The Apology of It
To everyone – Sorry this review is late (it was supposed to be up on Sunday), but I’ve had a birth in the family, and that’s naturally been taking priority this weekend. I’ll beat myself severely with birch twigs and make sure that next week they come out on the right days.
The Thanks of It
A big thanks to Manolis for showing everybody how to do the quotey thing in our columns and reviews. They’re going to be everywhere now.
And now, onto the review”¦”¦
Annihilation 3 of 6: Desperate Measures
Writer: Keith Giffen
Artist: Andrea DiVito
Colour Artist: Laura Villari
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Painter: Gabrielle Dell’Otto
The Long of It
There’s a war going on in one of Marvel’s big events this year. No, not that god-cloning, psychopath-recruiting, illegally-imprisoning nonsense in Civil War. That’s just a heated disagreement between friends which turned nasty. Everyone knows who everyone else is, and a single death sends shockwaves throughout the community. That isn’t a war. It’s just a clever little epithet which allows them to draw comparisons between events in that story and in real wars. Wars are when deaths become a statistic, and when thousands have to be sacrificed to save millions. The real war that’s currently going on in Marvel is being represented in the pages of Annihilation, and because the rest of the company’s tied up with that “other” project, Keith Giffen is being allowed to just get on with it in the way he sees fit.
Which is nice.
We’re now in the “Empire Strikes Back” stages of Annihilation. Or in other words, everything’s screwed for the good guys. The principle characters on the heroes’ side are falling like flies, and whatever they try, the Annihilation Wave is beating them soundly. Their only hope is a tactical retreat, or as Sir Robin’s minstrel so succinctly put it in Monty Python’s Holy Grail “When danger reared it’s ugly head, he bravely turned his tail and fled.” Brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Nova. The mood within his dysfunctional camp is of resounding defeat and desolation. Just wait until he gets home and finds out what’s happened to the rest of the New Warriors. That’ll teach him not to go into space without his lucky underpants.
Giffen’s managing to capture both the scope of this enormous cosmic struggle, and on a smaller scale, the hopelessness of the situation for the various main protagonists. The character development that has taken place for Nova, Drax, Ronan, Super-Skrull, Peter Quill et al is more than significant, but completely in-keeping with the characters’ roots. The dialogue is natural and flowing, and the suspense is acute. All this and yet there is still almost non-stop action (but without Jeff Jarrett hogging all the best panels)! Whaddya know? You can actually develop characters AND have action? Whoodathunkit? Quick – tell Bendis!
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Whaddya know? You can actually develop characters AND have action? Whoodathunkit? Quick – tell Bendis! |
The Giff really seems to love writing these characters. It’s his own project and he’s being allowed to play with it, which is makes the reading of it all the more enjoyable. Sometimes you can just tell when someone’s getting a kick out of doing what they’re doing. His reputation (like that of his oft-times partner in crime JM De Matteis) is often based solely around the comedy books he’s worked on, like Justice League and Defenders. Yet despite this, both of them can really tell a story when they take it seriously as well, and possibly deliver their best work. De Matteis brought us the wonder that is Kraven’s Last Hunt, and Giffen is delivering a real masterclass in writing space-epics here. The cosmic Marvel Universe (it’s impossible to say that without sounding like a hippy) is thoroughly underdeveloped but has an enormously rich tapestry of races and characters to work with. The main reason for this is that a lot of writers focus on the scale of the events, and not so much on the personalities involved. It’s very difficult for readers to latch onto the characters if the writers aren’t interested in doing so. As I said before, Giffen is walking the very fine line between scope and characters, and getting the best out of both. He does manage to get some humour in as well, and the last page is a classic comedy set-up (but I’m not saying anything else because that would be a major spoiler for the issue). This is simply very, very good writing all round.
As far as the art is concerned, Di Vito delivers clean lines, keeps the action moving well and allows the disaster and majesty of the story’s size shine through. As a whole it’s very solidly drawn, and combined with the excellent colour-work, it blends superbly with the story being told. As for the cover art, Gabrielle Dell’Otto is delivering some of the most beautiful covers I have ever seen. The brush work is exquisite, and there’s a three-dimensional solidity to the images. It’s also a refreshing change to see covers that actually tell something of the story as opposed to the sanitised posterisation of most Marvel covers these days (not technically a word, but you get the gist of what I mean). I mean I love Ennis’ Punisher but, aside from the Barracuda arc, how often do you see a cover that is anything but a poster of Frank in a random back-room somewhere?
Finally today’s pointless thought is this: The Assistant Editor is called Daniel Ketchum. Danny Ketch(um). I really hope this was written by Giffen, and they didn’t call in a Ghost Writer. Damn, I slay myself sometimes. Or you wish I would.
The Short of It
Have you even bothered reading The Long of It?! Have I not made myself clear enough?! I bloody love this series, and this is an important stage in the tale’s development. It’s brilliantly written, beautifully drawn inside and out, and takes a bunch of characters most people don’t care about and draws readers into their story. All I hope is that when all this is done, other writers don’t forget where these characters have reached or what potential they have. And there’s still half the series and a couple of spin-offs to come.
Grade: A- Read it, or I’ll send embarrassing photos of your mother to Rupert Murdoch. I have them, you know.
