Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Annihilators #2 (of 4)

What an odd comic this is.

The Annihilators are an unlikely team of some of the galaxy's heaviest-hitters, including the Silver Surfer, Gladiator, Quasar, Beta-Ray Bill and Ronan. They've teamed up to tackle the big threats, and they find one here.

On the planet Galador, home of the Spaceknights, we see space ripped open to allow the Black Sun to appear, which heralds the return of the Wraiths.

That sentence will actually make sense to fans of the comic Rom, which was based on a toy (presumably writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning fall in that group). Marvel no longer holds the rights to that character, so Rom is only mentioned in passing (he's missing for some mysterious reason).

In the meantime, we have lots of shots of The Annihilators fighting the monsters created by the Dire Wraiths, loads of energy blasts and a mystery to solve. In other words, lots of sturm and drang and not much actual story.

I could forgive that if the art had been stronger - but it doesn't really work for me. Tan Eng Huat and Victor Olazaba have some strong pages in there, but too often the anatomy is off, and the faces change from panel to panel. Worst of all, the Silver Surfer looks dingy - here he's the Grey Surfer.

The backup feature with Rocket Raccoon and Groot has its moments, but there are too many questions to be answered before we'll know if the story actually works. So far, it's pretty funny - but a bit thin.

This book is loaded with great characters and has lots of potential - but it hasn't quite arrived yet.

Grade: B-

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