Tag: drax the destroyer

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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.