more wipeout

Annihilation
Keith Giffen/Andrea DiVito/Laura Villari
covers by Gabriele Dell'Otto
Marvel

we're back ! continuing from where we left off, the Annihilation really begins as the Wave swarms all over on their way to Earth.

Nova finds himself CIC (that's commander-in-chief for you noobs) for the resistance composed of the remnants of alien races decimated by the Annihilation Wave. they've made their stand on Daedalus-5, a planet in Kree territory. Nova got himself a smart-alecky aide-de-camp, Peter Quill, the artist formerly known as Starlord, currently known as the artist who never runs out of wisecracks.


Ronan, who has a better and bigger role overall here, makes his presence felt immediately by second-guessing his own fellow Kree commanders's tactics, and disapproving that, takes it upon himself to fire them. this despite Ronan having a standing warrant of arrest from the ruling house of the Kree, the Fiyero, and having sold a gazillion records with Boyzone.


Drax, of course does his own thing - destroying, that is - and Nova looks up to him as his best advisor. Drax of course, has his own agenda (destroying someone in particular).


and his human ward, Cammi, knows this so well.

Drax: "darned kids. who invented them!?"

speaking of Drax - who used to be just a musclebound idiot - was he the template for Kratos, the badass who takes down Ares in the God of War series? or was Kratos the template for this new and improved Drax?


okay, i know, the new Drax is a combo of Kratos and the Martian Manhunter.

up above, the former Heralds of Galactus, Stardust, Red Shift and Firelord, clear the air of Annihilation ships. Firelord himself takes out the Wave leader, Extirpia, allegedly the most favored concubine of Annihilus, who controls the Hive mind that drives all Annihilation bugs (at least for this invasion force). but not without putting him in a coma.


elsewhere, Annihilus gives his less-than-useful #2 Ravenous a chance to redeem himself after getting bitch-slapped previously by the Silver Surfer.

we've tasted your vengeance, Ravenous, and it tastes worse than Dr. Pepper. yeeeech.

sexytime alert! we discover that Richard's bangin' the "most dangerous woman in the galaxy", Gamora (or so goes her press release). i'm sure they went uh ... supernova.


as it turns out, the rebel alliance (what else should we call them? call off the lawyers, George Lucas! we're calling them the United Front!) managed to capture Extirpia alive and upon interrogation, makes them reach for the Prozac. Thanos has made an alliance with those two bad Ancient Ones, Tenebrous and Aegis, in the name of Annihilus, and together they stomped on Galactus and the Silver Surfer.

awww ... Gawactus got whupped by a gurl!


surf's up! no, surf's down!

the big question is, what does Annihilus (through Thanos) need Galactus for? the answer is blowing in the wind. or in this scene.


Phyla, the daughter of the great-but-perhaps-not-late Captain Mar-vell, shows up and gives Drax more bad news. to which he reacts like a typical male getting bad news.

slapping the messenger is preferable to shooting them.

Thanos has kidnapped Heather Douglas, a.k.a. Moondragon, originally a human being whose dead pop was reanimated by the Titans into the current Drax we know. hence, Moondragon is his technically his daughter. ah, just read the whole sordid story here.

Thanos didn't like Moondragon's multiple ear piercings.

why did Thanos resort to kidnapping? because he knows Drax is out there somewhere, and he wants to keep him away. this is Thanos' second stupid decision of the series; the first was allying himself with Annihilus but even he doesn't know it yet.

wait. is there anything going between Phyla and Heather? hmmmm-mmmm .... DUH!

the United Front, trying to figure out their next step, discovers they have their own internal problems. mostly from the Kree side, with Ronan being at odds with the house Fiyero.


Ronan renders the issues moot and academic by using his hammer, as usual. Nova gets pissed because of the PR implications. Peter enjoys the whole drama.

outside, the leaders are called in for an audience with Praxagora, who has been lugging the SuperSkrull's corpse around like a symbol for martyrdom. but we all know SuperSkrull's not gonna remain a corpse for too long. no matter how implausible the reasoning might sound.


and since most of the heroes are gathered in one place, why not bring the bad guys in for a big-ass fight? yes, why not? Ravenous appears, with his dogs and his Dogs. trigger fingers get twitchy, sweat rolls off people's faces.


the battle is soon joined, and the tide is seemingly turned in Ravenous' favor by the arrival of the Centurians, a bunch of super-powered jerks, each representing his/her own Negative Zone world/race. this means Annihilus is an astute politician and has garnered some support.

of course, in the bleakest of moments, we have Peter providing comedy relief.

wrong tree, Peter. she likes girls.

the overwhelming Annihilation forces get too much for the United Front. up there, Thanos has managed to use Galactus as a cosmic energy source, making the big guy 'feed' (as is his nature), but redirecting or siphoning the cosmic energy from his life force to Annihilus' generators.

the Galactus ice cream factory. yummm.

the evacuation begins in earnest, before Annihilus can use Galactus. in the midst of it, we witness a resurrection.


Keith Giffen just chalks up the whole thing to "... thinks Ravenous and Firelord jumpstarted him. that their combined energies did ... something. SuperSkrull is back, baby!"

thanks for the well-thought out and extensive info, Mr. Giffen. thanks too, for perpetuating the tradition that no one dies in the Marvel Universe.

as a final distraction to complete the evac of Daedalus-5, the two Heralds, Red Shift and Stardust try to stop the planet-draining energy beam from a helpless Galactus, and Drax even leaves Cammi and goes solo against the horde.

Drax hated his fans so much, he dived into the mosh pit to kick ass.

escaping to Earth orbit, the United Front disbands and everyone goes their own way. Richard and Peter reassess their chances - guerrilla warfare seems the best option. especially if he doesn't take down Annihilus somehow, Earth is next.


Ronan goes off to take down house Fiyero, bringing SuperSkrull and Praxagora along (strange bedfellows potentially make great partners).


Drax, meanwhile, survives Daedalus-5 and is finding his way to Thanos.


Thanos, using Moondragon's telepathic powers to glean Annihilus' intentions (what? for all his power he can't do that??), he is stunned - stunned, i say! - to learn Annihilus just wants to destroy the both the (positive) universe and the Negative Zone by using Galactus as a bomb, and drain him of his cosmic energy, because he just wants to rule the void left behind (boy needs to get out and have a life).

and why is Thanos even here anyway? boredom.

well, curiosity can kill a God ... or maybe just a cat.

so it all boils down to this: Annihilus gets bored, wants to destroy all life. Thanos gets bored, wants to see what Annihilus can do. in the meantime, i work my butt off to pay my bills. jerks.

Thanos changes his mind, removes the bug infestation from Heather, and attempts to free Galactus.

too much tequila and cement mixers

Drax bursts in but Thanos tries to keep him away to complete his task. however, he sees Death beckoning to him ...


... and Drax seals the deal. no thanks to his little useless sidekick Skreet, who just watches.

Drax: "I ... Heart ... Thanos. get it? heart? hehehe!"

Moondragon chides her dad for stopping Thanos before he could free Galactus, because Thanos' power signature was tied in to the switch.

its rare to see Drax stunned and open-mouthed.

Drax rectifies the situation by freeing the Silver Surfer, in turn using him to free Galactus, but not without eliciting a promise from Galactus to protect Moondragon. wait, we never see Galactus saying yes.

but once freed, the big guy goes ballistic. so this means, you don't need Thanos' power signature, you just needed enough power.

i thought the correct slogan was "No Fear".

meanwhile, Ronan invades his home planet, and finds the ruling house Fiyero in bed with Ravenous (well, not literally, idiot).


at least in every Annihilation issue, we're treated to more than a few splash pages by hot Italian artist Andrea DiVito. i've read Stormbreaker: The Saga of Beta Ray Bill, and his pencils are perfect for such space operas. i actually felt the impact of Ronan's hammer here.

Ravenous wants to change his name to "Hammerhead" (thank you, thank you).

after dishing out justice to the ruling leaders (and SuperSkrull tagging along just for the freebie of kicking Kree ass), most of the Kree soldiers stand down and rally behind him. Ronan is disheartened to find that the Supreme Intelligence, the big multi-tentacled brain that every Kree worships as their head diety, has been kept in a coma by the Fiyero. he sadly resorts to euthanasia.

Ronan just got tired of tentacle sex movies.

Ravenous leads the Wave to the Kree homeworld and invades it from the sky. Ronan, being the only leader left with balls, marshalls Kree pride and repels the invasion by using "rocket cities" to reach the Annihilation ships.

the best things in life are Kree.

back on Annihilus' flagship, panic ensues as Galactus and the Surfer are freed, thanks to Drax. all bugs take out their 401Ks and empty their bank accounts and make a beeline to their SUVs. Galactus takes his anger out on the Annihilation wave.

that thing, that thing, that thing ...

meanwhile, what of Nova and his band? with teleport technology borrowed from Blastaar and the Spaceknights (he-hey! where the hell have you been?) to get near Annihilus, they ditch Cammi along the way, and hopscotch right on top of the insects.


and just in time! Galactus' temper tantrum lays waste to Annihilus' fleet, but - no surprise - Annihilus survives. which only serves to bolster his ego. but Nova is there to slap that down.


Phyla tries to help out, and sets the stage for future stories by capturing the Quantum Bands, taken by Annihilus from the late Quasar.

hey, wait, that's not a lateral!

think you got grossed out with Drax punching out Thanos' heart (he had one??), wait till you get a load of this:

man, that phlegm was so hard to expel, Nova had to try the last resort.

that takes too much out of Nova, and he has visions of seeing Thanos with Death (a premonition of next summer's crossover?).


so is there peace for now? Ravenous (what, he's still alive??) calls for a truce, though Ronan wants to smash the other side of his face in.

and since we all know Annihilus' love of concubines (second only to his love of annihilating things), we are left in conclusion with this:

couple of nitpicky stuff -i missed the interaction between Worldmind and Nova; i guess Peter filled in that role. but i hope to see more of that in the upcoming Nova regular series. and of course we have the deaths that never mean anything. you think Thanos would remain forever in Death's arms? yeah right.

and what of Tenebrous and Aegis? will Annihilus remain a baby? your guess is as good as mine. the cash registers have spoken. look out for the Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus spinoffs this spring and Annihilation: Conquest this summer.
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issued read: Annihilation #1-6