"Annihilation: Desperate Measures"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Annihilation: Desperate Measures” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                Annihilus, Lord of the Negative Zone, and his Annihilation wave pushed through the Crunch, and the universe was expanding into the Negative Zone. Annihilus was leading his Annihilation wave to take over all of existence. He destroyed the planet Xandar and killed all the Nova Corps, save for Richard Rider, who had the Xandarian Worldmind, and all of the Nova Force downloaded into his head.

Ronan was a former Kree Accuser, but due to a false testimony, he had been stripped of his rank and accused of treason and was on the run for his crimes. To restore his honor, he was searching for the “witness” who presented false evidence against him, Tana Nile. His search led him to Godthab Omega, where he reunited with his old friend Korath. While the two were catching up, they were attacked by Stellaris and Nebula, who were acting as graces for Gamora, the deadliest woman in the galaxy. Ronan forced the graces into retreat, where they returned to Gamora, who was harboring Tana Nile. Ronan found the warrior Devos in the town of Abyss, where Devos had just defeated the Skrull Talos, but Gamora attacks them both. The aspiring shaper of worlds Glorian used the energies from Devos, Talos, and the impact of Ronan and Gamora’s fight to recreate Godthab Omega. After Ronan and Gamora’s fight, Korath found Ronan, when Annhilus’ Annihilation Wave hit Godthab Omega. The Wave interrupted Glorian’s creation process. The Wave was led by Annihilus’ mat Eradica. Ronan discovered where Gamora and her graces were hiding Tana Nile, who was injured by the Annihilation Wave. She revealed the Fiyero House had been the ones who ordered her to give false testimony, before she succumbed to her wounds. Fiyero House wanted to replace the old order on Hala and claim it for themselves, going so far as to overthrow the Kree Supreme Intelligence. Ronan then defeated Eradica and her horde. His business of Godthab Omega concluded, Ronan swore he would find redemption.

                After six months, Richard Rider/Nova was leading the fight against the Annihilation Wave, with his second-in-command Peter Quill, formerly known as Starlord. Nova’s team included Drax the Destroyer and his companion Cammi, Gamora, Ronan, and the Heralds of Galactus, Firelord, Red Shift, and Stardust. They were holding off the wave, but they were not winning the War. Meanwhile, Annihilus had Thanos and the Proemial Gods Tenebrous and Aegis on his side. Firelord battled Annihilus’ mate Extirpia and captured her. Annihilus sent his hound Ravenous to extract revenge on Galactus’ former heralds. Firelord was returned gravely injured. Tenebrous and Aegis defeated Galactus and his current herald Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer and abducted Galactus and Silver Surfer. Phyla-Vell came to Drax to tell him his daughter Heather Douglas/Moondragon had been abducted by Thanos. Praxagora, a soldier from the Negative Zone who now fought against Annihilus, arrived with the body of Kl’rt/Super-Skrull. Ravenous, his Curs, and the Centurions, Annihilus’ elite army, arrived at the heroes’ base. Thanos created a device that would channel the energies Galactus consumed to power Annihilus’ forces. Firelord rejoined the fight, and the Super-Skrull was revived, but Annihilus’ forces were too much, and the heroes had to retreat off-world. Drax stayed behind in the fight to cover the retreat. Moondragon used her telepathic powers to show Thanos Annihilus’ plan. Thanos had keyed the shutdown on the Galactus machine to his power signature. But before Thanos could double-cross Annihilus, Drax fulfilled the purpose he was created for and destroyed Thanos. Moondragon surmised Silver Surfer, possessing the Power Cosmic, was on the same power level as Thanos, and instructed Drax to rescue him. Silver Surfer then freed Galactus. Ronan and Super-Skrull fought and defeated Ravenous. Ronan then struck down House Fiyero and was proclaimed ruler of the Kree. All forces then united in a final battle against Annihilus and his Annihilation Wave.

                Terrax the Tamer, a former herald of Galactus, along with the Skrull warrior Paibok and the Delinquent, arrived on a planet of Centaurians who were enslaved by Randau, the Space Parasite, who feasted upon energy. Terrax, having been defeated many times in the past, wanted to redeem himself and claim a victory. However, Randau’s defeat might not have been what the enslaved Centaurians wanted.

                Stardust, a former herald of Galactus, and an Ethereal, was confronted by the last remnants of his kind. After striking them down, he found Galactus, weakened from Annihilus’ machine and hungering more than ever. Having been replaced by the Silver Surfer, Stardust was desperate to return to Galactus’ service and offered Galactus a gift, hoping to win the world-eater’s favor.

                Firelord, a former herald of Galactus, arrived on Omina Prime, which was being overtaken by the warlord Smyt. The Centurians attempted to fight back but were not strong enough to defeat the warlord. Firelord offered his assistance, feeling a sense on sympathy for both having served another, but this was not an act of friendship, a fact he made known before departing Omina Prime.

                Silver Surfer, the current herald of Galactus, was tasked by his master with the mission of destroying the Proemial Gods Tenebrous and Aegis.

                Okay, I feel like that’s a good summary for this graphic novel. I tried to avoid spoiling the ending as much as possible, so you’ll actually have a reason to buy this book to find out how the heroes actually save the universes. So, we’ve covered Marvel’s part in this review, now let’s do my part of this review. We’re going to start with, as usual, my own reflections on the graphic novel. So, personally, I wasn’t all that impressed with the story. However, I will say what I am impressed with. Marvel has put out so many Epic Collections over the years, and none of them have ever actually contained the entirety of an event before. Epic Collections usually contain issues of specific characters from specific time periods, which at times occur around events, but will not actually include every single issue of the main event limited series. This is actually Vol. 2 of “Annihilation” and contained all six issues of the limited series “Annihilation” and if you combine the first two volumes together, they comprise the entire event. So, I will say I am actually happy about that. But was it an event I loved? No, it was not. This event actually occurred around the same time as “Civil War,” and I will say I much preferred the terrestrial war to the cosmic war. That said, I didn’t hate this event. I did find it mildly enjoyable. I mean, I read the entire graphic novel (comics sections only) in the span of about four hours, so if I couldn’t put it down, I guess on some level it was entertaining to me. Let’s talk about what I did like first. My favorite aspects about this graphic novel were the relationships between the characters. In Vol. 1, it was established how Drax met Cammi. I loved how their relationship continued in this volume. It was stated how Drax cared for Cammi, something that he didn’t actually really do for his own biological daughter Heather. I found that touching, especially when Drax stayed behind in the fight to allow the heroes to escape, and Cammi’s reaction, wanting to go back for Drax, despite their whole Cammi being a pain in Drax’s butt schtick. I liked Ronan’s quest for redemption against House Fiyero, the fact that they tried to take over and throw him out so they could have their way, and the turnaround of him taking them down and being given ascension over the Kree, I loved the poetic nature of that. I liked how Thanos had his own machinations the entire time, working for and against Annihilus at the same time, and at the end never getting his chance to double-cross his ally. Thanos has actually always been my favorite villain from space, as he actually does occasionally get to win, which not every villain gets to do, and he is a very nuanced villain as well. I knew from Vol. 1 that he didn’t truly want to serve Annihilus like Annihilus wanted because Thanos doesn’t actually serve anyone but himself and I was waiting to see the turnaround and see what Thanos would do, and I was slightly disappointed Drax stopped Thanos from taking an almost heroic action, but it still made for good entertainment. And I liked how Drax didn’t end Thanos to save Heather, despite Thanos having kidnapped her, he just ended Thanos because he believed that was his destiny because it showed his focus on not actually truly valuing family over purpose and exactly what a cold and ruthless character he is. I liked the two issue “Heralds of Galactus” limited series showcasing the four heralds, I thought those four short stories were all extremely interesting vignettes, and I usually like short stories focusing on one character at a time, I like how they give a new perspective on the character. Now let’s talk about what I didn’t like. I felt like at points there was too much action. There were times where there would be pages with panels full of explosions and blasts and no dialogue, and I felt like this detracted from it a little bit. Some issues took me less than ten minutes to read, and I found that slightly disappointing, I would have liked a little more exposition to go with the action, rather than just having a whole page full of reds, oranges, blacks, yellows, and sound effects. I remember back when comic books used to take forty-five minutes to read, and I really miss those days, and back then comics cost a heck of a lot less than they do now. I’m dropping a lot of money on these books, I want to actually be able to savor them, rather than just fly through them. I also didn’t like the time jumps. Between the first two volumes of “Annihilation,” there was a lot of time that wasn’t actually shown on panel, and these two volumes collected issues that spanned over a real-time period of three years in publication. I feel like the writers could have made a compelling story without the time jumps, which left gaps of several months left completely off the page. Yes, the dialogue was enough to explain what happened in the timespan between the jumps, but I didn’t feel like the six months left to the imagination were necessary, especially since comic book time isn’t supposed to mimic real time, and really, not a whole lot of years are supposed to have passed from back when Marvel first went big back in 1961 to now, so over 200 days passing in one event wastes a lot of time, in my opinion, and this event taking so long while the rest of the Marvel Universe is going on at a time period at a much slower pace doesn’t make sense, since “Civil War” didn’t take that long. Of course, we wouldn’t have a graphic novel review if I didn’t discuss the artwork. As my regular readers know, this is often a killer of scores for me. A graphic novel can have the most amazing story ever told, but the artwork can be an eyesore that ruins my enjoyment reading the book. That said, the story can be awful but still have mind-blowingly epic artwork that actually gets points just for pleasing my eyes. So, let’s do a rundown of what I thought of the art. For the art in “Annihilation: Ronan,” I felt it was a little wonky, but it wasn’t so bad that I hated it. The artwork in “Annihilation” was, in my opinion, fantastic. I found the art in “Parasites” to be enjoyable. I loved the artwork in “A Death of Hope.” The art in “Afterburn” was, in my opinion, very good. And I thought the art in “Brother’s Keeper” was excellent. So, in general, I found the artwork to mostly be acceptable, if not pleasurable, which it is actually relatively rare to happen when a graphic novel has so many artists. Usually, multiple artists means that someone runs a risk if inciting my ire, but none of these artists actually really struck a nerve. My final reflection is going to be on the title. Yes, “Desperate Measures” was the title of one issue in this book, but I just don’t really like it. This book basically had fourteen titles to choose from, if you want to get technical, and I don’t know exactly why the editors picked this one specifically, but it’s not my favorite. Can I tell you which one would have been the best? Honestly, no, but I still think there could have been a better title.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. For any of the people who have read any of my other six dozen or so reviews, I’m sorry I have to explain this, but I always have those newbies who just got Facebook or X or Threads or found me through a hashtag for the first time and have never read a Tim Cubbin review before and have no idea what I mean when I throw out the word “accessibility” like this, so I’m obligated to explain it once again for whatever ridiculously high number of times I’ve had to explain this. So when I use the word “accessibility” in a review, what I mean is, can a person who has absolutely no prior knowledge at all of Marvel Comics find this book online, or at a bookstore, or comics shop, or a library, say “oh, I like this title!” or “oh, I like this cover, I want to read this!” and procure this book, read it, and fully understand everything they’ve just read? The answer is a resounding no. The biggest reason I say this is because this is marketed as Vol. 2, and I feel like it is imperative to read Vol. 1 “Annihilation Day” before reading this graphic novel as it sets up many of the threads in the main “Annihilation” event itself. The secondary reason I say this is because some of these characters are relatively obscure and have not had adequate histories established in other media to prepare readers for this book, even if you are a fan of the MCU, video games, television series, or cartoons. I will say if you are new to Marvel Comics, whether a fan of Marvel media or just a person who has never heard of Marvel and want to read this book, this is not a book to pick as your first foray into reading Marvel Comics.

                Okay, I’ve been blathering on for a very long time at this point, you’re probably starting to get bored of me and just want me to move on, so let’s get with one of the key points in my review. I used to say it was the reason we’re all here, but some people who read my reviews just want to hear what the book was about or what I thought about it, but this next part is one of the most crucial segments of any of my reviews, that being my numeric score. So, I work on an extremely simple system of scoring. My scores come in exact integers between one through ten. If I give the book a one, that means that it’s a piece of trash and every copy left in warehouses should be collected, placed in a pile, and ignited, then should never be reprinted again. I know that sounds a little extreme, but that’s how I am. Ten means this book is sheer perfection and if I get the chance, I will find any unsuspecting victims and talk to them about this graphic novel for ten hours straight until they buy the book and we will then have a ten hour discussion about the book. I know, that’s extreme, too. These polar scores really don’t exactly mean what I say they do in exposition. One just means this book was horrible, ten means this book was fantastic. So, let’s get to the actual score. So, I always say I have my metaphorical blender that somehow magically takes graphic novels in and makes a score. I know, in reality, that makes absolutely no sense, but like I said, it’s a metaphor. This blender takes every component of the graphic novel into account when I make a score in it, the story, the art, and the title. Let’s do a quick recap of the ingredients. I felt like the story was relatively mid-level, but I still found things to enjoy about it at the same time. I felt that, for the most part, the art was at least acceptable, if not excellent. I did not like the title. I’ll toss all of these ingredients into my blender, turn it on, mix it until I have a liquid, which, I know, makes no sense, but again this is a metaphor so just accept it, and pour the liquid score out into a metaphorical cup. Now, I don’t actually drink the score, I just look at it then pour it down my metaphorical sink. But I am looking at the score and it’s… a five. This book was average, but it wasn’t completely awful.

                I know, I’ve been going on for a really long time now, you’re probably really getting bored of me now, so let’s move on to the last major segment of my review: the recommendation. In the recommendation segment, I do two things. The first thing I do is tell you if I personally would recommend this book to you, my reader, who have been reading this review for the past several minutes, or to anyone unfortunate enough to be considered someone I’d talk to about this book. The second thing I do is, regardless of if I would recommend this book or not, tell you who I think the best audience would be to read this book, which is actually usually pretty obvious, but sometimes there are a few surprises. So to cover the first bulletin point, the answer is no, I would not personally recommend this book to you if you’re reading this review and are on the fence about if you want to read this book or not based solely on what you’ve been reading for the past several minutes, but that is entirely up to you, I can’t compel you not to read this book, this may actually sound interesting to you and you might want to read it, so if you want to read it, I can’t stop you, but the fact of the matter is I would tell you that I honestly don’t think you should read it if you’re not completely sure as this book is a costly investment and I wouldn’t want you to waste your money on something you won’t enjoy. As for the second point, I feel like the best audience is people who like space dramas. If you’re a fan of shows or movies like “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” and a comic book fan, this is probably your kind of comic book. If you’re a fan of Marvel characters such as Nova, Thanos, Silver Surfer, Galactus, or Drax, I would recommend this book to you as it very much highlights these characters. And if you like cosmic Marvel Comics or Negative Zone stories, this might be your cup of tea.

                Okay, I feel like it’s just about time we all moved on with our lives, I’ve been typing for the past four hours, it’s time to move on. Just a few short notices before we go, though. First off, I do have to talk a little bit about this blog. I’ve been working on this blog for five years now and have done over 170 posts. The majority of the work I do on this blog is book reviews. I’ve done some prose novels in the past, and some Marvel events collected on Marvel Unlimited, my current main focus is Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I am a diehard Marvel fan and purchase every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after release and if possible, put up a review on this blog. I usually do at least one post a month. I’ve done over six dozen reviews like this at this point. I’ve done a review of “Annihilation: Annihilation Day” if you want more “Annihilation” content to compare to this post. I have already obtained my next Modern Era Epic Collection “Captain America: The Burden of Dreams,” you can expect a review of that within the next eleven days. In addition to the dozens of reviews I’ve done, I’ve also written a few short stories, poems, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty of other content here, keep checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for all my other posts. I’ll be doing this blog for as long as I can, so you can probably expect that to be for quite a while as I don’t foresee anything stopping me anytime soon. I’ll say that’s all for now, folks, but until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Annihilation: Annihilation Day"

 

                The following is a review of the graphic novel “Annihilation: Annihilation Day” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

                The Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 01 was carrying galactic criminals, including the Blood Brothers, Lunatik, Paibok, and Drax the Destroyer en route to the Kyln prison station at the Universal Crunch when it crash landed onto the planet Earth in Coot’s Bluff, Alaska. The Blood Brothers, Lunatik and Paibok formed an alliance and planned to find a way off of Earth and enjoy their newfound freedom, but Drax remained separate, and fought the Blood Brothers. Drax, who had been known to be mentally dull, seemed to get smarter and more coherent with every hit he took from the Blood Brothers. Elementary school students Cammi and Dex saw the crash on television and went to the woods to investigate the crash and found the aliens. Drax, whose daughter Heather had been killed by the Mad Titan Thanos, mistook Cammi for his daughter, and came to protect her, a mistake Cammi took advantage of. Paibok and Lunatik went into Coot’s Bluff and forced the inhabitants to go to the crash site to aid them in building a way off the planet. As Cammi and Dex returned to town, Drax fought Lunatik and Paibok, and Paibok shape-shifted into Thanos to throw Drax off his game, then killed Drax. Cammi asked Paibok for ownership of Drax’s body, to which Paibok agreed. As Cammi watched Drax’s body, Drax hatched a new, smaller body out of the deceased body. Drax merged minds with Cammi and learned she was not actually Heather, and Drax explained his history to Cammi, and Cammi chose to accompany Drax. Lunatik and the Blood Brothers learned that the transport they were on was damaged beyond repair and that they were unable to leave Earth. Drax returned to fight Lunatik and the Blood Brothers, ending Lunatik and allowing only one Blood Brother to survive, feeling that was the worst form of revenge he could dish out. Paibok summoned a prison transport, and Cammi and Drax were taken into space about the Prison Transport Vessel Dredge 02.

                Annihilus, Lord of the Negative Zone, unleashed his monstrous Annihilation Wave upon the universe. The Dredge 02 arrived at the Xandar Spaceport near the Xandar Cluster, Xandar being the home planet to the Nova Corps. Drax was released upon a technicality. Because he was reborn, his current genetic matrix readings didn’t match those the Nova Corps had on file and thus they could not prove this was the same Drax the Destroyer who destroyed two hundred thousand beings and were left with no choice but to let him go. As the Annihilation Wave hit Xandar, the Nova Corps were having a meeting. All the Nova Corps was wiped out, save for Richard Rider, a Nova Corpsman from the planet Earth. Drax and Cammi were able to evade the Annihilation Wave from the Xandar Spaceport in an escape pod. Ronan, the Kree Accuser, was arrested for crimes of sedition against the Kree Empire. Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer felt the Annihilation Wave. Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull learned of a super-weapon called the Harvester of Sorrows that was taking down entire Skrull planets. Annihilus planned to infest the entire universe.

                Richard Rider was awakened on the ruins of Xandar by Worldmind, the Artificial Intelligence collection of all Xandarian culture and possessor of the Nova Force. As Richard was the last surviving Nova Corpsman, there was no one except for him left to carry on Xandarian culture as all life on Xandar had been eliminated by the Annihilation Wave. Worldmind downloaded itself and the entirety of the Nova Force into Richard. Richard attacked a ship of the Annihilation Wave and destroyed it, but the power of the Nova Force overwhelmed him and began to corrupt him. Annihilus became aware of Richard’s power. Drax and Cammi came across Richard and suggested joining together to find a ship and a way off the decimated Xandar, but Richard was afraid he was a liability due to his powers making him mentally unstable. Worldmind instructed Richard to find a way off of Xandar, but Richard was resistant to team up with Drax, due to his criminal reputation, a history Drax denied. Richard was afraid to use the Nova Force, afraid he would lose control when he, Drax and Cammi were attacked by Annihilus’ forces. Drax eliminated them. Drax communed with Worldmind. Worldmind instructed Drax to help Richard keep control of himself while Richard used the Nova Force. Richard, Drax and Cammi boarded a ship, and Richard used the Nova Force to create a stargate to escape Xandar. The trio arrived at Nycos Aristedes, where they were rescued by Wendell Vaughn/Quasar, a human from Earth who gained powers from the Quantum Bands. Quasar was attempting to aid the Aakonian fleet in helping 18.6 million Aakonian Colonists escape from the Annihilation Wave. Richard, Cammi, and Drax agreed to help Quasar in the mission. Richard opened a stargate, then Richard and Quasar teamed up and took the fight to Annihilus, while trying to give the Aakonian fleet time to help the colonists flee to safety. Annihilus used his Cosmic Control Rod to drain Quasar’s powers and take control of the Quantum Bands. Richard was left by himself to fight Annihilus and buy the Aakonian fleet, Cammi, and Drax time to allow the colonists to escape and hold back the Annihilation Wave.

                Silver Surfer came upon Gabriel Air Walker, an android from Xandar and former Herald of Galactus, who was being attacked by Seekers, servants of Annihilus. Silver Surfer himself was once a Herald of Galactus, who had been discharged by the Devourer of Worlds. The Seekers were attempting to abduct those with the Power Cosmic imbued by Galactus upon his Heralds in order to give Annihilus their Power Cosmic. Being a machine, Annihilus would not be able to take the Power Cosmic from Gabriel Air Walker but had successfully rooted out Silver Surfer. Silver Surfer was able to help Gabriel Air Walker escape the Seekers, by Gabriel was too damaged and Silver Surfer had no choice but to destroy him and swore vengeance upon Annihilus. Thanos sent out his current servant and former Herald of Galactus, the Fallen One, to find the Beyonder. Thanos and Annihilus met, and the two found common ground. Silver Surfer was attacked by Seekers and was aided by Firelord and Red Shift, both former Heralds of Galactus. The Seekers were able to abduct Terrax, another former Herald of Galactus. The Fallen One found the Beyonder dead, and became indentured to Tenebrous and Aegis, two mythological beings. Firelord suggested an alliance with Silver Surfer against the Annihilation Wave, and current Herald of Galactus Stardust asked to join. Stardust informed Silver Surfer that Galactus wished to have an audience with Silver Surfer. Galactus reinstated Silver Surfer as a Herald of Galactus. The Seekers attempted to abduct Galactus for Annihilus, but Silver Surfer fought them off. Silver Surfer was then forced back into service of helping Galactus find worlds to consume. Thanos met with Tenebrous and Aegis and discovered all three sought out Galactus.

                Super-Skrull learned the Harvester of Sorrows was aimed at the planet Zaragz’na, the planet his son lived on. He asked Skrull Baroness S’Bak for a small force of Skrull warriors to seek out and destroy the super-weapon, but due to his history of failure as a warrior, he was denied his request. In his anger, he attacked the Baroness and was forced to flee her squadron. He was rescued by a Skrull mechanic named R’Kin, who grew up idolizing Super-Skrull. R’Kin’s father fought with Super-Skrull in the Battle of Harkoon and Super-Skrull was a hero to R’Kin. Super-Skrull was branded an enemy of the Skrull Empire and was wanted captured alive. R’Kin agreed to help Super-Skrull destroy the Harvester of Sorrows. The two traveled to Earth to the Baxter Building, home of the Fantastic Four, to ask Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic to open a portal to the Negative Zone for them so Super-Skrull could recruit an army to destroy the super-weapon. Super-Skrull learned from one of Annihilus’ soldiers that the scientist who built the Harvester of Sorrows was Hawal, who had a laboratory on a prison planet in the Nexus of Igoa, then Super-Skrull killed the soldier in front of R’Kin, whose faith in his hero was shaken. R’Kin revealed to Super-Skrull that R’Kin’s father died fighting in the Battle of Harkoon. The two traveled to the UX-73 Prison Planetoid and found Hawal, who informed Super-Skrull the Harvester of Sorrows was a living being and could only be killed with a virus, and under torture agreed to make a virus for Super-Skrull. The prisoners escaped and sought revenge on their jailer, but Super-Skrull defeated the prisoners, and the prisoners agreed to serve Super-Skrull. R’Kin asked Super-Skrull to be the one to pilot the missile ship into the Harvester of Sorrows and be worthy of being called a Skrull. Former prisoner Praxagora fell in love with her new master, but Super-Skrull refused the return her affections. As the army went to fight the Harvester of Sorrows, Super-Skrull was betrayed by a member of his army, and Super-Skrull’s plans to destroy the super-weapon went wrong.

                Okay, I feel that this summarizes the graphic novel well enough, so let’s move on to my personal part of the review. Now, if you’ve ever read enough of my reviews of Epic Collections to see me complain about how Epic Collections never contain the actual events, they share the title with, you’ll come to understand just how significant this Modern Era Epic Collection is to me. For example, last year, I reviewed “New Avengers: Civil War” and mentioned how not a single issue of “Civil War” was actually contained in it, or you can look further back to other reviews, such as “Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet.” Epic Collections may share titles with events, but they don’t actually contain any issues of the main event itself. So here we have “Annihilation: Annihilation Day.” According to the back of this book, “Annihilation” was an event originally released in 2005-2006. This Modern Era Epic Collection actually is an Epic Collection of an event. I received this book two days ago and saw that the six issue limited series “Annihilation” is not actually contained in this volume, and I figured “oh, great, we have a Modern Era Epic Collection about an event that doesn’t actually contain the main series,” but upon further research, I found “Annihilation” #1-6 will be republished in the second volume of “Annihilation” which will be released later this year, so my fears of not understanding what I would be reading were alleviated, as I have never actually read “Annihilation” before and was afraid that reading the issues around it would mean that this book would make no sense. So, what we have here is the first volume of something unique among Epic Collections, this has never actually been done before, so for me, this is a pretty big deal. And I have to say, I loved it. This experience was very enjoyable. Like I said, I never read “Annihilation,” so this is new content for me, and it was fun to read. I feel like the editors of this book assembled it well. The chronology of the issues made sense, it was very coherent, and it was easy to follow the timeline. This book mainly focused on four characters: Drax the Destroyer, Richard Rider/Nova, Norrin Radd/Silver Surfer, and Kl’Rt/Super-Skrull, and I found myself invested in what the characters were going through. They were written so well I cared about their character arcs. Drax’s death and rebirth and partnership with Cammi was touching. I felt for Richard Rider as he found himself to be the last surviving member of the Nova Corps. Silver Surfer’s alliance with the Herald’s and his deal with Galactus was engaging. Super-Skrull’s betrayal was certainly unexpected. I felt that all-in-all, the authors did an excellent job writing these stories. As far as the artwork goes, I generally found it to be enjoyable. When a graphic novel has six artists, I often find myself expecting to find some source of disappointment. But I have to say, I pretty much can’t complain. Overall, I found the art to be visually appealing. Even the grittiness of the “Annihilation: Silver Surfer” series wasn’t a turnoff, which is a little odd because usually I find that to be a source of dissent, but in this case, I found it to be acceptable. Was it perfection? No. I’ve seen art that has been a lot more appealing, but in this case, the art was adequate. In total, this book was a pleasurable consumption. It wasn’t my favorite, but I found it to be entertaining.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you have been through this with me before, I’ve done it about five dozen times now, but I have to go over it again. When I use the word “accessibility,” my meaning is if it’s possible to know nothing about Marvel Comics and still be able to pick up this book from a store or library, read it, and understand all the content in the book. I will say that this book is easily accessible. I feel like this book is very well self-contained and self-explanatory. I feel like not knowing anything about Marvel isn’t a hindrance in this case. In my view, knowing the history of the characters isn’t mandatory to understanding this Modern Era Epic Collection. You can never have picked up a Marvel Comic book before and still be able to follow the story just fine. Does knowing about these characters help? Yes. But if you’ve never read a Marvel Comic book before and are looking into picking a starting point, this isn’t necessarily a perfect jump-on, but it is fine for a first foray into the Marvel Universe anyway. This can be the first Marvel graphic novel you’ve ever read, but it won’t necessarily prepare you for further ventures into other series because this book is a complete event of limited series that didn’t cross over into ongoing series, so there’s no direct continuation from this graphic novel into other graphic novels, but if you want to read something Marvel and you’ve never touched a comic book before, feel free to read this.

                Next up, we’re coming to the most important part of my review: my numeric score. I’ve done this over six dozen times at this point, but I have to explain it again to you newbs who have never read one of my reviews before. I score on a very simple scale: exact integers between one through ten. One is the worst score I can give and means that this book is trash and should stop being published and every existing copy should be burned. Ten is the best possible score I can give and means that this book is sheer perfection and every copy on the shelves should be bought and then reprints should be done frequently to replace the out-of-stock books. So, I have to say that it is extremely hard for me to give something a ten. Finding a book to be perfection is something that is extremely hard for me to accept, the story has to be completely engaging, and the artwork has to be consistently visually appealing, and that is a rarity. But at the same time, I don’t give ones very often either, that means that the story has to be boring, confusing, pointless, stupid, predictable, or unengaging, and the art has to be visually displeasing and not something I want to look at. I can usually find something to like in every graphic novel I read and can give it some points above a one, I’ve only given ones at a rate you can count on one hand at this point in time. Now this book is definitely nowhere near being a one, the story was engaging, the characters were well-written, the plot was well thought out, and the artwork was, for the most part, acceptable. But, at the same time, this book is a bit far off from being a ten. It wasn’t total perfection, and it just isn’t my favorite read. Now, my score is going to come as a surprise, considering I gave it such high praise, but it’s just not going to be a high score. The score I give when I take every factor in this book, the story and the art, combine all of it, throw it into my metaphorical blender, then turn it on and blend it to the point where it’s completely liquid, then pour it out and put in in a cup is… seven. I honestly don’t quite know why I can’t give this book a higher score, but there’s just something inhibiting me from doing it. It just doesn’t feel right to give it a score any higher than seven, but at the same time, it’s not possible for me to consider me going any lower with a score.

                Next up, we’re going to talk about recommendation. In this segment, I discuss if I, myself, personally recommend this book to anyone who has any prospective interest in reading this book, and then regardless of this fact, to whom do I feel should be reading this book. So, when it comes to my personal recommendation, I will say that yes, I will genuinely say that I feel like anyone interested in reading this book should definitely do so, and if you’re not already interested in reading it, I feel like you should be if you have any kind of interest in Marvel Comics. As to whom I feel should be reading this book, I feel like this is for anyone who enjoys cosmic adventures. This book should be appealing to people who are fans of space series such as “Star Wars” or “Star Trek” or other similar space action/adventure series. And if you enjoy Marvel Comics such as “Guardians of the Galaxy” or “Fantastic Four,” this book will hold interest for you. At the moment “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is not yet in theaters, and I have not seen it, so I can’t tell you if you see the movie and enjoy it that you’re the target audience, but if you enjoyed the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy, I feel like you’d find enjoyment in this graphic novel, especially if you like Drax, his story was entertaining to me. I’ve been reading Marvel Comics for twenty-five years now and I feel like if you have any kind of investment in Marvel space odysseys, this is the perfect book for you.

                Okay, the end is now in sight. I’ve been rambling on for quite a while now and I’m ready to move on with my life and I think you’re probably ready to do something else. Maybe that something else is to continue exploring timcubbin.blogspot.com? I’ve got over 160 posts at the moment, there’s plenty more to read. I’ve written over five dozen other book reviews like this, and I’ve also written short stories, poetry, articles, essays, and editorials, so there’s tons of other content to peruse if this post was to your liking. I will tell you that I purchase every new Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection released as early as I can after its release and try to post a review after I read it if possible. I do have a few Modern Era Epic Collections I haven’t reviewed because at the time I purchased and read them, I didn’t have a device to compose a review on, and I do have one I didn’t review because I couldn’t get to my laptop soon enough after reading it to write an accurate review, but maybe someday, those might be remedied, but it is not likely for me to purchase one and not review it. Marvel always puts out at least one Modern Era Epic Collection every month, and I get them as soon as I possibly can, so the possibility of more content coming up is highly likely to be frequent. I just have to find a day where I’m home all day to be there when the book arrives as I live in a house with three units and the delivery people sometimes have a hard time finding my correct door, and also the weather has to be good because I order from Amazon and those envelopes are not waterproof and I have had damaged books before and these books are very expensive and I pay for one day shipping, so I’d like to avoid having my sizeable investment ruined by water, so sometimes it takes a little while after release for me to obtain the book, but I get it at my earliest possible convenience. Anyway, that is probably too much information that you honestly don’t care about, but I threw it out there anyway, so hopefully you took it and accepted it. As it is, there is a book coming out this following week, so you can probably expect to see a new review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks, this is based entirely on if I’m off from work, don’t have therapy, doctor’s appointment, or other engagement, and if the weather is good, I’m not sure when these events will align, but they should happen soon. So, check back for it soon, and keep browsing what’s already here, there’s plenty of existing content to like at the moment. Anyway, I’m going to let you go now, all I have left to say at present is Tim Cubbin… out!

“The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” by Ron Marz & Susan Kennedy with Len Wein, John Figueroa & Gavin Curtis

            The following is a review of “The Silver Surfer: The Infinity Gauntlet” graphic novel by Ron Marz & Susan Kennedy with Len Wein, John Figueroa & Gavin Curtis as presented in Marvel Epic Collection format. This is not a review of “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series.

            Galactus is a creature of cosmic destruction that sustains himself by devouring the life essences of entire planets. Norrin Radd was a man on the peaceful planet of Zenn-La. Galactus discovered Zenn-La and prepared to consume the planet. Norrin wished to save his planet and made a deal with Galactus: if Galactus were to spare Zenn-La, Norrin would now become Galactus’ herald, to search through the spaceways for planets that may sustain Galactus. Galactus accepted this deal, spared Zenn-La, and granted Norrin the Power Cosmic, and a surfboard that obeyed Norrin’s every command. Norrin was reborn as the Silver Surfer.

            The Silver Surfer eventually discovered the planet Earth, and summoned Galactus. However, as the Silver Surfer awaited Galactus’ arrival, he met humans, and learned the value of life. The super hero team, the Fantastic Four learned of a doomsday device called the Ultimate Nullifier that would defeat Galactus. Galactus admitted defeat and agreed to spare Earth, but felt betrayed by the Silver Surfer, so Galactus placed a barrier around Earth that prevented the Silver Surfer from leaving Earth’s atmosphere. Galactus moved on and took on a new herald named Nova, an Earth woman who served Galactus due to her unrequited love for Galactus. The Silver Surfer was eventually able to leave Earth’s atmosphere and now searches the spaceways for adventure, to help those in need, and to eventually eliminate the threat of Galactus for the universe.

            The Silver Surfer was pulled into a time warp, placing him on a peaceful planet in the 26^th century. The leader of the planet, a long-lived man named Marshach used his power to eliminate war, violence, and weapons. Unfortunately, this peace was destroyed when the Guardians of the Galaxy arrived and a conflict broke out, eventually bringing Marshach to accept mortality.

            The Eternal named Eros has a power that attracts almost every woman. He has never actually fallen in love before, until a captivating woman walks into an intergalactic bar. However, this woman is able to resist Eros’ charms.

            The Midnight Sun was experimented on and was mind-wiped with the mission to destroy the Silver Surfer. He escaped his captors and went off through the spaceways to establish a life of his own.

            Nova and the Silver Surfer have had an unspoken romance that they can never actually understand or act upon, being literally from two different worlds and from being in the service of Galactus. The Silver Surfer has been unsuccessfully trying to convince Nova to leave Galactus, and the Silver Surfer now takes Nova into the past to her Earth. Upon next planet she discovers, Nova sees the potential of the life on this planet, but she is still unable to prevent Galactus from consuming the planet.

            Thanos is an Eternal from Titan, a moon of the planet Saturn. He wishes to take over the universe, hoping to impress the Mistress Death. Thanos had learned of the Infinity Gems and set out on a quest to obtain them to create death on a massive scale. Thanos obtains all six Infinity Gems and attached them to his device, the Infinity Gauntlet. With a snap of his fingers, half of all the inhabitants of the universe instantly dies. The Silver Surfer was unable to prevent this. The Silver Surfer is able to contact Doctor Stephen Strange on Earth and brings Firelord and Drax the Destroyer into a team with the intent to bring down Thanos.

            The alien Kree Empire have been in an upheaval and are now lead by the Emperor Clumsy Foulup. The Kree Armada wish to eliminate their Emperor and try to trick the Silver Surfer into doing the job.

            Proceeding Thanos’ snap, the Earth super villain the Rhino has now mentally spiraled out of control and has decided that all animals should be free and begins to let loose all the animals living in the Central Park Zoo. The Silver Surfer attempts to convince Rhino to return the animals to safety, resulting in a conflict between the Silver Surfer and the Rhino.

            The demon named Mephisto has formed an alliance with Thanos. With Mephisto’s help, Thanos now creates a dream world where all of the universe’s remaining super heroes and super villains who would oppose him have been eliminated. The Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock are pulled into this reality and the Silver Surfer battles Thanos and destroys the dream.

            The Silver Surfer is sent into the pocket dimension ruled by Virtual Reality that forces the Silver Surfer to face the doubts, shames, and regrets the Silver Surfer has experienced over the course of his life and triumphs with the memories of friendship and love.

            Upon complete victory over all of the remaining super heroes and super villains, Thanos leaves his physical body and becomes the universe’s Supreme Being. Thanos’ granddaughter Nebula discovers Thanos’ body and snatches the Infinity Gauntlet, stealing all of Thanos’ power. The Silver Surfer, Doctor Stephen Strange, Adam Warlock, Thor, Drax the Destroyer, Firelord, Doctor Victor Von Doom, and Bruce Banner/the Hulk unite and realize that if they hope to defeat Nebula, they need the assistance of Thanos. The Silver Surfer needs further convincing, so Doctor Strange sends the Silver Surfer and Thanos to the astral plane to settle their conflict.

            The Midnight Sun finally encounters the Silver Surfer, but their battle is ended upon the arrival of the Inhumans (Black Bolt, Karnak, Gorgon and Lockjaw).

            Taneleer Tivian/the Collector learns of a rare space virus, which intrigues him and wishes to obtain a specimen. Having faked his death, he sends the Silver Surfer in his stead. However, the Silver Surfer is not the only one seeking the virus. The Collection Agency, a mercenary cadre, have been hired to obtain the virus. The two forces are eventually able to put aside their differences, but the Silver Surfer has now been infected by the virus himself.

            In his sickness, the Silver Surfer unites with the deceased Kree soldier Mar-Vell/Captain Marvel in a fever dream.

            Following this, the Silver Surfer finds himself battling his dark side and his good self and bad self must unite if the Silver Surfer is to survive.

            After the virus debacle is finished, the Silver Surfer battles the space monster Reptyl, unintentionally drawing the attraction of Princess Alaisa Ruantha Pethnan of the Second Royal House of the Kharta’een Empire, a woman used to getting her way. Because of his near-immortality and her mortality, the Silver Surfer tries to send her away to prevent him from heartbreak, something Alaisa will not stand for. She turns to Mistress Love to gain immortality and becomes Mistress Love’s Avatar. Mistress Love warns Alaisa of the other side of love. The new Avatar, however, is corrupted by Master Hate. Alaisa is still spurned by the Silver Surfer, but Alaisa still refuses to give up on her quest for Silver Surfer’s love.

            While on his travels, the Silver Surfer hears a mysterious moaning, and upon investigation, he learns that it is from an injured sentient spaceship, who asks the Silver Surfer to do a difficult task for the Silver Surfer to complete.

            When the Silver Surfer is targeted by an assault force, he accidentally enters a hyperwave, sending him on a massive collision course with Earth, and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic must act fast to save both the Silver Surfer and Earth.

            Nova spares the lives of the Kehilla before their planet is destroyed by Galactus and promises to give them a new planet to live on. However, the Kehilla fleet’s leader Kastyx is not receptive of this, and Nova is caught in a conflict between Kastyx and his wife Kasema for the future of the Kehilla race.

 

            Let me start by saying that the Silver Surfer is not a character I am very familiar with, and I’ve actually never read “The Infinity Gauntlet.” When I bought this graphic novel, I was expecting to have it contain “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series. After purchasing the graphic novel, I noticed that this book actually did not contain any issues of “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series. This made me a little wary as I started to read the book. The first issue in the book was an Annual issue that was Part 3 of “The Korvac Quest.” I’ve had experiences with Annuals in Epic Collections, which, oddly enough, usually does not require reading other Parts in the “story arc.” They don’t really completely crossover, so this didn’t deter me, especially since a recap was offered on the first page after the Table of Contents and a summary follow-up explaining how the story ended. That said, the story of “The Korvac Quest” contained in this graphic novel featured the Guardians of the Galaxy, but these were the Guardians of the Galaxy from the 31^st century, a team I am very much not familiar with. This is not the team from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films and shows, and I only know the current Guardians of the Galaxy team, which was rather disappointing. Then, “The Infinity Gauntlet” issues were issues of “The Silver Surfer” that tied-in with “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series actually had fill-ins periodically that guides the reader through the main “The Infinity Gauntlet” limited series without actually reading the limited series. This made the graphic novel a lot more comfortable to me. As I continued through the whole book (which took me three days to read, but only because I had other commitments, so I probably could have finished it in two), I found myself rather enjoying it. I will say that I found no dull moments, the book kept my interest, I never felt bored, and reading it never felt like a chore, all things that can happen in any form of media, so that meant I found it to be a relative good read. Yes, there were points where I could have used more background information, but that wasn’t too much of a hindrance to me since enough way explained. Nebula never actually appeared in the entire book, but I could forgive that. Also, the Nova storyline at the end of the book felt superfluous as the Silver Surfer never actually appeared and I don’t know why the editors felt it fit in in the book, but I still thought the story was relatively interesting, so that was also forgivable. Now, anyone who knows what a “graphic novel” means knows that a graphic novel is a narrative storyline with supporting artwork. Which means that artwork can be tricky to pair with a narrative. You could have what you felt like a stellar story, but if the artwork is not to your liking, it ruins the book for you. And there are also times there is what you feel is amazing art, but you still can’t accept it because you hated the story, so it seems like a total waste. You, at this point, can obviously tell that most of the book was to my liking. My gripes actually did not hamper too much on my numeric score, which we will get to in a couple of paragraphs, so hold your horses (does anyone say that anymore or am I just old?). Now, many of my prior readers know how I feel about comic book art. The period when the book is written tend to have relatively standardized art styles. The issues contained in this Epic Collection range from the years 1991-1992. Some of my prior readers know how I feel about art from that time. If not, I feel like it’s typically a good style. It’s from the point before we had computers to touch up the artwork, but I feel like it still was relatively high quality. Now, I can say that I felt like it was good artwork, or I felt like it was good artwork for the time, which is a major distinction. Ultimately, I feel like it was just plain good artwork. I still feel like it holds up to today’s standards. I never felt like I was looking at low-quality work and I felt like it fit the story very well.

            I’m now going to tell you how I feel about accessibility of the book. I know that some of my readers have never read Marvel comic books before, but love the MCU films and are now considering reading comics and are looking for a place to start. I know some of you have no knowledge of Marvel at all and are only reading this because you’re a fan of my work or personally know me and are only reading this post out of what you feel is obligation. I also know some of you are longtime Marvel comics readers but have never read this story before and are interested in hearing about something you now want to read. Or, I know some of you have already read everything contained in this book and are just interested in reading my opinions. Like I said before, this book is not “The Infinity Gauntlet” and that is a major deterrent to anyone who is unfamiliar with Marvel or “The Infinity Gauntlet.” This is absolutely NOT a good place to start for new readers. Some of my prior readers know I use the phrase “self-contained.” This means that everything inside the book is completely cohesive and doesn’t rely on outside stories aside from what’s actually in this book. If you’ve actually really been reading this and actually paid any form of attention know that this is not “The Infinity Gauntlet.” And that I’ve never actually read “The Infinity Gauntlet.” And that there were points where I wish there was more information. So, I’m saying that if you’ve never read a Marvel comic before, this is a TERRIBLE place to start. I think the optimal reader should know “The Infinity Gauntlet” if they hope to fully grasp the book’s entire storyline. Now, I’m a longtime reader of Marvel comics, I’ve been reading for over twenty years (yes, I’m old), so the fact that I haven’t read “The Infinity Gauntlet” didn’t hinder me too much, but I can’t in good faith say you can do the same as me.

            Okay, I’ve been going on for quite awhile now, so we’re going to speed up the rest as much as possible. So now I’m giving you my numeric score. I score on a scale of one-(the worst)to-ten (the best). I have to take everything I’ve just typed into consideration to give it a fair score. This may surprise you, but I still give it an eight. I felt like it was a solid enough work, with both an enjoyable story and enjoyable art. So if you’re a Marvel fan but have never read the content in this book, I totally recommend this book to you, but if you’re not a longtime Marvel fan, I totally have to say this isn’t the droid you’re looking for.

            So, to finish up, this blog is all my opinions and my opinions only. I can’t expect you to agree with everything I say, and I actually like that you disagree with me. We’re all entitled to feel however you want about anything. So you’ll see that I don’t say “it was a good book,” I say “I felt like it was a good book.” This blog is primarily book reviews, mostly Marvel, having done literally dozens, but I also write short fiction and nonfiction, free-verse poetry, editorials and essays, and several other kinds of work, and I try to post at as frequent of a basis as I can (I do have a life outside this blog), usually a post or two a week, sometimes none, sometimes more, but I keep at this. I have plenty more content coming up for you to read, so if you liked this post, check out what I’ve already written and come back for more, and so, ‘til next time, Tim Cubbin… out!