Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Well, maybe they'll turn up for the next Annihilation sequel.

Some of the teasers for Annihilation: Conquest promised the return of alien bad guys from 90's X-Men stories. It turns out to be the Borg...ow, cheap shot. No, it's the Phalanx, Marvel's mutant Borg. See the difference? They're OK bad guys, serviceable enough, I guess; but I was really really hoping for these guys:
Do you have a moment to talk about Godlessness? Would you like a pamphlet? Have you accepted that this is a cold, unfeeling universe and you have no personal savior whatsoever?
The Uncreated only appeared a couple of times, and Warren Ellis used bits of their characterization elsewhere in Stormwatch and Planetary, but I really liked them. Cranky godless aliens. Think Bizarro Jehovah's Witnesses: where Witnesses are devout, harmless, and won't eat you; the Uncreated think God is stupid, and so are you if you believe.
Feeling inferior over God waving his superiority in their creepy faces, the Uncreated managed to kill their creator, or 'God.' They expected thanks from a grateful universe, but were cheesed to find other people still praying. Eh, still less scary than Scientology.
Where's our parade, man? Where's our 'mission accomplished'?
Looking at them now, the Uncreated seem more like Jehovah's Witnesses than I would've thought: Both are steadfast evangelicals, both are kind of chatty about it, both are experimented on by the British government...As usual, my conclusions are a bit wobbly, but there you go. I imagined the Uncreated as being charming and friendly alien monsters unless you get them started on the God thing, then it's kind of a drone.

From Excalibur #90, written by Warren Ellis, art by (deep breath) Ken Lashey, David Williams, Carlos Pacheco, Larry Stroman, Tom Wegryn, Mike Miller, and Cam Smith. That's how you get a double-sized issue out on time! Pretty sure we're looking at Pacheco's work on the scans. Also in this issue: Kitty doing her best Buffy impersonation, and Peter Wisdom's 80's hair. Scary.

For some reason lost to my memory, I had three copies of this in a box, although that goes a ways towards explaining the giant pile of Overpower cards my Oldest was playing with yesterday.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Of course God turned up later looking remarkably like Jack Kirby.

Those guys rreally must be kicking themselves about now.