Annihilation: Scourge Alpha #1
Recap
Enemies are forced into alliances as King Blastaar and Annihilus have their Negative Zone kingdoms ravaged by a familiar foe: The Undying Ones. Lead by the Revengers, an ever-growing army of zombie-esque drones slaughter and infect their way from world to world giving no quarter as they leave destruction in their wake.
One could call it karma for the antics once caused by Annihilus in his invasion wave, but the problem isn't just the seedy denizens of the Negative Zone getting destroyed. No, no that would be much too simple, instead the problem lies with just who leads the charge: The Sentry! Yeah you heard right, the Sentry is back and this version ain't a struggling hero dealing with his insane power levels. This Sentry serves The Many Angled Ones and seeks domination over all natural life and death throughout the multiverse.
Seeking assistance for the failing combined forces of Blastaar and himself, Annihilus crosses into the positive matter universe only to land right in the lap of Richard Ryder the last Nova! But can even Nova (and potentially Ryder's former team the Annihilators) be enough to stem the tide against the dread forces of the Sentry, The Revengers and their vast armada?
Review
So while this isn’t the deepest premise for a book, neither was the original series that inspired it, but nonetheless it promises to be entertaining. Rosenberg does a great job reminding us that Blastaar and Annihilus aren’t just mustache twirling goons right outta the gate. Yeah they are absolutely coldhearted villains but they each have their own devious charms. Not only that but bringing back Nova and Cosmo was a nice touch, whenever you see Cosmic Marvel you can more or less expect Nova to play the role of POV character for the reader (unless Star-Lord is around) but Rosenberg kinda shifts that so he’s not just the narrative device but the Human Rocket doing Human Rocket things. The challenge for Rosenberg will be finding the perfect balance between reminding us why Annihilation Wave was so spectacular (I mean the waves of books that it spawned literally put the Guardians of the Galaxy on the map) while not getting stale. The proof will be in the pudding if Rosenberg and the gang can find ways to introduce new elements to the space landscape that once again makes it flourish like it did in the late 2000s. Considering his solid track record so far though I wouldn’t be too worried about that just yet.
Final Thoughts
Annihilation Scourge Alpha #1 (Rosenberg, Ramirez, Tormey, Blee)
All in all an entertaining first outing, a solid reminder of the glory days of Annihilation Wave, Guardians of the Galaxy and Annihilators that will hopefully add more quality works to the cosmic landscape of Marvel.
Annihilation: Scourge Alpha #1: To the Negative Zone and Beyond!
- Writing - 8/108/10
- Storyline - 8/108/10
- Art - 8/108/10
- Color - 8.5/108.5/10
- Cover Art - 9/109/10