Review by Isaac Magaña

Annihilation

Writer: Keith Giffen

Penciler: Andrea DiVito

Colors: Laura Villari

Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus

“Parasites”

Writer: Christos N. Gage

Penciler: Giuseppe Camuncoli

Colors: June Chung

“Stardust: A Death of Hope”

Writer: Stuart Moore

Penciler: Mike McKone

Colors: Laura Villari

“Afterburn”

Writer: Keith Giffen

Penciler: Scott Kolins

Colors: June Chung

“Brother’s Keeper”

Writer: Keith Giffen

Penciler: Andrea DiVito

Colors: Paul Mounts

Letterers: Cory Petit

Editor: Andy Schmidt

Published by Marvel Comics

Reprints: Annihilation #1-6, Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1-2, Annihilation: Nova Corps Files

The Annihilation Wave (AW) has been tearing through the galaxy leaving a wake of death and destruction in its path. The first two volumes have clearly outlined how dangerous the wave has become and how unprepared everyone was when it arrived; just as I was unprepared this week and the amount of time it would take for me to write this review. Anyway... The story hits its high notes in this volume and we get resolutions to many of the plot elements set up in the early volumes.

Nova has been busy since his last appearance. He has been able to cobble together a small army to oppose the wave. His army is comprised of Kree soldiers, Drax, Gamora, the former StarLord, Ronan, and a few former Heralds. Together they have been able to save lives and evacuate people but not turn the tide against the AW. Nova believes they’ve finally hit a point where they can save a planet against the wave, but this small victory is fleeting. The AW begins to utilize teleportation technology and gets the drop on Nova’s resistance group. They suffer casualties and retreat. The AW displays its power and proceeds to destroy the planet in a matter of minutes.

Nova was able to interrogate one of the AW fleet commanders, a hive queen. She proceeded to mock Nova and delivers him a message: their leader, Annihilus, is all powerful and has captured and imprisoned Galactus. Nova doesn’t believe it until he receives reports of the planet and its destruction at the hands of Galacuts, the AW newest weapon. Things look bleak for Nova and for the rest of universe but they still have to fight. The AW is only 3 months away from Earth.

I have to hand it to Keith Giffen, he sure knows how to write stories where the characters get kicked when they’re down. The use of Galactus as a weapon was pure genius but also highlighted how powerful Anihilus had become. Keith spread out suspenseful moments throughout the issues and they paid off. The art by Andrea Divito and Laura Villari came together beautifully. There were a lot of nice single page panels and two page spreads that just brimmed with emotion. It’s as if the artists knew how climactic the scenes were and channeled it on to the page appropriately. Ketih was able to incorporate all the previous storylines into his story seamlessly. My only complaint is the introduction of two central characters whose history in the Marvel Universe was not widely known to me. But on Keith’s defense that didn’t stall the story.

The last part of the volumes is a collection of stories involving the Heralds of Galactus. The stories are an epilogue of sorts. Each short-story addresses a specific Herald and their predicaments after the battle. Each character was unique, though some characters come off one-dimensional. This might have been due to the limited page length of each story, but didn’t hinder the overall theme. The artists and colorists did some good work, but would prefer not to go into specifics due the amount of individual stories.

As this draws the Annihilation story to a close, I must say I truly enjoyed this last book. The previous volumes were not entirely necessary to enjoy this volume, but they did add some additional layers that made the stories deeper. Plus, I walk away from this story a big fan of Galactus and the Silver Surfer. I will close by saying that this book was probably my favorite of the whole run. It brought together so many storylines and resolutions but didn’t make them overly complex or hard to follow. The suspense might be lost if you didn’t read the previous volumes but that’s okay because this book brings its own. I’m glad I read it and I really recommend you try it, especially if you love space stories.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (Above Average)