of people willing to get their hands dirty and do things in secret that can never see the light of day to allow our nation to continue to function as it does. In some ways, I "get it", but I am still not sure how much I agree with that kind of justification that "the ends justify the means". I guess because it is such an extreme measure taken? "If this alien race is not exterminated, then the human race, all life on planet Earth, gets exterminated." So, yeah, I "get it", on the one hand, but it sure is an extreme measure of justification.

It was a fun book to read. I think the author did an excellent job expanding upon the story told in the limited series "event", and I also think the author did a great job of developing the characters of several if not most of the characters in the book. It is a good size cast of characters, and he handled them rather well (granted, he was using the storyline in the comics, so that helped him balance things out for the characters); I felt like he took what was done in the comics and actually improved upon it in his novelization.

Still, though, the weakest part of the book is the whole concept of there being a "Man on the Wall" who will do whatever it takes to protect the Earth from any kind of threat - galactic, extra-galactic, extra-dimensional, or even Terran in nature. I say it is the weakest part of the book because it describes how one Nicholas J. Fury did whatever it took to protect the Earth at various times, including killing entire alien civilizations and/or destroying entire realities, and yet you still had Secret War occur on his watch as well as Norman Osborn's Dark Reign and a host of other events that threatened the security of life on this planet (such as that planet-killing bullet that Kitty Pryde is trapped inside for a time in Whedon's Astonishing X-Men run - that image of the Destroyer should have been Nick and not Colossus) and yet he did nothing to stop it or was supposedly powerless to stop it. If he truly has the power to stop an invasion from another universe, another dimension, any multiversal threat, then the "major events" that have been happening in Marvel's comics that involve alien or extra-dimensional threats should never have happened. Heck! Nick even kills another living planet! I thought it was Ego when I first read the comic book series; I realized while reading this book that it was not Ego but another living planet. So here is this guy who is supposed to be some kind of "man on the wall" who will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the Earth and claims that he has, and yet he has allowed various events to take place that could have meant the Earth could have been destroyed or all live on the planet exterminated?

And the cover is beautiful. I loved it. I think it's actually the cover of one of the issues in the series, but I still love it as a cover of the book. So, yeah, I am happy I picked it up and read it. It was well-done in my opinion; I would have said maybe not quite five stars but definitely four stars. However, the concept behind the story is not well thought out or executed very well in terms of sixty years of Marvel comics lore/history, so I am tempted to drop it down to three stars. However, the author did such an excellent job of capturing the characters in written form as well as in describing different events/moments in the book (AND making both the altered Mindless Ones AND Frank Castle sympathetic characters!!!!!!) (and the fact that the story is not his story; he merely made an existing story better) encourages me to leave it as four stars.

[Derrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel Novels are hit or miss for me. Currently I'm playing Marvel Snap so I have a renewed interest in all the characters as many of them I have no idea their story. This story has many many characters which I also am not a fan of, but this was a good book. The story was like a murder mystery and changes the path of the marvel universe. (at least what I know of it) i'm curious if this is cannon or just a story. enjoyable read for sure.

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prose novel adaptations of existing comic stories are a strange thing. The story already exists in one medium already, and whilst you often get novelisations of films or games, to get one of another type of book is probably rarer, and getting one that works well seems to be even more rare.

Comics aren’t just a medium, they have their own styles, their own methods of storytelling that work because of the medium they’re in. If you copy across that story as-is into prose the difference in mediums can quickly cause the story to break down. You have to make sure to get the right writer for the job. Luckily, Titan Books’ latest Marvel prose novel, Original Sin, not only gets this right, but manages to make the prose novel a lot more enjoyable than the comic version.

Original Sin begins by taking the reader to an ancient alien city on the Moon, where a powerful entity known as The Watcher makes his home. As the Watcher, who can see everything, goes into a state that makes him essentially shut down for several minutes, two mysterious figures break into his home and do something. After this, we jump forward a few years to join Nick Fury, Captain America, Black Widow, and Wolverine as they meet up for ‘meat night’ and decent steaks. When Cap gets a call from Thor about an emergency on the moon, the four of them head out; with the retired Fury being brought along for his expert opinion. Arriving on the moon, the group discover the body of The Watcher. Shot in the head, and with his eyes cut out, the powerful entity has been murdered.

Thus begins a murder mystery investigation as the Avengers, with the help of Fury, try to figure out who, or what, could be powerful enough to kill The Watcher. The investigation will lead them into conflict with several villains, and will lead to some dark secrets being revealed. But as the heroes try to solve the case, a mysterious figure approaches several others, including Emma Frost of the X-Men, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, and the Punisher, and sends them on secret missions that start to reveal pieces of the puzzle. But who’s behind it all, and why are they sending these heroes on these weird missions?

Original Sin was an eight-part story (kind of) that was published in 2014 by Marvel Comics that featured several big-name heroes that are brought together to solve the murder of a character that by their very nature should never be able to be killed. Even though this was after my time working in a comic book shop, this was a big enough deal that I heard about it when not following Marvel anymore. It was a story that had people intrigued just by the concept, and this is something that Smith brings to this novel in spades.

This book doesn’t read like a comic-book adaptation, it reads like a mystery novel. Instead of cops or private detectives though, it’s super-soldiers, mutants, and vigilantes who are looking into things. There’s also a big feeling of espionage and spy thriller that creeps its way into the book as things progress, especially when the identity of the person pulling the strings becomes known. And having read a lot of comic adaptations where the writer simply takes the events and translates them without changing things up much, this new approach works a lot better. Nothing is dropped from the story, no big beats are changed, but Smith is able to make it feel fresh and interesting in ways the original just wasn’t.

One of the issues I had with the original was the art. The book was very dark visually, and it often took me out of the story and made everything feel dark and depressing. It felt like the comic was trying to push the idea that this was a grim, ‘adult’ story by reflecting it in the art, but here Smith simply tells the story, gives the characters room to exist and feel real, and because he’s not pushing it to be gritty or grim it works so much better. It’s still a darker story than some would expect from superhero comics, but it doesn’t feel like it’s trying as hard, and it makes for a much more enjoyable read.

One thing I do feel I need to talk about for a moment is the cover. I know you’re not supposed to judge books by their covers, and in this case I’d push that saying even more. The first thing is that the cover has taken a cover from the comics and used it here. Which is all well and good, except the cover isn’t from Original Sin, it’s from Original Sins. Might not sound too different, but the latter is a series of one-shot comics that featured other characters. As such, of the 16 characters on the cover, only 7 appear in this story, and even then, two of them are barely there and one doesn’t even say a single word. The cover also seems to have been blown up a bit, and the more you look at it the more you realise it’s actually quite pixelated, and lacks detail. So if you’re looking at the cover, and either being put off, or expecting Ms Marvel to show up, please just discount that altogether.

Overall, this is one of the better comic adaptations I’ve read, and ended up being a really well put together mystery story. The characters were written well, the bombastic comic book moments didn’t feel weird or out of place, and Smith translated the plot into an enjoyable experience. Even if you’re not a big comic reader I suspect that you could pick this book up and have a very good time with it.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the comic book version of this and wanted to follow up with the prose novel. I frankly didn’t care all that much for this (or really for that). The essential idea sounds great — someone kills the Watcher?!? — and then these big secrets are revealed?!? — but the second idea wasn’t really developed well, and the mystery of who killed Uatu was not very interesting.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read the audio version. This was a weird event. N. Fury wants to retire and somehow thinks a very complex plan involving tons of heroes risking their lives is the best way to go about it. I honestly did not follow all the logic steps of this master plan and the other bad person is what i consider a C-lister baddie. Maybe it reads better in full comic form.

[Gilbert Stack · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel, set in the Marvel Universe, depends on a gimmick and a retcon. I thought the gimmick worked great--the Watcher has been murdered. I thought the retcon involving Nick Fury failed completely as most of the things that have filled the pages of Marvel Comics for decades would not have happened if it were true.

But the use that is found for the dead Watcher’s eyes was intriguing...

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was so interesting, I liked seeing all the different characters working together, I loved seeing fury's backstory. it was a good mystery / thriller for the marvel universe. also the cover is really cool

[Rishu Harpavat · Rating 3 out of 5]

there was definitely potential here, but it felt like they consistently fell just short of making it properly work. murder mystery is a fun format for marvel, I just wish it had been written a bit better

[Andrew Overbye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really dig how the book inserts the characters' backstories into key moments!

[Thomas A Costa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Really enjoyed this, wide range of characters was very interesting and what a great story line! Hope he writes more like this!

[Kota · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was fun, but laborious at times.

[V. Arrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up. A lot of aspects of this were great -- I am impressed by how much latitude the author read given to add interiority to the characters that wasn't in the original comics format, in particular -- but just like the comics version, it could be 2/3 its length and be just as, if not more, thrilling and world-shaping and explosive, etc. The last two hours of the audiobook in particular really drag because the meat of the mystery has been solved and an extended fight sequence just doesn't work in book format. Also, wow, comics Fury is a straight-up monster. However, I love Steve, and also I love Rocket. I could see an adaptation of this to What If? season 2 or 3 being really cool because of the limitations of characters available -- there are definitely characters included in this novelization who could have easily been left out since their roles were relegated in the comics to mini-series runs outside of the main event (Thor, F4, Spider-Man, Hulk and Iron Man, Wolverine, Natasha...). The delineations between "morally pure" heroes and "pragmatic" heroes made for some interesting character team-up dynamics -- The Punisher with Doctor Strange in particular -- but it feels... Like tarnishing the whole idea of superheroes to have this "man on the wall" Space Genocides Are Okay thing going on in the background of heroic reactions on earth. You know? They're the Avengers, not the Prevengers, to quote MCU Tony, but he's right (that one time) and it's a more defensible moral and ethical stand for HEROES to take. I get that this is trying to be gritty and grounded in a form of realism, but like, I don't want that from superheroes. I want good guys. Hence loving Steve.

[Tom · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started out great, I thought it was a 4-5 star book with the various characters in unique teams. But I quickly realized that any suspense in the beginning was simply contrived by the author. Most of the characters knew what was going on or who they were talking too...but this information was withheld from the reader. So it wasn't exactly a mystery, just lack of information. Then the story seemed to grind to a stop somewhere near the middle. Then it just got tedious...I just wanted it to end.
Slight spoiler: Its one of those comic book stories that makes you think "if this power was available for as long as we are told it was, how is Earth ever in trouble? Any threat that is 50/50 to defeat Avengers, would be destroyed if this power joined and supported the Avengers."

[Set The Tape · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, this is one of the better comic adaptations I’ve read, and ended up being a really well put together mystery story. The characters were written well, the bombastic comic book moments didn’t feel weird or out of place, and Smith translated the plot into an enjoyable experience. Even if you’re not a big comic reader I suspect that you could pick this book up and have a very good time with it.

Full Review: https://setthetape.com/2022/10/17/ori...

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

biiiiig fan of Mr Punisher in this

[Todd Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cool story line. Uatu has always been a favorite Marvel character of mine so I couldn't miss this!