Marvel Comics Review: Annihilation 2099 #2

Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Jose Luis
Inker: Iren Junior
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Cover Artist: Nick Bradshaw & Rachelle Rosenberg

Editor’s Note: Timelord regularly reviewed the 2007 “Nova” and 2008 “Guardians of the Galaxy” series with his reviews directly sent to the books’ editors and creators. Timelord’s reviews have been quoted by Marvel in cover blurbs, press reviews, and solicits.

Warning: Contains some spoilers.

Issue #2 of Annihilation 2099 (read the Nova review here) poses the question, “Wouldn’t it be great if we appropriate the names of two cosmic heroes used in Giffen’s original Annhilation mini-series, gender/race swap one of them, and turn the other into a villain who bears no real resemblance to his namesake?” It turns out that the answer to the question is, un-surprisingly, “FARK NO!”

The best thing about this issue was Luis’ art and Prianto’s colors. Luis’ has a penchant for cosmic. My bias for cosmic art is on the photo-realistic side and Luis delivers. Starlord 2099 is tough, smart, sexy, commanding, beautiful – and each of his renderings of her perfectly captures those qualities. The action sequences are vibrant – popping off the page with the energy provided by Prianto’s perfect color choices. Her costume is eye-catching and will be remembered long after this otherwise forgettable character is forgotten. My only criticism is that her hair is left hanging outside her helmet. While that detail totally works in terms of sex appeal, I was left wondering how it didn’t freeze or burn off in the battle sequences where it is exposed to the harsh conditions of space. Bradshaw and Rosenberg delivered fantastic cover art, crackling with enough energy to make the issue a tempting buy for a cosmic fan.

Though it may not be politically correct by today’s standards, in the olden days I un-apologetically was (and still am) a fan of the “Bad Girl” characters. Starlord 2099 was written with barely enough of those qualities to initially pique my interest, but ended up falling short. Orlando wrote her as too heroic and with muddled motivations for the heroism – obliquely explained in passing as stemming from childhood trauma.

If you’re going to appropriate the Star-Lord title, you also need to appropriate the attitude. Classic Englehart Star-Lord was anti-heroic to the point of being nearly un-likeable. Englehart, Giffen, and finally, Abnett & Lanning, naturally, through life-experiences, evolved him into a likeable Han Solo-ish character – maintaining enough of the anti-heroic characteristics to make him interesting and un-predictable.

Orlando’s Starlord 2099 is standard female super-hero stock and could easily be interchanged with just about every other classic female super-hero. That’s why she’s forgettable. I really wanted to like her – and I almost did, but the title appropriation without the qualities that make Star-Lord Star-Lord left me underwhelmed. It would have been better if Orlando had used an aged Peter Quill for the Star-Lord character or had just used this female character with a name other than Starlord. As it is, it comes across as just another attempt to pander (to the very few fans who demand such) by race and gender swapping a beloved cosmic character.

The appropriation of the Quasar title for the villain in the story is mind-bogglingly bizarre. Quasar 2099 is truly bait-and-switch as Quasar 2099 has NOTHING to do with the legendary Wendell Vaughn Quasar or the Quasar mythos. I simply don’t understand why the Quasar logo and title were even used. Quasar fans have been even more brutalized than Nova fans by Marvel Editors’ relentless demographic swapping. Marvel Editors have made mis-guided, tone-deaf, and outright boneheaded attempt after mis-guided, tone-deaf, and outright boneheaded attempt to race and gender swap Wendell Vaughn’s legendary Quasar character – first with a half-Kree female character and later with a human female character. Nobody wanted that. And nobody wants to be teased with the REAL Wendell Vaughn Quasar possibly showing up in 2099 as the logo suggests; only to find that it is purely name/logo appropriation and nothing more.

Marvel Editors – let me make it simple by using a Star Wars example. What the fans really wanted for the sequels was a Luke, Leia, Han, and Vader reunion – not Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo as weak substitutions for the originals. It’s the same for Marvel Cosmic characters. Fans want to read stories that use the classic characters that made the characters legendary – not gender/race/etc.-swapped characters appropriating the titles/powers of the classic characters. The swapping insults us. It says our classic heroes weren’t good enough because of their demographics. The point and truth is that our classic heroes were great and legendary irrespective of their demograhics. So, for farks sake Marvel Editors, knock off the swapping. Create totally new characters with the demographics you want to represent if you really think there is a purchasing audience salivating for that. Leave the classic characters intact with their original demographics.

The second short (literally one page) story in this issue concerns Dracula in the process of crash-landing on a planet that is apparently under Starlord 2099’s protection.

With Nova 2099 and Starlord 2099 both now heading for confrontations with Dracula, I suppose Dracula is going to be the big bad in this Annihilation series. That seems a strange choice to me. I think the Exo-Parasites would have been the better choice.