The Brilliance of Annihilation

                               (Not Starship Troopers 3)                                                                                            

Annihilation Wave

The coldest and most obscure depths of space in the Marvel Universe were considered to be drained of all life (and cash prospects) until a little story called Annihilation came along and was completely sucked into the undertow of the ocean that was called Civil War by Mark Millar. Bumper stickers, t-shirts and messageboards were filled with dissent on who was with Captain America or who was with that faux-superhero Tony Stark. The debate was on whether or not S.H.I.E.L.D and new top cop Stark had the right to procure the secret identity of Marvel's heroes and set up teams in every state(see:50 State Initiative). All this had it's affect on earth, actually only pretty much USA, and unlike what we Americans believe, that's not world changing. We aren't the center of the universe anymore, and one man learned that and knew it better than anyone, Richard Rider (or Dick Rider if you want to be ephemeral, yet hilarious about it). Richard got his power from a Intergalactic Police Force much akin to the Green Lantern Corps. that imbued a portion of the "Nova Force" power into it's centurions. 

                            (The Universe Resistance)                                    (The World Resistance) 

The Lone [Dick] Rider

Without getting to in-depth, in fact I can surmise it into just saying that his background story is almost exactly Hal Jordan's Green Lantern beginnings: dying alien, chosen at random, joined police force to protect the world, blah blah. By the way, yes I did use the Dick Rider joke twice, i'm not funny, give me a fucking break. It's not like i'm a comedian.

      (Nova, after he lets the entire Nova Force enter his body)

Background: Anyways, this guy fought on Earth with the New Warriors and was even on their reality television show taking down bad guys for a while. Then, he was promptly called back by the Nova Corps. because and intergalatic prison that held Galactus-level (that's eating worlds without chewing strong, if you didn't know) aliens had been blown up by an unknown source, and the Corps were mobilizing to oppose the impending threat. This was all happening at about the same time that Rider's ex-teammates were shooting their reality show, trying to take down clandestine supervillains  who proved much too strong for them, and Nitro blows up a square mile including a full elementary school. Enter: Civil War. 

Civil War vs. Cosmic War: Which is More Devastating?

While Mark Millar fleshed out the story of warring heroes separated by the Superhero Registration Act. Writers Christos Cage, Simone Furman, Keith Giffen, Javier  Grillo-Marxuachm Stuart Moore and current cosmic lords of Marvel, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning devised one of the most superlative story lines in recent memory. Granted, it is quite interesting seeing that alcoholic prick Tony Stark or as we endearingly know him: "Shellhead" (really original take on Spiderman's "Webhead", and Captain America's "Winghead", and Thor's "Helmet Head" pseudonyms.) appointed himself president pro-tem of all super powered beings, without possessing any himself. Unfortunately, for Millar, the affects would only reach our borders, leaving the rest of the world (& universe in this case) as it was prior to this event (for the most part). While Annihilation was just that, it was a story about the possible eradication of all man-kind, and bug-kind. In fact, there is an mini-comic called "What If: Annihilation" in which the Annihilation Wave continues to be unstopped and is reaching Earth during one of the Civil War battles. The conflict ends completely after everyone fighting gets a lecture about how childish and temporal their struggle is from Nova, who is disgusted at their selfishness. Only when the two heroes from opposing sides join forces with Nova, and sacrifice themselves, do they stop the wave. Which is to say, you know, feeble altercations and such, greater meaning, universe isn't centered around us. Which sounds almost like a commentary on the U.S. for foreign policy, not only do others need our help, but it can overcome us if we don't work together in this world (political philosophy type junk).

                         (From "What If: Annihilation")

Characters       

While Civil War was pretty much composed of all the superheroes in the Marvel 616 Universe like Captain America, Wolverine, Daredevil, the Fantastic Four, Avengers, X-Men sort of, and so on, Annihilation pretty much dealt with characters that have each almost single-handedly defeated our combined heroes. Thanos and Annihilus being the antagonists in this story encompasses every fear any one has had about the universe ending. Thanos, as you know has come close to ending all forms of life several times, even while contending with several heroes. I mean the guys got Death personified at his side. Annihilus is at the head of the Annihilation Wave of millions maybe billions of killer bugs and sentient ships that are ravaging the universe, and despite being a failed Fantastic Four character, holds a lot of merit. He is an insectoid creature with armor capable of withstanding energy blasts from Galactus himself. In fact, he's captured Galactus and Silver Surfer and has the power to hold them against their will, that's pretty powerful. If thats not bad enough, his right hand man Ravenous wields the negative-zone equivalent of the power cosmic that Galactus and his heralds posses. One character who is integral to the story is Drax the Destoyer, and his alternate-life daughter, Moondragon. The only reason Drax exists, is to kill Thanos. The only reason that happened is because Thanos killed him (those two are encouragable). Moondragon's lover Phyla-Vell, or Quasar or Captain Marvel also appears pretty much wielding every power possible, except the power to be in a hot lesbian relationship. Moondragon just doesn't do it for me, with the baldness and pacifist stuff. Of course, all past and current heralds to Galactus appear (Silver Surfer, Firelord, Stardust, Gabriel the Air-Walker, The Fallen One, Red Shift, Terrax the Tamer and Morg the Exectutioner (or as I like to call him "Morg the botched skin-graft), it also includes Paibok the Power Skrull, Gamora (hot!) who fucks Nova on their days off from killing bugs, Ronan the Accuser, Star-Lord & Skreet the Chaos Mite, who despite her size (and goofy hair) is incredibly strong. All those people and this book still doesn't get much attention!

 (Guardians of the Galaxy)

                                           (Annihilus)

                              (Galactus and His Heralds)

The best part about this book is that it does what most limited series do in the Marvel Universe don't do,  it follows up and the ramifications are far reaching. Unlike Civil War and Secret Invasion and other recent crossovers, it isn't as easily forgotten and is not unmentioned when it is over. This book leads to relationships, hardships, powers, enemies and new threats that are directly under the Annihilation umbrella. Andy Lanning and Dan Abnett are currently writing a book called Guardians of the Galaxy which has spawned from some of the heroes of Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest. They are like the Avengers, but fight galactic and alien threats far greater than that composed of Earth villains. They aren't just psychotic goofballs with sideways corn-rows (hint hint, see? I can be tentatively funny, too). Also, these great writers took of Brubaker's story of the Omega-Level powered third Summers brother (Deadly Genesis) who defeated the Shi'ar Empire and became the leader himself, trying to encompass all empires and lengths of space into his own domain and coming across Blackbolt and the Royal Family of Attilia and the Kree(Rise & Fall of the Shi'ar Empire, War of Kings). It's affects are imprinted on the blackness of space, unlike the fall apart of the Avengers, then getting together, falling apart again, the failing of the Initiative, Skrulls hardly being around, etc. You don't get that kind of consistency with Earth-based books anymore, change happens just as much as stability. So seriously, check out the things that are happening in Marvel's cosmic storyline, you might find something you like, or something somewhat entertaining like hot alien babes and Raccoons that wield laser pistols named after Beatles songs and make friends with a giant tree (i'm being serious, look it up).