Sunday Splash Page #30

 

"Four-in-One Is Not Enough", in Annihilation: Super Skrull #1, by Javier Grillo-Marxuach (writer), Greg Titus (penciler), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Of the four lead-in Annihilation mini-series, I think this was my favorite. The Annihilation Wave has a planet-destroying weapon (not the same one they'd have later one, though), and the Super-Skrull is desperate to stop it before it reaches the Skrull homeworld. Desperate enough to get Reed Richards' help in reaching the Negative Zone, and desperate enough to seek allies there.

Something Grillo-Marxuach does smartly is he shifts the perspective the story is told from between characters. Often, these stories just come from the main character's perspective, and if he's been a villain up to that point, the story reframes him as more of a hero because it's filtered through his perceptions and justifications. Here, we see him through the eyes of characters who both admire and fear him, and see that he's still (mostly) a vicious, ruthless killer. It just so happens that there's another threat out there much worse. He's the lesser of two evils. And he has an element of self-doubt, having failed so many times, having gone from a decorated warrior to a joke openly scoffed at by regular Skrulls (who should be freaking terrified of this guy who can burst their heads open with a force field whenever he wants). It makes him enough of an underdog that it's possible to root for him.

I don't think I loved Titus' artwork at the time, but looking back, it's fluid enough to suit a shape-shifting character. He's able to draw Super-Skrull utilizing the FF's powers in various ways, and his design for the Harvester of Sorrows, which looks like a giant beehive, is not completely ridiculous for an insect-based army.

And with that, I'm out of town for the week, so if you comment on one of the posts set to go up this week and I don't reply, that's why.