Annihilation Book 1

Collects Drax the Destroyer #1-4 written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Mitch Breitweiser, Annihilation Prologue written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Scott Collins (with Arial Olivetti) and Annihilation: Nova #1-4 written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and drawn by Kev Walker.

I've never been much into the intergalactic corner of the Marvel Universe, but I heard a lot of good stuff about this one, so I decided to give it a try. Also, it's a Marvel Universe crossover, and who can resist those? Not me it seems... This one is a bit different from the other crossovers. It's not part of Bendis' big Scheme of Things, and it only involves Marvel's space resident super heroes such as Nova, Quasar and Silver Surfer. Well, Silver Surfer only shows up on the cover and one interior page of this book, but hey, there's still two books to go!

The first part of this book sees Drax the Destroyer on Earth as the prison space ship carrying him crash lands outside a small American village. He is not alone though, and soon the few prisoners that survived starts enslaving the humans nearby in an attempt to repair the space ship. I'm a little unsure about the purpose of this story, because nothing much really happens here. It does however set the mood for the rest of the book very well and it introduces some of the characters that are likely to play major roles later on. On its own the story is a bit weak, but it does serve as a good pre-prologue, so to speak. The art is good, reminiscent of Cassaday, but not quite there, but I guess that is really an unfair comparison.

The second part is the actual prologue. It brings together Nova and Drax (now no longer the Destroyer) as the Annihilation Wave, a massive force of destruction moving at the speed of light, announces its presence by destroying Xandar, the home world of the Nova Corps and killing all of the Corps except one. Yes, they do mean business. This part establishes the scale of the story in a very convincing manner. The reader is left with no doubt that what is going on here is big, and the big guns are out. The commander of the Annihilation Wave is revealed to be Annihilus, but Thanos also makes a brief appearance in the very beginning, and it probably isn't his last in this context... Meanwhile, a few seeds are planted for some of the future story lines of the Annihilation crossover. The art is good, what I like best about it is the way it manages to capture the scale of the story. There are battle scenes with literally hundreds of space ships flying around and huge explosions. Also, Kolins is great at drawing mechanics and futuristic cityscapes, and that makes this an entertaining read. A good beginning for the story.

The last part of this book sees Nova and Drax team up with Quasar to save the next world that lies in the path of the Annihilation Wave. They're running out of time however, and the ending sees the first stand off with Annihilus as the heroes desperately attempt to halt the incoming invasion. Surprisingly, as the two first parts were written by Giffen, this part has the most humor in it. It also has the first death of a major hero in the story. This part was my favorite part of the book. Not only does it have the best art, Walker's art is both dynamic and atmospheric (am I the only one who is reminded of 80s Mignola here?), it is also the most well written. The characters seem a little more fleshed out here, although this could be due to the reader being more familiar with them by the end of the book, and the story stands pretty well on it's own.

All in all this is a pretty good start for the Annihilation crossover, although the reader is left with the feeling that the best has yet to come. It is definitely a beginning, and works well as such. Even though I had virtually no emotional attachment to the characters in this story before reading it, I was drawn into the story and was left wanting for more. It is space opera on a huge scale, and there is no doubt that big things will happen. The art is generally good, and the artists are well suited for this kind of story. I also like the fact that Marvel has managed to produce a crossover that feels very cohesive. Nothing here feels really unnecessary, unlike some of the crossovers they have put out in recent years (coughCivilWarcough). Recommended.

7/10