Annihilation Prologue. Silver Surfer. And now Super-Skrull. Marvel's Annihilation event books have yet to disappoint. Despite dividing the larger stopry over several limited series, the writing has been quite focused, the characterizations effective and captivating. And given the alien nature of all of the players, that's really saying something. This latest addition to the Annihilation line has the extra distinction of being the second Marvel title written by a member of the writing crew from TV's Lost. Javier Grillo-Marxuach's script gets to the heart of the event's conflict, but more importantly, it offers a strong picture of just who the title character is without resorting to softening the villain in any way. He may be the hero of this story, but he's a rotten bastard to the core.
The Annihilation Wave is making its way through Skrull-held territories across the galaxy, and the Super-Skrull has seen the devastation firsthand and been unable to stem the tide of the insectoid swarm of ships and warriors. He's determined to preserve his beloved empire, but his past failures have resulted in his superiors losing all respect for him. On top of that, political concerns blind some to the critical nature of the threat. With the help of a lone admirer, the Super-Skrull goes AWOL, seeking the means to enter the Negative Zone itself to discover the weakness of Annihilus and his Wave.
Greg Titus's art captures the alien nature of the various characters quite well, and the angular, elongated look suits the over-the-top action. Nevertheless, his style just didn't click for me. The exaggerated depictions of the players make for inconsistent visuals, and the extreme approach is distracting, taking me out of the story. It also seemed as though the colors were far too bright for a story that's meant to have more of a grim tone. The storytelling is capable, all the same. Generally, though, the pencil art just wasn't to my taste.
Javier Grillo-Marxuach's plot may be set in deep space, and the characters may all be citizens of an alien superpower, but the political aspects translate well. Seeing a warlord reluctant to go to extremes to protect the empire she's sworn to serve made for a strong (and all-too brief) scene. She's motivated by personal ambitions and concerns, opting to be wilfully blind to the big picture. Reputation matters more to her than insight. The writer also portrays the Skrull characters in general not as super-villains at war, but as soldiers. The conflicts are military in tone, despite the shapeshifting and cosmic power.
The typical approach to writing a story in which a villain is suddenly cast in the role of the hero is to give him a new motivation that's personal (like a child to protect) or to show that the villain actually has his own sense of honor and code of ethics that guide his life. That's not entirely the case here. The Super-Skrull is a soldier, determined to do his job even if it means disobeying stupid orders. But he's still a bad guy. He's not honorable. He's bitter, he's sadistic. There's no soft underbelly exposed in order to get the reader to like him. We're not meant to like him, but he's definitelyt interesting. 7/10
