Annihilation: Conquest

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Annihilation: Conquest

Cover art for Annihilation: Conquest #6.
Art by Aleksi Briclot.
Publisher Marvel Comics
Schedule Monthly
Format Metaseries
Publication date August 2007 - June 2008
Number of issues 23 (prologue, three 4-issue mini-series, four issues of Nova, and one 6-issue eponymous mini-series)

Annihilation: Conquest is a 2007-2008 Marvel Comics crossover storyline and the sequel to 2006's Annihilation. The series again focuses on Marvel's cosmic heroes defending the universe against the Phalanx, now led by Ultron. Nova returns once more in a title role, along with Quasar, Star-Lord, and a new character Wraith.

Other characters featured were Ronan the Accuser, Moondragon, Super-Skrull, Gamora, Mantis a new Nova centurion Ko-Rell and Rocket Raccoon. The series also saw the return of Adam Warlock to the Marvel Universe.

Contents

[edit] Publication history

The format mirrored that of its predecessor with one minor difference. Instead of four four-issue mini-series preceding the six-issue main series there were three. In place of the fourth there was four issues of the ongoing series Nova.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning were given the task of overseeing the story, "we were approached by Andy Schmidt, who edited the first 'Annihilation' event, and asked to pilot the next event, which Bill Rosemann is editing." They ended up writing the Prologue, the Nova series crossover and the main Annihilation: Conquest limited series.[1]

The remaining mini-series were focused on Quasar, Star-Lord and Wraith.

[edit] Summary

The Prologue reveals that the Phalanx are the primary enemy when they use their technology as well as the devastation of the wake of the Annihilation Wave to take control of the Kree army.

The techno-organic Phalanx invaded the Kree Empire, using the Space Knights as pawns unwittingly brought to the Kree homeworld of Hala by the former Star-Lord, Peter Quill. Assimilating the majority of the population and encasing the star system in a force field, the Phalanx conquered the Kree in a matter of minutes.

Soon afterwards, a new warrior by the name of Wraith is captured by the Phalanx. He is capable of easily defeating the Phalanx warriors by inflicting them with fear. Wraith expresses that he has no interest in fighting the Phalanx but they attack him anyway. After being defeated, the Phalanx then dispatch Ronan the Accuser, who has been converted to their cause, to torture Wraith. Wraith manages to escape however, along with the Super Skrull, and is guided by the spirit of his deceased father to find the man who murdered his family.

Under interrogation by Ronan, Wraith reveals his origin: the son of an exiled Kree scientist, the boy was kidnapped by the extra-dimensional Nameless Ones after his parents were murdered and bonded with the soul-stealing, strength-enhancing symbiotic Exolon, eventually murdering his captors and returning to Kree space seeking his family’s killer.

Elsewhere, Nova has heard of the disturbance in Kree space. He comes to investigate only to discover that he is trapped within Kree space. As he attempts to leave he is badly wounded, and the power within him is transferred to a new warrior. As he revives, he is visited by Gamora, who has also been infected with the Phalanx virus. She quickly converts Nova as well, leading to a battle between Richard Rider and the new Nova, during which Rider apparently kills his subordinate.

With the help of the Worldmind, Nova breaks free of the Phalanx’s control, throwing off his Select programming, though the virus that caused it remains in his system. Fleeing from his captors, Nova collapses a dwarf star to slingshot him out of the Phalanx field around Kree space and into uncharted territory. Unbeknownst to Nova, he has been followed by Gamora and Drax, both still Phalanx Selects.

At the onset of the Phalanx invasion, Peter Quill is at ground zero. He manages to find cover and make it to a Kree prison in which he meets several warriors to team with including Mantis and Captain Universe. He resumes his former persona, Star-Lord, and takes off to fight against the Phalanx. The group quickly loses two of their warriors in battle.

After discovering that the Phalanx plan to infect the Kree with an airborne techno-virus, Star-Lord and friends — including Groot, who survived an earlier skirmish only to return as a sprig — find themselves on the run. The Phalanx capture all but Mantis, who slips away, and Captain Universe, who had planned to sacrifice himself to save the others but ends up their last hope.

Meanwhile, Quasar (Phyla-Vell) has been on the outskirts of Kree-Space, aiding those still suffering from the devastation of the Annihilation Wave when she learns of the Phalanx invasion. Accompanied by Moondragon, she follows the commands of a mysterious voice which instructs her to find the "savior" of the Kree empire. During her quest she battles the Super Adaptoid, learns how to control her new quantum bands, and discovers more about Moondragon's history, before watching her transform into an actual Dragon of the Moon.

Quasar and the newly transformed Moondragon track the savior to the remote planet Morag IV, but are ambushed by the Super-Adaptoid. The heroes recover thanks to the locals, but discover the Adaptoid has already reached the savior and is attempting to assimilate him/her. After a brief fight, the Adaptoid unleashes a destructive force on the nearby town, forcing Quasar to choose the innocents over the savior at the cost of exhausting her Quantum Bands.[2]

Quasar finds herself, Moondragon, and the grateful natives of Morag IV in pitched battle against not only the Super-Adaptoid, but a host of Phalanx bent on assimilating the savior of the Kree — the enigmatic Adam Warlock.[3] Quasar and Moondragon ultimately defeat the Super-Adaptoid and in the process, Quasar reabsorbs power into her quantum bands from the Super-Adaptoid that he had earlier managed to absorb. The mysterious voice guiding Quasar turns out to belong to the Kree Supreme Intelligence, who believed that Warlock would prove to be the Kree savior. Warlock was regenerating in a cocoon, but his regeneration was damaged by the Super-Adaptoid and the Phalanx. Moondragon and the Supreme Intelligence help to induce Warlock to re-emerge, but he is younger than expected (due to the prematurity of his re-emergence) and troubled, despite the mental work of Moondragon and the Supreme Intelligence to soothe him.

A Phalanx assimilated Xemnu, along with Shatterax and Korath try to kill Moondragon, Quasar, and Adam. However, Adam Warlock whisks them away to where some miniature Kree are being held by the High Evolutionary. The Phalanx Technarchy's primary director is revealed to be Avengers villain Ultron. Ultron kills Korath and decides to involve himself in the battle personally.

Moondragon and Quasar seek to persuade the High Evolutionary to join them in their struggle against the Phalanx. Ultron finds them and apparently kills Moondragon. Ultron and Warlock prepare to battle. Blastaar, who was working against the Phalanx, appears to die. Starlord appears to have the plans for the Phalanx Babel Spire and plans to infiltrate it.

Traveling with the High Evolutionary, Phyla-Vell now known as Quasar and Moondragon, Adam stood against Ultron. High Evolutionary though betrayed Adam Warlock to Ultron and Phalanx, wishing to observe their techonology and be left to his own devises. Ultron transfered his essence in Adam. Controlling Adam's abilities better then Adam could, Ultron gathered the Phalanx to end the resistance against him in the form of Star-Lord and his team.

During this time, Star-Lord is captured and tortured by Ultron. Bug, Rocket Raccoon and Mantris concoct a plan that involes Groot growing inside the Babel Tower and destroy it from the inside out. Mantis uses her telepathic powers to increase his growing abilities and when the time is right to ignite the flammable chemicals in his body. This would result in his death, but Groot approved since he would die a hero befitting his status. Rocket Raccoon took a cutting of Groot to regrow the royal tree. The plan goes well, as Star-lord is rescued, but the team must jump off the spire to survive. Groot uses the last of his life energy to grow a protrusion to catch them as they fall.

Mantris explains the loss of Groot and that Star-lord would not have gone along with the plan if he knew three of his teammates would die. Star-lord doesn't understand how three would die as only Gabe/Captain Universe and Groot have died (he doesn't count Deathcry as a member of the team). Mantis says she saw Ultron at the moment appearing and killing her. In Adam Warlock's body, Ultron does appear and cripples her with a blow to the head.

Outside the energy shield a gathering of ships from the Badoon, Rigellians and remaining Kree constantly batter the shield with all their weaponry, failing to get through. Suddenly Nova appears with Drax and Gamora (both free of the Phalanx) along with two members of the Technarchy, one being Warlock (the ex-New Mutant of the X-Men). The Technoarchy begot the Phalanx and have come to set things right. They penetrate the shield and engaged Ultron. Ultron easily outmaneuvers Nova but cannot defeat Warlock and the Technoarchy. Warlock then infects Ultron with a slow-acting version of the Techno-Organic Virus (from the X-Men storylines), which causes Ultron to flee.

Ronan the Accusser is leading 2,000 Kree Sentries to Hala to destroy all Phalanx and Phalax-infected Kree on Hala. After seeing Nova, Phyla-Vell, Drax and Gamora standing up to the Phalanx, the fleet calls for the attack of Hala to be called off. Ronan refuses, and orders Praxagora to fire, but she refuses. Ultron has passed his essence into her and stuns Wraith so he can transfer his essence into the 2,000 Sentries. He does so and as leaving Praxagora's body, unstabilized her fusion core and kills her. This results in the ship carrying Ronan, Ra-venn and Kl'rt the Super Skrull to be destroyed but Kl'rt raises a force field just in time.

Adam Warlock's soul though was stored in the gems on the Quantum Bands Phyla-Vell wore. She returned his soul to his body. Ultron took control of the Kree altered Sentries and formed one giant Ultron form. Adam and Phyla-Vell stood against him, and Adam transfered all the souls of the Kree lost in the Conquest to the Quantam Bands, hyper-energizing them and reforging Phyla-Vell's sword. She dealt the death blow to Ultron, after Wraith had used his Exolon to weaken Ultron.

As Phyla-Vell mourned Moondragon's death, Adam came to her and expressed Star-Lord's plan to reform the Guardians of the Galaxy. The team would stand against galactic threats.

[edit] Casualities

  • Deathcry - Killed by friendly fire by Captain Universe (Gabriel Vargas).
  • Moondragon - Killed by Ultron.
  • Praxagora - Killed by Ultron from self-detonation.
  • Captain Universe (Gabriel Vargas) - Killed in action.
  • Nova Centurion 0001 (Ko-Rel) - Killed by Nova & Gamora under the influence of the Phalanx.

[edit] Publication

[edit] 2007

[edit] June

  • Annihilation: Conquest Prologue

[edit] July

  • Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #1
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #1
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #1
  • Nova #4

[edit] August

  • Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #2
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #2
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #2
  • Nova #5

[edit] September

  • Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #3
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #3
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #3
  • Nova #6

[edit] October

  • Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #4
  • Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4
  • Nova #7

[edit] November

  • Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #4
  • Annihilation: Conquest #1

[edit] December

  • Annihilation: Conquest #2

[edit] 2008

[edit] January

  • Annihilation: Conquest #3

[edit] February

  • Annihilation: Conquest #4

[edit] March

  • Annihilation: Conquest #5
  • Nova #11

[edit] April

  • Annihilation: Conquest #6
  • Nova #12

[edit] Sequels and spin-offs

The main characters in this story would go on to form the core of the new Guardians of the Galaxy, also written by Abnett/Lanning.[4]

[edit] Collections

There have been a number of collected volumes with the core titles being brought together into two hardcover editions:

  • Annihilation: Conquest:
    • Volume One (collects "Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue" one-shot, Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar mini-series, Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord mini-series and "Annihilation: Saga" one-shot, hardcover, 272 pages, Marvel Comics, January 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2782-8)
    • Volume Two (collects Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith mini-series, Nova #4-7 and Annihilation: Conquest limited series, hardcover, 344 pages, Marvel Comics, August 2008, ISBN 0-7851-2716-X)

Some of series involved have been collected in separate softcover releases:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cosmic Conquistadors: DNA Talk "Annihilation : Conquest Prologue" & "Nova", Comic Book Resources, March 30, 2007
  2. ^ Annihilation: Quasar #3
  3. ^ Annihilation: Quasar #4
  4. ^ Abnett & Lanning on The Guardians of the Galaxy, Newsarama, March 6, 2008

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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