Review by Isaac Magaña

Annihilation Conquest Prologue

Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning

Artist: Mike Perkins

Colorist: Guru eFX

Annihilation Conquest: Starlord #1-4

Writer: Keith Giffen

Penciler: Timothy Green II

Inker: Victor Olazaba

Colorist: Nathan Fairbairn

Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit

Annihilation Conquest: Quasar #1-4

Writer: Christos N. Gage

Penciler: Mike Lilly

Inkers: Bob Almond with Scott Hanna, Mark McKenna & Roland Paris

Colorist: Stephane Peru

Letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna

Writer: Michael Hoskin

Annihilation Saga

Writer: Michael Hoskin

Reprints: Annihilation Conquest Prologue, Annihilation Conquest: Starlord #1-4, Annihilation Conquest: Quasar #1-4, Annihilation Saga

I’ve always loved science fiction. I grew up on it. When it came to comics all the sci-fi stuff was in the Fantastic Four section of the Marvel Universe. When the Annihilation story came along I skipped it. I went back read it, and I was impressed. When I found out there was a sequel, Annihilation: Conquest there was no stopping me.

This saga starts off sometime after the Annihilation Wave. Most of the characters have started piecing their lives back together and helping the people ravaged by the wave. The prologue starts us off with the Quasar and Moondragon. They are both staying at a monastery to offer aid to the victims of the wave, but also time to rest and control their powers. On the Kree homeworld Peter Quill, a former hero known as Starlord, is helping the Kree upgrade their main defense systems. He is in charge of merging software from the Spaceknights into the Kree system. What starts out as a demonstration quickly turns into an invasion. The Spaceknights are not as they seem and take over the Kree homeworld in a matter minutes. Quasar is notified by a voice in her head of a quest that she must take to save the Kree Empire, while Peter Quill is left to fend for himself as his companions have turned against him.

My compliments have to go to the artists and colorists on this first story. They worked some impressive magic on these characters. The characters all had a photo-realistic look to them but with none of the staleness or creepiness usually associated with that type of art. Both of the writers, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, wrote a very interesting setup. I was really intrigued by Peter Quill and found his humor very entertaining, which was pretty easy with the Kree around.

Speaking of Peter Quill, we follow his development in the Starlord miniseries. Peter survived the invasion of the Kree home world and was evacuated to another planet where the Kree gave him medical attention. Kree intelligence has discovered that any form of technology is useless against the invasion. They devise a plan to send a team into the Kree home world with low-tech weaponry so it can’t be compromised. They choose weapons found on earth and most familiar to Peter Quill. With no real Kree army to send the Peter is accompanied on his mission by a rag-tag group of Kree inmates, none of which are Kree. It’s up to Peter Quill, aka Starlord, and a team involving a mixture of people, plants, and animals to try and stop the invasion on the home Kree world.

I’m going to come out and say this was my favorite story in the book. Keith Giffen did a great job of creating a multitude of characters all with distinct personalities that played well together. I found Peter interesting. On one hand he wants to do the right thing and save the day, but is haunted by his sordid past as a hero. The art of Timothy Green was interesting. All his pencils involved very thin lines. It was jarring at first but once I got accustomed to it, it seemed to fit right in with the story. Nathan Fairbairn’s colors were simple. There were no complex shadings or tricks with color; it was just plain standard coloring. While that may seem like a bad thing, it wasn’t. Green’s pencils worked well with Fairbairn’s coloring scheme. I wasn’t a fan at first but it grew on me as the story went along. Let me move forward with the next mini.

The Quasar series picks up with Quasar and Moondragon on the run from the forces that have invaded the Kree home world. As they run, Quasar hears a voice telling her to locate him who will save them all. She doesn’t know who that is or where he is located. She‘s been tasked with locating him to save the Kree Empire. Moondragon trusts Quasar and so they search together. The invading forces have created a force field to segregate the Kree Empire from the rest of the universe, which serves to cut Quasar from her power source, leaving her to operate with the stored energy in her quantum bands. Quasar and Moondragon are on a race to find the savior before a villain known as the Super-Adaptoid, assimilated by the invading forces, finds him first and assimilates the savior into the invading forces power structure. Things get more complicated as the Super-Adaptoid has created his own quantum bands and begins to siphon power away from Quasar.

Christos N. Gage did well in bringing in Quasar’s past as well as making it a part of her. The idea that she has to live up to the previous heroes is something Gage wrote into the character and it flowed naturally. The art was good. Nothing really blew me away but it wasn’t disappointing either. Mike Lilly had some full page spreads that were pleasing to look at but never really transferred over to his other pages. It wasn’t awful or anything, it was just something I noticed. The colors from Stephane Peru seemed muted. They seemed a little washed out. Once again not a complaint, just something I noticed. The colors had a few high spots but only on certain pages in an issue. This was the last story in this book.

The sequel to Annihilation hits the ground running and starts off differently than it predecessor. Now, instead of having multiple mini-series building up into the main event, the main-event is carried along by the mini-series. The question that will always come back to haunt me will be “do I have to read these mini’s to understand the main story?” No you don’t, but you’d be robbing yourself of some great story. The art was impressive at times but the stories are what made this volume entertaining. I’ve read it more than once and still enjoy coming across my favorite moments.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (On Its way to greatness)