Annihilation Book 2

Collects Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4 written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Renarto Arlem, Annihilation: Super Skrull #1-4 written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and drawn by Gregory Titus and Annihilation: Ronan #1-4 written by Simon Furman and drawn by Jorge Lucas.

This is the second book in the Annihilation event, the first book of which was reviewed here.

The Annihilation Wave thunders on through the galaxies, destroying everything on it's way, and three of the Marvel Universe's space born heroes and villains get caught up. The three stories in this book takes place right after each other, but there is no connection between them as such, except for the Annihilation Wave showing up in all three. Presumably, the loose ends that this books creates, will be dealt with in the central Annihilation storyline, which is included in the third and last book. Not much is learned about the Annihilation Wave as such, rather the stories focus on the main characters and setting them up for the final book.

In terms of plot, the Silver Surfer story comes off a little slow, but Giffen does manage to bring it home. This is certainly a setup story, in the sense that after reading it, you will have to read what comes after. The story deals with entities going back to the beginning of the MU, and yes, Galactus is in it too. The art is good, although the lack of backgrounds in outer space makes it a little boring in the long run.

The Super Skrull story is the weakest of the bunch. Grillo-Marxuach tries to tell the story of the Super Skrull as seen from the viewpoints of the Skrulls, i.e. as a hero, but still wants to expose his villainous character traits. It never really feels right. In this story Super Skrull goes to the Negative Zone to find the inventor of a big world eater weapon the Annihilation Wave has brought along. While there he frees some prisoners and they become his army. Felt a bit too much like a compressed World War Hulk story for my taste. The art is so-so, one problem being that I didn't like the way Super Skrull himself is drawn. His chin is too pointy and he doesn't feel as powerful as he should.

In Annihilation Book 1 we saw Ronan accused of treachery and as a consequence he is banished from the Kree empire. In this story he finds himself on a small planet where strange things are going one. The story seems a bit confusing at first, with lots of people fighting for apparently no reason, but about halfway through things start to make sense, and at the end of the day it actually comes out as a pretty decent story. The Annihilation Wave is employed here as a mechanism for moving the story along, and thus never really takes center stage. The art is good, although I think it would have been better suited for black/white publication. Lucas obviously takes a lot of inspiration from European sf comics artists such as Moebius, and that's a perfect fit for this story.

Those who don't know much about Marvel's intergalactic characters and races, and that includes myself, will be relieved that a lot of information is provided in the form of OHOTMU-style descriptions. Still, I do sit back with the distinct feeling that the book would have been more enjoyable if I'd read stuff like Starlin's Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade/Abyss series, but I guess that goes for the whole Annihilation event.

All in all a decent book that moves the event along and sets up for what should be an interesting finale. One thing I like about this event so far, is that it does succeed in making the characters that appear feel less like b-rate second-string characters and more like a-rate MU characters. It brings the Universe back in the MU, one might say. Hehe, that was a good one, hehe...

5/10

Silver Surfer: Requiem

Collects Silver Surfer: Requiem #1-4 written by Michael J. Straczynski with painted art by Esad Ribic.

This is the story of the death of the Silver Surfer. He does not die in intergalactic battle nor does he perish at the center of an expanding super nova or imploding black hole. He dies from (space) cancer. Well the actual word 'cancer' isn't to be found in the book, but lets just say that the symptoms are close enough. After examining him, Reed Richards gives the Silver Surfer aka. Norrin Radd a couple of weeks left to live. So what does a being in possession of the Power Cosmic do, when he only has a couple of weeks left to live? Well, he doesn't go to Disneyland. He says his farewell to his friends on Earth and head towards his home planet Zenn-La, where he reunites with his love Shalla-Bal. And then he dies. Yes, I'm not kidding, the Silver Surfer dies.

The structure of the book is loosely based on the Catholic ritual Requiem, and each of the four chapters (Kyrie - Lord, Sanctus - Holy, Benedictus - Blessed, Agnus Dei - Lamb of God) are named after a part of the ceremony. I'm not Catholic, I just looked this up in wikipedia, so there may be some mistakes here. In any case, this book does carry some strong religious overtones, in particular regarding the Silver Surfer and what he represents. Strazcynski is not trying to introduce Christianity into the MU as yet another pantheon, thank God, he is simply drawing on established symbolism to paint the picture of the Silver Surfer that he wants to present to the reader.

The title of the last chapter gives a good indication of what it is Straczynski wants to convey. Agnus Dei, the lamb of God refers to Jesus and him being sacrificed to atone for the sins of Man. This refers both to Norrin Radd sacrificing himself (to Galactus, remember?) so that his planet may survive, but also to his spiritual role in a larger context. Silver Surfer has been surfing the galactic winds freed of the coils of mortal man, and this has elevated him to a being of higher sophistication. As he sees things from a different perspective, without all the petty details, he understands the Truth. And the Truth is that the road to happiness lies not in strife, but in appreciating the enormity and beauty of the universe and being content with that.

Silver Surfer: Requiem is a pretty good science fiction story, although at times it does seem a little bit contrived. E.g. before leaving earth he lets Mary Jane Parker borrow the surf board and a bit of the power cosmic for a little while, as a personal favor to Spider-Man. Sure, Straczynski is trying to make a point here, but still... The third chapter reads very much like a classic science fiction novel, but it feels a little disconnected from the rest of the book. The strongest point of the book is Stracsynski's characterization of the Silver Surfer. It's one interpretation for sure, but it's pretty spot on.

After reading the book, however, I still don't know why Silver Surfer suddenly had to die, and if it was the consequence of some other story such as Annihilation. I like the Silver Surfer, but I can live with it. It just seems to be a bit of a shame to let a good character go, just to tell one story.

Ribic's art is good as usual, he excels at grand imagery and magnificent scenery, and some of the splash pages with the Surfer are definitely poster material. It's not quite as good as the work he did on Loki, however, and especially the faces of people seem to be a little rushed at times. Nevertheless, the art in this book is way more beautiful and eye pleasing than what you'll see in most other contemporary comic books.

If you like science fiction stories with spiritual themes or if you're just really into the Silver Surfer, you should give this book a try. It is by no means a standard super hero story, it is a story that wants to be more. It doesn't quite achieve what it's trying, but it does manage to deliver a pretty decent comic book.

6/10