Annihilation: Conquest

ANNIHILATION CONQUEST:

Taken from page one of Annihilation Conquest: Prologue.

(Cue a voice over by James Earl Jones)

“It is the grim aftermath of the Annihilation war. This devastating assault upon our universe by the forces of the Negative Zone was narrowly turned back by a rag-tag group of heroes including Nova, Peter Quill and the new Quasar.

The sectors of the galaxy now lie in tatters. The old order has changed. Entire civilizations have collapsed, or been reduced to stone-age barbarism.

The great Skrull Empire is gone. Its vast territories have been occupied by the forces of the Annihilation Wave.

The Skrulls’ ancient neighbors and rivals, the Kree—now ruled by Ronan the Accuser—struggle to rebuild and restore their own fragmented empire.

It is a time of paranoia and hardship, of despair and grief. All across Kree space, survivors strive to put their lives back together, and to secure what they have left against future threats.

But there are immediate danger, the broken, the desperate, the dispossessed. Torrents of displaced refugees seek new homes and emergency aid. Some of them have turned to violence to get what they want…..”

And with that, welcome to Annihilation: Conquest, Marvel’s newest sci-fi action epic. With the first issue of the core book just hitting the stands, let’s take a look at those sub-stories that lead up to this point….

PROLOGUE:

In the wake of the Annihilation Wave, the Kree Empire is more vulnerable than ever before. In an effort to unify the empire under a single, more improved war-net, former Star-Lord Peter Quill, acting as a special military advisor to the Kree leadership, has allied with the Galaorian Space Knights to enhance the performance of the Kree Military forces. Unbeknownst to him, the Space-knights have been corrupted by the Phalanx, a sentient techno-organic virus that has taken them over, with the intent of using Kree technology to take over their armies and assimilate the entire quadrant.

The Prologue gives us a glimpse of the major players that are going to be involved in this series as well as acts as a lead in to the three mini-series that will lead up to the core book. The three, four-issue books that followed are Quasar, Star-Lord, and Wraith, a new player in the cosmic end of the Marvel U.  Important events can also be found in the ongoing Nova series.

WRAITH

Wraith, son of Kree scientist Sim-Del, is the product of being infected by the Exolon, parasites that feed on the souls of the living. He is forced to endure endless self-inflicted torture, as it is the only way he can remember his life before the loss of his soul. In these memories, he is haunted by the image of a signet ring of the man that killed his family. It’s this reason that brings him into Kree space.

Wraith has the ability to spread fear, even to the Phalanx at first, and it’s this ability that leads the Phalanx controlled Ronan to capture and torture him. After unsuccessful attempts at being infected or killed, Wraith escapes and joins the rebellion in fighting the Phalanx, acquiring the assistance of the Super-Skrull and Praxagora along the way. Together they learn of a Phalanx super-weapon and with the rebellion, descend upon it against overwhelming odds.

With the Rebellion serving as a distraction, Wraith infiltrates the Phalanx fleet and finds that the super-weapon is an infected Supreme Intelligence. With the council of his father’s spirit, Wraith allows the weapon to activate. He then releases the Exolon and absorbs the Supremor’s soul, saving the Kree and delivering a massive blow to the Phalanx.

STAR-LORD

Arguably the best of the three mini-series that lead up to Conquest, Star-Lord follows Peter Quill as he reluctantly retakes the mantle of Star-Lord to lead a group of rag-tag, cult favorite, Marvel space heroes on a mission that puts him in the heart of a Phalanx plot to infect the Kree with an airborne techno-virus.

With the help of his team, consisting of Captain Universe, Mantis, Deathcry, Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Bug from the Micronauts, Peter manages to secure the antidote and escape the Phalanx with only the loss of Deathcry.

This team is very reminiscent of DC’s Suicide Squad where a group of ‘criminals’ are offered pardons in exchange for working for the government. In this case, it’s the Kree that’s doing the offering. At the end of the series, the group remains together and is prepared to embark on their next mission.

NOVA

Having traveled to Earth and being faced with the ramifications of the actions of his old team, The New Warriors, Nova decides to head back to space rather than become a part of the Initiative. Once in space, Nova is alerted of a disturbance in Kree space. He goes to investigate only to find himself trapped within when the Phalanx cuts off that quadrant from the rest of the universe. Upon trying to escape, he is gravely injured and forced to relinquish a portion of his power to a Kree woman. While he is healing, he is found and infected with the Phalanx by his former lover Gamora. Once infected, he confronts and kills the new Nova.

With the assistance of the Worldmind, Nova manages to throw off his select programming and breaks free of the Phalanx, though the majority of his power has to be continuously used to fight the infection. Upon escaping, he collapses a dwarf star to catapult himself out of the Phalanx field around Kree space and into the uncharted territories.

Unknown to him, Gamora and Drax the Destroyer (both still under the control of the Phalanx), are also caught in the wake of the star collapse and are propelled with him.

QUASAR

The new Quasar, Phyla-Vell, along with her lover Moondragon, have been on the outermost edges of Kree space helping with the rebuilding following the devastation of the Annihilation Wave when the Phalanx take control of the Kree War-net. She is contacted by a mysterious voice instructing her to find the ‘savior’ of the Kree Empire. Following those commands, Quasar, accompanied by Moondragon, track the savior to the remote planet of Morag IV where they are ambushed by the Super Adaptoid. The heroes persevere through both the Adaptoid and the draining energy of her Quantum Bands (that are cut off from the source of their power when the Phalanx entrap the quadrant) with the help of Moondragon’s permanent transformation into an actual dragon.

After a brief fight, Quasar is able to locate the ‘savior’ only to find that he is in the process of being overcome by the Phalanx programming. Forced to once again fight the Super-Adaptoid, she manages to defeat it and free the ‘savior. We then find out both that the mysterious voice leading her on was the Supreme-Intelligence and that the ‘savior’ was none other than the enigmatic Adam Warlock.

And there you have it, fellow comic fans, all you need to know to gear up for the upcoming thrill ride that is Annihilation Conquest. Though these issues have already graced the racks of most comic dealers for a bit, I’m sure they wouldn’t be too hard to track down, and if you head down to your local comic shop now, you can find the first issue of Annihilation Conquest just waiting for your $2.99.

Go there, buy it and enjoy it! I know I did….and remember to stay tuned to CraveOnline for upcoming updates on this and more!