Marvel Cosmic Comic News

This just happened:



(...in Annihilators #4 of 4)

 In case you don't know, the past few years of Marvel Cosmic history have been tumultuous and fantastic. Classic solo hero Star-Lord (Peter Quill) teamed up with the newly-mature Nova and sundry other cosmic characters to fight the Annihilation war (Annihilus' attempt at universal domination, that nearly worked) followed closely by the crisis of Annihilation: Conquest, in which the Phalanx took over the Kree under the bidding of their newest leader, Ultron.

Now both Star-Lord and Nova were instrumental in stopping these major threats and saving billions of lives. Star-Lord, however, felt the need to be more proactive in the protecting of the cosmos. And so he assembled the Guardians of the Galaxy (team name decided upon after Ass-Kickers of the Fantastic was shot down) consisting of a motley crew of powerful outsiders with rich histories. This was one of the best Marvel series I've ever read, written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. It was steeped in classic and modern continuity, was original and emotional, had the best stories and characters, and seemed limitless in its scope and amount of stories it could successfully tell.

Unfortunately, there was a limit after all. It was called The Thanos Imperative, and in the end Star-Lord and Nova sacrificed themselves to keep the resurrected Thanos in the about-to-die Cancerverse. Their deaths effectively ended the Guardians (though I'm not sure why, and have no idea where the majority of the members have gone) until Cosmo, the Russian cosmonaut telepathic talking dog (seriously)who acts as tech support and is in charge of their headquarter's (literally, HQ is a Celestial's severed head) security assembles a new iteration of the Guardians with Quasar (another classic character given new life by DnA.)

They call themselves the Annihilators (after a similar naming argument) and they intend to succeed where the Guardians failed; namely by being way more crazy powerful. The lineup? The Silver Surfer. Beta Ray Bill (he's got Thor's power.) Ronan the Accuser. Quasar. Freaking Gladiator. I mean, seriously, as if anyone could really stand up to those dudes. It was an ambitious idea, grand, and pretty damn awesome in the execution, even if it felt slightly rushed. After all, it was just a 4issue miniseries and it was doubtful we would get more. But it looks like we will after all!

It seems that the galaxy's newest guardians, the Big Guns, the Annihilators, assembled in pursuit of Star-Lord's dream of galactic catastrophe prevention, are getting terrestrial come September. Not only that, they are coming into contact with the Avengers!

Let the speculation begin. Will any of the past Guardians be present? Some of them must have returned to Earth--such as Jack Flag. Several of them have close ties to the Avengers, such as Moondragon and Mantis, who were both former members, or Vance who is the future version of Avengers Academy's Justice. (If Phyla-Vell were alive she could meet her half-brother Teddy of the Young Avengers--which incidentally I wrote some private fanfic about.)

The Annihilators have connections to the Avengers as well. Beta Ray Bill and Thor, obviously. Quasar used to be a valued member, and pretty close to Steve Rogers. The Surfer is more of a Fantastic Four guy, and the Gladiator connects more often with the X-Men, which leads me to believe, perhaps, that 'Earth's mightiest heroes' does not solely include the Avengers? If the events of Schism have taken place by then, perhaps some splinter form of the X-Men will be included? Such as the recently cosmic Starjammers team (Havok, Polaris and Rachel Grey)? And the FF have a bone to pick with Annihilus, who remains a cosmic threat.

All of these connections and potential stories made me think about that Rip Hunter---er, I mean, future Iron Man/Kang-esque timeline that appeared in Avengers #5 by Brian Michael Bendis. I haven't looked at in awhile, so let's see if it holds any answers/hints for us now:

A few things make more sense than it was first seen (Three, Iron Lad, Schism, Five Lights) and a few are seemingly unrelated to this topic, though still very interesting (Academy Traitor, Galactus Seed, Steve's Vision, Yesterday's X-Men.) But here's the pertinent one: "Nova Antiquus."

Now 'Antiquus' obviously means 'ancient', and it's masculine so we can assume it doesn't refer to the rebirth of Ko-Rel or something. It also means 'time-honored' and more literally 'aged'. So if Richard Rider returns as Nova, there's no real guarantee he'll be as we last saw him. Did he grow old in the pocket universe they inhabited? Where have he and Star-Lord physically been? What has happened to the rest of the Nova Corps when he 'died' bearing a large part of the Nova Force? Where's his brother, and Namorita, and the rest of the exciting new Corps he was building?

Honestly, I could go on for hours. The beauty of the Marvel cosmic line is that its potential is limitless, and yet it relates in some very direct, accessible ways to the heroes of Earth. I am insanely excited for Earthfall to get here, and I eagerly anticipate some more information released from Marvel soon. Hopefully DnA will still be the scribes on duty, despite their many current titles, and hopefully some old favorites will return to the pages.