Manga Thoughts: Gundam the Origin volume 1

After everything else I'd already heard about it, I was quite interested to hear Vertical would be publishing the Gundam the Origin manga over here. As with Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's Evangelion manga, having the original anime's character designer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko draw the work seems to have placed it quite a cut above the usual quickly dismissed manga based on anime, and I suppose I was remembering seeing the old "album"-sized volumes Viz had published but not buying them; still, so far I know the complete manga wasn't released over here back then.
( Here it began, and here it stirs once more )