Review: Annihilation Book 1
While dealing with the bloat of 100+ issues of the underwritten, overhyped Civil War crossover, it's easy to see how the average comics fan, much less the average Marvel fan now watching their weekly spending on comics leap exponentially missed two of the line's better "events" in the last year or so. I've already written about Beyond!, a cosmic romp which I found to be a sheer delight compared to the hackneyed histrionics of Millar's praised-by-editorial, liked by few, purchased by many miniseries. It turns out that Annihilation, at least from the first volume, is just as enjoyable. Much like my favorite science fiction, Annihilation uses big concepts - an alien prison ship lands on Earth and takes over an Alaskan town, a fleet of unimaginable power bursts through the expanding edge of our universe and begins the systematic slaughter of billions, a planet's conciousness is downloaded into the sole remaining member of an intergalactic police force - but manages to keep a distinctly human touch throughout. In the two miniseries and "prologue" issue included in the first volume, writers Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett, and Andy Lanning revive concepts and characters that have been largely left untouched in the new, more-serious-and-realistic™ Marvel Universe for the last couple of years with great aplomb. The prelude miniseries starring Drax manages to bring up some of the insanity of living in a world where superheroes exist and aliens may well show up at any moment without pulling back the veil too hard, and the prologue establishes the villain as a legitimate threat for the first time in what I'd call forever. There's also a pleasure to be derived from watching someone like Nova, a character that I've never liked, get elevated and pushed to the forefront. The reluctant hero trope may be overplayed, but watching a character like this step up to the plate and do truly amazing things makes the whole thing more enthralling.
There's some lovely art throughout this first volume, all of it suited perfectly for the individual stories. Mitchell Breitweiser's more realistic work, ink-washed and nuanced, helps sell Drax The Destroyer's story of a small girl caught up in something beyond her ken. Scott Kolins and Ariel Olivetti switch back and forth quite nicely in the Annihilation Prologue and both handle the material with their usual aplomb. Kevin Walker's itchy lines help give a sense of grit to the Annihilation: Nova miniseries and provide a nice contrast to the really explosive moments.
If the next volumes in this series are as fun, I'm going to be a very happy Marvel reader, which seems to be a rarer thing of late.
