Annihilation Vol. 1

Title:  Annihilation Vol. 1
Writers:  Keith Giffin (Drax & Prologue), Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (Nova)
Artists:  Mitch Breitweiser (Drax)Scott Kolins (Prologue), Kev Walker (Nova).
First Publication:  Marvel 2006

Synopsis (from Amazon):

The Annihilation Wave has come! Annihilus, lord of the Negative Zone, has declared war! Hordes of loyal soldiers swarm from the center of the universe, and only a handful of heroes can resist destruction! As the Xandarian Nova Corps meet its doom, only Richard Rider - the man called Nova - survives. Now the sole custodian of the Worldmind, the Zandarian's database of knowledge and experience, can he rediscover himself in time to lead the war effort against the Annihilation Wave? Drax the Destroyer returns from exile on Earth to mentor Nova - but wait until you see his dangerous new persona! Guest-starring Quasar, Ronan the Accuser, the Super-Skrull and Thanos! Collecting Drax the Destroyer #1-4, Annihilation Prologue and Annihilation: Nova #1-4.

"Annihilation Vol. 1" was the lead in to one of the better crossovers of recent history.  Marvel did a better job with this cosmic crossover than they have with many of their big events.

The main part of volume 1 features Nova.  Richard Rider (the Nova from Earth) is the only survivor of Annihilus' attack on Xandar.  The rest of the Nova Corps is wiped out.  He is suffering from a massive amount of survivor's guilt and the person he finds to help him deal with it is Drax.

Drax, in the past he was always called Drax the Destroyer, is not exactly the ideal mentor a suffering hero could find.  Despite the numerous warnings from the Worldmind and another cosmic hero (Quasar), Richard stays with Drax and his friend.

Abnett and Lanning turn in a fast paced, high energy cosmic war story while still finding time to develop the characters.

A friend of mine recently pointed out that Kev Walker must have been a former assistant to Keith Giffen.  The similarities between their art styles are amazing.  I am not the biggest fan of this type of art but Walker does a decent job of telling the story.  By far, he is better with the space scenes and the various cosmic shots.  Walker's style for drawing people is not one that I am a fan of.

Highly recommended.  I can't wait to see what happens in volume 2.

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