When They Have Nowhere To Run

Looking back, the thing I like best about the Fear Itself tie-in for Avengers Academy was the horror movie vibe of it. A bunch of teens, trying to relax, maybe connect a little, and then, uh-oh, unstoppable killing machines arrive to, well, kill them unstoppably. And the teens have no place to go. They're in a mansion floating in a seemingly empty dimension. Hiding is useless, since the monsters can simply destroy the place one section at a time, and there are only so many places to run. Plus, they'll get tired before the monsters do. They can try and fight, or try and be tricky, but it's all delaying tactics when you get down to it.

Thinking about that made me wish Annihilation: Conquest had played more with the same idea. It was there for the taking. The Phalanx created a barrier that was theoretically impenetrable. Nova did manage to get out, but only with some luck and a nearby neutron star. For most people, his escape route wouldn't have been an option. So the heroes are trapped with an enemy that could pursue them, and what's more, can turn any of them they capture against them. You do see that incorporated into the story a bit. When Blastaar is captured, Star-Lord and his crew have to get their plan underway quickly because sooner or later, Blastaar will become a Phalanx Select, and then they'll now the plan, too.

For the most part, though, the heroes aren't trying to escape. Star-Lord and his bunch went right into the heart of the Phalanx compound. The Wraith (wonder if we'll ever see him again?) didn't bother to run. Nova did, but the nature of how Abnett and Lanning went about it meant there wasn't much chance to play with the sense of being trapped. Rich tried to escape, slammed into the barrier, nearly died, became a Select, got Ko-Rel killed, the Worldmind got the infection under control, and Rich escaped using information the Worldmind had learned from Rich's time as part of the Phalanx.

It might have been interesting to see Nova not hit the barrier, then he and the Worldmind struggle to evade the pursuing enemies, remain uninfected by the transmode virus, and find some way to get out, or turn the tide with the resources available within the confines of Kree space. Alternatively, Abnett and Lanning could have chosen not to kill off Ko-Rel, have her help facilitate Nova Prime's escape, but she finds herself still stuck in Kree space, trying to survive/find her son/slow down the Phalanx. Hmm, almost five years on, I still think killing off Ko-Rel was the biggest mistake DnA made on that book.

The writer who came the closest to using that particular feel was Avengers Academy's own Christos Gage, who wrote the Quasar mini-series. He had Phyla and Moondragon searching for a savior (they wound up with Adam Warlock, guess you can't get everything you want). While being relentlessly pursued by an infected Super-Adaptoid. Escape is hampered because Phyla and Moondragon are focused on finding the savior, which limits their options, much like the U-Boat captain in The Enemy Below. Plus, Heather is having some problems (she's about to turn into an actual dragon), and having a sick person in the party slows them down. So there's that sense of looming dread, from the Super-Adaptoid following them, to Heather's problems, to Phyla's doubts about herself, and the fact her Quantum Bands are gradually running out of power. It can all give a sense of inevitability that someone is doomed, whether it'll be Phyla, Heather, the savior, some other poor schmoe. It didn't turn out that way, not during that mini-series anyway (Heather died in the main Conquest mini-series, thanks Ultron, ya jerk), but the feeling was there for a time.