Annihilation Classic

The Annihilation Saga #1

by Mark D. Beazley (Editor), Marv Wolfman, Todd Dezago

Space may be a vacuum, but Annihilation didn't pull its heroes out of nowhere! Journey through time, space, and continuity with the sensational space saga's stars! The re-making of Adam Warlock and the first look at his nemesis Thanos! See the origin of Nova and Quasar, while Bug watches the origins of >tik< EVERYBODY! Monsters, mammals, and more! Collects Bug #1, Tales to Astonish #13, Nova #1, Quasar #1, Rocket Raccoon #1-4, Marvel Spotlight #6, Logan's Run #6, and Marvel Premiere #1.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book

232 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 2008

Reviews

[guanaeps · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of origin issues to prepare the reader for the cosmic annihilation sagas. The Groot origin goes all the way back to 1960 in Tales to Astonish #13. That's two years before the first Fantastic Four comic would be released in 1962.

The quality of tale varies here, with Quasar being the weakest entry in my eyes. The Groot origin is more monster book than anything resembling the Groot most people have come to know. The Bug issue is clever and undeniably 90s nostalgia.

I was surprised to see how similar Star-lord's origin was to both the movie and Bendis' Marvel Now re-telling. The art is also properly psychedelic.

The tiny Drax/Thanos Logan's Run story is pretty vague but hey, Mike Zeck drawing Thanos.

The real gems here are The Rocket Racoon miniseries and the Adam Warlock rebirth/Counter Earth origin issue.

The Rocket Racoon mini is just fun and ridiculous, with some wonderfully zany art by Mike Mignola.

The Adam Warlock/High Evolutionary story is just epic; a well made issue by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane that sets up Adam Warlock and Counter-Earth.

One can't help but think about Adam Warlock, "Oh the places you'll go."

[Cal Brunsdon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A literal Marvel grab-bag of various Annihilation/Guardians Of The Galaxy origin stories. These invariably vary in quality. There’s an 8 page ‘Groot’ story from Stan and Jack Kirby which predates the superhero age, then a beautifully illustrated Starlord graphic novel, then a meandering Rocket Raccoon four-parter illustrated by Mike Mignola! Wacky stuff, indeed.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

While there are a bunch of good stories in this retrospective collection, I got this for one reason: Rocket Raccoon!

As a kid I picked up Issue 3 of Bill Mantlo and Mike Mignola's Rocket Raccoon series from the comic store and I became completely obsessed. I read and reread that one issue, poring over the pages and trying to copy Mignola's art. The artwork, clearly riffing off the popular Star Wars comics of the time, drew me in, but the strange world kept me coming back time and again.

Halfworld was founded long ago as a lunatic colony, but when the Shrinks were forced to return to their home world, they left behind robots to care for their patients and animals to be their pets. But as time went on, the descendants of the lunatics, born into a society structured entirely around the framework of an insane asylum, developed a religious worship of their long-departed Shrinks, reduced to myth. And the logical robots, tiring of their duty to oversee the lunatics, retreated to their half of the planet to build a colossal humanoid spacecraft. They left behind the animals, granted sentience through cybernetic implants, to care for the humans. This culture, structured around insanity, devolved into a "Toy War" between two competing capitalist toy-making factions, vying for a monopoly over toy manufacturing. Our heroes, Rocket Raccoon, Lyla, Wal Rus, and Blackjack O'Hare, must navigate this insane society and eventually uncover the truth of its origin.

This premise is absolutely insane, unlike anything I'd ever read in superhero comics, and despite its goofy absurdity, it is grounded in its attention to detail for this world. Every panel has some crazy detail that is just absolutely joyful. The characters are all vibrant and unique and the action is dynamic as hell. The panel-to-panel storytelling is incredible, and filled with a slightly-meta cheeky tone. (Characters finish the sentences of narration boxes, at one point as the villains are spying on our heroes, a view screen repeats the previous panel, text boxes and all...)

As a kid just that one issue kept me coming back for more, imagining the incredible world that this story was a part of. So it was an absolute joy to finally read the full Rocket Raccoon story.

[Angie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I purchased this a couple years ago after seeing the first Guardians Of The Galaxy movie because i wanted to know more about the characters origins. Unfortunately all these stories are very dated, cheesy, and sexist. It's dialogue like this that made me stay away from comics till my mid-twenties. Thank god I read Alan Moore's Swamp Thing and Neil Gaiman's Sandman and realized they are not all like that. One thing that i did enjoy though was Mike Mignola's art in the Rocket Raccoon issues.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this for the Rocket Raccoon miniseries thinking it would be amazing. Well it does have a Saturday Morning cartoon vibe, but didn't really hold my interest. And who really cares about Quasar and Bug? Maybe someone else...

[Rohith Chandramouli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good selection, but a bit haphazard in terms of content, with no real throughline. Highlights include Rocket Raccoon and a especially fun Bug and Annihilator story.

[KitchenToy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Other than the inclusion of the villain, Annihilus, I'm not sure what the Marvel event Annihilation is all about. I assume this collection is a primer to bring readers up to speed with the cast of characters that (I assume) appear in the event. It is a rather random assortment of unrelated tales from the 60's - 90's. The longest and best feature is the four part Rocket Raccoon story, which is the awesomest thing I've read in comics for quite some time. My over all rating on this book is attributed to Rocket Raccoon and I just look at the rest of the content as bonus material.

Annihilation Classic collects:

Bug: Apples & Oranges Written by Todd Dezuga and Illustrated by Derec Aucoin with additional material by Fred Hembeck (1997) This humor story isn't very funny and I hope it isn't canon as it rudely retcons several of the most iconic events in Marvel history. Hembeck contributes games and puzzles at the end of this part. Although I usually enjoy what he does, I admit I skimmed over them. *

I Challenged...Groot! The Monster from Planet X! Written by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber and Illustrated by Jack Kirby (1960) I'm not ashamed to say it. While I'll never downplay Stan Lee's architectural role in forging the Marvel Universe, or deny that he has a great imagination and many great story ideas, the guy's a terrible writer. I would normally never say anything like that about Kirby's art, he was far from his peak here, and actually so was Stan. This story is from a year before the Fantastic Four (and some might say the Marvel Universe) was created even if the Groot character was later brought back, and the simple and run-of-the-mill sci-fi story, unsurprisingly has a pre-Marvel Age feel. *

Nova Written by Marv Wolfman and Illustrated by John Buscema (1976) I've always heard that Nova had an origin story that's derivative of Green Lantern's, and now I can say I've read it. It's not bad, but not really impressive. There is something really strange about Marvel comics from the 70's that I find inaccessible and this story is a fine example. The dialogue is even less natural than Marvel comics of the 60's and the narration is overly verbose and often spouts bizarre nonsense. **1/2

Quasar: The Price of Power! Written by Mark Gruenwald and Illustrated by Paul Ryan & Danny Bulanadi (1989) Another origin story, this one is straight out of the era of my first comic book phase, not surprisingly I liked the style much better here, although this was my first time reading it. Just a really fun story. ***1/2

Rocket Raccoon Written by Bill Mantlo and Illustrated by Mike Mignola (1995) Oh...my...god. How am I only discovering this just now? Mignola's art is a marriage of Dave Sim and Kirby while Mantlo's writing is pure Kirby...if he had still been with us in '95 and asked to come up with something to get in on that Ninja Turtle money. While Rocket Raccoon himself is a pretty bland hero without any real personality, the characters and world around him are truly outrageous. We have a race of "Loonies" that live in a place called "Cuckoo's Nest" and worship "The Shrinks." We have a "toy war" between greedy toymakers that employ such weapons as eraser breath, killer robot clowns riding vacuum cleaners and spitting chimp blimps. In four short chapters Mantlo and Mignola tell a story that feels really big. It's like all the epic and all the crazy of Kirby's Fourth World in a breezy four issue mini-series. *****

The Saga of Star-Lord Written by Doug Moench and Iluustrated by Tom Sutton (1980) Another origin story here. This suffers even worse from the problems I mentioned in my comments on the Nova story, and in the end it kind of feels like it goes nowhere. **

Thanos & Drax: The Final Flower Written by Scott Edelman and Illustrated by Mike Zeck (1977) This one is very short. There's a fight with Drax and Thanos and it's so short there's really nothing to say about it. It seems like an installment from a longer serialized story. **1/2

And Men Shall Call Him...Warlock! Written by Roy Thomas and Illustrated by Gil Kane (1972) Now this is something really cool. It describes an encounter between The High Evolutionary and Adam Warlock and the creation of Counter-Earth. This is an example of what I find so enchanting about the cosmic neighborhood of the Marvel Universe. Everything feels so grand and important and awe-inspiring. Man, I just ate this one up. *****

EDIT: It now seems that the Rocket Raccoon mini series is in fact from 1985, and not '95 as stated in the book's index.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stuff I Read – Annihilation Classic

For all of those that just had to know what the hell was up with Rocket Raccoon, here is the answer to your prayers. This hardy volume collects tales about Nova, Quasar, Drax and Thanos, Groot, Bug, Adam Warlock, Starlord, and Rocket Raccoon. And don’t get me wrong, it is fascinating to see the origins of these characters. While most of them are fairly common, a big appeal of the cosmic side of Marvel is that the characters are quite unique. So while you have Nova’s origin, which seems quite the knock-off of Green Lantern, there are a lot of interesting twists with some of the other characters. Really this isn’t a great read, because a lot of these issues are older, but it is quite informative and it does provide a good look into the various origins of the characters present in Annihilation. It even collects the entire Rocket Raccoon miniseries, which is far and away the highlight of this volume.

Starting with the one-shot origin stories, though, the book does collect quite a few of them. Nova’s, as said, is really nothing much to talk about. A mediocre kid who comes across a great power. I mean, it is interesting in that he isn’t a genius or something like that, but the whole thing plays out in a rather dull manner, and it really is a rip-off of Green Lantern. That said, Quasar is a much more interesting origin, where Vaughan is a bit of a flake, trying to reach other peoples’ expectations and not really having what it takes to strive to win. A bit like Nova in that regard, but at least with Quasar you see someone who has the skill and ability and just lacks the edge. To have that quality of him be what makes him succeed is interesting and telling of his character. I guess Quasar always did seem a bit like a push-over. To have that be what makes him able to wield his power I find neat. The Starlord story doesn’t really make much sense, to be honest, and really doesn’t get the best look at Starlord’s personality. It is a recap, I guess, of what he is, but it really was just rather meh.

The Groot story was simple in the extreme, and absolutely hilarious. More than that, though, it makes me question how Groot can still be alive. I mean, I guess it might have just shrank, but they pronounced it dead. Shouldn’t it be dead? I mean, I’m glad it’s not, but it also confused me a bit. The Adam Warlock story was also a bit odd. The High Evolutionary is a strange character, and really this was more about the High Evolutionary than Adam Warlock. That Warlock can to see him as a father figure I find intriguing, but that’s about it. It seems hilarious and I feel I need to know more about it to really understand it. The Drax and Thanos story I had seen before, and is a good story, I think, but nothing too mind-bending.

As I said earlier, the real star of the show is the Rocket Raccoon mini, which tells a complete and very interesting story involving a world built to rehabilitate the insane. That the entire culture evolved around the insane, and in reverence of the psychiatrists that dropped them on the planet is hilarious. That there is an entire culture of animals looking after those insane people, and that a serious war could break out over the rights to sell those insane people toys is great. It is based on some very weird stuff, but the story is good and the action is there and it leaves me wondering what happened to the rest of the animals that came over with Rocket. I mean, this mini makes the volume worth it, because it tells a rather epic story but in the frame that it is all insane. And while there are those that wish to profit from the insanity of the planet, it is Rocket and his group, who end up curing the planet of its insanity and thus making the war moot, who come out as the voice of reason. It is funny and fitting and full of talking, anthropomorphic animals. What’s not to like?

So really, the volume is a good way to look back at some of the old stories that introduced the characters from Annihilation. And while a number of theose stories aren’t that great, it does show where the characters came from, and the state of cosmic storytelling back in the day. It also contains a kick-ass raccoon story, so really the whole thing is a win, and I give it a 7.75/10.

[Sam Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice grab bag of stories that acts as a kinda, sorta primer for the big Annihilation event series.

A weird mix of stories, as the versions of characters in this volume aren't the ones in Annihilation.
But, it was a cheap way to fill some holes in my collection.

My thoughts:
Groot: fun throw back monster comic.

Bug: cute joke that goes on too long. Did like the activity pages.

Nova: Somebody tossed Peter Parker and Hal Jordon in a blender and we got Nova.

Quasar: Nice reminder of what a great, underrated series this was.

Rocket Raccoon: Like a saturday morning cartoon on acid.

Starlord: trippy 70's sci-fi. Not sure how we went from this to Chris Pratt. Shame they got rid of that cool space ship.

Drax vs Thanos: Nice art on a fairly pointless story.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a super mixed bag, but still plenty of fun. Rocket Raccoon gets his first mini-series in it's entirety in the collection, while everyone else gets a single issue and Thanos and Drax get what seems like a back-up story.

Rocket Raccoon is one of the weirdest stories I've read in a good long time. Star-Lord isn't much better. Nova is pretty generic. Warlock's first appearance barely features Warlock. It'd be nice if they'd chosen a different story.

Worth reading just to see the early appearances of these characters.

[Rick Burwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in preparation for the Guardians of the Galaxy feature film coming out in 2014. This book features some of the stars. Easily the stand out story in this is the Rocket Raccoon epic. It makes up the bulk of the book, taking up 4 issues (everyone else gets solo issues). Its easily the most entertaining and fun, but that's probably because its an entire story.

Coming in close second is Bug which is a fun new perspective on many of your favorite heroes' origins.

[darcy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Globalement, des histoires trop courtes pour vraiment m'accrocher. L'histoire en quatre issues de Rocket Racoon est celle que j'ai préférée, plus longue, plus développée, c'était sympa. Un comic pas désagréable à lire, qui m'a permis de découvrir les origines de héros que je connaissais et d'autres non.

[Robert 'Rev. Bob' · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a "Guardians of the Galaxy" primer, it's good, solid information. On its own...not so much.

I will say that I laughed my butt off throughout the "Bug" story - but sadly, it was the first feature, and the book went downhill quickly from there.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection giving us the first appearances of many characters that are at the forefront of the Annihilation Saga. I would've liked to have seen more in the book, or at least a second volume with additional characters, so I am somewhat disappointed.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The rocket and groot original material is pretty rough to read, while NOVA and Quasar were pretty interesting. All and all, vintage marvel is a mixed bag of readable and barely, but useful for character background.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 91

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection for fans of the Guardians of the Galaxy or of Marvel's cosmic hero's in general.

[ik.ben.henri · Rating 3 out of 5]

The seventies were strange...