Brian Truitt

USA TODAY

The Marvel crossover event %27Original Sin%27 launches in May

The plot focuses on a murder mystery surrounding the death of the Watcher

Nick Fury assembles a team to solve the crime before heroes%27 deep%2C dark secrets are revealed

A murder mystery is afoot in the Marvel Universe.

When the all-seeing, all-knowing Uatu the Watcher is found dead in his lunar lair, the Avengers and the rest of Earth's superheroes scramble to keep their deepest and darkest secrets from being revealed, in Marvel Comics' annual major crossover event Original Sin, launching in May.

"It's all the skeletons, all the dark things that you never know, all the interesting and intriguing information — not all of it even bad," says Marvel executive editor Tom Brevoort. "And it will all expand out into dozens of stories that will cut to the core of who these characters are."

Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Mike Deodato Jr., the main Original Sin series runs eight issues over four months and focuses on the search for the culprit.

Former S.H.I.E.L.D. super-spy Nick Fury is "the grizzled Marvel superhero version of an old homicide detective" who assembles Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and others for the main manhunt, Aaron says. Meanwhile, another group including the Punisher, Doctor Strange, Emma Frost, Ant-Man and Black Panther conducts its own investigation.

The bigger problem, though, is whoever killed the Watcher also ransacked his place on the moon, stealing powerful objects as well as all the information he's been gathering since the beginning of the Marvel Universe.

Those hidden histories will come out in the wash through tie-in issues in various Marvel series where folks such as Wolverine and Spider-Man will have to deal with the individual fallout.

Whereas last year's Infinity main event was galactic in scale, "the stakes involved in Original Sin are much more personally involved," Brevoort says. "It's all the characters having to deal with something that really throws their whole world for a loop in a very cutting-close-to-the-heart way."

A special Original Sin zero issue in April by writer Mark Waid and artist Jim Cheung acts as a prelude, focusing on the strange yet emotional kinship between the Watcher and the young hero Nova.

For those with no idea who the bald, toga-wearing Uatu is, "that book will get you up to speed and give you everything you need to know so he can die in the very next issue," says Brevoort.

Original Sin marks the biggest Marvel comic to date for Aaron, who also pens Thor: God of Thunder. He says he's enjoying bringing fresh ideas into the book, such as the team-up of the Punisher and Doctor Strange and "writing them as like a buddy-cop movie."

There will be plenty of suspects and suspense as to the identity of the killer, Brevoort says, "and the final act of the thing will set people on their heels."

However, Original Sin is "not a game of Clue," Aaron says. "It's not just about guessing which one of these five people pulled the trigger. There's a bigger overall mystery than that."