Contains Annihilation: Silver Surfer 1-4, Annihilation: Super-Skrull 1-4, and Annihilation: Ronan 1-4.
The second book follows the adventures of three different characters: Silver Surfer, Super-Skrull, and Ronan (the former Accuser). I’m somewhat familiar with the Surfer, mostly from the pages of Fantastic Four, Infinity Gauntlet, and other cosmic comics but Ronan I’ve only seen as the Avengers’ enemy and Super-Skrull as the FF’s enemy.
The Surfer encounters a world which has been destroyed and starts to look for the destroyer. He finds Gabriel, another former Herald of Galactus, who is fighting Annihilus’ Seekers. The Seekers’ job is to find and capture the former Heralds so that they can provide more power to Annihilus. Surfer, of course, fights back. Meanwhile, another former Herald of Galactus, Terrax, is attacked by another group of Seekers.
The Super-Skrull is looking for a way to stop the Annihilation wave from reaching the Skrull home world and killing his only son. However, his current employer who is one of the many Skrull warlords fighting for dominance doesn’t agree. The Super-Skrull is forced to fight his way out the warlord’s star ship and flee. One the fleet’s young technicians rescues him into a stolen ship and together they head towards Earth. The Super-Skrull knows the Annihilus is behind the destruction and reasons that Annihilus must have quite a few enemies on the Negative Zone and some of them might want to help Super-Skrull defeat Annihilus. To reach the Zone Super-Skrull needs, of course, Reed Richard’s machine so they promptly break into FF’s headquarters.
We also find out that most Skrulls despise the Super-Skrull because “backward humans” have defeated him so many times. Super-Skrull is therefore a mixture of angst and old warrior.
The third part centers on Ronan who has been tried and convicted of treason. So, he’s an outcast. He has a recording of the trial and is hunting for the witnesses so that he can interrogate them about why they lied about him. He tracks the third witness to a planet where he encounters other outcast Kree who are trying to start a new life. However, Ronan refuses to join them and prefers to continue his quest to clear his name. They are promptly attacked by two women who call themselves the Graces. The women are a part of the local warlord’s band of enforcers. The warlord in question is Gamora.
For some reason, I didn’t like this trade as much as the previous one. Maybe it’s because I don’t know much about the characters and the overall plot didn’t really seem to go forward. I’m also more familiar with Gamora since I’ve read the Infinity Watch than any of the main characters. However, I thought she was clearly out of character; she used to be a good guy and here she is, trying to prove that she’s still the “Deadliest Woman in the Universe” (I can’t really articulate how ridiculous I find that title…) and carving a bloody place for herself. The band of women, however, was clearly in her style. On the plus side, there’s a woman is full power armor! Probably a first for Marvel.
Surfer had completely new enemies who where ridiculously overconfident. I was rather intrigued by the Surfer’s story’s ending, though.
