"Never Go Home," in Annihilators #3, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Timothy Green II (artist), Nathan Fairbairn (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer)
After the conclusion of Thanos Imperative, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning weren't quite done with Cosmic Marvel yet, and so there were two Annihilators mini-series. The main story (with artist Tan Eng Huat) revolved around Cosmo carrying out Star-Lord's at the time dying wish to form a team with the power to truly guard the galaxy. That was OK, although Huat's art is not suited at all for big cosmic action, but the real show for me was the back-up stories, which revolved around Rocket Raccoon and Groot.
The first story found Rocket living as an office mail delivery boy, having given up on heroing out of guilt over losing his friend Peter Quill. An attack by a homicidal clown made of living wood prompts him to seek out Groot, and the two eventually end up back on Rocket's home of Halfworld, which he's mostly forgotten.
There's a real manic energy to this story as it shifts from Rocket's day job, to Planet X, to Halfworld. The threats keep shifting, from the clowns, to the true rulers of Planet X, back to the clowns, to the staff of Halfworld, and ultimately one of the patients/inmates.
Green's artwork is much looser here than it was on the Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord mini-series, but tighter and more consistent than it would be on Avengers Undercover. Maybe he's one of those artists that does better when he doesn't draw humans. It's all aliens, talking animals, and assorted other weird shit in this story. The clowns look extremely sinister, you could question if they're too sinister for their alleged purpose of keeping the more violent patients calm, but the clowns weren't exactly cheerful-looking in the Mignola/Mantlo mini-series back in the '80s.
There weren't any splash pages in the story in Annihilators: Earthfall, since the back-up was reduced to 5 pages per issues. It was an OK story about Rocket and Groot being trapped by Mojo and put through a series of constantly shifting perilous situations for his financial benefit.
2 comments:
I haven't read this, but dang...that is some very nice artwork!
My copes are in a trade called Rocket Raccoon and Groot: The Complete Collection. It also had each of their first appearances and the Mantlo/Mignola Rocket Raccoon mini, so it's a pretty good value.
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