Customer Reviews

Annihilation: Conquest Book 1 (Bk. 1)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Annihilation Conquest is, in my opinion, even better than the first Annihilation Saga. Marvel has assembled a grand collection of previously defunct, Bronze Age cosmic characters to battle a new threat of cosmic proportions.

In the wake of devastation caused by the "Annihilation Wave", the galaxy is in turmoil and easy prey for another attack. And the evil techno race known as The Phalanx are more than happy to oblige. On one front is Moondragon and Phyla-Vell, daughter of Captain Mar-Vell and the new Quasar.

Also entering the fray are some of Marvels classic cosmic characters assembled by the Kree to stave off the Phalanx invasion. This eclectic group of Bronze Age cosmic veterans includes Starlord, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, Captain Universe, the Space Knights and Groot, the giant talking tree from Planet X. Also turning up after a long absence is Adam Warlock. Together they take on the Phalanx and those the Phalanx now control, including an army of near indestructible "Sentries" and The Super Adaptoid.

The "Starlord" segment by Keith Giffen is one of the coolest stories I have read in some thirty years of reading comics. Regardless of how familiar one is with the characters is irrelevant. This is a very entertaining read. However, if you, like me have been reading comics since the early 70s, you'll be very happy to see these characters again and the story will be even more rewarding.
Forget Civil War, forget World War Hulk, forget Secret Invasion and forget the death of Captain America. Marvels cosmic epics are where the real action is. A lot of fun. Highly recommended.

Note: I actually read the hardcover edition of this story, but everything in this TPB is the same. The only difference is the soft cover and smaller price!

Title: Annihilation Conquest: Book 1 (HC)
Publisher: Marvel
Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, Keith Giffen, Christos Gage, Michael Hoskin
Artists: Mike Perkins, Timothy Green II, Mike Lilly (pencils), Mike Perkins, Victor Olazaba, Bob almond, Scott Hanna, Mark McKenna, Roland Paris (inks), Guru eFX, Nathan Fairbairn, Stephane Peru (colors), Aleksi Briclot, Nic Klein, Matt Wilson, Andrea DiVito (covers)
Collects: Annihilation Conquest: Prologue, Annihilation Conquest - Quasar #1-4, Annihilation Conquest - Starlord #1-4, Annihilation Saga
Price: $29.99

Picking up where the last Annihilation event left off, this book keeps the focus on Marvel's stable of galactic heroes and villains. For sci-fi fans, it's likely to be the best you're going to get from Marvel. Luckily, it's pretty good. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning continue to steer Marvel's galactic characters to places they've never gone before, and it turns out to be a pretty good ride. Back from the first Annihilation event are Nova, Ronan, Ravenous, Kl'rt the Super Skrull, the Supreme Intelligence, Drax and Moondragon. New central players include Starlord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Bug, the new Quasar - Phyla-Vell, Mantis, the Phalanx empire, and Wraith - a brand new character who's very interesting and very powerful in his own right.

Book 1 focuses on Quasar and Starlord and the conquest of the Kree Empire by the techno-organic race, the Phalanx. Marvel's cosmic scene has really changed a lot in the past few years. Annihilus' invasion pretty much killed or chased off most of the Skrulls, the Shi'ar were invaded and conquered by Vulcan, now the Kree are invaded and conquered, and the Skrulls are invading Earth. There's been so much going on and so many major characters getting major upgrades or name changes or new costumes or new titles and motivations that it's hard to keep track of it all. There's even the up-coming War of Kings going on and more stuff with the Inhumans taking place. Largely, the changes are all good and have paved the way for new, fun series such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Nova.

Although the Quasar story left me with only a luke-warm reaction, I really enjoyed the Starlord story. I knew nothing of the character prior to my reading of this book and it was interesting to learn the history of the character and how he is involved as a central player in this new series. His new look is very striking, and I have to give props to whoever did the re-design. It works well and goes a long way towards engendering the character to new readers.

Being a typical "event" book, there is a large cast of artists and writers on the book, so you get a mixed bag. The artwork on the Starlord story (done principally by Timothy Green II) was my favorite art team. Tim did an excellent job of illustrating a large cast of characters involved in a variety of action-filled or nearly action-less scenes. The Quasar story was a bit boring. I never much cared for this character back when Wendell Vaughn was the guy wearing the quantum bands. The new female version (Phyla-Vell - sister to Captain Marvel) just didn't do much for me. Though the costume design is nice, I still don't care for the character as a concept (too much a copy of Green Lantern) and making her a lesbian poured more water on the fire for me. I'm really not liking the trend of more and more homosexual character in Marvel and DC comics. It seems, as a group, they are far over-represented in comics these days and over-exposure is tiresome. Having Moondragon become and actual "Dragon of the Moon" - a large black dragon - was unexpected but not bad. I wonder how long this will last. Probably as long as this series lasts.

At 272 pages, this book is large, but the price still seems high to me. If I were purchasing the book, I'd wait for the soft cover edition. The price breaks down to around $0.11/page, and I really try to buy my books for less than this.

This was a decent book, and in many ways superior to the original Annihilation series. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Writing: 7/10
Artwork: 7/10
Cool Factor: 8/10
Value: 7/10

Overall: 7.25/10

Annihilation Conquest was a mega cross over involving multiple mini series and one-shot specials and characters from every corner of the Marvel Universe. This book has half the story, but with this many characters, creators and stories the results are inconsistent.

The Prologue by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning moves fast setting up the characters and a new threat to the galaxy. There's some dodgy comic book science (an force field around an entire galaxy?) but it's all fun.

The next mini series, Star Lord, steals its plot from the Dirty Dozen (the main character even points this out to us in case we missed it) but is a lot of fun. Writer Kieth Giffen brings his usual mix of sharp dialogue and fast-paced story telling. Star Lord teams up with a host of obscure heroes (including Rocket Raccoon, Bug from the Micronauts and former Avenger Mantis) for a mission behind enemy lines.

Quasar by Christos Gage has Moon Dragon and Captain Marvel's daughter (Pyla Vel, later Captain Marvel, now Quasar) trying to locate a promised savior. It's just pointless and dull, with most of the book spent on Pyla's insecurity issues, easily the weakest story in this cross over.

Finally we waste dozens of pages in a retelling of the first Annihilation series using text pages and panels clipped from it. In these days of Wikipedia I really don't know who would want or need this or why pages were wasted on it. Especially when the next book had to leave out part of the story for space reasons.

So while the Prologue and Star Lord might get 4 or 5 stars Quasar and the recap drag this book down. I got my copy for half off and I think that was about right for it.

The next book in Marvel's epic cosmic adventures is really good. The art overall is solid but not spectacular. The cover art is spectacular. The plot of the Conquest is a good one and the next book in the series looks really good and this has whetted my appetite for it. The Starlord centered half of the book was my favorite because it a great collection of characters that will turn into the Guardians of the Galaxy. Rocket Raccoon is somehow cool. Groot was hilarious and Mantis was better here than in any Avenger story. The Quasar back half was not as good but still entertaining. Fun stuff!

This is a great book. Following the Annihilation wave the Universe has plunged into chaos. The Phalinx are the newest threat. A compelling cast of characters(including Drax, Rocket Racoon, Starlord, Qausar, Moondragon, and Nova) and a great team of writers and artists made this an instant classic. It's Quirky, Funny, and Heavy all at the same time. While the Annihilation 3 book set proceeding this was better Conquest is no slouch. The Nova story has been one of the best marvel comics for over a year. I would recomend this to anyone, but if you can read Annihilation books 1-3 first. This would still stand up well by itself but if you can read the whole set it's magnificent. I forgot to mention that Ronan the accuser has a strong role in this as well. A+++

The best part of this book is the innovative layouts by comic artist Mike Lilly. Usual comic art has the standard 'grid' style of storytelling but Lilly really has some nice 'out of the box' thinking for layouts that are a joy to look at. Also, an amazing double page spread of B-movie characters by Lilly in chapter 4 of the Quasar story within!