Annihilator (Legendary Comics) – Comic Series Review

Grant Morrison remains one of my top two favorite writers to dive into, whether it is a superhero comic or their own unleashed creator title unleashed on the world, such as Annihilator. In just six issues Annihilator takes the reader on quite a journey and introduces many of the typical reasons to read Morrison as it dumps wild and inventive ideas left and right.

Hollywood scripter Ray Spass is writing a movie. He sees it as the ultimate haunted house story, one set in space during a dystopian society. He is a severe alcoholic and drug abuser, but he doesn’t see it as an issue. His rough first draft of act one though isn’t winning him enough studio credit, as they see it all as underwhelming so far. Ray knows he’s just scratching the surface though, and what does studio know anyway? Too bad Ray’s trouble is money stress, woman stress, deadline stress, and all compacted by substance abuse.

The facts remain though; he is drowning in act one. His main fictional character living in his galactic spiral sits at the black hole named the Great Annihilator. This is Max Nomax, and he runs from the forces of Vada, who is looking to judge his guilt. Ray has his anti-hero, and his setting, and some backdrop… but he needs a story. As Ray begins to drink again, and let his focus and imagination go, his tale comes alive in his mind and he writes…

Then, our story comes alive in some insane ways. Honestly, as much as I’d like to discuss the plot, from here I will leave it vague. Annihilator covers an interesting take on screenwriting and smashes it into a Sci-Fi fever dream with touches of horror, comedy, romance (somehow), and with it all bound together by a top layer of psychological madness. Ray and his character Max and the created world inside his imagination find creative ways to interact and further each other’s’ stories, which itself is a fairly wild concept.

The characters are fairly layered and complex, especially the main group that get most of the page time. There are a few smaller ones that pop up briefly, but mostly the focus is on a core couple of characters and their few main relationships. The dialogue remains fresh and stylized to fit this tale of wild ramblings and large ideas. People familiar with Morrison know what they are getting, but those that have yet to read anything by this author can still have a really good time, especially if you just go along for the ride.

I am not even getting into most anything that makes this tale unique and memorable. Those details and plot twists are best discovered in the pages within, as opposed to even teased in a review. Suffice it to say, even the main plot concepts are decently spoiler-y, so the fun really is finding out what the hell is going on, and trying to guess what possibly could happen. I never can be successful with anticipating a Morrison story, and think that’s a lot of the enjoyment.