Annihilation: Book One

By Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (W)
and Mitch Breitweiser, Scott Kolins, Ariel Olivetti and Kev Walker (A)
Published by Marvel, 2007, $29.99

The Plot: In the storyline that fans forgot, the dread villain Annihilus returns from the Negative Zone (I think) and sends a wave of mean-looking robots across the universe to destroy as much as possible, scavenging for any power to increase Annihilus’ strength. In this first part of the mega space opera, many fall before the Annihilation Wave, including all the Nova Corps except Richard Rider. He then is left to pick up the pieces and try to find enough teammates to end the threat while preventing further mass deaths. The book contains the Annihilation: Prologue, Drax 1-4 and Nova 1-4.

The Good: To evaluate this book, you almost have to separate out the three parts, because each succeeds and fails in its own way. Overall, this introduction does a good job of establishing the level of danger. The Wave wreaks terrible havoc, which we get to see up close and personal. That’s all shown through the eyes of Rider (I’ll just call him Nova), who takes on all the power of the Worldmind, which held all of Xandar’s knowledge and force. If I had read this event, I definitely would not have been as surprised by the sudden emergence of Nova as a respectable superhero and his title as a quality read. Abnett and Lanning can flat out write. They’re clever, they know pacing, they know character development. It’s all there. Key is the interplay between Nova and Worldmind, with Drax later coming in as a sort of mediator/Obi Wan.

Another big plus is the bounty of massive space battles. They’re written and drawn well (especially the team-up between Nova and Quasar), and it’s fun to look in the back and see how things developed from Giffen’s sketches. Kev Walker does great work in the Nova mini.

I also would be remiss to leave out the art in the Drax mini, courtesy of Mitch Breitweiser. Mitch happens to live in the same city as I do and we’ve talked a few times (expect an interview eventually). He’s a really cool guy and beyond that a very talented artist. His work has a clean but edgy feel that fits in with the Michael Lark/Steve Epting feel that Marvel has brought to a lot of its books. If you like his work here, I’ve seen some of his work on his next project (which hasn’t been officially announced yet) and it’s really great stuff.

The Bad: While I really liked Mitch’s art on the Drax series, overall I just didn’t understand the point of the mini. At least so far in the story, Drax is not a remotely crucial character, and the mini-series (which takes place in Alaska of all places) doesn’t so much as mention Annihilation. A lead-in should set the table much better. The Prologue (also written by Giffen) isn’t much better. It shows the huge destruction of Xandar and returns Drax to space, but it doesn’t give the reader the faintest clue of why the destruction is going on. I realize that Annihilus is just an evil dude hell bent on rendering everything naught, but he could at least have a reason for starting this ruckus now. He and the Wave just pop out of nowhere, and we never get any context.

Also, the art in the Prologue issue is just painful to look at. I wonder if it became very rushed, because the linework ends at the characters’ outlines. There is no detail work and so it ends up looking nothing short of ridiculous, like a marginally talented child’s handiwork. Kolins also doesn’t bother drawing characters remotely as they appear in the other books, doubling the eyeball-jarring worthlessness. The guy obviously must be good to get work with Marvel, so I’m just going to hope he didn’t have the time to keep up his normal standards.

The Grade: B The positives outweigh the negatives by a decent margin, even with the narrational missteps. Is it worth the hefty price tag? Not so sure about that one. I’d say wait till the paperback collection comes out and enjoy the good Marvel event from last year.