Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4

The Eeyore of the Marvel Universe, Norrin Radd aka The Silver Surfer, becomes involved in Annihilation when the former heralds of Galactus - the ones who search out new planets for Galactus to eat - are hunted down by agents of Annihilus. I have a very sketchy knowledge of Silver Surfer and virtually no knowledge of the other heralds or their rather odd relationship with Galactus, so I found parts of this miniseries hard going. Yet, overall, it was enjoyable and there are some truly epic moments. One of the key things we learn is that Annihilus has launched his Wave in response to the (positive) universe encroaching on the Negative Zone - there's some sort of cosmic imbalance caused. Also, another aspect of Annihilation opens when Tenebrous and Aegis, two beings like Galactus are freed from the Kyln.

Surfer stumbles across Gabriel Air-Walker, a former herald of Galactus being attacked by a gang of Annihilus' henchmen led by a creature called Ravenous. Surfer escapes with the fatally wounded Gabriel and, after some soul-searching, decides that he stands against the Annihilation Wave. Later he meets Red Shift and Firelord, other heralds - who have declared war on the Annihilation Wave - and is recalled by Galactus himself.

The part of this series that I totally enjoyed was seeing Thanos ally himself with Annihilus. There's some very clever writing in the second issue where the two villains meet for the first time: Thanos evades Annihilus' questions diplomatically, attempting to give the impression that he admires Annihilus but is unconcerned by anything the Negative Zone Lord is interested in. Later  we see Thanos allying himself with Tenebrous and Aegis. (Incidently, this is classic Thanos behaviour. If you look back to Starlin's run on Warlock in the 1970s, Thanos attempts to ally himself with Adam Warlock in order to defeat Mags.).

While this isn't as engaging as the Annihilation: Nova series, it reads very well and is recommended. Renato Arlem makes a pretty good job as artist.