Review: Annihilation: Conquest Book 1

Quick Summary

Pros: The collection, as a whole, succeeds in building excitement for the main Conquest event. The Star-Lord storyline is full of suspense and has a ton of great character interactions. The Quasar storyline is a surprisingly fun mix between sci-fi and fantasy. The artwork looks good overall.

Cons: The conclusion to the Star-Lord story isn’t that great. A subplot in the Quasar story is a bit distracting.

Overall: A couple of diverse and entertaining stories provide an exciting start to a new cosmic event. Here, readers get to see a new threat attack a universe that is only just recovering from the last galactic war. The initial insurgency against this threat is shown through a comedic and suspenseful trip with Peter Quill and a dramatic and emotional trip with Quasar. This creates a narrative that is entertaining overall and will be great for anyone who enjoyed the previous cosmic event.

Story

Annihilation: Conquest Book 1 sets up the Annihilation: Conquest event by detailing two entertainingly diverse stories of opposition against an incredibly powerful invasion force. The first is a humorous stealth mission with Peter Quill and a rag-tag group of former prisoners. The second is a satisfying blend of medieval fantasy and cosmic adventure. Both stories end up being fun reads and work well as preludes to the larger battle that is to come. There are a few points where the storytelling stumbles but, overall, this is a solid collection of comics.

For more information check out our Annihilation: Conquest Reading Order.

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Conquest opens up with a prologue that helps transition the Marvel Cosmic Universe from the conclusion of Annihilation to the beginning of this new event. This prologue is exciting and instantly throws the universe’s heroes against an enemy that is already very intimidating. It set the heroes up as underdogs, a theme that the collection will come back to a number of times, for some very satisfying results. All in all, this prologue does exactly what it needs to do, set up the narrative and build excitement for everything that comes next.

From here, the collection transitions to the StarLord miniseries, written by Keith Giffen. This story is centered around a stealth mission that has the heroes in the heart of enemy territory. By setting up the story in this way, it constantly feels as if the characters are on the verge of defeat, as they are always surrounded by enemies. In addition, Giffen demonstrates early on that these characters can be killed, so readers are unsure who will actually survive this mission. All of this fills the adventure with an awesome level of tension and suspense. The only place this storyline stumbles is at the conclusion, where the team’s victory feels less exciting than one would have hoped.

This portion of Conquest also benefits from the awesome cast of characters that drive the plot forward. Each of these misfits adds something to the group dynamic. This allows for some humorous exchanges and creates some genuinely charming characters. Just watching these characters interact is an awesome part of this storyline and one of the highlights in this collection.

The second miniseries, by Christos N. Gage, ditches the comedic undertones in favor of enchanting fantasy and personal development. This is a story that involves swords, magic, ancient monks, a chosen one, and a fire-breathing dragon, yet it is set entirely in space. In many ways, it feels like a weird blend between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, which ends up working surprisingly well. Plus, Quasar’s struggle with legacy adds a personal element to the mix that keeps things interesting outside of the action. The only place this storyline struggles is in the subplot about Annihilus’ influence, which feels like a distraction from everything else going on. Overall though, this is still an entertaining adventure.

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Art

Annihilation: Conquest starts out with a good looking chapter by Mike Perkins. This prologue chapter is detailed and realistic in a way that emphasizes the serious nature of this story. It allows the devastation seen here to have more of an impact and positively improves the reading experience.

From here, Timothy Green II takes over for a stylized take on Star-Lord’s adventure. This particular art style suits the quirky nature of the characters much better than a more realistic approach. This allows them to be a bit outlandish and violent without allowing the tone of the story to get overly serious. It also helps that the character designs look great for every character here.

The book closes with a few final chapters penciled by Mike Lilly. Once again, the introduction of a new artist allows the collection to better emphasize the specific themes found in a specific storyline. In this case, Lilly’s work allows the fantasy elements of the Quazar story to really come into their own. His work in depicting the mystical elements of the cosmos work out well here, especially when it comes to Moondragon’s character. This gives a nice looking conclusion to an overall good looking book.

Continuity

Annihilation: Conquest Book 1 is the beginning of a new event. However, this new event immediately follows the Annihilation (Reading Order) event, which ended in Annihilation Book 2. Conquest references the events of Annihilation a number of times.

For more information check out our Annihilation: Conquest Reading Order.

The story here continues in Annihilation: Conquest Book 2 (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• Star-Lord references a ship he used to know. This is a reference to the sentient ship he traveled with in Star-Lord #1-3, now collected in Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy (Review).
• Star Lord’s origin story is brought up. This story comes from Marvel Preview #4 and is collected in Star-Lord: Guardian of the Galaxy (Review).
• Star-Lord’s encounters with the Fallen One are detailed in issues #11-12 of Thanos Vol. 1. These issues are collected in Thanos: Redemption.
• Genis-Vell’s death is brought up. This occurred in Thunderbolts #100.
• Moondragon mentions her past relationship with the previous Quasar. Their adventures together extend through issues #11-29 of Quasar, most of which are collected in Quasar: Cosmos In Collision.
• Moondragon’s death and return to life are also mentioned. Moondragon died in Defenders #152 and returned to life in Solo Avengers #16 and #18.