After all the build-up in the five previous mini-series: Drax the Destroyer, Silver Surfer, Super Skrull, Nova and Ronan, we finally come to the fulfillment of all that work. While I'm too lazy to do the research into trying to figure out if DC's Infinite Crisis started development before Annihilation did, but clearly this kind of extensive development before a major crossover is certainly the way of the future for comics.
The approach has been certainly interesting - not a straightforward prolonged development over several titles nor has it been the only remotely connected crossover cameo in established titles. Instead there's now a need to invest time into creating short-term titles whose only function is to pave the way for a major limited time comic book series. It's certainly a rather expensive investment in preparation for a title of limited certainty at the onset, but then it does really do a lot of build up excitement and overall development. This venture wasn't too big of a risk, I'd like to think.
Image via WikipediaAnnihilation starts in the thick of the action as the Annihilation Wave invades into this universe from the Negative Zone while Nova and his United Front do their best to stop the invaders and save as many Kree lives as they can. The Front have more than their hands full with the Annihilation forces and do not immediately catch with of their other plans.
Annihilus, with the help of the Thanos, have a mission of their own. Over the course of the invasion, they've been trying to capture the various heralds of Galactus in order to find a way to harness the Power Cosmic. Eventually with Thanos in charge of the side project of sorts, they manage to capture Galactus himself and turn him into the ultimate weapon under the control of the Annihilation Wave.
The scale of this series has been quite interesting from the start. As if the events in the various spin-off titles wasn't enough, bringing all these diverse elements together eventually created even more avenues of creative possibility and diversity. Beyond the types of events covered in the likes of the Infinity Gauntlet and other infinity titles, when else could we even hope to humble the likes of the world-devouring Galactus in this manner?
The whole Annihilation effort did a lot to revive a lot of the former dead-ends of characters created in the wave of previous efforts to have the Avengers get involved in more cosmic affairs. The likes of Ronan the Accuser and other diverse aspects really flourished around that particular team but then disappeared when it came to fore that perhaps the Avengers did a lot better remaining on earth and focusing on efforts there. It helped give new life to a lot of the space-centric characters and certainly provided new story possibilities.
You have to admit, characters like Nova and Super Skrull really received the benefit of major improvements because of this storyline and all this was done in a tasteful manner and not just some piece of writing that had an editorial objective for its characters without sacrificing having a story that made actual sense in the greater scheme of things.
I really enjoyed what Marvel tried to accomplish with Annhilation. A lot of characters were given the needed revitalization they've deserved all these years and it certainly helped shake up the rarely explored cosmic side of the Marvel Universe.
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