Category: annihilation

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Annihilation Omnibus: Ronan

This is a review of the Ronan miniseries, written by Simon Furman with art by Jorge Lucas, which appears in the Annihilation Omnibus. You can read my reviews of Drax the Destroyer, Nova, The Silver Surfer, and The Super Skrull here, here, here, and here. 

Short summary: the Marvel universe is being invaded by The Annihilation Wave, a space armada hailing from the Negative Zone led by Annihilus, a beaucoup powerful bug warlord. Will this be the last time I have to post this summary? Stay tuned! 

Ronan the Accuser is a Kree. He’s blue, like a Smurf; unlike a Smurf, he’s built like a pro wrestler and wields an enormous hammer. Ronan is an Accuser, which means he passes summary judgment on, well, just about everybody, but especially the Kree. Think judge, jury, and executioner and you’ll get the idea. 

Ronan has been accused of treason! It’s obvious he’s innocent, because people with binary points of view – besides being scary – don’t sell out their ideals, which are baked in. After a rigged trial, Ronan is exiled from Kree Space. 

Ronan’s new goal in life is to track down the alien who gave false testimony and make her reveal who betrayed him. This leads him to Godthab Omega, a gritty planet held together by dirt, spit, and barbed wire. Besides the settlers, this world is occupied by a band of women named the Graces. They are led by Gamora, the self-proclaimed Deadliest Woman in the Universe. 

But wait, there’s more! A cosmic entity named Glorian manipulates Ronan and Gamora into fighting, and uses the power run-off from their battle to terraform the world into something beautiful. Now Godthab Omega has way more trees, which is so nice! This attracts the attention of the Annihilation Wave, because reasons. 

Wow, lots more plot than I expected! Lots of names to look up, too, but that’s my problem not yours. So is this miniseries any good? There is a lot of material crammed into four issues, but if you like space opera set in gritty worlds this is entertaining. 

There is also a touch of humor, which may or may not be intentional. Gamora, the most dangerous woman in the universe, goes into combat wearing a thong. If it was me, I’d wear battle armor, but I’m not the most dangerous woman in the universe. Maybe it’s a battle thong?

I will give Ronan this. He might be a big blue goon, but he sure isn’t a chauvinist. He pulls no punches when battling Gamora as they joyously pummel the crap out of each other. The miniseries moves the larger Annihilation plot forward while also changing Ronan as a character.* Since the big galoot is a mover & shaker in the Annihilation miniseries, which I will review next week, this is a must-read! 

*Addendum: the next time we see Ronan, he tells a Kree commander he’s relieved of duty right before smashing his skull in with his hammer, so maybe he hasn’t changed all that much.

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Annihilation Omnibus: Super Skrull

This is a review of the Super Skrull miniseries, written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach with art by Gregory Titus, which appears in the Annihilation Omnibus. You can read my reviews of Drax the Destroyer, Nova, and The Silver Surfer here, here, and here. 

Short summary: the Marvel universe is being invaded by The Annihilation Wave, a space armada hailing from the Negative Zone led by Annihilus, a beaucoup powerful bug warlord. Will the Marvel universe survive? What do you think? 

First, some background: The Super Skrull, aka Kl’rt, is a Fantastic Four villain who has been around since the 1960’s. I believe he was featured in the 1967 Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four cartoon! Kl’rt is super strong, can absorb almost limitless amounts of energy, can project invisible force fields, and has a malleable molecular structure. He’s also totally ruthless, can shape change into anything he wants, and has hypnotic abilities to boot. 

If you think it makes no sense that he’d lose to the Fantastic Four 97,654 times, you would be correct. Apparently, the Fantastic Four are stronger because they fight together as a family, which is comic book logic at its finest. Since the Super Skrull is a popular villain, the powers-that-be at Marvel keep on bringing him back. 

In this miniseries, the Super Skrull wants to stop something called The Death Star – er, Harvester of Sorrow, a living world-destroying weapon which is scything through the Skrull Empire like a hot knife through butter. Kl’rt is fanatically loyal to the Skrull Empire, but the Skrull Empire no longer exists. Now it’s just a collection of warlords.

The Super Skrull pleads for aid with one of those warlords, who laughs at him. Because of his past failures, Kl’rt is viewed as a joke by his fellow Skrulls and is openly jeered. This is not smart, as many Skrulls discover moments before they die.

An angry Kl’rt kills scores of his countrymen, but is hopelessly outgunned. He’s rescued from certain death by R’kin, a scrappy Skrull youth who idolizes him. If Kl’rt was a hero, he and young R’kin would bond and perhaps he’d mentor the youth! 

The thing is, Kl’rt isn’t a hero. He is a supervillain who uses any means at his disposal (torture, murder, mutilation, etc.) to get what he wants, leaving behind a trail of broken, twisted, charred – you get the idea. Annihilation as a whole features characters who range from morally gray (reborn Drax) to black (Super Skrull) to mass murderers (old Drax) to genocidal (Silver Surfer).  Nova is the only uninteresting protagonist of the bunch, because he’s a dyed-in-the wool goody-two-shoes. 

Anyway, the Super Skrull and R’kin travel to the Negative Zone. They pick up a hardscrabble army on a prison planet, as well as a virus bioweapon to destroy the Harvester of Sorrow. There’s even a hint of romance between Kl’rt and living robot Praxagora, which is bizarre as they are totally different life forms, but love conquers all boundaries! Alas, they are betrayed. 

Instead of killing the Super Skrull, his enemies haul him into the Harvester of Sorrow. Would you bring someone who can absorb/expel almost limitless amounts of energy into your living bio-weapon? Anyone with a functioning brain knows what happens next.

Super Skrull is my favorite Annihilation miniseries. Partly that’s because it is a self-contained storyline with a beginning and an end. Partly it’s because of the Super Skrull himself, who is a character with a short but very intense shelf life. Sometimes it’s fun to watch a villain romp, but you don’t want him to overstay his welcome, and this miniseries doesn’t do that. Recommended for lovers of space opera comics and obscure Marvel characters.

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Annihilation Omnibus: Silver Surfer

This is a review of the Silver Surfer miniseries, written by Keith Giffen with art by Renato Arlem, which appears in the Annihilation Omnibus. You can read my reviews of Drax the Destroyer and Nova here and here. 

The Annihilation Wave is coming, so lock your doors! On second thought, don’t bother. Since The Annihilation Wave is a space armada hailing from the Negative Zone led by bug warlord Annihilus, it won’t do any good. Annihilus is invading us because our universe is expanding and the Negative Zone is shrinking. This is a crazy reason to declare war on a universe, but you don’t get to be a bug warlord by being sane.

This miniseries features the Silver Surfer, a silver dude who flies around on his cosmic surfboard. I kid you not. He’s also known as Norrin Radd, ex-Herald of Galactus. Who is Galactus, you ask? Why, he’s a big purple and pink dude who travels the universe devouring planets. The Silver Surfer was his original herald, which means he found worlds for Galactus to eat.

In other words, the Surfer is an accessory to genocide, mass murder, Armageddon – whatever you want to call it. He leads Galactus to Earth and then has a change of heart and turns against him. The Purple World Eater doesn’t take this well and gives the Surfer the boot. That’s why he’s an ex-herald.

Whew, that’s a lot of exposition! Anyway, the Surfer is being stalked by Annihilus’ minions, a bunch of big grey hardbody dudes with space-dogs led by Ravenous. Annihilus wants to harness the Power Cosmic, and since Galactus goes through heralds like socks, Ravenous and his boys have been busy. 

After beating up on Ravenous but not killing him, the Surfer once again becomes Galactus’ herald. But not before the Silver One has a crisis of faith. What is the difference between the Annihilation Wave and what Galactus does?

The difference, apparently, is that what Galactus does is part of the Galactic Order. How do we know this? Well, Galactus tells us. I mean, if I was Galactus, I might say the same thing, but I digress. We also see Thanos, who I think starred in some movie, meet up with Annihilus. Afterwards, Thanos has a pow-wow with Tenebrous and Aegis, two beings on par with Galactus. Seems like trouble might be brewing!

The Silver Surfer is an interesting character, quiet, introspective, thoughtful. Perhaps these qualities are what make him a good herald? I dunno. Anyway, this storyline seems mostly about advancing the plot for the upcoming Annihilation miniseries, so it’s not as interesting as the others. But you do need to read it, if you want to read Annihilation, which I think is a good idea. Recommended for lovers of space opera comics and dudes on cosmic surfboards.

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Annihilation Omnibus: Nova

This is a review of the Nova miniseries, written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning with art by Kev Walker, which appears in the Annihilation Omnibus. Read my review of the first volume, Drax the Destroyer, here. The Annihilation Wave is coming! What’s the Annihilation Wave, you may ask? In the Marvel Universe, there’s a place called The Negative Zone. The king of the Negative Zone is a bug thing named Annihilus, and the Annihilation Omnibus chronicles his invasion of our universe (The Positive Zone?).

This graphic novel features the adventures of Nova, aka Richard Rider, a member of the Nova Corps, which fyi isn’t ANYTHING like the Green Lantern Corps. The Nova Corps meet to discuss the impending threat of the Annihilation Wave, and five minutes later they are gone except for Richard and the Xandarian WorldMind, which uploads itself into his brain. This is good and bad – it boosts Richard’s powers, but he can’t handle all that data and eventually his monkey brain will pop like a zit.

Luckily Richard has Drax – who appeared in the first miniseries – to give him a helping hand. Drax has dropped the Destroyer moniker, but his specialty is still killing things, which is good because in this series there’s a lot of stuff to kill. Together, they escape the remains of Xandar and meet up with cosmic goodie two shoes Quasar, possessor of the coveted quantum bands. Too bad the Annihilation Wave is in hot pursuit.

Will Annihilus conquer the universe? How long can Richard hold out before his brain fries? And will the Xandarian WorldMind ever shut up? I read Annihilation years ago, and didn’t appreciate how much fun it was. That may be because most of the characters are obscure, and today – well, they’re still obscure, but that makes it more interesting. Annihilation was a huge gamble on Marvel’s part, and it paid off. Recommended for lovers of cosmic superheroics and space opera.

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Annihilation Omnibus: Drax the Destroyer

This is a review of the Drax the Destroyer miniseries, written by Keith Giffen with art by Mitch Breitweiser, which appears in the Annihilation Omnibus. The Annihilation storyline revitalized Marvel’s cosmic line, leading to the resurrection of titles like Guardians of the Galaxy and the resurgence of characters like Thanos, both of whom appeared in the movies Avengers: Infinity Wars and Avengers: Endgame. I won’t say that this is the miniseries that started it all, but it’s still a fine read.

Drax the Destroyer is Marvel’s cosmic version of The Hulk, big, green, and dumb. Drax survives an exploding spaceship taking him to prison, and ends up in Coot’s Bluff, Alaska, population 2816 – a number that is soon to plunge. I do not know why Drax is bound for prison. I am a comic junkie, and I do not even know Drax’s backstory. If you look up obscure Marvel characters in the dictionary, you will see Drax’s face. His history doesn’t matter, because the purpose of this miniseries is to serve as an introduction to characters appearing in Annihilation.

Besides Drax, there are four other survivors – a Skrull named Paibok, a blue alien named Lunatik, and the Blood Brothers, who are, uh, brothers. This group can be divided into those who are smart, Paibok; those who are smart and evil, Lunatik; and those who are stupid, The Blood Brothers and Drax. The Blood Brothers start a brawl with Drax while Paibok and Lunatik enter Coot’s Bluff, kill a bunch of locals, and organize the survivors into work gangs. They want to salvage the remains of the exploding spaceship and jury rig a ship so they can leave Earth, ASAP.

Paibok kills Drax. It takes him about five seconds. The Skrull is a soldier, and he uses his abilities like a soldier would. But don’t worry! Drax is resurrected, or perhaps he resurrects himself. There are hints Drax is evolving during his scuffle with The Blood Brothers – the longer the fight drags on, the smarter he gets.

Upon Drax’s resurrection, he psychically bonds with Cammie, a local. Cammie falls under the category of smart and evil. She’s ten, but has the world-weariness of a fifty-seven-year old cashier working full-time at McDonalds, which is to say she’s stuck and hates her life. The new Drax isn’t as strong as the dumb Drax, but he’s a thousand times more lethal. He has no qualms about killing and only fights when he needs to.

This reads more like an adventure or survival comic than a superhero story in that it is devoid of any sentimentality and features a sky-high body count. None of the characters – Drax included – act like superheroes. They act according to their self-interests. Drax doesn’t kill Paibok, because he has no reason to do so. In a way, Paibok did Drax a favor – because big, green, and dumb is no way to go through life. Recommended, especially for fans of Keith Giffen and Marvel’s Cosmic Line.