How Marvel's Annihilation Event Kickstarted Modern Comic Crossovers
In August 2006, Marvel Comics launched Annihilation, a six-issue limited series written by Keith Giffen with art by Andrea Di Vito and Laura Villari, that would change the scope and concept of «Marvel events» forever. When the tyrant of the Negative Zone, Annihilus, launches a massive invasion of the Positive Universe, millions of people are slaughtered across the galaxy, and it's up to a group of relatively obscure heroes to stop him.
Annihilation started in an interesting place, moving Marvel's focus away from Earth. There had been previous crossovers that took place mostly in space or on other planets, such as The Kree-Skrull War or Operation: Galactic Storm, but they still had Earth at their center and usually involved the Avengers traveling to space to stop a threat to their planet. Annihilation, instead, stays far away from Earth, except for a very short prologue where Drax the Destroyer is killed and then reborn with a new form (the one modern Marvel fans are familiar with). The action then quickly moves to Xandar, the planet of the Nova Corps, which is destroyed by the Annihilation Wave, leaving Richard Rider as the only survivor and sole possessor of the Nova Force. Richard and Drax travel the universe and find unlikely allies in Gamora, Ronan the Accuser, the Super Skrull, and finally Peter Quill, Starlord, who got his first major breakthrough as a character in this event.
Related: The X-Men Have Unleashed Marvel's Last Annihilation
Marvel was not new to space sagas, as many characters had their adventures set in the immensity of the cosmos. Silver Surfer and Adam Warlock are the two most famous «cosmic heroes», but their adventures had a visionary, often philosophic tone that is very distant from the gruesome
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