By the Power Cosmic
I had the scare of my life.
Just finished Annihilation (Marvel’s space event of 2007) and thought that I’ve finally *gasp* grown out of superhero comics. I bought book 1 and 2 of the trades based on reviews of how it totally redefined story telling of space adventure stories.
I’ve not been much of a fan of space adventures/sci fi stories in the first place but thought that this’ll be as good a chance as any to try it out.
First off, the art (or at least cover art) of the entire series is to die for. Seriously, they’re gorgeous! And the story telling and pacing ain’t bad either. I’m not that familiar with Marvel’s pantheon of space characters (I think they’re pretty lame. I mean, seriously… Ronan the Accuser??) but it was still pretty cool to see a newer, streamlined Drax the Destroyer (see!) tear (literally) Thanos a new one. Of course no one expect THAT to last for long (reference: Super Skrull) (actually, reference: any comic character that’s been dead. I’m looking at you, Uncle Ben!)
So what sucked so badly about the Annihilation series then? The interior art? Not really. They’re not exactly Mignola or Ross standard (ah… The pleasure of geeky name dropping. Being a nerd rules!) but they’re alright. The epic fight scenes are believeable (well…as believeable as any intergalactic fights between super powered beings can be) and not too messy. You can still make out who was on the receiving end of who’s power blasts.
My main gripe was that at the end of book 2, I was told that it was only book 2 of 3! That’s right. To follow the whole series, I’ll need to buy 3 not too cheap trades (setting me back almost 100 bucks) which is a reflection on the industries over bloated and kinda exploitative marketing mechanism. The last calculation for anyone who wanna follow the full story of DC’s “Final Crisis” or Marvel’s “Secret Invasion” was AT LEAST US$115 and US$317 respectively. Shocking!
At that point, I was all but ready to swear off super hero comics.
Then I watched “Hulk” in the cinemas and was reminded why spandex (in this case, stretchy purple pants) rocks. (also, as of now, “Secret Invasion” is living up to all the hype)
Did I mention my wallet’s gonna be dry?
