By Daniel Way (Writer), Mike Deodato (Art), and Rain Beredo (Colors) and Mike Carey (Writer), Scot Eaton (Pencils), Andrew Hennessy (Inks), and Jason Keith (Colors)
The Story: This one-shot serves to get readers up to speed on what’s been happening in both X-Men: Legacy and Wolverine: Origins, the two books involved in the much-hyped Original Sin crossover event. Wolverine, searching for Professor X, calls in a favor from an old acquaintance to provide shelter for his amnesiac son, Daken. What little peace Daken finds is quickly shattered by the appearance of the “Sebastian Shaw controlled” Miss Sinister. Meanwhile, Wolverine confronts Charles Xavier in order to “convince” him to help repair Daken’s mind.
What’s Good: Quite a lot actually, especially for something that mainly serves as a foundation. I was only slightly interested in the crossover prior to reading this one-shot, but it definitely looks to be something worth following. The writing by Daniel Way and Mike Carey flows together smoothly, the artwork in both chapters is fantastic, and at five parts, the whole thing will require a minimal investment. Also, it’s worth mentioning that the story is extremely easy to pick up on whether you’re a new reader or someone like me who only follows one of the X-books (X-Men: Legacy).
What’s Not So Good: The fact that this story seems to be for a specific audience despite the easy-to-follow introduction. I honestly can’t imagine this hooking too many new readers as many suffer from Wolverine fatigue as it is. In addition, while it has been said that this crossover will have an effect on the X-Men as a whole, I don’t really see how this can fit into the larger scheme of things as it stands at the moment. This looks to be an entertaining, self-contained story that doesn’t need to be shoehorned into the larger picture unless it can fit comfortably.
I also have to add that I think Daken looks ridiculous (outside of his cool looking claws), and Miss Sinister seems to offer little more than sex-appeal. They are decent enough as character concepts, but this book does little to show why I should care about either.
Conclusion: This visually attractive, high quality one-shot does everything it needs to do in order to get readers interested in the Original Sin crossover. While nothing groundbreaking, it provides the necessary background and enough hooks to grab those willing to check it out. Definitely worth a look for “X” fans or those already picking up either X: Men: Legacy or Wolverine: Origins.
Grade: B
-Kyle Posluszny