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Annihilation: Conquest

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:37 am
by Somebody
A thread to collect together the Conquest analyses.

JLH's Annihilation analyses are here: viewtopic.php?t=2524

Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue

Posted: Sat Aug 11, 2007 11:38 am
by Somebody
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST PROLOGUE
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Mike Perkins
"Conquest"/"Annihilation: Conquest Prologue"

Cast:
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL (*sigh*), last in Annihilation #6, next in AC: Quasar #1
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS, last in Annihilation #6, next in AC: Quasar #1
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL, last in Annihilation #6, next in AC: Star-Lord #1
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER, last in Nova v4 #3, next in Nova v4 #4
RONAN THE ACCUSER, last in Annihilation #6, next in AC: Wraith #1

Other characters:
  • [Unnamed scavengers]
  • OM-FAD (Priest of Pama)
  • TEN-COR (female Kree captain, assimilated)
  • SUPREME INTELLIGENCE-VO [as ghost/unidentified voice talking to Phyla, referenced in AC: Wraith #4 and confirmed online (see down page for link), next as VO in AC: Quasar #1, also shown as corpse in AC: Wraith #3]
  • various PHALANX
  • various Kree, pretty much all assimilated
  • DAYSTAR (Spaceknight, assimilated), new character?
  • Four other Spaceknights, unidentified, and there's been a general Spaceknight redesign it appears... (all assimilated, two apparently killed)
  • Cosmic Awareness flashforward of WRAITH, BUG, DEATHCRY, ROCKET RACCOON and what looks like one of ADAM WARLOCK's coccoons. Not counting these as chronologisable appearances.
Summary:
pg1-10:2:
"Lamentis Outworld, at the very edge of Kree space"

A group of (unnamed) "scavengers" attack the Priests of Pama's temple on Lamentis, which is in the process of being rebuilt, aiming to take their supplies. Phyla-Vell, calling herself Quasar, and Moondragon proceed to beat them unconscious - although, in the process, Phyla hears an unknown voice call her name. They direct Om-Fad, one of the priests, to take their weapons and give them food and water. He objects on the basis that they're giving them what they attacked the temple for, but she tells him they're probably starving, so do it anyway. Phyla worries that she's not getting the hang of the q-bands, and that they're wasting their time helping to reconstruct a minor temple on an "outworld"; while Moondragon tells her it's needed.

pg10:3-15:
"Hala, the Kree homeworld, at the heart of Kree space"

Peter Quill and Ten-Cor see about last-minute preparations for the Spaceknights visit to upgrade the Kree War-Net. As Quill heads up for the ceremony, he gets a call from Nova, and they talk for a bit, including about how important the upgrading is to Kree security.

As he arrives on the roof, Daystar and four other Spaceknights (who never get names) are standing there. After greetings, they talk about the plan to upload the Galadorian upgrades into six ships and twenty-odd Sentries to run a threat simulation. Daystar notes that they'll have to access the War-Net itself, and Quill says permission has been given. It's done, and the Sentries take off.

pg15-18:
Lamentis

Phyla's meditating in a chapel in the Temple, when the voice speaks to her again. Without identifying itself, it warns of "Disaster for the Kree... Conquest. The End of All Things" and tells her that there's a "deliverer" only she can find.

Moondragon then comes in as she's yelling at the q-bands, and after snarking at her, tells her that they're "getting the most illogical reports over the sub-etheric" about "something going down on the heartworlds, Hala itself I think". Phyla starts going on about her warning, and Moondragon snarks some more.

A Kree Sentry then bursts through the ceiling.

pg19-23:
Hala

Ronan yells at Quill over the holo-link, and Quill doesn't have an answer. The Captain next to him says the "firing solutions make no sense", and then a starship blows up.

Quill then starts yelling at Daystar about the Galadorian software being incompatable, and it takes two "There is no incompatability."s for it to click what's happened. Quill yells for Ronan to wipe it all, but Daystar grabs his comm and crushes it along with his hand as tendrils some from his eye-slot, and his speech balloon style changes as he says "we must all join together". Quill shoots him in the face with a gun in his other hand, and yells to "target the damn Spaceknights!"

In the ensuing fight, Quill is knocked flat on his back - and sees the sky to be full of Sentries, blasting downward.

pg24-26:
Lamentis

Phyla & Moondragon manage to destroy the Sentry, and realise it was aimed at them. The voice then gives Phyla a hurry-up, but Moondragon can't hear it, "even with [her] mind" - although she's starting to believe Phyla.

pg27-30:
Hala

Quill's self-loathing takes over as he listens to the reports of the destruction being wrought by the Sentries on a dead Kree soldier's comm, reflecting that because of him, their program has taken over every part of the Kree infrastructure.

The Sentries then mass over the city's main power generator, merging into "some kind of tower", which flashes white...

pg31:
Energy wave blasts out from the Babel Spire on Hala, out past the "outworlds" and Phyla & Moondragon. [Synchronous with NOVA4 #4 pg2]

pg32-35:
Lamentis-->Barrier

Phyla chases after the wave, and finds a Kree lightship cut in half by the formation of a massive barrier around the Kree Empire, caused by the whole of Kree space being "shifted out of phase with the rest of the galaxy"

The voice then flares up again, triggering a Cosmic Awareness flash in her, showing her Bug, Deathcry and Rocket Raccoon (from the Star-Lord mini), Wraith, and what looks like one of Adam Warlock's coccoons. It tells her to "Find him. He is still within the Empire. Find the Deliverer. Find the Redeemer. Find HIM." She promises to do so.

pg36-43:
Hala:

Quill puts down one of the Spaceknights by repeatedly shooting it with a "man-portable Kree particle-weapon".

Ten-Cor and four other soldiers then find him. He tells them they're going to try and pull the War-Net's data core. However, when he turns round again, they're showing the same sort of eye infection as the Spaceknights, and also tell him they must "all join together". He says he's never been much of a joiner, and they blast him through the window.

There's then an announcement, saying that the Kree should not fear, or panic. The Kree Empire is "ours" now and forver, and they will protect them, and bring them order.

"The Phalanx have completed their Conquest."

Continuity notes:
Nova v4 #4 overlaps this issue, with Rich being hit by the forcefield energy wave. The character must appear [in his holo-link talk with Quill] in-transit via. Stargate between NOVA4 3 and 4. No other characters here have appeared since Annihilation #6 at the latest, to my knowledge.

This is a new group of Phalanx - obviously, since the Earth group were mostly wiped out in Phalanx Covenent, and the Sh'iar group were eaten by the Technarch Magus in the M-Tech Warlock series. Their T-O infections bear more of a resemblance to Cable's metalesque problem than the previous groups who were styled after Bill Sienkiewicz's Technarch designs, although taking the six-eyed cue from the Sh'iar group.

Goofs:
Every single one of the Kree soldiers is wearing some version of the green Captain's uniforms. You'd think there'd be some variation of rank...

Calendar notes:
All takes place in one day.
No "Conquest Day Plus" captioning, either here or in the individual minis, nor any specific "Annihilation Day Plus" note.

Timeframe:
Immediately after NOVA4 3/during NOVA4 4. No other specific reference.

Other stuff:
Solicit-style blurbs for Nova, AC:Quasar, AC:Star-Lord, AC:Wraith & Conquest-proper, plus covers and a checklist.

Other notes:
Recap page is included in page numbering, because (uniquely from the A:C books, it seems) it's also the first panel of the story.

I really enjoyed this, mostly because I started guessing it was the Phalanx as soon as the Spaceknights' speech balloons changed, and was certain when they started forming a Babel Spire :).

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:02 pm
by Paul Bourcier
Thanks for the analysis, Somebody.

I wonder if you might be able to provide a page/panel breakdown of how NOVA4 4 and this issue intertwine, either now or perhaps when your analysis of NOVA4 4-7 is done.

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:40 pm
by Somebody
Paul Bourcier wrote:Thanks for the analysis, Somebody.

I wonder if you might be able to provide a page/panel breakdown of how NOVA4 4 and this issue intertwine, either now or perhaps when your analysis of NOVA4 4-7 is done.
That's it. Nova gets hit on Nova #4 pg2:2 while approaching Hala by the same barrier-forming energy wave which is let off from Hala on Prologue pg31, and it briefly knocks the WorldMind offline.

No other intertwining - he leaves Earth at the end of NOVA4 #3 having had no contact off-planet during his stay there, links to Quill between NOVA4 issues while in Stargate transit, then finally arrives in the Hala system at the opening of #4 to a bunch of Sentries going wild and gets hit by an energy wave that leaves him with a "Worldmind gestalt is rebooting" message for a minute or two.

Nova v4 #4-7

Posted: Sun Oct 14, 2007 9:41 pm
by Somebody
NOVA v4 #4
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Alone"

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Annihilation: Conquest Prologue)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (last in Nova v4 #3)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select] (last in Annihilation #6, "Selected")
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL [Kree] (first appearance)

Other characters:
  • Chief Yan [Kree]
  • "DIMPLES" [Kree]
  • "FLAGPOLE" [Kree]
  • Various other Kree
  • Three PHALANX scientists
Summary:
pg1-4
Hala System

Rich stargates into the Hala system, and 2.6 seconds later, a Kree Sentry tries to kill him. A "radiation pulse of astonishing magnitude" then comes from Hala, and briefly knocks the Worldmind offline.

When the WM's rebooted, it explains that "all [communication] links outside the Kree Empire have just been suspended".

A bunch more Kree Sentries then attack them, and the WM says something's trying to hack it. As soon as it realises what it is, he orders Rich out of the sector immediately - the Sentries have been "violated by the Phalanx".

pg5-7
Phalanx nerve centre (or something like that, it's not captioned - the Babel Spire?)

Meanwhile, several Phalanx Scientists work on identifying Rich, and as they do, send eight more Sentries at him. They don't last long, and "Select Gamora" comes in to tell them where they're going wrong - she is, of course, infected, and asks for a hundred Sentries to take on Rich with.

pg8-9
Hala System

Worldmind exposits on the Phalanx for Rich's benefit, and works out fairly accurately what happened in the Prologue. It wants Richard to get out and stay away before he's "contaminated". Rich refuses, but as the WM's telling him what to do "contrary to [its'] express recommendations", the Sentries Gamora asked for start to teleport in.

pg10-11
Phalanx nerve centre

Gamora starts to pin down Rich with the Sentries, after getting frustrated with the "slow" Phalanx Scientists. The Scientists work out that Rich hasn't succumbed to the transmode virus because an "artificial intellect gestalt" is inhibiting it.

Gamora regrets having to kill Rich - she'd rather make him a "Select".

pg12
Hala System

Rich is indeed pinned down and injured. Being crushed by several Sentries, he opens a Stargate, destroying multiple Sentries and blowing others away.

pg13
Phalanx nerve centre

Gamora fills the Phalanx in on what Rich did, and is ordered to "pursue and apprehend him".

pg14-15
Stargate, in-transit

Rich has broken ribs and various other injuries (and a torn suit).

Trying to exit Kree Space, they see the barrier too late, and run out of space to slow down, hitting it at near-full-tilt...

pg16-22
"Drez-Lar, Kree Outworld"

Drez-Lar is an ex-Kree Colony world that "perished in the Annihilation War". Most were evacuated, but the Light Cruiser Spirit of Supremor was shot down while acting as part of a rearguard. 102 Kree Soldiers out of the 2000 on board survived. They're still alive.

Stellar Captain Ko-Rel, a Battlefield Medic, was the highest-ranking survivor, and sends a message every day asking for rescue even though the comlink's probably broken, wanting to get back and see her son, Zam.

Something crash-lands some distance away, and she's called by "Chief Yan" [named in #5] , and they and a few others put on anti-radiation suits to go out and look for it.

Of course, the thing that hit was Nova, who is still alive despite looking very, very dead. He's mindlinked with her (Rich's box style rather than the Worldmind's), and, after being shocked by the mindlink, a huge energy pulse jumps from him to her, and Ko-Rel finds herself a Nova Centurion...

Continuity notes:
The stargate Nova exits at the start of the issue is apparently the one he entered at the end of #3.

Gamora hasn't appeared between Annihilation and this issue, to my knowledge.

Goofs:
Denham draws the diagonal points on Nova's helmet a lot shorter than Chen throughout this arc.

Not sure if it's a goof or not, but Ko-Rel's hair suddenly gets lighter (going from a blue darker than her skin to silver-white) on the last page, when she's revealed in-costume. Either way, it stays silver-white from here on in.

Calendar notes:
The Kree - the surviving crew of the Spirit of Supremor - have been on Drez-Lar for "a year", having been brought down while mounting a rearguard action at the end of an evacuation attempt on the planet during the Annihilation War.

It took Nova "twelve minutes to reach the Kree heartworlds" by Stargate, so if - as it looks - it's the same Stargate, then we're very definitely still on the same day as NOVA4 #3.

As already discussed, this issue overlaps the Prologue, with Rich being hit by the Kree bubble-forming energy wave as he approaches Hala on pg3.

If a gap becomes necessary in #4-6, the only place to put it is between pg15 & 16 of this issue, after Rich hits the barrier and before he crash-lands on Drez-Lar - although putting a significant gap in there may well make the Phalanx look relatively incompetent. See calendar notes for #6. Apart from that, the three issues take place over about three hours.

Timeframe:
pg1-15: Space, from Hala System to barrier via Stargate as Gamora observes. Twelve minutes after the end of NOVA4 #3, pg2 is synchronous with Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue pg31, lasts less than half an hour or so.
pg16-22: Drez-Lar, 10-30 mins total. Probably shortly after pg1-15.
__________________

NOVA v4 #5
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Together"

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Selected/assimilated]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL [Kree]

Other characters:
  • Chief Yan [Kree] (dies)
  • "DIMPLES" [Kree] (dies)
  • "FLAGPOLE" [Kree] (dies)
  • "ESS" [Kree] (assimilated)
  • Various other Kree (most die)
  • LIGHTSTORM (Spaceknight/Phalanx Select, dies)
  • various PHALANX hunters (some die)
Summary:
Whole issue takes place on "Drez-Lar, evacuated Kree Fringe World"

pg1-3
(Drez-Lar exterior)

Two groups of Phalanx Hunters teleport to the planet, one led by Gamora, one led by Lightstorm, a [Selected] Spaceknight. Lightstorm's group is rapidly wiped out by something very fast moving.

pg4-6
(planet surface --> Spirit of Supremor gathering area)

The Worldmind congratulates Ko-Rel, who found it all too fast to follow, and introduced itself, and dubs her Nova 0001. WM explains the basic situation - it's an "emergency deputation", and she's directed to protect "the Nova Prime" (Rich) and the WM (which is still in Rich's head, and speaking to Ko telepathically) from the Phalanx. Once it starts using her name and describing her life, and mentioning her son, she starts finding it invasive.

Addressing her crew, she sees everybody knows, and asks if anyone's "got a problem with the new and farked-up situation [she] find[s] [her]self in". "Dimples", her second-in-command, defuses her with a crack about how tight the Nova uniform is. Ko asks where the Chief is, and is directed towards Medical.

pg7-9
(SoS Central Medical)

As Ko looks at him with Chief Yan and "Flagpole", Rich is looking a lot better - still a mess, but his uniform's back, and he's more emaciated than burned - he's "visibly healing". Exactly how bad a state he was in though is spelt out by Flagpole - "Multiple skeletal fractures, organ failure [&] fifth-degree burns over 95% of his body".

Worldmind then has a word with Ko-Rel to warn her that the Phalanx are probably closing in, and she directs Flagpole - who recognises the name - to set up a full, condition red, defence deployment. And that the WM caught him "staring at [her] butt".

Once she and the Chief alone, Ko explains the situation with the Phalanx to "Yan" - who's heard of, and possibly encountered, them before - as the Worldmind explained it to her, and gets frustrated that she can't just go and fight Phalanx/save her son, Zam (a hologram of whom she apparently carries at all times).

pg10:
(planet surface)

"Ess", one of the Kree sent out to be part of the defence perimeter, is attacked and assimilated by Phalanx

pg11
(SoS corridor)

Phalanx Hunters enter the ship, and are fired upon by a group of Kree led by Dimples, who gets beheaded by a PH just after she reports to Ko-Rel

pg12-15:4
(SoS, to planet surface)

Lots of Kree get cut down by more Phalanx Hunters. Ko-Rel gets upset, and annoyed at the Worldmind for repeating that "the Nova Prime" is what she's to focus on [a brief cutaway to Rich shows that he's now conscious and mostly healed, but still too weak to get up].

Ko then flies out, trying to lead the Phalanx away against the Worldmind's "specific instructions". Seemingly, they all teleport after her, leaving the surviving Kree to tend to their wounded.

pg15:5-22
(Spirit of Supremor)

...however, Gamora is still on the ship, unnoticed by the Kree's scans. She kills off five uniformed Kree in quick succession, then checks up on the Hunters - a quick cutaway shows them all fighting Ko-Rel, and Gamora tells them to "damage her if you can. Keep her busy, at least. Make her believe her charade has worked" before cutting the connection.

Chief Yan then goes by, inquiring after "Jul" and "Tiptoe", before saying her's going to check on Rich. Before he can, he's stabbed in the back by Gamora - who then enters the medibay and transmodes Rich with a kiss, which heals his remaining wounds, and he stands up, a Select, feeling "perfect".

Continuity notes:
"Lightstorm" is, as far as I can tell, on his first (and last) appearance this issue. He doesn't look like any of the five Spaceknights from the Prologue, nor is he - either visually or, per JLH's list from the Annihilation analysis thread, by name - one of the SKs to appear in Ann #5. He can be seen here - http://www.popcultureshock.com/nova-5-preview/42235/4/ - if anyone knows different.

Oh, and I'm not sure how to list the Worldmind's appearances. In NOVA4 #4 & 7 (along with Ann:Nova #1 & 2, at least), it "appears" as a hologram of sorts (usually that only Rich can see). In NOVA4 #2, it briefly uses Rich's body while he's asleep. Obviously, full appearances for these.

But, at other times, it's speech-captions only in the DnA issues, and Giffen didn't bother with it at all in Annihilation (except for one brief mention in Ann #2). Oh, and as this issue clarifies, it specifically resides at present "in the cerebrum of the Nova Prime" (i.e, the main bit of Rich's brain) rather than more generally distributed around his body, so technically it won't appear on-panel unless Rich gets his head literally cracked open.

I'd say full appearances when it's seen as a hologram (or using Rich's body), -VO for caption-only apps, -BTS for that Annihilation #2 bit and nothing if it's not seen or heard even when Rich is on-panel (unlike, say, the situation with the Uni-Power, it's not the same thing as the Nova Force. SuperNova carried, basically, the whole force without the Worldmind before, after all.). But I'd like some clarification here...

No direct links to other Conquest minis.

Goofs:
Running complaint about how the standard Kree uniforms are all green [which should be reserved for Captains]...

Calendar notes:
Continues more or less directly out of #4 (there's been enough time to move Rich to the medibay and for the news about Ko-Rel to spread, but neither would take long at all), and all within an hour or two, which means we're probably still well within 24 hours of Rich departing Earth in #3 (Drax thing in #6 notwithstanding...).

Timeframe:
pg1-22. Drez-Lar, over an hour or so, continuing shortly after the end of #4.

Other stuff:
DnA seem to have loosely based the naming/ranking of the Kree on the [New] Battlestar Galactica as much as anything else - it's a mix of ranks, nicknames/codenames, and only a very few are wearing [versions of] the standard Kree uniform.
__________________

NOVA v4 #6
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Inside"

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Phalanx Select]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL (dies)
DRAX THE DESTROYER (last in Annihilation #6)

Other characters:
  • Chief Yan [Kree] (corpse only)
  • various Kree corpses
  • various PHALANX hunters (die)
Summary:
pg1-6
"Kree Fringe World Drez-Lar"

Ko-Rel suddenly notices that the Worldmind's gone quiet, even though she's destroyed all the Phalanx. She then notices the burning Spirit of Supremor, and clicks what's happened.

She makes very short work of the three Phalanx Hunters Gamora left behind to "exterminate all survivors", knocking the last one about a mile, and runs inside to see all the corpses. She talks to the hologram of her son for a minute, angry and embarrassed, when the Worldmind cuts in, "faint" and "far away". It tells her about "the Nova Prime"'s Selection, and that it won't last long before it's also taken by the Phalanx. It asks Ko to kill it - and Rich - before that happens, and opens a Stargate to Nil-Rast, one of the "inner Kree worlds" where Rich is, for her. ETA 38 minutes.

pg7-11:1
"Kree planetoid Nil-Rast"

Select-Rich toys with Drax for a bit, while selling the Selection plan, while Gamora looks on, and refers to it as "a test of [his] Selecthood". Eventually, Drax stays down. Gamora comments how he makes it seem easy.

They "deliver Drax for Selection".

pg11:2-22
"Kree Geothermal Refinery Faciloid"
(technically, the caption's on 11:1, but there they're looking at the place from a distance, while they're in it as of :2 and have dropped Drax off)

They watch Drax being taken away by a couple of Phalanx (probably Hunters, possibly Scientists), and Select-Rich is slightly bothered by how "normal" he feels. [BTW, yes, there's a point to saying "Select-Rich" if I'm going to be consistent for #7 :)]

Gamora explains that the Phalanx "has moved beyond its regimented mindset" and that it has been taught that, in order to succeed, it must value individuality and free will". She dodges a question about who "taught" them, and says that they're "coded to serve the needs of the Phalanx Collective", "but independent enough to act on [their] own instincts".

Select-Rich then hears a stargate open just as he starts kissing at her neck, and is promptly knocked from Gamora's arms by Ko-Rel, who grabs him without slowing down. She asks the Worldmind what to do, and is told that "Nova Prime" is about to... and is cut off as Select-Rich knocks Ko away with an omnidirectional blast.

Select-Rich then asks the Worldmind to track Ko, and is told in no uncertain terms that he's getting no help from it as long as it keeps the transmode virus at bay.

WM then guides Ko-Rel to lead Select-Rich a merry chase, with Gamora following behind as fast as she can (teleporting?). It's at best a stalemate for Ko - she gets a couple of solid blasts in, but can't hurt the vastly more powerful Select-Rich, while he can't get a lock on her thanks to the Worldmind's help (at one point, the increasingly frustrated Select-Rich rants at her and the WM, and gets an "I'm not listening to you, Richard" in return from the WM).

Eventually, the Worldmind directs Ko down toward the central thermal processing core. While a blast from Select-Rich grazes her head, they manage to get him to run into a magma pipe, downing him temporarily. WM says he's vulnerable, and begs her to finish him - and it - off while he's down, but she can't do it, saying she's not a murderer. And is immediately knifed in the back by Gamora ("I am") as she looks away.

Select-Rich taunts her as he picks himself up just as Ko collapses, catching her. She says "Don't... you've got to... This isn't you", and his eyes momentarily clear as a result as she expires with a last word, "Zam...".

Afterward, he confirms she's dead, and wonders what her hologram-projector is as it falls & activates, before stepping on it when Gamora says it's nothing of any significance.

They go to "hit the showers", leaving her corpse where it is.

Continuity notes:
Again, Drax's first appearance since Annihilation-proper as far as I'm aware.

No direct links to other Conquest minis.

Goofs:
The shift to Chen on p13 sees the ledge Gamora & Rich are on change a lot, in both surroundings, shape and in that the railing Rich leaned on at the top of p11 vanished. Plus, the star on Rich's back is missing after "Stellar Captain Kree Shlag" slams into him.

As she's stabbed in the back, Ko spits out a spray of (blue-purple) blood, which is dribbling down her face in the next panel (head-on), then vanishes in the last panel as she dies (side-on), then is back as Select-Rich says her heart has stopped (head-on_, then is gone again on the last page focus on her corpse (again, side-on).

Calendar notes:
Continues more or less directly out of #5, give or take ten minutes or so. Page 12 should be 38 minutes after page 6, and the concluding fight is five-ten minutes, so by the end of the issue it's at most an hour since the end of #5 and, again, seemingly still within 24 hours of the end of #3.

Oddly, however, Gamora implies Drax has been evading the Phalanx for longer than that ("He's been evading us since the Conquest. We've tracked him from planet to planet"). It's not a direct contradiction, but considering the tie between #4 pg2 and AC:Prologue pg31, unless Rich was falling for days between hitting the bubble and landing on Drez-Lar without the Phalanx finding him, they've been looking for Drax since before Hala was taken (logical, since they apparently got Gamora herself earlier than that) and Gamora's being economical with the truth, or Gamora's being economical with the truth full-stop, and this is the first time they've found Drax.

Timeframe:
pg1-6. Drez-Lar, shortly after the end of #5, ten-fifteen minutes.
pg7-11. Nil-Rast. May overlap pg1-6.
pg12. Nil-Rast. 38 minutes after pg6, continues directly from pg11.
pg13-22. Nil-Rast, 10-15 minutes.
______________________

NOVA v4 #7
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Sean Chen/Scott Hanna and Brian Denham
"Out"

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER [Phalanx Select, stops being so when Transmode Virus is put into remission]
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?)
GAMORA [Phalanx Select]
NOVA 0001/STELLAR CAPTAIN KO-REL (Worldmind memory engram of her only - does this count? She gets a line...)
DRAX THE DESTROYER [Phalanx Select]

Other characters:
  • ULTRON (you could argue he's BTS the whole way, but DnA confirmed that the eyes looking down on Select Nova were Ultron's, so he's on-panel here)
  • various PHALANX Scientists
  • various PHALANX Hunters
  • various unidentified PHALANX Select
  • various Kree, Phalanx-assimilated
  • various Kree Sentries, Phalanx-assimilated
  • Engrams of lots of dead Novas. Probably only Ko-Rel is pre-existing, but...
Summary:
pg1-5
(Hala, into Babel Spire)

Select-Rich thinks how great it is to be a Select, as he flies towards the Babel Spire along with several Hunters, a Kree Sentry and what looks like a generic Spaceknight - it *may* be Daystar, from the Prologue, but if so it's miscoloured in plain silver and has several details wrong - and meeting up with Gamora, who's missed him even though "it's only been five hours... [he] was rounding up terrorists on Han-Lar".

They're summoned to a briefing and missing assignment - "many, many terrorists [are] still at large, trying to resists" and they need to "help them understand."

While all this is happening, however, he's hearing a voice going "screaming" and "Why aren't you screaming?", and getting flashbacks to Ko-Rel dying in his arms, saying "Don't... you've got to... This isn't you" [one of these, (3:2), is an "alternate angle" version of NOVA4 6 (20:3), looking over Select-Rich's shoulder rather than side-on, the others are straight reproductions of #6 (20:3) and - in the next segment - (20:5), with fade-to-white edges to show that they're FBs]

He begins to be disturbed by this, and asks Gamora, who writes it off as the standard background voices-from-the-Collective, but he starts getting a headache from it, then zones out...

pg6-11
(In Rich's Head)

In his head, he's confronted by a version of himself in his original costume - the "tiny fragment of [his] psyche that the Worldmind has managed to protect from the transmode infection."

Select-Rich is confused, then aggressive, then slips back into sales-pitch mode, when Young-Rich asks why he isn't screaming, why he's accepting what's happening. When Select-Rich says he's accepted Selection and there's no need to fight it, Young-Rich says he IS fighting it, and shows a bunch of Novas fighting Phalanx silhouettes, based on "Worldmind's records of all the lost centurions". But it's all symbolic, and has been happening since he was infected.

When Select-Rich notices Ko-Rel among them, he remembers her dying again, and Young-Rich tells him she'll "be on [his] conscience a long time", but that it was her death that gave him a chance to break free - the Worldmind had almost lost, but her portion of the Nova Force was just enough of a boost to turn the tide. Select-Rich starts to panic as he remembers her last word, and Young-Rich says that they can't cure the transmode virus, but they can force it into remission. And by "them" they mean "him".

Young-Rich starts pushing the "Why aren't you screaming" again, as Select-Rich starts to panic more and more, and finally says "I am" the third time, and starts incinerating the Phalanx representations. The last thing he sees before snapping back to reality is Ko-Rel asking him to save her son.

pg12-14:2
(Hala, Babel Spire into space)

Only a moment's passed in real life, as Gamora asks Rich to say something - then he looks up at her, his eyes clear. She mutters that it's "simply not possible", then he blasts her and a Phalanx Scientist into opposite walls.

Rich starts asking the Worldmind for help, and it finally answers him again - he's got Cable Syndrome, with 83% of the Nova Force tied up just keeping the T-O virus under control. Rich says that means he's no match for even one Sentry, and Worldmind says, yup, they need to get outta dodge. When Rich points out what happened last time they tried that, the Worldmind says that, since he's been a Select, they now know how the "Force Shell" actually works, and opens a stargate.

pg14:3-15
(Hala, Babel Spire)

Back in the Spire, a Phalanx Scientist tells Gamora they didn't stop Rich in time, and she tells them to reprocess themselves - but track his course first. The Scientist says he's headed for a neutron star, close to the Barrier. This rings a bell with her, and says she wants to teleport there to "meet him" and get her some support. A now-Select Drax - who even though he loves being Phalanx, hates Rich for making him so (?!) - volunteers.

pg16-20
(Orbit of Ban-Lar 4.77 [Neutron Star], into star)

Meanwhile, Rich has arrived at the star in question, and has the Worldmind's plan, based on the data Rich "absorbed as a Select" explained to him - to use its' immense gravity to create a wormhole to get outside. Rich baulks.

Worldmind: "Who always gives you proper advice?"
Rich: "You do, but--"
WM: "Do you want me to explain it to you? The explanation will involve phrases such as neutron-degenerate matter and high-energy kaons"

This gets Rich angry, and the WM apologises, saying its' temper's frayed from holding back the virus - but they don't have any other options.

Gamora and Drax then teleport in, shooting at him. Rich starts to fight them, but the WM points out that this means he "will die... quickly, and for nothing." Rich finally gives in, and after some "brief" pain, is shot through the wormhole...

pg21
(Very, Very Far Away....)

...into a distant part of the universe. Uncharted territories, looking for a way back to warn others.

pg22
("Epilogue: Two Light-Years Away...")

And, Selects Gamora and Drax were also dragged through the wormhole, and dropped "nearby" (relative term)...

Continuity notes:
Again, the (unnamed) Spaceknight in (2:2) appears to be new to me, but here's the page for any SK experts to check.

Goofs:
Well, I'd say the blue Pikachu corpsman counts as a "goof".

Other than that, just general inconsistencies between the Chen & Denham pages.

Calendar notes:
It's been a "few days" (according to the Worldmind, that model of precision :)), since Rich was Selected.

The issue itself lasts less than an hour or so, provided the wormhole didn't shunt Rich in time (of which there's no indication).

Timeframe:
pg1-15. Hala, Babel Spire. A "few days" after #6, Nova returns "five hours" after departing to deal with an anti-Phalanx resistance cell. Depending on whether the scene in Nova's head is real time or accelerated, between fifteen and thirty minutes.
pg16-20. Orbit of Ban-Lar 4.77. Minutes after pg15, about ten minutes.
pg21-22. Uncharted territories. Immediately after pg21 for the characters, likely to be immediately after absolute.

Other stuff:
Despite the ending and the fact that this is the last labelled Conquest tie-in for the book, according to DnA in a Wizard interview Nova will be appearing in Conquest.

Re: Nova v4 #4-7

Posted: Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:36 am
by lkseitz
Somebody wrote:NOVA v4 #5
Continuity notes:
"Lightstorm" is, as far as I can tell, on his first (and last) appearance this issue. He doesn't look like any of the five Spaceknights from the Prologue, nor is he - either visually or, per JLH's list from the Annihilation analysis thread, by name - one of the SKs to appear in Ann #5.
Lightstorm is not one of the Spaceknights in ANNIHILATION #5. Those were all from the SPACEKNIGHTS LS, IIRC, and he wasn't in it. (At least not named.)
Somebody wrote:NOVA v4 #7
Continuity notes:
Again, the (unnamed) Spaceknight in (2:2) appears to be new to me, but here's the page for any SK experts to check.
Sad to say, but I'm not really an expert on the new Spaceknights -- or at least not the obscure ones -- but I think he's new, too.

Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:51 am
by Somebody
According to the AC:Wraith writer - http://forums.comicbookresources.com/sh ... ost5703159 - that's meant to be the Supreme Intelligence's ghost talking to Phyla in the Prologue. I've edited the Prologue character listing to reflect that.

[PS: AC:Wraith = crap. Just for the record]

Annihilation: Conquest - Star-Lord #1-4

Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 9:24 pm
by Somebody
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STAR-LORD #1
Writer: Keith Giffen
Art: Timothy Green II

Opening Flashback (pg1-3)

Cast:
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL [HUMAN]
SHIP/"CARYTH HAYLAN" [former star, not to be confused with X-Factor's Ship who became Professor & Prosh]
FALLEN ONE
[Big monkey/tree things]

Summary:

Peter Quill reflects on stuff that happened before - a generic fight, then the first battle with the Fallen One that "D'Ast near got [him] killed", then the second one, where he and Ship devastated a mining colony on the moon of Avaleen-4, killing 350,000, to generate "life energy" to prevent Fallen One from destroying the planet.

With Ship apparently killed in the process, he handed both himself and Fallen One over to the Nova Corps, "killed" his Star-Lord ID and was remanded to the Kyln, where he started getting cybernetic implants as an odd way of relieving the guilt.

Continuity notes:
pg1-FB

Not a reference to anything seen previously. It's a new version of his original helmet, dumped for a long time - as well as, oddly enough, apparently "conventional firearms", which he never used before (even in his origin story, when he stole weapons on the way to becoming SL, he was using lasers/sci-fi guns) - so presumably last-appearance before...

pg2-3-FB

The battle referred to in Giffen's work on Peter Quill since he picked him up in Thanos. For the MCP, last stop before Thanos #8. For the Calendar, where and when Star-Lord's backstory allows, but at least it can be said that this is definitely in the past :)

Of course, the Handbook's version of events had Ship being lost and him getting cybernetics before the Fallen One fight, but that's clearly out the window.

Calendar notes:

Substantially in the past. I'd be tempted to place before Fantastic Four #1 on a calendar, but perhaps that Thanos arc gave more clues.

----

Main story (pg1-3 (narration only), pg4-22)

Cast:
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL [HUMAN] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue)
BUG [KALIKLAK], aka "LOVERBUG" (the Micronaut, last in Captain Marvel v3 #16)
DEATHCRY [SHI'AR] (last in Hulk/Hercules Unleashed, last mentioned in Avengers v3 #1)
MANTIS/? BRANDT [HUMAN/PLANT HYBRID] (Last in Avengers: Celestial Quest #8*)
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE/GABRIEL VARGAS [HUMAN] (last in Captain Universe/Silver Surfer)
UNI-POWER/UNI-FORCE [ENERGY-BASED LIFEFORM] (last in Captain Universe/Silver Surfer)
ROCKET RACCOON (last in Sensational She-Hulk #46)
GROOT [FLORA COLOSSUS] (last in Nick Fury's Howling Commandos #6)

*Re: Mantis. Given that her power status-quo & skin colour is consistant with the ending of Celestial Quest, but not the cameo in Avengers Dissassembled, I'm assuming she was a Wanda-ghost there the way others have been established to be)

Other characters:
RONAN THE ACCUSER [BTS only] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue; next in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #1)
CHAN-DAR, CAPTAIN [KREE] (new character)
GALEN-KOR, KREE INTELLIGENCE FIRST-TIER ADMIRAL [KREE} (last seen evaporating into thin air in Avengers v3 #7...)
(various Kree personnel, including an unnamed doctor)

Summary:
Takes place entirely on "Adalon Prime, Kree Fringe System"

pg4-7:1

Quill's being operated on, both because of the injuries he sustained in the Prologue, and to remove all his cybernetic implants. Captain Chan-Dar comes to check on him, and gets an argument that he's not worth wasting time on because he isn't Kree. She says the orders to fix him up and remove his cybernetics came from Ronan, so just do it, while watching the "technology bleed-off" which it seems the Phalanx can track; and to send him to Intelligence once done.

She comes out and finds an attaché telling her about two battalions setting up detection perimeters, and tells him to get them to shut them down. A ship lands, and she's told that Galen-Kor is on board and "requests" her presence. She's not happy.

pg7:2-16
"Four Hours Later"

Peter Quill is escorted into the presence of Galen-Kor (and Chan-Dar). With his translation implant removed, they can't understand him, although he appears to understand them (see notes...), so Chan-Dar gives him a translator to stick to the side of his head.

Galen-Kor is very unhappy about Quill's presence (and says he could legally have him executed, before Quill points out he's still alive, ergo wants he something from him), but because Ronan's told him to treat him as an ally and phrase what he's about to say as a request, has to be at least moderately bearable, if not "most unpleasant", even to someone "expendable".

As they walk down a corridor, Chan-Dar fills them in on the Phalanx's basics, and what Quill's meant to do - blow up a facility manufacturing transmode "infection packages... viral bombs if you will", that could transmode whole worlds, and "'seed' the entire galaxy" in total, using a "no-tech strike force - primitive means to an end." And Quill's "primitive" Terran instincts are what they want to lead it.

They then escort him past a series of cells to introduce him to his group, all Kree prisoners:
*Bug, or "Loverbug". As in the Micronaut. Charged with three counts of... ummm... seducing Kree women and impregnating one of them, a "second-tier tech advisor". He says it's a "suicide mission", but, for the record, volunteered.
*Deathcry. Charged with killing seven Kree, which she admits to, calling them "low blooded" and "craven".
*Mantis. Belived to be a loon over the "Celestial Madonna" thing who is listed as "a mid-range mentat, who has manifested flashes of telekinesis, telepathy, precognition and, in one unfortunate instance, pyrokinesis". She also mentioned the mission to the Kree before they mentioned it to her.
*Captain Universe (Gabriel Vargas). Describes getting the CU power (in Captain Universe/Silver Surfer) as "recently", was arrested for getting in the way of a Kree search-and-destroy, which Galen-Kor describes as routing Annihilus sympathisers, Vargas says were killing civilians. Quill thinks he could leave any time he wants, but Vargas says he "believes in justice".
*Rocket Raccoon. Claims he was framed - he entered a restricted zone, which he says had no warnings posted. Raccoon jokes in evidence.
*Groot. Nothing said about how he came to be there. Quill's vocally bemused at the sight of him.

pg17-18

Scene cut to a shortish time later, where Quill's being appraised of what intelligence they have. They don't know what it looks like, how big it is, or where it is to a precision of more than four square miles, and the how to destroy it is up to Quill.

He's then shown to a weapons table, with gunpowder-and-bullets guns, based on "standard terran weapons". He tests a handgun out, and he's a lousy shot, missing the target with the whole of his first magazine. He puts it down to not having dealt with recoil for a while (notes...).

He's then told they're "gone by this time tomorrow" and given his uniform, based on the standard one the whole group is given to dampen their heat signatures, with a helmet heavily based on his original Star-Lord helmet. He's not happy about it, but Galen-Kor makes it clear that it's not negotiable - they're deliberately playing on his "legacy".

pg19

In a private room, Peter Quill dresses in his new Star-Lord uniform and sighs.

pg20-22

Shortly before departure, Star-Lord reviews his team's progress, and is told how they're getting to Hala - the last step is a conventional, liquid-fuel rocket. Chan-Dar also says she was on Avaleen-4 when "it" (the FB from the issue's start) happened, and she says "Star-Lord saved my life and millions of...". He cuts her off abruptly, and goes in to see his team assembled.

Bug goes "We who…»TIK«…are about to die salute you", and he simply goes "Your lips to my ears..."

Continuity notes:

The orders Chan-Dar and Galen-Kor recieved from Ronan BTS must be from before he was transmoded on his way to becoming a Select, as seen in the Wraith series. Quill's injuries in the first scene are surprisingly consistant with being thrown through a window from a great height, as seen in the Prologue. How the hell Galen-Kor is alive is a complete mystery, but not one I expect to be addressed any time soon (Busiek-era Kree plots, of course, have a habit of "disappearing", as seen with the Ruul thing - maybe it's something else Genis inadvertantly changed along with the Absorbing Men screw-up, Elysius and Phyla).

Otherwise, no markers relative to the other Conquest minis in #1.

Goofs:

Remember me complaining about all the Kree soldiers wearing green Captain's uniform in the Prologue? Well, we finally get an orange-brown Major's uniform... worn by a Captain!

Did the Kyln have some sort of permanent-depowering effect, or did Quill include that in the cybernetics operations as part of his de-Star-Lording process? Because he's constantly referred to throughout this mini as a baseline human, when he could certainly fly and translate stuff without any cybernetic implants (or functional/intact costume) when he was Star-Lord (there may be a hint of this when he appears to understand the Kree even without his implants, but they don't get him...), and even the Worldmind (in the Nova Corps Files) refers to him still having these in the present-day.

Calendar notes:

Two days, uncertain amount of time after the Prologue, break between pg 19 and 20. Whether the "day" is local (Adalon Prime), Hala, or Earth (translated with the other speech, which would be logical) isn't clear in the slightest.

-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STAR-LORD #2
Writer: Keith Giffen
Art: Timothy Green II

Cast:
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
BUG [KALIKLAK], aka "LOVERBUG"
DEATHCRY [SHI'AR] (dies)
MANTIS/? BRANDT
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE/GABRIEL VARGAS
UNI-POWER/UNI-FORCE
ROCKET RACCOON
GROOT (dies... alledgedly)

Other characters:
RAVENOUS [BTS only] (last in Annihilation #6)
various PHALANX (Scientists, seers)
various ANNIHILATION WAVE bugs

Summary:
Whole issue takes place on "Hala, Capital World of the Kree Empire"

pg1-6:
(Surface-->Sublevels)

The issue picks up in mid-action, shortly after they've landed, with a bunch of Phalanx seers/sentries observing and attacking them. Captain Universe, with directions from Star-Lord, Mantis and the Uni-Power itself, starts zapping them as Deathcry slashes several in half. While Rocket Raccoon and Bug have a brief tiff over line of fire, Deathcry gets exceptionally annoyed at Captain Universe when he zaps "her kill". They make it to a sublevel, Mantis calmly narrating why they should be okay before calmly (running trait) explaining why Deathcry currently wants to kill CU.

As Bug & RR point out though, they don't know where they need to go, or what they're looking for when they get there.

pg7-8:
"Phalanx Nerve Center"

Two Phalanx Scientists review the insertion of Star-Lord's crew, and note another "biological... intrusion, possibly from the planet Kree-Lar..."

pg9-22:
(Sublevels)

SL's crew wonder around fairly aimlessly, gradually getting more annoyed, when a group of Annihilation bugs burst through the ceiling, fighting another bunch of Phalanx Seers.

As Bug puts it, their bosses didn't give them the "Don't use tech" memo and they're losing badly. Deathcry, against SL's orders, leaps into the fray, and the others are quickly spotted as a result.

They fight.

In the midst of it all, when the lead AWbug suggests to SL that the Phalanx make you "long for the day when we fought each other", SL doth protest too loudly with his "NO!" It also complains that its' weapons keep resetting to Non-Lethal, but refuses to ditch them at Bug's suggestion.

SL identifies a pipe in the rubble of the battle they can use to escape, but when Captain Universe saves Deathcry again, she flips out and tries to kill him. He looks away and points - and a few bits of bone, blood, feathers and assorted pieces of body parts hit the floor.

As he sits shell-shocked at what he did, Rocket Raccoon tries to stop him going deeper into shock, and asks Groot for a hand. Groot picks them up, says "it will be a glorious death", and flings them both at the pipe SL picked out.

Mantis picks up a protesting Rocket, who's shouting that they can't leave Groot behind, while Bug drags a limp Captain Universe into the pipe.

As Groot is - as RR puts it - "getting chewed up"; Captain Universe tries to tell SL what happened. He said he saw, and either him or her was going make it - and he's glad it was him, and he should "stow [his] emotional baggage" and cut loose.

Leaving Bug & CU wondering how expendable he considers them all...


Continuity notes:
No direct links to the other Conquest minis.

Goofs:
Uni-Power, not Uni-Force, Mr Giffen... [What makes it worse is that he got it right in issue 1...]

Calendar notes:
However long it takes to get from Adalon Prime to "decommissioned Kree Outpost 7-Baraka" by standard Kree vessel, plus however long it takes to get from there to Hala by conventional rocket, plus time for boarding & disembarking after the end of last issue.

That is, your guess is as good as mine as to the exact length of time between the two issues. Probably not more than a day or two, and may be less.

Timeframe:
pg1-3: Immediately after landing, some unclear amount of time after issue 1. Three minutes (Hala time 0944-0947)
pg4-6: Continues from pg1-3, small number of minutes.
pg7-8: Phalanx Scientists review SL crew's activities since landing, and note the bugs' landing.
pg9-22: Continuing from pg6, into big firefight. Not even an hour


-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STAR-LORD #3
Writer: Keith Giffen
Art: Timothy Green II

Cast:
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
BUG [KALIKLAK], aka "LOVERBUG"
MANTIS/? BRANDT
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE/GABRIEL VARGAS
UNI-POWER/UNI-FORCE
ROCKET RACCOON
GROOT

Other characters:
Various anonymous KREE
Various PHALANX seers

Summary:
Whole issue takes place on "Hala, Kree Homeworld"

pg1

A pink Kree "fifth tier maintance worker" is found unconscious and possibly dead wearing only his boxer shorts, and a blue Kree alerts a Phalanx Seer to this. The Seer dismisses the Kree and notes that it's the fifth confirmed incident...

pg2-4:3

The clothes are currently on Star-Lord's back. He's trying to hide in plain sight, noting that other than a few Seers flying around, the area where they are seems relatively normal, and accesses a Kree database with an anonymised security password, finding the Phalanx have adopted it. He finds the Phalanx have created an "airborne nanovirus" variant of the transmode virus, and everyone on Hala is incubating it.

pg4:4-17
"1000 feet below"

As Mantis fills the rest in on what happened in the Prologue (having been the only one to read the mission briefing), a minature version of Groot appears. Bug says it makes sense, and when CU doesn't get it, Mantis expands that, basically, this is a cutting off the main Groot that will probably regrow to full size. As RR prompts Groot to jump on his shoulder ("Turnabout's fair play." "Groot will not be patronised"), Star-Lord arrives back.

When he says that Mantis was right, explaining what he found, Bug reacts, saying there's BILLIONS! of Kree. (7,052,004,624 as of the last census, says Mantis. Bug points out how annoying this pedantry is). RR says they don't know if they're all infected, but SL thinks it "feels right". RR isn't amused, and him & Bug report that CU isn't holding up well. Bug then wonders what they can do - it's not as if genocide is an option - and SL fobs him off, while Groot thinks the universe would be better off without the "fleshy vermin".

Shortly afterwards, a load of mechanical locust-things come along, devouring the... rats?... and making a go for them. They start running, and CU nearly freezes when SL tells him to slow them down, but when the Uni-Power tells CU that the Phalanx are using the non-organic drones to "Purge the sub-levels of all life forms", he says then it won't be murder and starts zapping.

The others run along until they hit a line of drones coming from the other direction. While Bug smashes a few with his bo-staff, and SL and RR shoot at them, they're being backed up as CU is being backed up from the other direction. While it's looking hopeless, Mantis traces a circular hole in the wall, and kicks it out, giving them a way to go. They reach a damaged flight of stairs up one level, and RR sniffs that the pipes on the wall contain running water, and directs CU to blow them up. SL gets CU to fly himself and Mantis up to the next level, while Bug and RR (with Groot) manage to clamber up themselves. They rush through a door, and CU welds it shut behind them.

Heading for a ladder, CU refuses to join them. Instead he's going to hold them off for 30 secs, then blow the place up. SL isn't happy about Gabe's martyr-complex, but heads up. The Uni-Power tells CU he can't take much more, but he doesn't care. It then tells him he's T-O infected with the airborne "nano-virus" transmode variant - and it "stands to reason" the others are too. With the half-minute up, he prepares to "show [the UP] he deserved its' power"...

pg18-22
(heading for an active level...)

Nearing the top of the shaft, SL greets the "SHAK-SHRAK SHAK-KOOM KOOM!" sound effect with a "Give 'em hell, Gabe". As Bug muses that whatever's up there better be worth it as they emerge... they're greeted by hundreds more of the drones on three-and-a-half sides. They rush for the gap, down a corridor and SL frantically types his access code in to unseal the door. They emerge into a busy crowd of civillian Kree.

The swarm stops as it reaches the civvies - Mantis notes that "sterlizing an active level would be counterproductive" - but they're trapped in the open. When a couple of Phalanx Seers arrive to tell them to "surrender or face termination", they put down their weapons and are "arrested", much to Groot's displeasure... except for Mantis, who suddenly reveals she can cloak herself from the Phalanx. She tells them to stay calm, and telepathically tells Captain Universe - who's blown half his mask and his right sleeve off, is clutching his right side and has glass-like shards of metal stuck in various places but is still very much alive - that he is now their "only hope".

Continuity notes:
No direct links to the other Conquest minis.

Goofs:
There's that "Uni-Force" again...

Calendar notes:
"Two days" since they landed on Hala, per Star-Lord.

Timeframe:

pg1-22: Two Days since #2, again, a matter of an hour or two for the issue tops.

-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - STAR-LORD #4
Writer: Keith Giffen
Art: Timothy Green II

Cast:
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
BUG [KALIKLAK], aka "LOVERBUG"
MANTIS/? BRANDT
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE/GABRIEL VARGAS (hereafter, simply "VARGAS, GABRIEL" 'twould seem)
UNI-POWER/UNI-FORCE
ROCKET RACCOON
GROOT

Other characters:
various PHALANX (Scientists, seers, soldiers). One Scientist briefly becomes Captain Universe.
various Kree soldiers
CHAN-DAR, CAPTAIN [KREE]

Summary:
Pages 1-16 take place on "Hala, Kree Homeworld"

pg1
"Penal Unit Alpha"

SL, RR, Groot & Bug sit unhappily in cells - RR's thinking about dissection, SL wants to wring Mantis' neck, Bug's showing a line in black humour, and Groot generally wants to crush the Phalanx.

SL wonders why they're still alive, and thinks they've become "interesting" to the Phalanx, then further wonders where "Mantis and Gabe are".

pg2-3
"One mile across the city"

Mantis confidently predicts the rest of the crew will be fine, as the Phalanx will like the opportunity to study the airborne transmode nanovirus variant's effects on diverse biological hosts. Mantis and the Uni-Power (there's a "Use the Force" line in here that makes me think that's the reason they've been getting its' name wrong since #2...) talk CU into sending it to find a Phalanx host to see if they've got an antidote.

pg4-5
"Phalanx Nerve Center"

A couple of Phalanx Scientists review the data on SL's crew and confirm they're all infected, and, with their "unanticipated usefulness ended" proceed to arranging their deaths, when one suddenly gets hit by an energy anomaly, which gives it a familiar costume...

pg6
(Penal Unit Alpha)

SL isn't happy when Mantis turns up to tell them they, in SL's words, "gave the Uni-Force to the Phalanx". She points out they're all infected, Bug says the cure sounds worse than the disease, and no-one's happy. Mantis says she can't cloak them all, and they'll have to fight their way back to CU...

pg7:1-7:2
(Mile across city)

...who's sitting, unable to walk (since he was paraplegic before the UP bonded to him) where he and Mantis were talking before.

pg7:3-8
(Phalanx Nerve Center)

The CU-Scientist gets the other Phalanx not to shoot on sight, but they won't let it connect to the main core, even as it protests they can copy the UP. It gets angry...

pg9-12
"Penal Unit Alpha"

SL's crew fight some oddly non-Phalanxed Kree who are under Phalanx orders, who let them go after they stop shooting at them despite the fact it'll get them killed.

pg13
(Phalanx Nerve Center)

The CU-Scientist goes beserk, accessing the core. The Uni-Power takes the chance to get the antidote data and run.

pg14-15:2
(Mile across city)

In the meantime, a Phalanx Seer has found Gabe. The Uni-Power gets back literally just in the nick of time to stop him getting killed. He spots a big plume of smoke and flies for it, guessing the source...

pg15:3-19:2
(ship park, into ship, into orbit and beyond)

...yep, it's them. On the run from a bunch of Phalanx Seers and Soldiers, CU gets there just in time to stop a Seer from disabling the shuttles. Rocket Raccoon, the designated driver, gets on one with Bug and starts it up as the suddenly-confident CU tells SL to get on board and he'll "blast them a safe corridor".

As they take off, SL tells RR that the warnet's designed to keep stuff out rather than in - he should know, as he designed it - but that doesn't make it easy. RR proceeds to explain EXACTLY how easy it was, and adds that his security's a joke. RR then goes to warp - CU's taken with them by the ripples, while the stuff behind them is destroyed.

Reaching their "agreed-upon co-ordinates", they call in for pickup, and they're informed to prepare for "extraction and ship detonation". Moments after SL lets out a "Ship WHAT?!", the ship goes boom.

pg19:3-22
"Kree Fringe World Alon-Gim"

Fortunately, the Kree remembered to teleport them out first.

Some time (?) later, Quill walks with Chan-Dar again, and checks that his crew got their pardons, and finds that the Uni-Power shared the nanovirus antidote with the Kree - who are now preparing an airborne antidote - and moved on.

Gabe, however, has had his ambulatory system fixed (replaced?) by the Kree and is thus back on his feet even unpowered. He says something about smuggling the tech to Earth, and Quill warns him that'll land him straight back in prison. Gabe then makes an odd reference to being a trained soldier, and sticking around for "Round Two". Quill isn't happy to hear this, and gets progressively less happy as Chan-Dar spells it out to him - they've not been decommissioned, and there are more missions lined up for their "only low-tech resource with direct combat experience". He goes round a corner to find Mantis, Bug, RR and a once-again full-size Groot in civvies but otherwise ready and waiting for the next mission.

Quill says he's in Hell. Gabe says "Deal with It", RR asks what if they promise not to call him "Star-Lord", and Bug tells him that the briefing's at 0200.

Continuity notes:
No direct links to the other lead-in minis.

SL & crew don't appear in Conquest-proper #1, but are due to appear in #2 onward.

Goofs:
Aannd more "Uni-Force". I want to know how they got it right in #1 if they were going to $%^& it up the rest of the way. The switch better not have been just so Mantis could quote Star Wars...

Page 14's last panel is obviously flipped, since the remains of Vargas' mask and the surviving glove are on the wrong side.

The Uni-*sigh* Force leaving the remains of his costume on him and the costume on the Phalanx Scientist (and not repairing the costume when it goes back to him) is... odd. Doubly so considering that, with the Star-Lord Crew uniform, "Comic Code"-type considerations don't come into it.

Captain Chan-Dar's still in Major colours, and we get yet more Kree goons in green.

Calendar notes:
No temporal references makes it hard to say, but probably a couple of hours since #3 and a couple of days between 19:2 and 19:3.

Timeframe:
pg1-19:2: Same day as #3, couple of hours.
pg19:3-22: Couple of days later, ten minutes or so. However, length of time since 19:2 can vary relatively freely depending on how long it "needs" to be to accomodate stuff elsewhere.

Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #1-4

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:20 am
by Somebody
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - WRAITH #1
Writer: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Art: Kyle Hotz
"Wraith chapter 1"

Cast:
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RONAN [Phalanx Select]

Other characters:
SUPREME INTELLIGENCE-BTS (as ghost, cf #4)
various PHALANX Scientists, Soldiers, Seekers

Summary:

pg1-7
"Phalanx Heavy Cruiser DXO-9, Kree Outer Rim Territories"

A Phalanx ship tractor-beams a small ship with no lifesigns. There's a humanoid with Kree DNA aboard which still doesn't have any life readings, and claims to have no names. They decide to study it, then kill it after it fights them, it crashes the Phalanx & escapes.

pg8-14
"Four Days Later"
City of Haroun, unnamed planet

Phalanx curfew is in force. The unnamed undead stops a rapist, and demans to help find a "man". Undead guy doesn't care, apart from the fact he can't jack in to a databank and the other guy agrees to lead him to the Resistance in Haline.

Cut to a bar door. R-guy takes undead guy in, and asks for the reward as everone draws guns. Undead guy knocks them all out, a voice over the speakers tells them to give him instructions, a passcode and let him come to Haline.

pg15-21
Haline-->orbit

Haline's the old, dead city under Haroun. Ra-Venn, the woman behind the speaker voice is there, and she wants his help after what he did to the Phalanx ship. He's only interested in a guy with a certain signet ring he wants to kill, she offers to tell him where to find the man.

Phalanx attack, they evacuate, undead-guy is captured.

pg22
Phalanx Selection Facility Alpha, Straits of Mirador

Ronan, servant of the Phalanx, prepares to interrogate undead-guy.

Timeframe:
pg1-7: Any time after the Prologue
pg8-14: "Four days Later"
pg15-21: Same day, apparently
pg22: Probably but not necessarily the same or next day. Ronan's capture must have taken place after his BTS in ANNCONQ:STARLORD #1.

--------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - WRAITH #2
Writer: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Art: Kyle Hotz
"Wraith chapter 2"

Main story (pg1-17:1, 17:2-18:2 (narration only), 18:3-18:4, 19-20 (narration only), 21:1, 21:2 (narration only), 21:3-22)

Cast:
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RONAN [Phalanx Select]
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT
PRAXAGORA

Other characters:
SUPREME INTELLIGENCE-BTS (as ghost, cf #4)

Summary:

pg1-2
"Kree Galaxy, Fringe Sector 964

Ra-Venn & co escape, but with their infrastructure destroyed and having lost undead-guy.

pg3-4:1+5:1
"The Straits of Mirador"
Phalanx Selection Facility Alpha
(control room)

A the Chief Phalanx Subjuator, a Phalanx Scientist, reports on the progress with Super-Skrull, Praxagora, Ronan and "the Kree with No Name"

pg4:2+5:2-6
Phalanx Selection Facility Alpha
Secure Holding

Super-Skrull's being tortured beside undead guy.

pg7-9
Secure Holding

Ronan's unhappy about being forced to serve the Phalanx. He begins to torture undead-guy, but the pain only makes him smile.

pg10-11:3
Phalanx Selection Facility Alpha
"Days" later

Lots of pain later, he hasn't got anywhere, and the Chief Subjugator isn't happy.

pg11:4-15
He starts physically beating undead-guy up to make him tell him who he is. He doesn't get anywhere.

pg16-17:1, 17:2-18:2 (narration only), 18:3-18:4, 19-20 (narration only), 21:1, 21:2 (narration only), 21:3-22
"One Hour Later"

Ronan calls undead-guy "a ghost, a wraith", and he decides he likes being called Wraith. He decides to tell him his origin story out of "pity".

Flashback (17:2-18:2, 19-20, 21:2)

Cast:
SIM-DEL; WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]; unnamed wife of Sim-Del; various Nameless

Summary:

A Kree named Sim-Del invented a new power source. The mercent houses who would have been ruined by this got it banned. He moved to a distant planet and allegedly made a barren planetoid into a paradise - until he and his wife were killed by a man wearing a signet ring.

Their son, who would become Wraith, hid in an airduct watching while this happened, and then a robot bunged him in an escape pod. It drifed into "the Exotric Latitude", "the space of the Nameless".

There, ancient Kree were possessed by Exolon, parasites who feed on the souls of their victims, becoming the Nameless - without their souls and unable to die, they lose sense of time and sentience, torturing themselves to feel anything. But the boy remembered the death of his parents and their murderers, in particular the ring, and beat the Nameless' leader, stole his ship and weapons, and went to hunt down his parents' killers.

Notes:

Set before
Wraith #1, obviously. No indication of time is given.

After he's told it, he boasts that there is no pain Ronan can tell him he's not had, he's had his body and mind invaded but he's no-one's slave.

Ronan decides that the best/worst thing to do is to enslave him, and make him a Select. To that end, rather than do the easy thing and infect him with the transmode virus, he sticks some gizmos on him.

Timeframe
pg1-9: Apparently, this is Wraith's second session with Ronan [Ronan gives a very similarly-worded spiel to the one from #1 (22)]. The exact time which has passed is unclear
pg10-15: "Days" later
pg16-22: "One Hour Later"

--------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - WRAITH #3
Writer: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Art: Kyle Hotz
"Wraith chapter 3"

Cast:
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RONAN [Phalanx Select]
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT
PRAXAGORA

Other characters:
SIM-DEL (ghost)
SUPREME INTELLIGENCE (Corpse, mind BTS as ghost cf #4)

Summary:

pg1:1+1:3-2:1
"The Straits of Mirador"
Phalanx Selection Facility Alpha
(control room)

Ronan reports to the Chief Subjugator on what he was told, and that Wraith went catatonic after he had the gizmos stuck on him.

pg1:2+2:2-4:3
Secure Holding

In his coma, Wraith hears a voice calling him Zak-Del, and is visited by the ghost of his father, telling him to kill the guy who killed him. Wraith says he's turned himself off until the Phalanx get beaten. His dad tells him to wake up, and go to "a star system known as the Parasite" and get some allies. He wakes up.

pg4:4-4:5
(control room)

ALERT ALERT. They send Ronan.

pg5
Secure Holding

Wraith knocks Ronan out and pulls the gizmo off.

pg6-8:1
(control room)

They flood the chamber with nerve gas, Wraith breaks out and heads for the control room, destroying the subjugator.

pg8:2-11
Secure Holding

Super-Skrull gets freed (they really should have just infected him...) and starts beating up Phalanx. Praxagora shows up. Wraith shows up and tells them to go with him.

pg12-17
"Ten Minutes Later..."
Selection Facility-->Space-->Selection Facility

Wraith gets his gun and spacebike. They fight Ronan and a bunch of Phalanx and escape.

Once they're gone, Ronan sees the rotting corpse of the Supreme Intelligence, which the Phalanx plan to use to fry every independent thought in the galaxy. They emotionally blackmail Ronan.

pg18-21:1+21:3+22:2
Parasite System, Kree Galaxy

Ra-Venn & co are hit-and-running Phalanx ships.They're losing until Super-Skrull & co show up. They agree to join forces.

pg21:2+21:4+22:1
Selection Facility

Ronan gives in.

Timeframe
pg1-17: Picks up fairly shortly after #2, but not directly. Only a couple of hours or so pass
pg18-22: Not that long later. Half a day or so at the outside.

--------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - WRAITH #4
Writer: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
Art: Kyle Hotz
"Wraith chapter 4"

Cast:
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RONAN [Phalanx Select]
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT
PRAXAGORA

Other characters:
SIM-DEL (ghost)
SUPREME INTELLIGENCE (Corpse, mind BTS as ghost)

Summary:

pg1-2
"The Kree World Rei-Vaj"

SS, Praxagora & Wraith grab a Phalanx scientist

pg3-4
"Asteroid Field, Ollirg"

Ra-Venn reluctantly gives Wraith a pucture of the ring, and a few details about it. They hack into the Scientist and find out about the Phalanx plan, although not the SI's part.

pg5-6
Kirvati Pass

The Resistance get decimated, and the survivors flee.

pg7-8
"Phalanx Weapon Deployment: 30 minutes"

Ronan says to let them go, they'll submit in half an hour anyway.

Super-Skrull, Praxagora & Wraith stayed behind.

The Phalanx don't detect any bodies or survivors, Ronan realises it was drones, and they detect the three's hull-breach.

pg9-11
"Phalanx Weapon Deployment: 20 minutes"

They fight towards "the weapon", and the Phalanx have finally adapted to Wraith's exolon attack.

pg12-15
"Weapon Deployment: 10 minutes"

Wraith reaches the room, and prepares to destroy the SI's corpse. His dad's ghost shows up, and says the SI's ghost called him to help summon Wraith. Sim-Del tells his son to use the Exolon to steal the SI's soul.

pg16
"Weapon Deployment: 1 minute"

Ronan shows up.

pg17-20
"Weapon Activated-- Weapon Activated--"

It activates, Wraith steals the SI's soul as his dad said, and the swarming of the Exolon devastates the Phalanx. Bizarrely, Ronan was apparently never T-O infected, just held in check by gizmos, and is freed. Wraith stops him committing suicide.

pg21-22
"Two Days Later"

Wraith's not told anyone about the stealing-the-SI's-soul bit, nor about the recovered Ronan's deathwish.

Notes:
Wraith never heard Ronan call the SI a god, yet references it.

This was crap. Really, really, crap. That's why the summary part is far shorter than normal - I couldn't bear rereading it for any longer than I need to.

There can be a gap as long as you need between #3 and #4, within the bounds of Conquest as a whole.

There's a severe timing issue involving Wraith #4, Phyla #4 and Conquest #1, but I'll discuss that in the analysis of Phyla #4.

Timeframe
pg1-20: Anything between a day and a week after #3.
pg21-22: Two days later (but see above).

Annihilation: Conquest - "Quasar" #1-4

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:28 am
by Somebody
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #1
Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Lilly
"Destiny"

Opening Flashback (pg1)

Cast:
PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE]
ELYSIUS [TITAN]

Summary:
Phyla-Vell posts a personal best on an obstacle course, second only to Mar-Vell's historical record. Elysius isn't happy, saying she's too happy to have failed, and that she's just heard Genis has died. She tells Phyla to run the course again.

Notes:
Phyla's in her Captain Marvel v4 costume. Logically, this falls in the "three days" between TBolts #100-FB (35) and TBolts #100 (1:1-1:3)+(36-37), and everything else follows from that placement-wise and calendar-wise.

----

Main story (pg2-22)

Cast:
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL, last in Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS, last in Annihilation: Conquest - Prologue
SUPER-ADAPTOID [Phalanx Select]
ANNIHILUS-OP?/-BTS? (ghost/psychic residue/something like that.)
DRAGON OF THE MOON-BTS

Other characters:
  • SUPREME INTELLIGENCE-VO (as ghost)
  • PHALANX Soldiers
  • Unnamed PRIEST OF PAMA
  • Unnamed COTATI
Summary:

pg2-11:2
"The fringes of the Kree Empire"

Phyla & Moondragon are heading for "the Priests of Pama's Sanctuary" to try and deal with headaches Moondragon's been having that have her screaming, even if MD doesn't want to stall. Then some Phalanx Soldiers rip into the ship and tell them to surrender. Phyla attacks them and knocks them out of the ship, only to be attacked by the Super-Adaptoid.

Big fight, until Phyla starts to get taken over by Annihilus and drives the Adaptoid back. He regroups, and she tries to flee, and eventually loses him in an asteroid belt - and notices one of the jewels on the q-bands has gone black.

pg11:3-16

She flies to the sanctuary, wondering if the priests can help her too. Moondragon's talking to an unnamed bald & bearded priest, but cuts off when she sees Phyla. She says they've helped with her headaches, and dismisses them quickly.

Phyla asks Moonie & the Elder (title, not name) priest to scan her for what happened, and MD recognises it as Annihilius' influence. Phyla wonders if "the loss of [her] Cosmic Awareness" is tied to it. MD suggests they use the q-bands to try and search for the person they're looking for, Phyla's jumpy, and the priest offers the services of the resident Cotati to help.

They scan, Phyla notices the barrier, and a signature that might be what they're looking for in a remote star system, saying that she can use the bands to head right to it. The Elder offers to help Phyla train to resist the "dark" corruption in the bands, and MD presses Phyla into staying for one night.

pg17
[Night]

Phyla & MD talk, and MD admits to stalking Quasar/Wendell in the past.

pg18-22
"Three Hours Later..."

A group of Phalanx Soldiers led by the Super Adaptoid arrive and set the place on fire, slaughtering those there. Phyla wants to take revenge, and the voice from the Prologue stops her, saying the "universe falls with [her]" if she "falls" herself. It also tells her that the reason her jewel went dark is that, with the Kree Empire cut off from the rest of the universe, the bands are running out of power. This leads Phyla to change her tune, and she tells MD that they're moving.

Continuity notes:
The SI's voice cameo means this whole series must take place before Wraith #4... which brings up a calendar problem I'll come to in that segment of issue 4.

Phyla apparently lost her "limited" Cosmic Awareness in Annihilation #6 when she got the Q-bands.

Goofs:
The q-bands are constantly depicted with four or five jewels each throughout the series. They should have seven apiece. And given that they've run low on power without going black before... (plus, the psychic residue thing is a crock)

Calendar notes:
We're obviously some days on from the Prologue, past the end of NOVA4 #7 & ANNCONQ:STARLORD #4, and we'll intersect with ANNCONQ:WRAITH #4 soon enough...

Timeframe:
pg2-16: An hour or two. Day on the Priests' sanctuary planet
pg17: Night, unclear amount of time later
pg18-22: Three hours after pg17

-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #2
Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Lilly
"Destiny Part 2"

Cast:
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS, also in FB
SUPER-ADAPTOID [Phalanx Select]
ANNIHILUS-OP?/-BTS? (ghost/psychic residue/something like that.)
DRAGON OF THE MOON-BTS, also full appearance in FB

Other characters:
  • PHALANX soldiers
  • unnamed BROOD
In flashback only:
  • New Defenders (ANGEL, BEAST, ICEMAN, CLOUD, VALKRYIE?, ????)
  • MENTOR/ALARS
Summary:

pg1-6:3
"Kree Fringe Sector, above the planet Dlaw-Neurg"

Phyla & MD fight what looks like a (non-Phalanx) Brood. When MD gets injured, Phyla loses it and Annihiluses out again until MD brings her back in line by saying she loves her.

pg6:4-7:1 + 7:2-9 (narration only) + 10
"Ten minutes Later, on the surface of Dlaw-Neurg"

Phyla & MD talk, and MD spends time flashing back to her encounters with the Dragon of the Moon. I've never read those comics, and I have no idea how much of this is new material and how much is direct repeat, so I can't analyse it fully. Basically it amounts to

(7:2-8:1): Her first encounter with the Dragon, before she took the name
(8:2) Lots of Priests recoil in horror at her taking the name "Moondragon" (from MD's own POV, so she's not on-panel)
(8:3) In what I think is her New Defenders costume, with the Dragon looming over her
(8:4) In her "classic" costume, trying to kill the New Defenders. I see Angel, Beast, Iceman, Cloud, a woman with a sword who I think is Valkyrie in a costume I don't know, and some orange guy with bat-wings on his back.
(8:5) "In the end, to banish the Dragon, I died" - shot of the Dragon flying in the back, with Moondragon's ghost, or her turned to stone or something being looked at by Beast
(8:6) Her being grown a new body, with Mentor looking on

Phyla swoons over MD's "bravery"

pg10
"The Kree Planet Ollupac"

Super-Adaptoid watches as a Phalanx Soldier completes the assimilation of the Governor of the planet, and asks about anything he knows of anyone who could be a "Savior". He says the only talk that could relate is of rumours of a "wizard" he'd dismissed as myths. The Soldier wonders aloud if that could be... "the Prodigal?" (i.e., Warlock/Douglock). Super-Adaptoid cuts him off, saying to mention him's punishable by deactivation. He says he'll just follow Phyla.

pg11-22
[Dlaw-Neurg]

Phyla flies along with Moondragon on a tiny platform. MD has another headache and falls off, and Phyla catches her. They see a ship they don't recongise that has the energy signature they'd been following, but the signature is "old".

A big bug of a different type attacks them when they go inside, and Phyla chucks it out. MD asks if she can't use her cosmic awareness to save her bands' energy. Phyla says it wasn't much - saying how it drove Genis insane, and (accompanied by a picture of an event she can't flash back to...) when the Adaptoid tried to mimic her dad's awareness, it shut it down, and that she'd been given a very limited version as a result. And that had been nuked by the q-bands, along with her nega-bands, anyway.

Then the Adaptoid crashes the party in Giant-Man form and attacks them again. Fight ends when Phyla tries to fry it, and instead it uses the energy to mimic the q-bands before flying off to track the "Savior" directly with them, leaving behind a horde of Phalanx Soldiers to fight them.

Then Moondragon shuts down, followed by her turning into a big dragon. Literally.

Continuity notes:
Again, I have no real idea where all the Moondragon FBs fit in, and I'll need help with them.

Apparently, the Titans fixed Moondragon's ear after Annihilation.

It's restated that Phyla lost her CA in Ann6 or soon after, and that her nega-bands were absorbed/destroyed by the q-bands.

Timeframe:
pg1-6:3: Jump-cut from the end of last issue, unclear amount of time's passed
pg6:4-9: Ten minutes later, long talk.
pg10: Elsewhere
pg11-22: Same day as 1-9.

-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #3
Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Lilly
"Destiny Part 3"

Cast:
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS
SUPER-ADAPTOID [Phalanx Select]
ANNIHILUS-OP?/-BTS? (ghost/psychic residue/something like that.)


Other characters:
  • ADAM WARLOCK (in cocoon - BTS?)
  • PHALANX soldiers
  • DEJANN [MORAG IUIAN]
Summary:

pg1-3:1 + 3:2-3:4 (narration only) + 4-6
"The Kree World Dlaw-Neurg"

Moondragon telepathically clarifies for Phyla that yes, it's her, as she fries a bunch of Phalanx Soldiers with blue flame from her new mouth. There's another FB panel to her fighting the Dragon, then two FB panels to the middle of issue 1, to the talk with the priests' Elder that was interrupted when Phyla turned up - the pain was the Dragon's attempts to control her, and he'd told her to embrace it and thus control it rather than letting it control her. Leading to her "becoming the Dragon's avatar in body as well as name". And she can't change back.

FLASHBACK (3:2)

Cast: Moondragon, Dragon of the Moon

Moondragon vs. Dragon of the Moon - wearing green robes with a large, vertical, white stripe down the middle. Same battle we saw in #2-FB (8:1).

FLASHBACK (3:3-3:4)

Cast: Moondragon, unnamed Priest of Pama

Immediately before ANNCONQ:Q 1 (12) - an earlier part of the conversation between Moondragon & the Elder, which we only saw the very end of in #1 as we were following Phyla.


pg7-9
"The Edge of Kree Space, the planet Morag Iu"

They trace the signal to Morag Iu, and find a big, ornate castle. As they fly toward it, the Giant-Size Super Adaptoid comes in and zaps them, decides they're dead as they fall (to a 92% probability) and moves on

pg10-22
"One Hour Later..."

They're not dead. They wake up in a village, where the people have "administered healing draughts to [them] both." The lead guy assumes she's the "Wizard", and calls her "holy one", but she says no. She gets his name (Dejann) and gets moving.

The place is ornately decorated, and dead guards line the place, including big monsters - and the tech resembles that of the ship from #2. Phyla's still low on Q-energy, down to three jewels.

They find the adaptoid, and a cocoon covered in Phalanx gizmos - although the guy inside, according to Moondragon, isn't assimilated yet. The Adaptoid gets rid of them by telling them the Phalanx are about to slaughter Dejann's people.

Phyla zaps most of the Phalanx, but empties the Q-bands in the process.

Timeframe:
pg1-6: Continues directly from the end of last issue, short period of time
pg7-9: Unclear amount of time later, short period of time
pg10-22: An hour later, a couple of hours.

-----------------------------------------------------

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST - QUASAR #4
Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Lilly

Cast:
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL (next in Annihilation: Conquest #1)
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS (next in Annihilation: Conquest #1)
SUPER-ADAPTOID [Phalanx Select]
ANNIHILUS (ghost/psychic residue/something like that.)


Other characters:
  • QUASAR III/WENDELL ELVIS VAUGHN (ghost/psychic residue/something like that.)
  • SUPREME INTELLIGENCE (as ghost)
  • ADAM WARLOCK (next in Annihilation: Conquest #1)
  • PHALANX soldiers
Summary:

pg1-15:3
"The Edge of Kree Space, the planet Morag Iu"

The villagers offer to help fight as her army. She reluctantly says yes. Phyla flies after the Adaptoid, who decides to kill her. He hits her as Thor, then decides she's too manoeverable, and traps her in a Q-bubble. She absorbs this, but he keeps hitting her. At the same time, she notices he can only copy her, and she uses all her energy in one burst as a distraction to get close enough to stab him in the chest, then absorbs the energy from his Q-band copies.

Then Annihilius starts to control her again...

pg15:4-16
[Inside the Q-bands]

...but Quasar's ghost shows up (that is, WV), having just pulled himself together, to take out Annihilus' ghost, and stop the Annihilus takeovers. He gives her a quick peptalk, and then is gone, taking Annihilus with him.

pg17-22
[Morag Iu]

She puts all the Phalanx Soldiers in a big bubble, and throws them into the sun. They pull the gizmos off the cocoon, and Moondragon recognises it, saying they shouldn't go any further, since they might harm "Him" (remind me, has Moondragon ever met Kismet?), but Phyla says that waiting would take too long.

Then the Supreme Intelligence's ghost shows up, revealing that he was behind the whole quest, and the voices Phyla had been hearing. He says that they need to help him force Him out, claiming his premature rebirth is now inevitable, and they must help mitigate the damage. "Quickly now, for momentous events unfold, and I am unable to tarry here" (an apparent reference to the countdown in Wraith #4), and Adam Warlock is reborn. As the SI fades out, Warlock is clearly not in the best of health.

Continuity notes:
Another confirmation here that Phyla's Nega-bands were destroyed by the Q-bands in Annihilation #6. However, a goof's coming up - she says she's super-strong and can fly on her own (and demonstrates the flight)... but in Conquest #4, she can't fly without the Q-bands and needs Adam Warlock to save her. Pick which one's the goof...

Calendar notes:
Okay, that problem I mentioned back in the notes for #1 and Wraith: The ending of this leads DIRECTLY into Conquest #1, and the Phyla/Moondragon/AW sequences there are essentially contiguous, at least until the HE blows up the sun in Conquest #3.

However, the SI's appearance here must be before he was absorbed by Wraith's Exolon in Wraith #4 - he claims his body is no more, but the whole point of the Exolon is that they grab a soul and never let go (as they feed on it), so he must only mean in the sense that he's a ghost - and besides, he talks about "momentous events unfold[ing]" that mean he can't stay - an apparent reference that this is occurring simultaneously with Wraith running to his body.

After that in Wraith, though, there's a two-day gap before the epilogue of Wraith #4, during which Ronan recovers, they plan, etc - and in his closing monologue, Wraith explicitly says he's still carrying the soul in his Exolon. And Ronan, S-Skrull and Wraith appear in Conquest #1 after that. So either the Phyla/Moondragon/AW scenes in Conquest are taking place a couple of days behind the intercut Ronan/S-Skrull/Wraith scenes, or something screwy's going on.

Timeframe:
Continues directly from the end of last issue, an hour or so tops. Continues directly into Conquest #1.

Re: Annihilation: Conquest

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 11:02 am
by dimadick
"In her "classic" costume, trying to kill the New Defenders. I see Angel, Beast, Iceman, Cloud, a woman with a sword who I think is Valkyrie in a costume I don't know, and some orange guy with bat-wings on his back."

That would be Gargoyle/Isaac Christians of the Defenders.

Re: Annihilation: Conquest

Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2008 9:36 pm
by Paul Bourcier
Thank you, Somebody, for the further analysis. I'll look at this during the weekend and let you know if I have questions.

Re: Annihilation: Conquest

Posted: Mon Jun 16, 2008 5:48 pm
by metaldragon
(8:5) "In the end, to banish the Dragon, I died" - shot of the Dragon flying in the back, with Moondragon's ghost, or her turned to stone or something being looked at by Beast
She turned to ash along with Gargoyle's body, Valkyrie, Andromeda, Manslaughter, and the Interloper.

She puts all the Phalanx Soldiers in a big bubble, and throws them into the sun. They pull the gizmos off the cocoon, and Moondragon recognises it, saying they shouldn't go any further, since they might harm "Him" (remind me, has Moondragon ever met Kismet?), but Phyla says that waiting would take too long.
Moondragon and Kismet met twice when Kismet was still "Her". The first time was in Marvel Two-In-One 61-63, and the second time was Quasar 29.

Nova v4 #8-9

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:31 pm
by Somebody
NOVA v4 #8
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Wellington Alves
"Knowhere, part one"

Opening Flashback (pg1)
Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (between Annihilation: Nova #4 and Annihilation #1)
QUILL, PETER JASON (next in Annihilation #1)
[XANDARIAN WORLDMIND is nominally present, but plays no part in the FB. Either BTS as-Rich or N/A.]

Summary:
Around a campfire during the Annihilation War, Peter Quill explains the "sombrero"-like structure of the universe to Nova - the hyper-dense convergence of all energy and matter at the centre called the "Crunch"; and the theorised "Rip" at the very edge, where no-one has ever gone before...

Continuity notes:
This is actually a retcon - previously, the Crunch was described as the edge of the universe. It's now being described as the very centre.

Calendar notes:
No Annihilation Day+ date. It's after the "Tartus Minor debacle" referred to several times in Annihilation #1, obviously, as it was just after that Quill "signed on", but that itself's not dated, so...

Main story (pg1 (narration only), pg2-22)

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER (last in Nova v4 #7)
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND (-VO?, last in Nova v4 #7)
COSMO [DOG; GOLDEN RETRIEVER/LABRADOR CROSS]

Other characters: (all new)
  • SUSPENSOR [XARTHIAN] (becomes "meat puppet"/Space Zombie, dies)
  • DISCHARGE [XARTHIAN] (becomes "meat puppet"/Space Zombie)
  • CYNOSURE [XARTHIAN] (becomes Space Zombie)
  • CRATER [XARTHIAN] (becomes Space Zombie)
  • FAZE II [XARTHIAN]
  • sixth Luminal, unnamed [XARTHIAN]
  • ABYSS-OP-VO (we hear it talk, we see the "meat puppets" being controlled by it, we don't see it)
Summary:
pg1-3:3

Rich thinks of Peter Quill's lesson way back when, and how he couldn't get his head round it - and still can't, even as he tries to fight his way through the Rip until a vortex pulls him somewhere...

pg3:4-11

He lands (wakes?) into somewhere pitch black. Lighting it up, he finds [alien] blood on the walls, and some writing the Worldmind can't translate. Rich hears sobbing, and following it, he finds a crying, mohawked woman going "ready... ready... not...". Worldmind recognises her as Suspensor, a member of the Luminals, Xarth Three's equivalent of the Avengers. She continues crying, saying "Abyss. Is. Coming. Not Ready. Or."... and then exploded with light, as half her skin burns off and she turns into a kind of space zombie. Rich unleashes a blast meant to stun her, which vaporises her.

Then three more (unzombified) Luminals show up. With them Very Unhappy at what they just saw, and his Cable Syndrome limiting his power levels, he runs.

pg12-20:3

Just as he stops and tries to process it, a talking dog shows up. This helps.

"Cosmo", who wears a Soviet CCCP spacesuit and (telepathically) talks with a bad Russian accent, asks Rich to "followink" him, even as the talking-dog business takes Rich's "freak to a whole new level." Cosmo isn't amused, and Rich backs down and introduces himself. They shake hands/paws, and Cosmo says it's an "honor to meet man who pull Annihilus's heart out through his mouth."

As Cosmo tries to lead Rich, Nova checks with the Worldmind that he's real. WM confirms that "the dog is real, Richard. A Golden Retriever/Labrador cross. The dog exhibits advanced telepathic functions. And it has a good nature." He can also hear the Worldmind, and tells him he's on "Knowhere". "With 'K'." He takes him to the "Eyelid shutter" and opens it.

They're still in the Rip, and Knowhere turns out to be a giant, severed Celestial head. This leaves the Worldmind stuttering for a minute, and IT says it's "'freak' has also been taken to a whole new level."

Cosmo says in response to the rest of it that he doesn't know how it got there, or what the hell decapitated a Celestial ("Cosmo just glad Cosmo was not there when it happened"). In a decade or so, it'll ride the Rip's tides beyond the Cosmic Threshold. ("Then what?" "Pffttt!").

In the meantime, lots of people visit Knowhere to study the Rip. "All space & time meets here. All dimensions of reality. So people come here from all space and time. All species."

And they're all in hiding, in a pocket universe generated in one of the labs, scared of what the Luminals brought with them, that's done to others what it did to Suspensor. Cosmo says he didn't hide because "I wanted to assist. I could not help myself. I am man's best friend."

In the meantime, Worldmind's translated the writing at last. It goes "twenty-seven, twenty-six..."

pg20:4-22
"Six levels below..."

Five Luminals are there, looking at the box they've trapped their arch-enemy Abyss in, planning to maroon him at the end of the universe. "You always escape, Abyss. Always. Not But not this time." Cynosure hears Abyss counting down, and..

"Five, four, three, two, one... coming, ready or not". And there are now five more Space Zombies under Abyss' control.

Notes:
Doesn't pick up directly from #7. How much time has passed, for the calendar, isn't entirely clear - but since Gamora & Drax need to follow Nova and reach the same destination within a day and a half despite starting two light years apart, it probably isn't more than a day.

Goofs:
One, perhaps, for the end of Nova #7 more than this, but he didn't look like he (or Gamora and Drax, who in cosmological terms landed "nearby") landed anywhere particularly special.

Timeframe:
All in one day or less
__________________

NOVA v4 #9
Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Wellington Alves
"Knowhere, part two"

Opening Flashback (pg1-3)

Cast: (all before Nova v4 #8)
COSMO [DOG; GOLDEN RETRIEVER/LABRADOR CROSS]
CYNOSURE [XARTHIAN]
SUSPENSOR [XARTHIAN]
DISCHARGE [XARTHIAN]
CRATER [XARTHIAN]
FAZE II [XARTHIAN]
ABYSS-OP
Many unnamed characters

Summary:
Cosmo explains he's head of security, and when two bodies were found "three nights back", he set a team to work. But strange energy readings had been tracked to the Xarthian's area, and a big box they'd brought - which they denied any knowledge of. Cynosure patronisingly told him to "run along."

The next day, things went crazy, with lots of zombies, and he triggered an emergency lockdown and got everyone alive into a "dimensional envelope..."

Continuity notes:
First chronological appearance (to date) for all concerned.

Calendar notes:
1-3:2 = Three days before the events of NO4 8.
3:3-3:4 = Two days before the events of NO4 8.

----

Main story (pg1-3 (narration only), pg4-22)

Cast:
NOVA/RICHARD RIDER
XANDARIAN WORLDMIND
GAMORA [ZEN WHOBERIAN/Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #7)
DRAX THE DESTROYER [Phalanx Select] (last in Nova v4 #7)
COSMO [DOG; GOLDEN RETRIEVER/LABRADOR CROSS] (next in Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1)

Other characters: (last appearance unless noted)
  • ABYSS-OP-VO
  • DISCHARGE [XARTHIAN] (as "meat puppet"/Space Zombie)
  • CYNOSURE [XARTHIAN] (as "meat puppet"/Space Zombie)
  • CRATER [XARTHIAN] (as "meat puppet"/Space Zombie)
  • FAZE II [XARTHIAN]
  • sixth Luminal, unnamed [XARTHIAN] (as "meat puppet")
  • lots of generic Xarthian meat puppets.
Summary:

pg4-17

Nova & Cosmo are looking over the area when it happened (Cosmo's seen the Exorcist, from behind the sofa). The "dimensional envelope" turns out to be a tesseracted storage crystal, on Cosmo's collar. The Worldmind notes that the crystal - where everyone is kind of floating around in panic - has finite power, and when it's gone everyone will... fall out.

The Worldmind also has news on Abyss, who's apparently mystically empowered, and "capable of turning sentient life-forms into something called 'meat puppets'." It thinks Cosmo's telepathy, and the buffers that are holding Nova's transmode infection back are stopping them from being turned into meat puppets.

Cosmo's shocked to hear Nova is "transmode positive". He's heard of the Phalanx, "and also stories of the mysterious Technarchy parents that spawned them."

In the meantime, they're attacked by many Xarthian meat puppets. They zap a few between them, but Nova's infection means they can't hold out for too long - especially after the zombified Luminals arrive - and have to run again. They see the Luminals' "big box", with ghosts swirling about it, which Nova likens to a giant coffin.

Abyss taunts Nova, asking if he's there to let him out, and Nova tells the Worldmind to give him a full analysis of the box as the zombified Luminals arrive. Cosmo holds them off, and the Worldmind tells Rich that Abyss can supposedly escape from anything, anywhere; as the casket begins to malfunction, and is only minutes from letting Abyss out.

Rich can barely make it to the box, but as he touches it, he tells the Worldmind to reduce the anti-transmode buffer by 0.5%. Worldmind tells Rich "no", it'll let the virus out. Rich says he wants to let a little bit out, it's all he'll need. As WM says no again, the zombies begin to break through Cosmo's barrier, and Rich tells him again. This time he gives in, and Nova uses the TM virus to interface with and fix the casket. The zombies turn to dust.

The TM virus is contained again, but less securely than before - the Worldmind fears for Rich's "safety" [sic]. With Abyss contained, Knowhere's systems come back on.

pg18-20
"Knowhere, twenty-four hours later"

Nova's slept, but he fells like he has the flu - his transmode resistance is low, and the Worldmind's very unhappy with him.

Knowhere's back to normal.

Cosmo shows Rich the "Continuum Cortex", built into the brain stem of the Celestial - it's a teleport "nexus to anywhere and anywhen in universe". Cosmo's plotted a course for him to Kvch, the Technarchy homeworld, and has an adept give him a "passport" bracelet. Worldmind's excited at the prospect, hoping it's a breakthrough.

Nova tosses Cosmo a present as he teleports out. Cosmo unwraps it to find it's a chewy bone toy. "Cosmo's favourite!"

pg21-22
"Two hours later"

Cosmo's in his bed with the chew toy when there's an intruder alert. Rushing to the scene with some armed guards, two "armed and hostile" intruders shot their way to the Continuum Cortex. They arrive at the CC just in time to see Drax and Gamora teleporting after Nova...

Continuity notes:
Continued directly, or near-enough, from NOVA4 8.

Calendar notes:
None.

Timeframe:
pg1-17: Same day as NO4 8
pg18-20: "Twenty-four hours" after pg17
pg21-22: "Two hours" after pg20.

Annihilation: Conquest #1-5

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 2:34 pm
by Somebody
ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #1 (Jan 2008)
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Tom Raney
"No Way Out"

Cast:
ADAM WARLOCK (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #4)
BLASTAAR [BALUURAN] (last in Annihilation #5)
HIGH EVOLUTIONARY
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #4)
PRAXAGORA (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4)
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Quasar #4)
RA-VENN [KREE] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4)
ROCKET RACCOON-BTS |cf ANNCONQ 2 (14)|
RONAN THE ACCUSER [KREE] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4)
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT [SKRULL] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4)
ULTRON
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Wraith #4)

Other characters:
KORATH THE PURSUER/KORATH-THAK (dies)
XEMNU
SHATTERAX [KREE]
various Kree soldiers
A couple of Phalanx Stompers

Summary:

pg1-4
"Hala, the Kree Homeworld..."

Blastaar leads a small resistance cell of Kree soldiers, which promptly get stomped by a pair of Phalanx Stompers.

pg5-19
"Terma, Kree Outworld"

Phyla gives the newly-reborn Adam Warlock a spiel about how the Phalanx are the Worst Thing Ever - but he doesn't recognise her or the dragon-form Moondragon, and is confused in general. Moondragon tries to help by giving him a flashback to ANNCONQ:Q 4 (no new information), and it does jog his memory a bit - the billions of souls killed in the Annihilation War drove him mad, and he cocooned himself to heal. Since he's not done yet, and he's got no truck with gods who proclaim saviours, he prepares to weave a new cocoon - with "billions of lives already in [his] head", he just wants to be left alone.

Suddenly, a burst of energy erupts from him, confusing him as much as the others, and he forms a costume and tells them to defend themselves. Despite his condition, he can notice when they're completely surrounded by a bunch of Phalanx Soldiers (led by Selects Korath, Shatterax & Xemnu) even if they can't. Phyla holds her own against Korath, but Xemnu almost knocks Moondragon out. Finally, though, the fight ends when Adam punches Shatterax a few miles with an energy fist, forms a bubble and gathers up Phyla & Moondragon, taking them to "the refuge" in the heart of the local sun, looking for answers...

pg20-21
"The borders of the Kree ceded territories"

Ronan, Super-Skrull, Wraith, Ra-Venn and Praxagora take a small ship to Kree-Lar, looking for "the Salvation of the Kree race" there. K'Lrt just thinks they'll get killed, and is seemingly proven right when they're shot out of the sky.

pg22-24
"The heart of Terma's star"

Adam & co enter the Refuge, where someone's been working on "Nu-Kree", and the High Evolutionary greets his "son".

pg25-26
"Hala, the Phalanx Command Center..."

Korath, Shatterax and Xemnu report to the Babel Spire, and the central core of the Phalanx then kills Korath for his failure, before taking a physical form - Ultron!

Notes:
Picks up directly from ANNCONQ:Q 4, as in "this could be the next panel."

Ultron's form is far more traditional here than in the Mighty Avengers arc which should have preceded it in publication (it ran so late that they overlapped), although he has six eyes and two red lines on his chest to evoke the Phalanx designs.

He also has a cape. Just 'cause.

None of Star-Lord's crew appear, although Rocket Raccoon's revealed to be behind Blastaar's suicide attack next issue.

Calendar notes:
See notes for ANNCONQ:Q 4 - the transition from that is handled fairly well, but the transition from ANNCONQ:WRAITH 4 has a couple of days missing. The whole of ANNCONQ 1-6, excluding epilogue, is done in a day.

Timeframe:
A couple of hours, tops.

______________________

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #2 (Feb 2008)
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Tom Raney

Cast:
ADAM WARLOCK
BLASTAAR [BALUURAN]
BUG [KALIKLAK] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
GROOT [FLORA COLOSSUS] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
HIGH EVOLUTIONARY
MANTIS/? BRANDT [HUMAN/PLANT HYBRID] (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS
PRAXAGORA
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE]
RA-VENN [KREE]
ROCKET RACCOON (last on-panel in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
RONAN THE ACCUSER [KREE]
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL (last in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT [SKRULL]
ULTRON
VARGAS, GABRIEL [HUMAN] (formerly Captain Universe, last in Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord #4)
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]

Other characters:
various Phalanx Scientists
various Nu-Kree
various Phalanx Soldiers
A couple of Phalanx Stompers
various Annihilation Wave bugs

Summary:

pg1-3
"The Babel Spire, Hala, the Kree Homeworld"

Some Phalanx Scientists torture Blastaar for information but he doesn't know anything, because everything was kept compartmentalised. He seemingly expires at their hands.

pg4-7:4
"The Refuge, in the Heliosphere of an outworld star"

The High Evolutionary is surprised to see Adam so soon - he was expecting him to take much longer to recover. Phyla admits they woke him early because "the Kree need him".

The HE doesn't really care about anything they say, until he pricks his ears up at the mention of the Supreme Intelligence ("an epithet I would take issue with, but still...). Adam has another energy seizure, in the middle of a "you won't decide my future" tantrum, and the HE decides to explain what "occupies" him there...


pg7:5-12
"Kree-Lar, in the ceded Kree territories"

Ronan & co apparently landed safely (K'Lrt "compliments" Prax & Ra-Venn "on their helm skills" as the only explanation), and watch a pitched "bugs vs. robots" battle. After an attack by some Phalanx Soldiers, they get some Annihilation Bugs to "take [them] to your leader".

pg13-16:4
"Hala"

Star-Lord and co. finally show up. Quill's been running the "anti-Phalanx resistance" with help from his crew. Rocket arranged for Blastaar to be the one captured, and to release some of Groot's pollen spores at the point he "died" - which Mantis can use to create a map of the Spire. Rocket's got one final point - Blastaar's not really dead, and they've got half an hour or so before the Phalanx figure it out and Select him.

They prepare to get to work.

pg16:5-22
"The Refuge"

The HE studies Adam and says there's nothing actually wrong with him - he was just woken too early, and his new powers have "yet to coalesce. Once they have refined, they will be easier to control."

The HE goes onto explain that the SI invited him to recreate the Kree [Ed: again?! Guess Genis really did knock the Ruul debacle out of continuity]. The Annihilation War cut him off, but he worked on alone, and now they're ready. He wants safe passage out of Kree space in return for Kree warriors - he's actually scared of being T-O infected - but Phyla breaks the "we're sealed off" news to him. As they talk further, Adam senses an incoming teleport a moment before it hits.

A moment after it hits, carrying a lot of Phalanx Soldiers and one Ultron, Ultron sticks his arm into Moondragon's chest, critically injuring her, before greeting Adam Warlock, "you are the one I seek.". Warlock says he won't like what he's found.

Continuity notes:

The SI must have contacted the HE before he was overthrown and lobotomised by House Fiyero, as shown in Annihilation. Similarly, the HE's holographic appearance in the X-Men: Endangered Species backups must take place before the Conquest Prologue or after ANNCONQ 6, as such communication would be impossible during the timespan of Conquest itself.

Timeframe:
Same day as last issue, we move on but an hour or two again.

______________________

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #3 (Mar 2008)
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Tom Raney
"Together Alone" (yes, the same title as #2)

Cast:
ADAM WARLOCK
BLASTAAR [BALUURAN]
BUG [KALIKLAK]
GROOT [FLORA COLOSSUS]
HIGH EVOLUTIONARY
MANTIS/? BRANDT [HUMAN/PLANT HYBRID]
MOONDRAGON/HEATHER DOUGLAS (dies)
PRAXAGORA
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RAVENOUS
ROCKET RACCOON
RONAN THE ACCUSER [KREE]
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT [SKRULL]
ULTRON
VARGAS, GABRIEL [HUMAN] (dies)
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]

Other characters:
various Phalanx Soldiers (plenty die)
various Nu-Kree (all die)
various Annihilation Wave bugs

Summary:

pg1-10
"High Evolutionary's Heliosphere Refuge"

Adam KLTNNNNGs Ultron with an energy fist. Ultron simply picks himself up, calls him "perfect" and orders the Phalanx Soldiers to restrain him, and kill everyone else.

Phyla's more interested in Moondragon, and lifts her out of the way.

The HE tells the Nu-Kree to stop any Phalanx from touching him. When they get slaughtered, he zaps a few and teleports out.

Meanwhile, Adam's making hay, until Ultron takes him on again. Shortly afterward, Adam has another seizure and Ultron knocks him flat on his behind.

Phyla finds the HE, who says he would help the dying Moondragon "eagerly if [he] could", but he doesn't understand her dragon-biology - he doesn't even know if it IS biology. After apologising, he says they should get out and "raze" the Refuge behind them to kill Ultron. Phyla refuses to leave Moondragon, a moment before, with a last "I love you", Moondragon expires and evaporates.

The HE says he's sorry again, but mourn later. She doesn't want to hear it and jumps into the fray, literally.

Adam's seizure is still going on the floor, and Ultron tells the Phalanx to restrain him, until Phyla starts slashing through them. Adam picks himself up, and the HE contacts him to tell him Phyla can't kill Ultron, and he's just set the star to go boom. Adam leaps after Phyla, just as Ultron notes "the star is suddenly unsta-"

Boom.

pg11-15
"Kree Imperial Palace, Kree-Lar, the territories ceded to Ravenous"

Ravenous is relishing the moment of Ronan coming "grovelling" to him. He inspects his party, and when he reaches Wraith, Wraith zaps him and the bugs, before strangling Ravenous.

Meanwhile, Ronan's going for the throne - or rather what's in the passage beneath it...


pg16-22
"The Babel Spire, Hala, the Kree Homeworld"

Star-Lord & co are setting plastique explosives throughout the Babel Spire, looking to cripple it. Unfortunately, they're too late, Blastaar's back, at the head of a group of Phalanx Soldiers, and kills Vargas (the ex-Captain Universe) and knocks down Quill. Then Ultron, who's not too happy about having his molecules scattered, wants to hit something. As Quill looks up and recognises Ultron (!), Ultron picks him up and, as he prepares to "vent his rage" on the handy human, he asks if there was any point he actually believed he would win...

Continuity notes:
Star-Lord recognises Ultron at first glance (and is shocked at the sight of him). Hmmm... does that fit?

Timeframe:
Still on the same day or so as #1-2 [and ANNCONQ:Q 2 onward for Phyla, since day & night mean nothing when you're planet-jumping. It's clearly been a LOOONNNNG day for her, with her girlfriend turning into a dragon and dying all in the same day]

______________________

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #4 (Apr 2008)
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Tom Raney
"Hopeless"

Cast:
ADAM WARLOCK
BLASTAAR [BALUURAN]
BUG [KALIKLAK]
DAYSTAR [GALADORIAN] (last in Prologue)
GROOT [FLORA COLOSSUS]
HIGH EVOLUTIONARY
MANTIS/? BRANDT [HUMAN/PLANT HYBRID]
PRAXAGORA
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE]
RA-VENN [KREE]
RAVENOUS
ROCKET RACCOON
RONAN THE ACCUSER [KREE]
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
SUPER-SKRULL/K'LRT [SKRULL]
ULTRON
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]

Other characters:
various Phalanx Scientists
various Phalanx Soldiers
various Annihilation Wave bugs

Summary:

pg1-3:2
"The Babel Spire, Hala"

Some Phalanx Scientists are torturing Quill for info. Ultron, annoyed, wants to know why they've resorted to physical torture. They say he's claimed that, if they transmode him, his memory will be wiped.

Ultron says he's lying, to stall. He prepares to use his encphalo-ray to short-cut everything. As Ultron starts to read his memory ("Peter Jason Quill, born to Merideth Quill, Earth, fathered by a Spartoi dynast..."), a voice tries to tell the screaming Peter to stay calm, it's protecting his mind...

pg3:3-3:5
"Eight floors below"

...as Mantis gets through to him, Bug asks what's happening. She explains, and he notes that if they've rumbled Star-Lord, all their work will be for nothing...

pg4-5:1
"Five floors below that"

...as Select Daystar reports to Select Blastaar that, indeed, they've "isolated and rendered inert" the explosive charges. They converse on how uplifting they find Selection - and Daystar was apparently in Blastaar's group, seen in Annihilation #5. They go to find the others...

pg5:2-5:5
"Spire sub-basement"

...as Mantis telepathically contacts Rocket in the sub-basement, saying they need a new plan.

pg6-10
"Edge of the Terma system, Kree outworlds" [to Hala]

Phyla: "You blew up a star."
The HE: "It was the only way to be sure."

Adam, Phyla & the HE got out safely in one of Adam's bubbles, and the HE thinks they got Ultron. He directs them to the manufacturing plant the SI was setting up for him on Hala.

Meanwhile, Phyla's depressed at Moondragon's death, and depowered since she used the last of her energy on her mad charge at Ultron. Adam comments that the q-bands' jewels remind him of his Soul Gem, a minute before he has another seizure, triggered (according to the HE) by the proximity of the Babel Spire and the "lost souls" which power it. Despite the HE's confidence in Adam, the sphere fails in Hala's upper atmosphere, as Phyla yells that she "can't fly".

pg11-14
"The Kree Imperial Palace, Kree-Lar, ceded territories"

Ra-Venn and Super-Skrull block the throne-entrance Ronan went down, while the others - including Ravenous - go down into the basement to find 15000 Kree Sentries. Ronan plans to use Praxagora & Wraith's powers to prevent them from being taken over by the Phalanx like the ones in the Prologue.... and then use them to Annihilate Hala.

pg15-16
"Babel Spire, Hala"

Ultron begins to get frustrated at his lack of progress, as Mantis sees in his "memory stacks" that Earth is next... just as Ultron "sees" that it's her that is protecting Quill. Daystar confronts Mantis and Bug, as Ultron pops out finger-blades and decides that some physical duress is called for after all...

pg17-22
"Two miles over Hala" [to surface, to bunker]

Adam pulls himself together and catches Phyla, assuming the HE can take care of himself. When they land, he instinctively tracks where the HE landed, and - when he confesses he doesn't really understand his new powers - Phyla notes they seem to resemble magic.

As they move, they're confronted by four Phalanx Seekers. After they despatch them, and Phyla moans about her broken sword despite Adam's reassurance, calling herself a "joke", he turns and says perhaps she IS a joke then, since it's all about "poor little her". When she says he was acting "the same way just hours ago", he admits it, but says that, after feeling the "raw agony of the lost Kree souls", he's going to "rid this world of Phalanx or die trying. How about you?" After she says she's with him, "for all the good [she]'ll be", he switches back to saying her father would be proud, and opens the door to the HE's bunker.

Inside, however, the HE's been got to by the Phalanx - and zaps Adam.

Goofs:
The HE calls Phyla "Phylla-Vell".

Phyla can't fly here without functioning Q-bands, but she was flying around freely under her own power in ANNCONQ:Q 4 under similar circumstances.

Calendar notes:
It's been "just hours" since Adam was rehatched and had his self-pity fits.

Timeframe:
Same day.

______________________

ANNIHILATION: CONQUEST #5 (May 2008)
Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (hereafter "DnA")
Art: Tom Raney
"In the Flesh"

Opening FB (pg 1)

Cast:
GOLIATH/HENRY PYM
IRON MAN/TONY STARK
ULTRON

"Earth, years ago"

Pym, in the red version of his Goliath costume (mask down, wearing a pair of goggles), reactivates Ultron's severed head with Iron Man looking on. He wants to know why Ultron attacked the Avengers - it's not what he programmed him to do. Ultron, claiming "or-ganic life is un-satisfactory... ar-tificial design is purity," manipulates the leads to try and strangle Pym as Iron Man raises his repulsors... [FB cuts off].

Second FB (on viewscreen only)

Cast:
"Mighty Avengers"

Repeated material from MA.

Third FB (pg 4)

Cast:
ULTRON
Phalanx, become Phalanx Scientists

"Unidentified
planet, beyond the limits of the Kree Empire, One month ago"

A Babel Spire picked up the banished Ultron's sentience, and uses their lack of focus to remake them as his servants, and the Phalanx interrogating him into Phalanx Scientists.

Fourth FB (pg11-13:4 + viewscreens on 13:5)
Cast:
KORATH THE PURSUER/KORATH-THAK
ULTRON
Phalanx soldiers
Kree soldiers
Spaceknights BTS

pg11
"Kree colony world Khan-Lar, three weeks ago"

Korath, investigating a destroyed colony with a squadron of Kree soldiers, runs into Ultron and a bunch of Phalanx Soldiers. Ultron claims Korath will be his first Select.

pg12-13:4 (+two bg screens in 13:5)
[The Kree ship]
As they break orbit, Ultron explains to Select Korath what he's been "selected for" - he means to give the Phalanx the ability to function with autonomy, and "capable individuals", their minds reprogrammed for Phalanx loyalty but with a degree of freedom within that, will help lead them.

Asking Korath why he was in the region, it was to meet the High Evolutionary - until Ultron's attack forced them to divert. Ultron's is interested by the possibilities of organic evolution by design rather than chance, and orders Korath to find the HE, who had gone into hiding during the Annihilation War.

One of the Kree grunts says they've received a signal from the Space Knight Restitution Initiative, asking if they can help with Khan-Lar. Ultron says... yes...

Main story:

Cast:
ADAM WARLOCK'S BODY (see precedent of "PROFESSOR X'S BODY" from when Cassa Nova was in charge of it)
BUG [KALIKLAK]
DAYSTAR [GALADORIAN] (dies)
GROOT [FLORA COLOSSUS]
HIGH EVOLUTIONARY
MANTIS/? BRANDT [HUMAN/PLANT HYBRID]
PRAXAGORA
QUASAR IV/PHYLA-VELL [TITAN/KREE]
RAVENOUS
ROCKET RACCOON
RONAN THE ACCUSER [KREE]
STAR-LORD/PETER JASON QUILL
ULTRON (in Adam Warlock's body)
WRAITH/ZAK-DEL [KREE/EXOLON]

Other characters:
various Phalanx Scientists
various Phalanx Soldiers


Summary:

pg2 & 4-5
"Secret Lab Complex, Hala, Now..."

The High Evolutionary views some random "key experiences" from Ultron's life on the viewscreen. Starting with the first FB, he sees how Ultron was banished, then demands to see "how Ultron and the Phalanx became conjoined," claiming it "may be crucial to the success of the transfer."

Meanwhile, Phyla is loudly complaining in the background the whole way. The HE says he had to co-operate or face assimilation, and "the High Evolutionary will not be tainted in such a fashion." Besides, he didn't kill Adam... and points out Ultron, in a half-cocoon, wired up to Adam's cocoon...

pg6-7
"The Babel Spire, Hala"

Bug puts his staff through Daystar ineffectively, and is being choked until Rocket shows up and blasts Daystar's head off. He claims he and Groot have "come up with a doozy" of a backup plan, and, as they go to grab Quill, he says Groot needs Mantis to do something...

pg8-10
"Kree Imperial Palace, Kree-Lar, ceded territories"

Ronan activates the Sentries, obliterating the Phalanx on Kree-Lar as a demo before sending them to Hala to obliterate the planet. He demands a "fast ship" from Ravenous to "witness what I have wrought."

pg13:5
[Lab Complex]

The High Evolutionary views the Selection of Korath, and how the HE had been "played every step of the way".

A Phalanx Scientist reports "the transfer is almost complete".

pg14-18
[Babel Spire]

Rocket and co. demonstrate "how [they] do things in the Raccooniverse" to the Phalanx standing over Star-Lord. They carry him out, and Rocket explains the plan - Groot's grown to fill a big chunk of the Spire, and Mantis is going to set him on fire (it's his idea, and Rocket took a cutting to regrow him later).

They reach a balcony, Mantis sets Groot aflame, and they take a short jump from a great height...

pg19-22
[Lab Complex]

The transfer is complete, and Adam Warlock's cocoon bursts open... to reveal Ultron in his body. He casually blasts Phyla unconscious, and explains that he likes designed organic "mechanisms". Ultron says he'll let the HE go as promised... once he's created an army of Adam Warlocks for the Phalanx to all use...

Continuity notes:
I'm not sure exactly when the first flashback, with Goliath, Iron Man & Ultron, is supposed to take place as I can't find my reprints of those issues. Pym's in his red & blue Goliath suit, and Iron Man's in his classic armour.

Timeframe:
Still the same day.

I'll post #6 the post after next. But first...