Annihilation Conquest

[Docker2.0]

I agree. I really want to be around when he reaches 100,000 posts. He's always on the Hype! so when does he have time to read comics?

 

[Anubis]

In his sleep and on the crapper.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I read comics at work during my lunch hour and, no lie, on the crapper more often than not. I can also read at my library job on the weekends, since I just wait around for someone to come to the desk there.

 

[Anubis]

Ah, working at the Library, that takes me back.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah. It kind of sucks because all of the student workers are getting laid off due to budget cuts. We're hiring all work/study people instead.

 

[Anubis]

What's the difference?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Work/study students get their pay subsidized by the federal government.

 

[Anubis]

Hmmm, well, has it affected the quality of the staff? I.E., will there be more *****e bags smoking in the bathroom and making out in the stacks while they're supposed to be working?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh, it hasn't happened yet. It's going to happen over the summer, I think.

I doubt it'll affect performance beyond the fact that we'll be training a completely new set of people for a few weeks or months. It's not a hard job and these people are all attending a major university, after all. I've just gotten to know a lot of the current student workers pretty well. It'll suck to see a lot of them go. It sucks even more since it's all due to the sorry state the Florida state economy is in. There are budget shortfalls left and right, and of course I work for two government-run institutions.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I hate the fact that Florida's economy sucks. I'm tryin to live there

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Trying? Where do you live now?

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Friggin Delaware

 

[Anubis]

I used to work as a Page with the Library. And yeah, it was an easy job. I only worked for like twenty minutes outta the day and the rest was spent hitting on the hot chick I worked with and ducking the Librarian. My problem was that it was almost impossible to move up. I dropped outta college, and I needed a full time job, so I went ahead and put in a bid for the Health department. Been stuck in that ring of hell ever since. I long for the days of perusing the isles looking for erotic literature, the occasional homeless guy locking himself in the bathroom, and going to work in a place that doesn't smell mildly of funky placenta.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

What'd you major in?

There is definitely a ceiling for anyone in a major library without a Masters in Library Sciences. I'm thinking of getting one, actually, because I do like the library a lot. It beats the hell out of the crappy full-time clerical job I got to pay the bills.

I'm not sure I'd continue at UF's library, necessarily. There's a lot of stupid, petty ******** in the administration over here. Our new dean is reorganizing the whole library even though she doesn't know what half the departments do. She didn't even know our Reserves department existed.

 

[Anubis]

I majored in Computer Science, though I didn't really want to. Shoulda went Psychology or something. I like f**king with peoples heads, plus I'm not right in the head myself. I know I should go back, but....I just don't have the patience anymore. I guess I'm just gonna have to accept that I'm gonna be a middle to lower working class schlub for the rest of my days. Preying for salvation in the form of the lotto.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I almost feel the same way, but I know I have to go back to school for a master's sometime. It'd kill my parents if I stayed an underachieving slacker the rest of my life. Plus, I really need to get myself down to one job that I can actually live on so I can have enough free time to pursue my actual passion, which is still art.

But wait a sec... how does computer science lead you to working for the health department? Couldn't you be a programmer and start at like $35,000 a year?

 

[Anubis]

Well, I didn't finish. Only stayed a year. Plus, I was already working for the city with my page job. I just moved up to what I was qualified for and that was that.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I majored in Computer Science, though I didn't really want to. Shoulda went Psychology or something. I like f**king with peoples heads, plus I'm not right in the head myself. I know I should go back, but....I just don't have the patience anymore. I guess I'm just gonna have to accept that I'm gonna be a middle to lower working class schlub for the rest of my days. Preying for salvation in the form of the lotto.

Don't settle!

 

[Blader5489]

Friggin Delaware

Hey, me too! t:

 

[Anubis]

Don't settle!

Well, I don't know, you got any spare ambition? Do you have to free base that sorta thing?

 

[Dread]

The problem with trying to "boost some other characters" though is that they've given center stage to a largely unlikeable bunch. The only exceptions are Starlord and his crew, who are featured all too briefly in the main Conquest story.

Compared to Wraith, who also got a 4 part mini, Starlord and his crew have gotten plenty of page time. Not saying I especially liked Wraith, just calling a spade a spade.

Unlikeable is subjective. I haven't minded Adam Warlock. He hasn't set the space genre ablaze like Nova did (which DnA are partly responsible for, as they wrote his original 4 issue mini), but he's fulfilled most of the modern hero expectations. I agree that Phyla is whiney, but that does play to type I guess.

It all sounds good conceptually, but AC never really gives you a reason to care about the Kree and their having been taken over; compare that to the first Annihilation, where literally the entire universe was at risk. Additionally, the threat that Ultron poses to Earth feels entirely artificial, partly because we know his army will never reach Earth. That's not entirely DnA's fault, but all in all, I think it would have been better if they had kept Earth out of it to avoid falling flat on the "big scheme" for the story.

It does reek of irony calling Ultron an "artificial" threat. Of course he is. He is a robot.

With that kind of logic, every "evil" scheme is artificial because we know to some degree a said hero in a said title can't die and will eventually prevail. And, in agreement with you, this isn't DnA's fault. Hell, if you got any other writer besides Bendis to write it, an "Ultron invades from space" story would be killer for a mainstream Marvel event, maybe something that could get the "real" Avengers back again, but I suppose they just did that to the Hulk. That, and the events for the last few years are all about hero infighting as a theme.

The Kree, frankly, were never too sympathetic, being warmongers. They're not as unlikeable as the Shi'ar, but then again...only the Badoon are more unlikeable than the Shi'ar.

Threatening the entire universe again could feel equally stale, especially since the Annihilation Wave ALREADY DESTROYED EVERY MAJOR SPACE POWER besides the Shi'ar, the Kree, and the Earth. And Great Ultron & the Phalanx took out the Kree. Besides, it is entirely presumed that once Ultron takes out Earth, the rest of the universe would be next. Of course it will never get that far, but does anyone really believe Daredevil will die every month? Or Superman?

I understand being disappointed and I agree that AC isn't as good as the original ANNIHILATION, I just thing on some points the standards are a bit high. But maybe that was because Giffen hit such a home run. I mean, he's been in the biz for over 20 years. DnA are, what, coming in off sci-fi novels? They're used to a different style.

Gabe's death was just a waste of a good character, while Groot's death holds no weight because we know he'll just come back again. The Ultron reveal was a cool twist, but by saving him until the end of the first (main) issue, he doesn't have as big a presence as Annihilus did in the first event. And, like I said earlier, none of these "twists" are as jaw dropping as something like Drax pulling out Thanos' heart.

Again, that comes from DnA being different sorts of writers.

Of course the last go had more "holy ****" moments, but that was coming from only the guy who invented Lobo.

I can understand that DnA wanted to create a different kind of story with Conquest, but the event has been mostly build up so far. Obviously there will be a payoff with the last issue (hopefully), but the pacing is still way off for a comic event.

Yeah, I will be a little miffed if issue #6 doesn't pay off. They've saved a lot for the finale while Giffen was better at spreading out the climaxes and doing a few of them. Again, though, he IS A VET and it shows. DnA are not. Not yet. They're very good at what they do, especially on NOVA, but they don't have Giffen's style.

Speaking of Wraith, dude's intro was a COMPLETE waste of time. I thought he'd be the key to defeat the phalanx but he just disappeared in the background. No key moments really at all since his mini. Though I am curious as to who killed his parents.

I agree, Wraith has been a big fat waste. They probably would have been better off just weaving in Drax a little better.

I liked the concept of a cosmic character built on Western archetypes, but he has been pretty bland since then. Super-Skrull was the most interesting part of his mini-series.

As for Annihilation: Conquest itself: As a whole, I think it's been pretty good. Not great like Annihilation, but Giffen set the bar pretty damn high. Ultron's a great villain, even though I had hoped it would be Kang, but I'm not into Adam Warlock at all, everything involving the High Evolutionary has felt like a distraction despite the fact that it's actually the A plot of the whole event, Quasar has been established as a whiny, ineffective moron who alternates between making lovey-dovey comments at Moondragon and pining for Moondragon when she's gone, etc. The negatives are stacked fairly high.

But they also have Ultron at arguably his most badass since the fairly classic Ultron Unleashed arc, Ronan in the midst of a really interesting character arc where he has to deal with being a total failure to his people, Super-Skrull and Praxagora continuing their love/hate relationship, and Star-Lord finding himself back in the thick of things in ways he never imagined he would be again. These are all, frankly, more interesting than the "main" characters of AC's arcs and plots.

Really, I think the problem is that DnA just misjudged where the focus should go in the event itself. They pushed Quasar, Moondragon, the High Evolutionary, and Adam Warlock into the fore instead of focusing on the much stronger characters of Star-Lord and his dirty (now less than a) half-dozen and Ronan.

Again, I think it took some guts to try to amp up other characters, especially Marvel's former space star Adam Warlock. I imagine to some it was like trading in Luke, Han, and Chewie for C-3PO, RD-D2 and Boba Fett, but with Fett being a side character. But it seems some of the "neglected" characters like Nova & Drax will play a role in the end. Ronan was involved, just not as heavily.

I agree that Giffen set the bar high, and again, he is more experienced in the medium.

Ultron works great with the Phalanx, and it worked in well after the MIGHTY AVENGERS story.

Kang would need a good reason why he was invading the universe instead of just challenging the Avengers and losing for the 100th time. They could probably attempt to weave in Mantis and her son, Quoi, the Celestial Messiah, who Kang was once interested in (I think), but no one has done anything with that subplot for ages. Still, even if it would be pretty random, he could make a good threat for the third.

I'm thinking an Annihilation: Chapter 3 is pretty much all but inevitable at this point. Which is awesome.

Indeed.

 

[IFryKids]

If they make a 3rd Annihilation, I think the most logical villain would be either Kang or even Apocalypse. Apocalypse would work since he just got picked up by the Celestials themselves for some unknown purpose. If you want a universal threat to work with, there you go.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Apocalypse would fit with the idea of revamping Earth teams' villains into universe-wide threats. I'd much prefer Kang, though.

 

[Docker2.0]

I'll be so glad when Kang comes back! He hasn't been used in years! I just don't want Bendis to use him. I don't think he'd know what to do with him, just like he did Doom!

 

[Brainiac 8]

Apocalypse would fit with the idea of revamping Earth teams' villains into universe-wide threats. I'd much prefer Kang, though.

While Apocalypse really needs a revamp done by someone who can write him properly and has some actual talent (Unlike Milligan), I just don't think he would fit the mold that well.

I mean why would he care about the universe as a whole, when his sole purpose in the Marvel universe is that he thinks of himself as the savior of mutantkind, and that only the strongest mutants deserve to live?