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.

Annihilation: Prologue (2006) one-shot

Prologue is a fast-paced opening to the cosmic event. We know it's a Marvel Cosmic (with a capital C) event when Thanos appears on the first page and within the next few pages the Kyln maximum security prison and power station is destroyed as the first of the Annihilation Wave come through through the interstellar energy cascade nearby.

The big reveal... Annihilus is behind the Annihilation Wave.

Drax issue 1 (2005)

Drax the Destroyer #1-4

This miniseries precedes the Annihilation event by a few months. In the fourth issue there's an editorial in which readers are told that the comic "is just the tip of the iceberg. What we've really done is give you a glimpse or a preview of what is to come".

More or less this is a re-boot, or at the very least another "resurrection", of the Drax the Destroyer character. The story, by Keith Giffen, is fine but Mitch Breitweiser's art - helped enormously by Brian Reber's colouring - is great: he draws figures in epic poses against expansive skylines beautifully.

Drax is on board a spaceship heading for Kyln, a maximum security prison. The other prisoners include Paibok the Skrull, the Blood Brothers and a pretty menacing villain called Lunatik. The spacecraft crashes near Coot's Bluff in Alaska. The Drax who survives the crash is large and brutish: very Hulk-like and, over the course of the four issues, transforms into the Drax that Marvel seem to be using now. Much of what happens involves the Blood Brothers and Lunatik fighting with Drax, while the crafty Paibok enslaves the townsfolk of Coot's Bluff and forces them to work on repairing the damaged spaceship. Drax is befriended by a small girl called Cammi who is fascinated by the aliens she sees. At the end of the second issue Drax is stabbed through the head by Paibok and apparently killed. What seems to happen is that Drax starts to "cook" and out of the baked body, a smaller Drax climbs - with the distinctive red markings on his shoulders. When Cammi asks him why he changed Drax explains: "I am restored. Once again the Destroyer."



He finds that he has lost some of his powers - like power blasts - but he has gained a greater perception: there's a great sequence where Drax walks across a mountainside in the rain and is exhilarated by the experience. The Blood Brothers, who have a Wolverinish scent ability, claim that they smell Cammi when they find Drax. The two have "bonded" in some way. At the end Paibok sends a distress call and a second prison ship picks Drax and Cammi up.

There's not a great deal of Annihilation in this series. It's more of a prologue to the Prologue. Presumably the purpose was to rebirth Drax and give him a child to defend against the Annihilation Wave.