Preludes
Drax The Destroyer: Earth Fall
In this series, by Keith Giffen and Mitch Breitweiser, Drax is seen on a ship with Paibok, Lunatik, and the Blood Brothers. They are to be transported to an intergalactic prison, but the ship crashes on Earth under mysterious circumstances.
Drax attacks the others to keep them from harming innocent lives. When he is seemingly killed by Paibok, a new body emerges from the remains, appearing to have lost some of his strength and resilience, as well as his ability to fly and shoot energy blasts.
However, his intellect has returned to its original level, and he has taken a liking to using knives in battle. He also takes the role of protector of a young Alaskan girl named Cammi whom he seems determined to protect at all costs. This Drax with a new body defeats his fellow prisoners. The mini-series ends with Drax and Cammi back on a prison ship.
Annihilation: Prologue
The prologue to the Annihilation event, written by Keith Giffen with art by Scott Kolins, depicts Thanos of Titan at the edge of the universe and his conversation with Death, who reveals that "Something Wonderful" is about to happen.
Death appears to be referring to the coming of a massive insectoid military force (the Annihilation Wave) through the expanding edge of the universe known as "The Crunch," which immediately sets to the destruction of the Kyln structures — artificial moons that serve as both galaxy-wide power generators and a death-row prison *— that orbit the Crunch. The emergence of this force and the destruction of the Kyln are referred to in captions as "Annihilation Day."
The Annihilation Wave cuts a swath to the planet of Xandar, where it quickly destroys the planet's surface and wipes out all of the Nova Corps, leaving Richard Rider as the organization's only survivor.
The Prologue also shows the arrest of the Kree Ronan the Accuser in the midst of his duties; the Silver Surfer's realization of something being amiss; and the Super-Skrull in hiding on a Kree starbase. These segments serve as starting points for the four Annihilation mini-series.
On the one-shot's final page, the leader of the Annihilation Wave, and potentially the overall villain of the Annihilation story, is revealed to be Fantastic Four foe Annihilus.
Annihilation: Nova
Four days after the Annihilation Wave struck Xandar, Nova wakes up to find out he is the sole survivor. In an attempt to carry them both to safety, Nova allows Xandarian Worldmind to install both the entire Nova Force and the Worldmind itself within his body.
He saves two other survivors of the attack on Xandar, Drax the Destroyer and his companion, Cammi. After bringing the two refugees to Nycos Aristedes, Nova then agrees to assist Quasar in protecting the fleeing inhabitants of that planet.
After Nova uses his power to open a stargate large enough to accommodate the entire planet's population, he and Quasar battle the Annihilation Wave in an effort to buy time for the refugees. With the combination of the Nova Force and the Worldmind's calculating capability, Nova puts up a good fight, but realizes that he will eventually lose.
Over the continued objections of the Worldmind, which wishes to retreat to safety to ensure its own survival, Nova and Quasar accept Drax's advice to ignore the fleet and attack Annihilus personally. Annihilus easily defeats them, stealing Quasar's quantum bands and energy (which kills Quasar in the process). However, Annihilus is sabotaged by the Worldmind when he tries to consume the Nova Force, and his fleet begins destroying itself. Made furious by this, Annihilus withdraws while Nova flees.
With the evacuation fleet safely through the stargate, Nova and the Worldmind agree that, rather than delivering the Worldmind and Nova Force immediately to safety, the two of them will remain united to fight Annihilus. Nova reunites with Drax and Cammi, and asks Drax for lessons in how to destroy.
Annihilation: Silver Surfer
This series focuses primarily on an attempt by Annihilus to capture the current and former Heralds of Galactus, as well as Galactus himself. The Silver Surfer learns of the Annihilation Wave and of the attempt by Annihilus's Seekers to capture the various heralds. During the course of the four issues, the Seekers succeed in killing former herald Air-Walker and in capturing Terrax and Morg.
Although Terrax's fate is unrevealed, Annihilus kills Morg in an unsuccessful attempt to drain his power. Several of the other former heralds, Firelord, Red Shift, and Stardust, decide to fight a war against the Annihilation Wave, while the first herald, the Fallen One, carries out its own mission for Thanos.
Ultimately, the Surfer elects to return to Galactus as his herald in order to help protect Galactus from Annihilus' attacks and preserve Galactus's role as a necessary element in the balance of the universe. The Surfer easily defeats an entire attacking fleet, as well as the Seekers' leader, Ravenous; but despite Galactus' insistence, the Surfer refuses to kill Ravenous.
In a side plot, Galactus reveals that the Annihilation Wave's destruction of the Kyln may have freed two Galactus-level beings, Tenebrous and Aegis. Thanos, guided by Skreet, a fairy-like "chaos mite", and by Death herself, allies first with Annihilus, then with Tenebrous and Aegis.
Annihilation: Super Skrull
This series focuses on the attempts of the Super-Skrull Kl'rt to stop the Annihilation Wave from destroying the planet Zaragz'Na, where his son lives, and to come to terms with his own past and nature; though he is one of the Skrull Empire's most powerful and loyal defenders, his many failures have made him a pariah within the empire.
Ultimately, Kl'rt and a young Skrull engineer, R'Kin, travel to the Negative Zone in order to seek a method of stopping the Harvester of Sorrows, a planet-buster weapon, from destroying Zaragz'Na. In the Negative Zone, Kl'rt locates Hawal, the warden of a prison planet and designer of the Harvester, and tortures him into designing a virus that can destroy the Harvester and unites the planet's prisoners into an army.
As Kl'rt's fleet prepares to attack the Harvester, R'Kin volunteers to pilot the ship carrying the virus. Although Kl'rt's fleet fights bravely in order to create a diversion, the virus ship never appears. Disillusioned by the Super-Skrull's savage tactics and resentful over his own father's death in one of Kl'rt's earlier campaigns, R'Kin sells out Kl'rt to the Annihilation Wave, turning the virus over to Annihilus's forces unused. Kl'rt, along with Praxagora and Preak (2 allies liberated from the prison) are captured, and Zaragz'Na is destroyed.
As R'Kin and the Harvester's commanders mock the captives, the Super-Skrull uses his rarely employed power of hypnosis to force R'Kin to free the three captives. Preak sacrifices himself holding off pursuers, while Praxagora heads to the center of the Harvester, planning to destroy the weapon at the cost of her own life.
Kl'rt captures R'Kin, who tries to bargain for his own life by proposing that the two of them escape from the ship, allow Praxagora to destroy it, then claim credit with the empire as heroes. Instead, the Super-Skrull traps R'Kin, leaving his limbless torso in a ship to die.
In the ship's core, Kl'rt decides that he will not sacrifice any more people for his cause. He absorbs Praxagora's near-infinite release of energy himself, allowing her time to escape the ship, then releases the energy, destroying the Harvester.
The series ends twenty years after the attack of the Annihilation Wave. In the epilogue, Praxagora is telling Kl'rt's story to a group of young Skrulls and explains that by making his sacrifice to destroy the Harvester of Sorrows, Kl'rt finally had become what he had always wanted to be: a hero.
Annihilation: Ronan
On the run from Kree authorities since his trial, Ronan the Accuser seeks those who testified against him. His travels lead him to Godthab Omega, in search of Tana Nile, a witness in his case.
Ronan lands on Godthab Omega, where he finds an encampment of exiled Kree, including his old friend Korath, and learns that Tana Nile has joined the Graces, a group of cosmicly powered women led by Gamora. After defeating Nebula and Stellaris, Ronan ends up in battle against Gamora herself, who now possesses the power cosmic. However, in truth their conflict, as well as several others, are actually caused by the manipulation of Glorian, who is using the energy from their battles to attempt to reshape the world.
Just as Glorian's plan approaches completion, the Annihilation Wave attacks Godthab Omega. Ronan, Korath, Gamora, and Glorian all battle Annihilus's forces, while Tana Nile is killed in the battle, preventing Ronan from proving his innocence. Undeterred, Ronan resolves to return to the Kree, violating his exile to warn them of the coming danger.
Annihilation mini-series
205 days after Annihilation Day, Richard Rider has formed an army, the United Front, to oppose the Annihilation Wave. His land-based army includes Drax, Gamora, Ronan the Accuser and Peter Quill, while his outerspace forces consist primarily of Firelord, Red Shift and Stardust. As Rider's ground troops attempt to retreat under crushing odds, Firelord attacks the enemy command ship, capturing their Queen and causing the enemy forces to collapse in confusion, at the possible cost of his own life. After inspecting Firelord's comatose body, Rider and Quill question the Queen, who reveals that while the United Front forces fought the Annihilation Wave, Thanos, Tenebrous and Aegis had already attacked Galactus and the Silver Surfer, defeating them both. Believing the Power Cosmic to be within his grasp, Annihilus orders his troops to kill the remaining former Heralds of Galactus.
Thanos kidnaps Moondragon and rips off her ear, which he sends to Drax to warn him that her fate is in his hands. Drax believes that Thanos wants him to stay away or he will kill Moondragon. Drax resolves to kill Thanos. Nova fights Ravenous, who returns with a series of others under his control. Annihilus presses Thanos for the result on how the power cosmic can be used biologically, which he will apparently use on Galactus, the Silver Surfer and Morg. Thanos tells him that he will have the answer soon.
Nova and his allies battle the forces of Annihilus. During the conflict a huge energy spike restores the deceased Super-Skrull Kl'rt to his full power. In the aftermath of the battle Nova sends out a warning to the heroes of Earth about the cosmic conflict. Drax stays behind the battle lines as he tries to head towards the forces of Thanos to complete his mission once and for all.
Moondragon confronts Thanos, who reveals that he helped Annihilus merely to sate his curiosity as to how everything would play out in the end. However, it soon becomes apparent to Thanos that for once he himself has been played for a fool. Annihilus, feigning ignorance of the principles behind Thanos's Power-Cosmic-draining technology, has instead secretly reverse-engineered and reconfigured the massive device into a Galactus-Bomb. If detonated, this will set off a chain reaction that will destroy the universe. Drax forces his way onto the Annihliation Wave ship on which Galactus is imprisoned/harnessed and where Thanos is attempting to activate a failsafe he had himself previously built into the device for just such a contingency.
Unfortunately for Thanos, his fail-safe is constructed in such a way that he cannot disengage from it once activated, nor can he stop or pause the process once begun. Drax locates and confronts the nearly helpless Thanos and punches straight through Thanos's body, tearing his heart from his chest, as the child Death watches.
Drax is now free of the "madness" that has gripped him up until the moment that he successfully killed Thanos, and his daughter Moondragon is at last able to reason with him and inform him of the impending activation of the Galactus-Bomb; together they try to free Galactus themselves.
In the meantime, Ronan the Accuser and a small band of allies arrive on the homeworld of Kree House Fiyero (the de facto ruler of the Kree Empire during the absence of the missing Supreme Intelligence). In the course of battle, it is quickly revealed that House Fiyero sold out to Ravenous and Annihilus; because of this, the Kree Empire did not field nearly as many troops against the Wave as would normally have been expected. Ronan almost single-handedly defeats the Royal Guard of House Fiyero and a small army of Ravenous' minions. After passing judgement on the ministers of House Fiyero, Ronan discovers that the ministers were in fact responsible for the Supreme Intelligence's disappearance, and lobotomized it against its will.
Upon seeing this horror, Ronan puts the Supremor out of its misery. He emerges from the citadel to a massive throng of Kree, who unanimously call on him to become their new emperor.
Back on board the Annihilation ship, Drax uses Silver Surfer's Power Cosmic to fool Thanos' safeguards and frees the Surfer, who in turns frees Galactus. Drax and Moondragon are teleported by Galactus to one of the Kree worlds out of harm's way as Galactus proceeds to decimate the Annihilation Wave with the full onslaught of his power. Silver Surfer is sent ahead by Galactus to herald the imminent destruction, which easily vaporizes a Watcher as the unleashed "Galactus obliteration perimeter" wipes out at least three star systems in the process.
Nova, Peter Quill and Phyla-Vell have teleported close to Annihilus' flagship and are preparing to make the last jump when Galactus' energy wave arrives. Annihilus, finding that he has been betrayed by Thanos and undone by Galactus, uses Quasar's quantum bands to protect himself from the energy blast.
On the Kree homeworld of Hala, Ravenous' forces begin to attack from the atmosphere, and are met in quick violent battle by the Kree; led by Ronan, entire building complexes are rocket propelled at Ravenous' forces and decimate the Annihilation forces.
Annihilus emerges from the wreckage of his flagship as Galactus leaves. Nova arrives, having survived Galactus' energy wave as well as encasing Peter Quill and Phyla-Vell in an energy bubble. Nova and Annihilus fight. Phyla-Vell forces her way out of the bubble as Annihilus overwhelms Nova. Annihilus throws her aside, but the quantum bands abandon him and join with Phyla-Vell. Using this momentary distraction, Nova surmises that the gap in Annihilus' armor is his mouth, forcing his hand down Annihilus' throat and tearing out his insides. Both Annihilus and Nova slump to the ground as Nova looks up to see the veiled figures of Thanos and Lady Death looking over him and smiling. Nova tells them, "Better luck next time."
The remainder of the story is a summary by Nova to his Nova Corps verbal log explaining the series of events that followed after Galactus was freed and Annihilus was destroyed:
Nova recovers from his injuries and is offered honorary Kree status by Ronan, but debates on his future and wonders if he should return home to Earth.
Ravenous sued for peace after the destruction of the Annihilation Wave.
A treaty between his forces and the Kree was signed with Ravenous that ceded certain Kree territories and all of the former Skrull Empire in order to end the hostilities.
The Silver Surfer returned to Galactus' side, with Galactus' appetite apparently bigger then ever.
Firelord begins hunting down the remaining Centurions in a quest to avenge Xandar's destruction and the deaths of his fellow heralds.
Super-Skrull, Praxagora and Drax have all disappeared.
Phyla-Vell has begun debating on picking up where Quasar left off.
Cammi is last seen with Skreet on her shoulder.
On Kree-Lar, former capital of the Kree Empire and now seat of the territories ceded to the Annihilation Wave, Ravenous oversees a birthing by one of Annihilus' Queens: a reborn Annihilus.
Casualties
Quasar (killed by Annihilus)
Thanos (killed by Drax)
Annihilus (killed by Nova)
Super-Skrull (sacrificed his life to destroy the Harvestor of Sorrows, returned)
Supreme Intelligence (killed by Ronan after being lobotomized by House Fiyero)
Nova Corps (destroyed, along with the entire planet of Xandar, by the Annihilation Wave)
Eradica (killed by Drax)
Stellaris (killed by Ronan)
Tana Nile (victim of Annihilation Wave)
House Fiyero (executed by Ronan the Accuser)
Stardust (presumed lost in combat with the Annihilation Wave, reformed himself in Heralds of Galactus #1)
Morg (killed by Annihilus)
Red Shift (presumed lost in combat with the Annihilation Wave)
Air-Walker (destroyed by Ravenous and his currs)
R'Kin (killed by Super Skrull)
Preak (killed by Annihilation Wave)
the Kyln (destroyed by the Annihilation Wave)
Extirpia (killed by Firelord)
