Post by Van Plexico on Jun 29, 2007 9:56:49 GMT -5
Regarding the ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - PROLOGUE
Wow!
Everything that the previous ANNIHILATION books did wrong, ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST does right.
I felt that much of the first storyline had muddled writing, muddled art, and came across overall as "we have a beginning and end of a story in mind, so let's just randomly throw a whole bunch of other semi-cosmic stuff out there and see what sticks."
Not much did. How you can take a story involving the most "cosmic," sci-fi-based characters in the MU, put them in a great big story covering half the universe, and somehow make the whole thing dull as dirt? That was quite an accomplishment-- though not a good one.
But this new series looks to be completely the opposite, if CONQUEST: PROLOGUE is anything to judge it by.
I wasn't familiar with the new villains, not being a reader of their corner of the MU... but it appears that Kree space is under attack by the villainous portion of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. Hey, that's perfectly fine by me.
In Dan Abnett they have the perfect writer to do deep-space military SF in the MU, and he knocked my socks off with this one. Anybody could have written the basic story that unfolds here, but Abnett gives it a great sense of pacing, keeping things moving quickly while making each little scene seem somehow longer and more complex than it probably was. This was a major failing of the previous ANNIHILATION-- I never felt the pacing and structure was quite right. Everything seemed to be going by too fast to even really understand in it. But this one gets it exactly right.
The art in this book, in terms of the pencils, the inks, and the colors, is right up among the best I've seen in a while. I wasn't really familiar with Mike Perkins, but he does an absolute bang-up job with this book. A joy to look at, and the facial expressions in particular are spot-on throughout.
And as much as I like what they're doing with Star Lord, I was more than thrilled with the way Phyla and Moondragon are portrayed. Here we have a fleshed-out Phyla-Vell (you know what I mean) and a Moondragon who is likeable for the first time in a long while. Phyla is tough but with clear vulnerabilities and uncertainties, making her extremely interesting. Heather is... Heather, but in a better way than we've seen in quite a while. The two of them together are interesting, fun... and cute! (Though I could do with a different costume for Moondragon. She's had some of the best, and worst, costumes ever. This one, for me, falls into the latter category.)
And hey, I made it all the way through that paragraph without mentioning that they are "Marvel's Cosmic Lesbians!" (TM)
D'oh! Oh, well.
So, in sum, I'm as positive in my views of this new ANNIHILATION (so far) as I was negative about how the previous one played out. I hope they can keep the momentum going into the individual books. It would be nice to finish a cosmic Marvel saga and *not* immediately wish I had my almost-a-hundred-bucks back!
Wow!
Everything that the previous ANNIHILATION books did wrong, ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST does right.
I felt that much of the first storyline had muddled writing, muddled art, and came across overall as "we have a beginning and end of a story in mind, so let's just randomly throw a whole bunch of other semi-cosmic stuff out there and see what sticks."
Not much did. How you can take a story involving the most "cosmic," sci-fi-based characters in the MU, put them in a great big story covering half the universe, and somehow make the whole thing dull as dirt? That was quite an accomplishment-- though not a good one.
But this new series looks to be completely the opposite, if CONQUEST: PROLOGUE is anything to judge it by.
I wasn't familiar with the new villains, not being a reader of their corner of the MU... but it appears that Kree space is under attack by the villainous portion of Vernor Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP. Hey, that's perfectly fine by me.
In Dan Abnett they have the perfect writer to do deep-space military SF in the MU, and he knocked my socks off with this one. Anybody could have written the basic story that unfolds here, but Abnett gives it a great sense of pacing, keeping things moving quickly while making each little scene seem somehow longer and more complex than it probably was. This was a major failing of the previous ANNIHILATION-- I never felt the pacing and structure was quite right. Everything seemed to be going by too fast to even really understand in it. But this one gets it exactly right.
The art in this book, in terms of the pencils, the inks, and the colors, is right up among the best I've seen in a while. I wasn't really familiar with Mike Perkins, but he does an absolute bang-up job with this book. A joy to look at, and the facial expressions in particular are spot-on throughout.
And as much as I like what they're doing with Star Lord, I was more than thrilled with the way Phyla and Moondragon are portrayed. Here we have a fleshed-out Phyla-Vell (you know what I mean) and a Moondragon who is likeable for the first time in a long while. Phyla is tough but with clear vulnerabilities and uncertainties, making her extremely interesting. Heather is... Heather, but in a better way than we've seen in quite a while. The two of them together are interesting, fun... and cute! (Though I could do with a different costume for Moondragon. She's had some of the best, and worst, costumes ever. This one, for me, falls into the latter category.)
And hey, I made it all the way through that paragraph without mentioning that they are "Marvel's Cosmic Lesbians!" (TM)
D'oh! Oh, well.
So, in sum, I'm as positive in my views of this new ANNIHILATION (so far) as I was negative about how the previous one played out. I hope they can keep the momentum going into the individual books. It would be nice to finish a cosmic Marvel saga and *not* immediately wish I had my almost-a-hundred-bucks back!
