Annihilation Book One
Written by David Baldwin
Published on 04/07/2007
Originally from Binary Culture / [the-lowdown.net]
http://www.binaryculture.net

Superhero is a scary genre.

Many people who want to read comics are frightened by the immense amount of characters and the years of history behind the stories.

Take my friend, Justin, for example. Whenever I try to get him to read a comic he always tells me that he “would probably like them if he got into them, but is scared of all the goddamn backstory” and retreats back to his start-middle-end manga.

And who can blame him? There are a great deal of superhero comics that assume you know about that one time the Beetle actually beat Spider-Man or the last time Jean Grey died.

This is where Annihilation gets its strength. Not only is it a great story, but it is incredibly easy to read.

I recently bought Annihilation: Book One. It features Drax the Destroyer #1-4, Annihilation Prologue and Nova #1-4 and is bound in sexy hardback.

Drax and Prologue are written by Keith Griffen, who’s most notable works include the Legion of Super Heroes, Formerly Known as the Justice League and the creation of characters Lobo and Ambush Bug. Drax is drawn by up-and-coming artist Mitch Breitweiser, who just signed an exclusive contract with Marvel. Prologue is drawn by Scott Kolins with Ariel Ollivetti.

Nova is written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, British writers that have been working as a team for more than 15 years and is drawn by Kev Walker.

The book starts off with Drax, who is on a prison transport shuttle to the Kyln prison station along with Paibok the Power Skrull and some other space-criminals. The shuttle has a malfunction and crash-lands on Earth, where Paibok and his cronies kill Drax, who is then reborn in a new, slightly less powerful but immensely smarter form. Drax then hooks up with an obnoxious and adventurous girl named Cammi and they leave the planet.

Prologue sets up for the other main characters of the story: Nova, Silver Surfer, the Super Skrull and Ronan the Accuser, all of whom have their own mini-series. Thanos also shows up, talking to Death about the upcoming disaster. This is where the Annihilation Wave, led by Annihilus, makes its first appearance and in no small way. With relative ease, the Wave destroys Xandar, home world of the Nova corps, after destroying the Kyln prison station.

Nova, Richard Rider, is the only survivor of the attack, and the Xandarian Worldmind – the supercomputer that runs all of the Nova Corps – downloads itself into Rider, turning him into Super Nova, after which he hooks up with Drax who “may or may not have a past in destroying.”

Nova has to deal not only with being the last surviving member of the Corps, but with all of the Nova Force, which drove the last Super Nova, Garthan Saal, insane. Rider is reluctant to use his new power for fear that he might lose control and destroy everything around him. Drax agrees to train him, to help him focus.

The new Drax is, obviously, a lot more likeable than he used to be. He retained his super-strength (or most of it) and his durability. He traded flight and his ability to shoot concussive blasts for smarts – which he has in spades now that he can better utilize his experience.

How is this so easy to read? Starting in the Nova mini-series, there are Nova Corps files after each comic. Generally two to three pages, they are the Worldmind’s records on various individuals.

This is a really nifty feature, because they give vital information – powers, natural abilities, background, etc. – on all of the main characters, plus some that haven’t been introduced into the storyline yet. There are even files on the Annihilation Wave and the actual Nova Corps itself. These files add to the militaristic feel already expressed through the Nova Corps.

Also, unlike Marvel’s other, more publicized major event of 2006, Civil War, there aren’t a multitude of titles one needs to read in order to get the full plot. Someone following the story doesn’t feel left out because they didn’t read X-Men or Black Panther or Thunderbolts.

Annihilation is the kind of story that a comics newbie should pick up before most of anything else. It’s nice when a comic fills you in on who the characters are. Knowing the characters is a huge part of being able to understand the story and a big part of a story resonating with the reader, at least in my case.

I’ll use Batman: War Games as an example. While I enjoyed the story, I only remember the main points of it. I truly believe this is because I didn’t know who a great deal of the characters were. Ultimately, this led to me not paying very much attention to them, which resulted in most of the story being a blur for me now.

Often now online I see people who think that Civil War is the best story in comics (because it’s the biggest, if not the only, comic event they’ve read) or think that Iron Man is an asshole.

It saddens me to see that they’re paying more attention to something that is hard to read, spread out over several titles and is written poorly when an event like Annihilation is standing with arms wide open.

No wonder Wolverine is so popular.

Overall I’d say Book One was worth the $30. The writing is sharp. The dialogue is spot-on, especially in Nova, where most of it is upbeat, snappy and funny. The art is very well-done, encompassing epic space battles and massive devastation. And it’s very easy to pick up and get into.
I’m definitely looking forward to Annihilation: Book Two.