Far From The Days Of Annihilation
Annihilators comes to us with twice the cosmic story for nearly twice the price but reads like less than half the quality of cosmic story DnA was able to give us years ago.
Teams like the Annihilators have been discussed on forums for years. Wouldn't it be cool to get all the big cosmic powerhouses together on one team? Usually, the answer was no. No, it would not actually be that cool. Variety is what makes teams interesting, and it would take one seriously clever concept to bring together all those characters in a way that did not seem forced and thrown together. However, DnA have chosen to take on this challenge with the Annihilators.
In this issue, they really do not succeed. There is an almost total lack of team chemistry here as we have a cast of walking power-levels more than distinct characters. You would think that there could be a little bit of an interesting dynamic here with two members whose empires were just at brutal war a minute ago and with how none of them probably appreciate how one member regularly serves up planets to Galactus. Unfortunately, there is nothing of the sort and no effort is really put toward these characters. Also, even the matter of why these individuals have chosen to be a team when most of them have obvious responsibilities and grudges that would seem to go against it is left not being addressed. The team feels completely thrown together without any real thought beyond how powerful they all are together.
The only real attempt at characterization here comes from Quasar narrating the story, but unfortunately, he really just spends the whole issue whining over some artificial self-doubt about not being good enough. Yes, it is that cliche you have read probably a hundred times before when writers are not really sure how to make a good-natured and responsible hero like Quasar interesting. I hope that cake was good, because there sure has not been anything worthwhile about Wendell Vaughn being back among the living so far.
There is also Ikon, a Spaceknight that DnA introduces. She is the subject of another tired cliche, where you build up a character by having her beat up your team to show off her skill but really only make your team look a little incompetent. Ikon really does not impress and only distracts from the more important purpose of establishing the Annihilators team. She also helps tie things into the villain of our piece, who is about as unimpressive. We have a team this ridiculously powerful, and who do they face off against first? Apparently, an obscure cosmic villain seriously called Doctor Dredd.
The Annihilators story is paired with the Rocket Raccoon/Groot one. Both are much-loved characters, especially Rocket Raccoon. What has made Rocket such a great character is that he is that cartoonish being armed to the teeth and dropped into in a much more serious landscape that you would expect he should be in. Basically, what made Rocket so much fun is the exact opposite of what DnA do with him here, putting in him in a totally cartoonish landscape. It is like they want to punt him back into obscurity as a joke character. The "aliens in a human office" gag is amusing at first but not for as many pages as it takes up in this story. If it only lasted for the first few pages and then moved on, it would have played much better. We did not need the clown.
And then there is Groot. One thing just needs to be said. DnA have run the "I am Groot" joke into the ground so hard it could have wiped out all life on the planet. It was funny when Keith Giffen established it as one of Groot's mannerism as an expression of Groot's ridiculous arrogance. For some reason, DnA decided to turn it into an actual speech impediment and make it literally the only thing Groot could say, robbing it of all meaning. This issue they extend it even further, beyond all reason. It is so not funny it is almost maddening.
As we move away from the weak office gag and hopefully return Rocket to better settings, there is hope for this story to improve. No matter what, it has the art of Timothy Green in its favor. Green's art is really the highlight of this entire issue, outshining the art of the Annihilators story by a mile.
Lately, it has been hard to recognize DnA as the same writing team who were giving us such great cosmic stories just a couple years ago. While their work on Heroes for Hire is great, it has become painfully obvious they have long run out of mileage on cosmic stories. If the Thanos Imperative was the nail in the coffin of the cosmic franchise, this limited series may be the shovel-fulls of dirt thrown onto it.
A mediocre/okay rating of 2.5 stars may be a little generous for this issue, but it is hard to completely dislike a comic where Green draws Rocket Raccoon. Sadly, DnA completely mistake "powerful" for "interesting" and try too hard to push us into thinking the Annihilators are so much better than the Guardians of the Galaxy were.
