**** (four of five stars)
Favorite Quote: "This is Drax." "Drax?" "Just Drax." "Who may or may not have a past in destroying." -- Nova, Quasar, Drax, and Nova, discussing Drax's possible past in destroying
Summary
A wave of insect-looking warships destroys the Klyn moons, a string of power-generation units that also serves as a maximum-security prison. Later, on Xandar, all Nova Corps members (including Nova) are called to a briefing while a prisoner named Drax is released to a girl named Cammi after genetic testing proves that he is not Drax the Destroyer. At the briefing, the Nova Corps members are dispatched to reinforce forces elsewhere in the galaxy, particularly given the presumed escape of prisoners when the Klyn moons fell. During the briefing, the wave of warships arrive (despite allegedly being two star systems away). Drax and Cammi flee the spaceport while the Nova Corps fights the wave. The Corps is quickly overwhelmed and the wave sends the spaceport crashing into Xandar. Nova decides to fly through the crashing spaceport (since flying around it wasn't an option) and later awakens to find Xandar -- and the Nova Corps -- totally destroyed. Elsewhere, Ronan the Accuser is charged with sedition, the Silver Surfer observes the oncoming wave, some Kree warriors hope the wave wipes out the Skrull Empire (while the Super-Skrull invisibly observes them), and Annihilus is revealed to be behind the wave.
Later, Worldmind awakens Nova, who's still reeling from the destruction of Xandar and the Corps, and directs him to its physical location, the Hub. Once there, Worldmind downloads itself into Richard in order to preserve Xandarian culture before the Hub is destroyed when the "habitational shard" where they're located suffers environmental collapse as it drifts from the sun's orbit. Richard fears he will be driven mad like the last person to absorb Worldmind, but Worldmind assures him that it will help modulate the power until a permanent home can be found. However, immediately drunk with power, Nova attacks one of Annihilus' warships. He returns to the shard, shaken, and encounters Drax and Cammi. Scared to use his power again, he decides to go with them to find a space ship to leave the planet. Drax offers to help Richard control his powers, and Richard opens a stargate so they can escape the warships that surround the ruins of Xandar. The ship begins to die, but the group is rescued by Quasar, who's helping a group of refugees flee the Annihilation Wave, as it's being called. Nova agrees to help Quasar after Drax reveals to Quasar that Nova has the full power of the Corps, and Drax tells Cammi he's sticking close to people in power given the oncoming doom. Nova and Quasar try to rescue an Aakonian warship attempting to help evacuate the refugees after it comes under attack from Wave forces. They decide to go for a full-frontal attack on Annihilus to buy the refugees time to escape. Annihilus destroys Quasar and absorbs his Quantum Bands. Nova attacks, managing to contact Annihilus long enough for Worldmind to connect to the Wave and order it to attack itself (since all commands are centered off Annihilus). Annihilus orders a retreat, Drax and Cammi rescue Nova, and Nova convinces Worldmind to stay inside him so that they can do good like they just did.
The Review
I really enjoyed this story. It gave me the Nova I always wanted when I read comics with him but that I never seemed to get. In his last series, by Erik Larsen, he was an attention-seeking lug whose main goal was getting into the Avengers. On some level, I always liked that, because it made him human. (Nova has trouble with the ladies but saves the Universe!) Occasionally, though, it felt like the writers were just aping bad Spidey tropes. Giffen and DnA, however, give us a Nova all his own, where his challenges are handling the enormous power he controls and trying to do the right thing in a morally-ambiguous environment. It winds up being a lot more interesting than him trying to get into the Avengers. He gets to go through a journey and mature a little, without having to look like an idiot while doing it. It's why this series is probably the best Nova story I've ever read.
The Good
1) Giffen gives us something similar to the establishing scenes in "Starship Troopers" in "Annihilation: Prologue," showing us just how many members of the Nova Corps there are but also at the same time conveying the innate sense of camaraderie that exists among them. It's an important point, because it sets up how terrible the devastation of Xandar and the Corps is and frames Nova's mental state for the "Annihilation: Nova" series.
2) DnA give us a pretty epic story in "Annihilation: Nova." Despite the occasional problems of keeping planets, systems, forces, etc. straight, the plot is actually pretty straight-forward. Kev Walker manages to convey the epic-ness of the story while at the same time making the action easy to follow. A lot of artists could learn from him.
3) As I said before, we really watch Richard go on a journey here. We first seem him being treated as a somewhat green Corps member by other members, but, by the end of the first issue, he's the last remaining Corps member. DnA do an excellent job showing Richard reeling from the events of "Annihilation: Prologue," making bad decisions and fearing his powers. Because DnA obey the first rule of good writing -- show not tell -- we see Richard go through this process of grieving and the end result -- Richard telling Worldmind it's staying with him and asking Drax to teach him how to destroy -- is totally believable and powerful. Nova has always been portrayed as a kind of bumbling frat boy, but DnA seem to really see the potential that he's always had but no writer has ever seemed to fully grasp.
4) DnA pepper the series with a sense of humor. Between Nova handing Drax his helmet so he can confer with Worldmind directly to the quote above, DnA make it feel like a real Nova story, not just some space opera. They keep it human, and it's why it's such a successful story. Some of the other "Annihilation" stories (particularly "Annihilation: Super-Skrull") could have used a little more humor.
The Bad
1) It occasionally gets a little distracting in "Annihilation: Prologue" to keep track of all the star systems and named entities: the Crunch Energy Cascade, the Klyn Moons, the Omega Core, the Syllth, etc. "Annihilation: Nova" also suffers from it: I got confused about why "Aakonian colonists" were fleeing a planet called "Nycos Aristedes." I've had a similar issue with comics like "Legion of Super-Heroes" and the old "Guardians of the Galaxy," so I think it's just a drawback of these sorts of epic space stories. But, it's distracting nonetheless.
2) Moreover, I wasn't totally up-to-speed on what Drax and Quasar have been doing since I last kept tabs on them. It actually seems like Giffen and DnA introduce the idea of the Drax-who-is-not-Drax for the first time in these issues. I'm sure they're going somewhere with it but, honestly, it just served as a distraction for me. I also wasn't sure what Quasar was doing exactly. I know he's the Protector of the Universe, but how did he decide to help the Aakonians amidst all the other people who needed help? It almost seems like he lived at Nycos Aristedes, but I'm not sure why he would. I'm not saying I needed complete histories provided but, given that each issue did give bios of the main characters, I feel like a little more attention could've been spent fleshing out some of the more relevant parts, like why Drax may not be Drax (but may be) and why Quasar was where he was.
3) I don't buy that Quasar's dead, partially, I know, because I'm reading this book five years after it was published and I'm pretty sure I know he gets resurrected. But, even if I had read it then, I'm pretty sure I would've seen a resurrection coming...
No comments:
Post a Comment