31 Days of Scans - Day 21

Favorite Event? Easy-peasy. Acts of Vengeance merited some brief consideration, but there’s really one only choice.

ANNIHILATION!

This event showed up at just the right time, when Civil War was making me sick of all the nonsense going on with Marvel Earth. I had no interest in watching alleged heroes punch each other over legislation, seeing the New Warriors dumped on, or watching Spider-Man reveal his identity to the world like a moron. On the other hand, give me a story that presents Annihilus as this terrible, single-minded threat to the entire universe, but has actually marshaled his considerable forces so he might actually carry out his goals?

Then throw in Thanos, who is helping Annihilus pretty much because he was bored and wanted to see what would happen if things got shook up a little. Of course they can’t trust each other. Annihilus trusts no one, is dead set on his plans, with the power to back them up. Thanos is more circuitous in his approach, always with contingencies, but no less powerful. Neither one would really like how the other's plans would turn out, where they to learn of them. That doesn’t mean they can’t cause a lot of damage before the partnership falls to pieces. Combine a being clever enough to bargain with two ancient beings to defeat Galactus, and also smart enough to turn Big G into a weapon, with a being crazy enough to actually use said planet-destroying weapon, and it’s bad for everyone.

So bad in fact, Kree and Skrull willingly teamed up. Ronan and Kl’rt weren’t happy about it (well, Super-Skrull enjoyed killing Kree traitors), but they did it. This whole part, where Ronan, Super-Skrull, and Praxagora storm the current ruling house of the Kree and find them negotiating a truce with the Annihilation Wave, leading to Ronan pretty much killing everyone and assuming control. Then he launches entire rocket-propelled city blocks loaded with Kree soldiers at the Wave. And all that’s really a sideshow to what Galactus was up to, and what Nova was about to face.

I know I cut part of that off, but I do like the jabs at what was going on with Civil War. 'It's as if they've forgotten how to be heroes.' 'The Annihilation Wave will rip the planet out from under them while they shoot at each other!' This was the point when Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s stretch writing Richard Rider began (they wrote the Annihilation: Nova mini-series, though Keith Giffen wrote the main series, and the above scene). Rich finds himself the last of the Nova Corps, carrying all the Corps’ power and knowledge, without going crazy, and save all life in the universe. Even if that means dying trying to take out Annihilus. Though that's still not a very good costume for Rich.

There’s a fantastic sense of momentum to the whole thing. Super-Skrull comes back from an apparently noble death in his tie-in mini-series, and there’s only enough time to vaguely handwave in the general direction of an explanation, because things have gotten even worse for the good guys. It wasn’t enough Annihilus had an army of millions or more bugs, or that the Negative Zone has its own super-humans, willing to fight for what they’ve been told is the survival of their home. The odds keep ramping up, and the heroes have to try a different approach. It plays up the idea that Earth’s heroes, normally such a potent force in these sorts of things, are too distracted with stupid crap to be of much help. Reed Richards isn’t going to pop-up with some doodad to reverse the polarity and toss the Annihilation Wave back into the Negative Zone, or disrupt the hive mind of the Wave. Drax is working for the United Front, killing lots of bugs, but it’s very clear it’s all a means to an end for him, Thanos’ end, which isn’t as good a thing as you’d think.

Oh, and this is the mini-series that introduced me to Cammi, at that point claiming ownership of Drax (she’d gained that in an earlier mini-series Giffen wrote I’d missed). Their whole relationship is a little strange, and it’s hard to say how much of what people imply is concern for her on Drax’ part is just projection on theirs. The ambiguity is interesting.

Things mostly work out. The day is saved. Most of the characters get happy endings of a sort, even Thanos (his doesn’t stick, but oh well, it was nice while it lasted). It sets things up for Nova’s ongoing, put Star-Lord back in circulation (Giffen sort of started that with his stint on Thanos, but this got Quill out of the prison and into action), which eventually led to Guardians of the Galaxy (I’m thinking of Abnett and Lanning’s version, but if you want to envision Bendis’, or the movie, that’s your call). It was always disappointing there was never enough time between events to really explore the new status quo (Annihilation: Conquest kicked off about six months after Annihilation ended), but that isn’t the fault of the event itself. I thought it put a lot of potential fodder for stories out there, even if it didn’t get used.

All images are from the primary Annihilation #1-6 mini-series, by Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea DiVito (artist), Laura Villari (color artist), and Cory Petit (letterer).