Annihilators: Earthfall #4

Next up we'll take a look at the final issue of the Annihilators: Earthfall mini-series. This mini has been okay, but not quite up to the level of awesomeness Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning gave us with Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh well, here's hoping this series goes out on a high.

Annihilators: Earthfall #4(of 4):

What Happened: With the Universal Church of Truth battling the Avengers and Annihilators, most of America possessed by the Magus and a small army of Kree Sentries standing high above North America prepared to destroy the US if the Magus was allowed to gain more power, the situation is rather dire, to say the least. Since the Magus possessed citizens of the US were feeding the UCT power through the UCT's belief font, Gladiator decides to enter the belief font since he felt he'd be able to redirect the faith energies inside since his own powers were fueled by belief... A belief in himself. The Magus senses what Gladiator was trying to do and manages to posses Gladiator(!), giving the Magus the perfect body to house his power in. Ikon, Quasar, Spider-Man and Ronan manage to knock Magus/Gladiator out for a moment, at which time Iron Man, who, with some help from Ronan, had been redesigning a Kree Sentry, tying it together with the Magus's regenerative cocoon, with the hope that the Magus would become trapped in the Sentry. Ronan uses his Universal Weapon to draw the Magus's energy out of Gladiator and into the Sentry, trapping it inside. With their leader defeated, the people of the US out from the Magus's spell and the Kree Sentries on hand to assist the Avengers and Annihilators in routing the UCT, the UCT members get back in their ships and are escorted away from the Earth by the Sentries. With that, the Avengers bid the Annihilators a very cautious good-bye(the Avengers weren't exactly sure what to make of a group that powerful), and the Annihilators toss the Magus Sentry out into Knowhere space, where they hoped it would remain until the end of time.

The Good: I guess the story overall was pretty good. I mean it definitely wasn't up to the quality of Nova or Guardians, but it wasn't awful. The art was pretty good. I liked that Quasar comes out of this looking like a big deal. I've always been a Quasar fan. Ronan grew on me quite a bit as this series went on.

The Bad: I've never been a fan of Adam Warlock, and as such am not very enthralled by the Magus. Outside of a few appearances in Captain Marvel and an okay storyline in Guardians, he's never done anything for me. The back-up story was a complete and utter waste of space. I don't know who in Marvel thinks so highly of Rocket Raccoon and Groot, but it's time to let them go away... Forever.

The Verdict: Meh. I really don't have any feelings about this one one way of the other. It was an okay mini-series that I'll probably forget about by the end of the night. If you're a fan of any of the characters on the team I guess it may be worth checking out, but even as a huge fan of Marvel's cosmic books, I wouldn't really give this story much of a recommendation...

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.It's nice to see Quasar come out of this looking like a big deal.

Annihilators: Earthfall #3

We're closing on the end of this Annihilators mini-series, which means, knowing Marvel, there'll be a new Annihilators mini-series popping up in a couple of months. Naturally, I'd MUCH rather we get a Nova series where these characters can appear in(and hell, even join the Nova Corps), but as much as I(and others) want to see that happen, who knows what Marvel has planned...

Annihilators: Earthfall #3(of 4):

Summary: Having gotten past stage two of all super-hero team meetings(stage one: misunderstanding, stage two: fight), the Avengers and Annihilators have reached stage three, band together to face the real threat, in this case, the Magus. However, the Magus has complicated matters by taking possession of several Earth children, meaning if the teams want to rid themselves of the Magus, they'd have to kill children... Naturally, Captain America(and most of the Avengers and Annihilators) declares that's not even a consideration, while Ronan bluntly states that murdering the kids was the simplest solution. Better kill the Magus now before he reached his full power. While the Avengers and Annihilators try to come up with a solution that would work for both parties, the Universal Church of Truth's faith engine starts up and floods the United States with some sort of weird Magus energy, which further splits Magus's essence, possessing 30% of the US population, with that number continuing to grow. In other words, simply killing the children was out of the question since the Magus has further hidden himself throughout the US. To make matters worse, several UCT ships have flown to the Earth to collect all of the Magus fragments, so they could take the Magus out of the possessed people and resurrect their lord. While the majority of the Avengers and Annihilators head topside to fight off the staggering numbers of UTC warriors and black knights, Quasar, Iron Man, Gladiator and Ronan head to the UTC's faith engine to see if they could somehow reverse what the engine did, drawing the Magus's essence back into it. Quasar believes it's possible, but that the feedback could kill nearly all of the Magus possessed people. Before Iron Man, Quasar and Gladiator can decide what to do, Ronan announces that he'd assist with the attempt at reversing the faith engine, but that if they failed, he had ordered a platoon of Kree Sentries to the Earth to destroy the US if they failed. And no, I didn't read the Rocket Raccoon and Groot back-up story, so don't even ask.

Thoughts: I really, really enjoyed this issue. Sure, some of it has been series has been comic book writing 101(the Avengers and Annihilators early interactions) but the twist with the Magus splitting his essence further to stymie the heroes was very well done, as was the arrival of the Kree Sentries at the end of this issue. While nobody really wanted to come right out and say it, as distasteful as it may seem, Ronan's solution of destroying the US mainland to stop the UCT from recovering the Magus IS the best solution. Besides the strong story and good artwork, I also liked some of the interactions between certain characters, especially Ronan and Captain America, seeing as they were both soldiers, but saw different solutions to the problem at hand. I have to say, this mini-series has been building nicely, and the final issue should be explosive.

Score: 8 out of 10.I love Cap and all, but Ronan was awesome in this issue!

Annihilators: Earthfall #2

After I finish reading this issue, I'm already halfway done with this mini-series... Instead of going the mini-series route, I don't get why Marvel doesn't just make this a regular series, either that or just bring Nova back already and give HIM a series... I'm pretty sure that's what almost all of Marvel's cosmic story fans want anyway.

Annihilators: Earthfall #2(of 4):

Summary: Picking up from last issue, the Avengers arrive on the scene to see the Annihilators seemingly attacking an innocent looking office building in Colorado. Ronan basically begs the Avengers to attack, must to Quasar's dismay. Not wanting to spend time trying to talk the Avengers out of their attack, Quasar and Ikon head inside the building hoping to stop the Universal Church of Truth from whatever nefarious scheme they were plotting inside, while Gladiator, Ronan and Beta Ray Bill deal with the Avengers. Spider-Man follows Quasar inside and tries to see what the deal was, with the two running into several armed members of the UCT. Back outside, the UCT send several of their super-powered agents to attack both the Annihilator members as well as the Avengers. The Avengers, now thoroughly confused, strike out at both parties, still unable to see that the Annihilators were the good guys in this whole mess. Back inside, Spidey, Quasar and Ikon make quick work of the UCT guards and find the cocoon that Adam Warlock(or more likely, the Magus) was incubating in, and Ikon tears it open, revealing nothing... Quasar takes this to mean that the whatever was in the cocoon had already hatched, and the trio turn around to see dozens of creepy Magus children.

Thoughts: Well this issue sure was predictable! Seriously, would it have hurt for Quasar to tell the Avengers what he and the Annihilators were doing on Earth? I mean Quasar IS an Avenger in good standing so far as I can remember, as well as an ally of Captain America, so you'd have to think the Avengers would at least humor him... Instead we get the obligatory, “Two super-teams meet, have a misunderstanding and fight each other” with the next issue inevitably being the, “Realizing their mistake, the two super-teams join forces and face down the true threat” portion of this story. I have to say, from writers as talented as Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning I'd have expected more... With that said, I DID enjoy the fight scene between the Avengers and Annihilators, and I really liked the end of this one with the reveal of all of the little Magus kids. If nothing else that should put some strain on the Annihilators as I can't imagine Quasar and Beta Ray Bill being in favor of simply killing the Magus kids, while I'd imagine Gladiator and Ronan would see that as the most obvious solution. Toss the Avengers into the mix, and the next issue should at the very least be interesting. And for the record, there was a Rocket Raccoon and Groot back-up story in this issue that I didn't even bother to flip through. To say I could care less about those two characters is the understatement of a lifetime!

Score: 7 out of 10.“You are a disgrace to the name Mar-Vell!” I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so!

Annihilators: Earthfall #1

Here's a comic that may hold some promise, the first issue of the second Annihilators mini-series. I'll admit, I wasn't that fond of the first Annihilators mini, but since I like the characters and the writers of this mini, I'm more than willing to give this one a shot.

Annihilators: Earthfall #1(of 4):

Summary: We open this mini up with the Annihilators(that would be Quasar, Ronan, Gladiator, Cosmo, Ikon and Beta Ray Bill) attacking a formation of Universal Church of Truth spaceships to prevent the ships from destroying the ships of a rival UCT faction. It seems with Magus dead(again) the UCT has broken into factions and are attacking each other. The Annihilators make quick work of the UCT ships and capture the leader of that band of ships, the Matriarch. Cosmo manages to catch a glimpse of something not very good in the head of the Matriarch and tells the team to teleport to the Earth immediately. The team heads to Earth and attacks a UCT cell that was operating out of Colorado. The UCT members change to their true alien forms and attack the Annihilators on sight, but are no real match for the Annihilators. The UCT members suddenly change back into their human disguises just as the Avengers arrive on the scene, making it look as if the alien Annihilators were picking on poor, defenseless humans. There was a Rocket Raccoon and Groot back-up feature in this comic as well, but upon flipping through it and seeing Mojo, it should be no surprise that I didn't bother reading it.

Thoughts: Yeah, this wasn't that good... The story itself isn't that interesting, and the cliffhanger doesn't really make all that much sense, because it should be very easy to fix. So the Avengers arrive on the scene and see the Annihilators attacking some humans. Naturally that will lead to one of those good, old fashioned superhero misunderstandings and subsequent throwdowns. But here's the thing... Quasar WAS an Avenger. That right there should head off any trouble as Quasar sees Captain America(the Avenger he was closest with during his initial Avengers run), and says, “Hey Cap, these are actually aliens! Have Iron Man or somebody else scan the area to see that we're telling the truth!” thus taking away any potential misunderstanding/fight. But of course that won't happen. The Annihilators and the Avengers will duke it out for an issue or two, before the Avengers realize the error of their way, probably after the UCT members make some sort of nefarious move, and then the heroes will all join forces to defeat the ne'er-do-wells. Hopefully things turn out a bit more exciting than that, but with the way this issue set things up, I don't have very high hopes for this series at all...

Score: 5 out of 10.Why is Cap levitating?