However, please note that as so much has occurred in the cosmic universe at Marvel, we've tried our best to restrict the information contained here to basic summaries of events with a focus on those things most pertinent to War of Kings.
Reading Order: Annihilation -> Nova #1-12 -> Annihilation: Conquest -> Nova / Guardians of the Galaxy -> Secret Invasion -> War of Kings: Darkhawk -> War of Kings
Index
Summaries
- Annihilation
- Annihilation: Conquest
- Secret Invasion
- King Blastaar
- Return of the Nova Corps
- Darkhawk & Talon
- The Nova Corps
- Nova (Richard Rider)
- Xandarian Worldmind
- Guardians of the Galaxy
- Darkhawk
- Talon
- King Blastaar
Summaries
Annihilation
Annihilation: Conquest
Secret Invasion
King Blastaar
While Starlord eventually escaped, Blastaar remained in control of 42 and was last seen attempting to gain access to the portal to Earth, which can only be opened from the Baxter Building side of the portal. While Blastaar is slated to show up in War of Kings, it is unknown what his role will be.
Return of the Nova Corps
Furthermore, Worldmind has removed himself from Richard's mind, where he had been kept safe since the events of Annihilation, and taken up residence in the consiciousness of Ego, the Living Planet. To cap it off, when Nova refused to return the bulk of the Nova Force, Worldmind forcibly cut Richard off from the Nova Force and kicked him out of the Nova Corps.
Going into War of Kings, the new Nova Corps has been described as sacrificial lambs for the event and, seeing as Worldmind has deployed the corps to Kree space, it looks as if the rookie corps will be having difficulties quelling the war between the Kree and the Shi'ar.
As for Richard Rider, he should, based on future covers, make an appearance in War of Kings as the new Quasar. More than likely, he will be merging with the energy form of the recently returned original Quasar, Wendell Vaughn.
Darkhawk & Talon
Currently, the duo are set to continue their adventure in War of Kings: Ascension, which, according to solicits, takes place in the Negative Zone against "Annihilus' forces". Whether this is actually meant to be Blastaar's army or if Annihilus will return or if Talon and Darkhawk will end up teaming with Blastaar to fight back against Annihilus' forces remains to be seen.
Character Profiles
The Nova Corps
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During Annihilation, Annihilus' Annihilation Wave wiped out the Nova Corps and its homeworld, Xandar. The only survivor was Earth's Nova, Richard Rider, who managed to download the Worldmind into himself, along with the entirety of the Nova Force.
Nova (Richard Rider)
To help him with this deed, the Worldmind granted Richard the status of Nova Prime and, with it, the entirety of the Nova Force. This increased Richard's powers exponentially, effectively making him one of the most powerful beings in the universe.
However, in recent issues of Nova, the Worldmind revealed he had been creating a new Nova Corps without Richard's knowledge or consent and even went so far as to relocate himself into Ego, the Living Planet. When Richard refused to relinquish the bulk of the Nova Force, the Worldmind forcbly removed it from him and expelled him from the Nova Corps.
It was later revealed that Richard's body was mutated to help him use the Nova Force and that without it, he would die in 48 hours. The original Quasar, Wendell Vaughn, who had returned as an energy-based being, granted Richard the use of his Quantum Bands to help him track down the Worldmind, who left with his new Nova Corps for Kree space to stop the war betweent he Shi'ar and the Kree, and hopefully regain access to the Nova Force.
Xandarian Worldmind
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Recently, the Worldmind had been kept in Richard Rider's mind and helped coordinate his use of the Nova Force. Worldmind eventually shut down for repairs when it was damaged while trying to prevent the spread of the Phalanx techno-organic virus that had infected Richard during Annihilation: Conquest.
When the Worldmind finally returned during the recent Secret Invasion event, he was markedly different and more hostile towards Richard. It is speculated there could be outside influences causing this or the sentient computer could just be acting in its own best interests after Richard nearly wiped out centuries of Xandarian knowledge by neglecting his duty to find the Worldmind a safe home.
As such, the Worldmind struck a deal with Ego the Living Planet and relocated itself to be housed there and has renamed Ego as Nu-Xandar. Continuing with this, Worldmind went on a mass recruiting drive on Earth and has rebuilt the Nova Corps in a matter of days. However, it has been revealed that the Worldmind is manipulating its newest recruits by pumping them full of endorphins and other manipulative techniques to foster a much more obediant group of Novas than the rebellious Richard Rider.
Worldmind was last seen taking his new corps to Kree space in an attempt to put a stop to the war between the Kree and Shi'ar.
Guardians of the Galaxy
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The Guardians make their home on the space station Knowhere, which is located at the edge of the universe and is basically the head of a decapitated Celestial. They make use of advanced teleportation technology to make their way around the universe.
In regards to War of Kings, the team will be attempting to convince both sides in the war to put an end to the conflict before it tears the universe apart. There is also the recent issues of the series where Starlord had confronted King Blastaar in the Negative Zone. It is unknown if the team will confront him again in War of Kings, but Blastaar is scheduled to make an appearance, most likely in the War of Kings: Ascension miniseries.
Darkhawk
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Talon
King Blastaar
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Most recently, he somehow became king of the Negative Zone and forcibly enlisted the aid of Starlord to help him seize control of Prison 42, the prison for super powered people created during Civil War, in an attempt to gain access to the portal to Earth so that he could, again, attempt to conquer it.
While Starlord escaped, Blastaar still managed to take control of 42 and its portal only to find it was locked from the Earth side, which is located in the Fantastic Four headquarters. He was last seen attempting to find alternative means of opening the portal. King Blastaar is scheduled to appear in War of Kings, but his role in the grand scheme of things is unclear. More than likely, he will appear in the Negative Zone-based War of Kings: Ascension miniseries.
15 comments:
What about X-Men Kingbreaker? I'd think it's a pretty important part of War of Kings, particularly since there's so much focus on Vulcan and the Shiar side.
We have a Vulcan & Shi'ar dedicated post to cover all things related to his rise to power on Friday followed by the Inhumans and Kree related topics on Sunday. You can see the full primer post schedule here.
Man, I love that image of Nova ripping out Annihilus guts, shouting "THIS IS FOR THE NOVA CORPS". Totally awesome moment.
Great post. You just made me want to go read Annihilation again.
I'm probably going to wait to see what's in the War of Kings collections before I make any purchases, but this event is likely going to lead to me picking up every major thing that leads up to this event, maybe starting even as early as Deadly Genesis. I love the new cosmic stuff.
So Talon and Darkhawk are the only two survivors of this Darkhawk fraternity? Somebody forgot about Portal, currently the head of A.R.M.O.R., whose powers are also based on those Darkhawk amulets that were created by a group of alien scientists under the thumb of an alien mob-boss.
With an origin that bad, maybe Portal would be better off feeding himself to the Marvel Zombies. (Kidding!)
@Anonymous - The WoK: Darkhawk mini purposely ignores the alien space mobster stuff. I'm sure all 23 people that read those issues are terribly upset (j/k). I left it out of the primer since it seems they're ignoring/retconning it out and would warrant a full post itself to get the idea across only to tell people it doesnt matter anymore.
Awesome article, thank you.
i definitely forgot to ask this in the first column but is Silent War, still part of the Inhuman Continuity?
@Mike I - Glad you liked it. Be sure to check back on Friday and Sunday for the rest of the primer!
@Anonymous - It's in continuity. They're just being very liberal with the placement of it. They've also ignored the follow up to it with Black Bolt in jail / Maximus ruling at the end. but the distrust between Inhumans and Earth is pushed to the breaking point because of that mini and its a major factor in their decision to step up and claim their right as rulers of the Inhumans.
In regards to Darkhawk: is it "a powerful battlesuit" that Chris wears or does Chris actually swap places with a Darkhawk android that he controls (or has that been retconned out)?
@Anonymous - When I wrote this up, the Darkhawk miniseries prior to War of Kings made it appear they were ignoring most of the past continuity with the Darkhawk suit, so I just went with the simplified battle armour description to avoid having to explain some rather out there concepts about swappign places with the armour and controlling it from null space and such.
However, teh current Ascension mini makes it look like Abnett and Lanning might actually be bringing that past continuity in and everything up until now had been just Talon messing with Chris to gain his trust. We'll have to wait and see if they bring any of the past in or if it sticks with the 'new origin' for the Darkhawk suit.
Thanks for the Darkhawk info/reply.
Love the site & this primer. I've been out of the comic scene for a while now - just couldn't find anything good to get into. Being a bit of a completeist I was always upset when a great series would falter on story, art, swapping of creative teams, etc. In keeping track of the comics world I knew that DnA & crew were kicking butt with the new Marvel Cosmic Universe and thought of checking it out but would always loose track and forget. All the hype over WoK (and your great primer) is all this recovered junkie needed to get back into the scene or at least this small, inter-stellar, corner of it.
Keep up the good work.
An excellent primer there !!
However, I have some doubts in the Reading Order:
Annihilation -> Nova #1-12 -> Annihilation: Conquest -> Nova / Guardians of the Galaxy -> Secret Invasion -> War of Kings: Darkhawk -> War of Kings
I am not clear what does the "-> Nova / Guardians of the Galaxy -> Secret Invasion ->" sequence exactly means ?
Which issues of Nova / Guardians of the Galaxy ? the only ones related to secret invasion or any other ? and what about secret invasion ? entire event ?
@Salvatore - It just meant in general, all the issues from Nova and the then just beginning Guardians of the Galaxy title. Nova #1-12 came before Conquest, so those were the only numbers that at the time really needed mentioning.
For Secret Invasion, the King Blastaar section covers all you really need to know about it. In general, it's just a matter of knowing what went on with Prison 42 and the Negative Zone, how Blastaar was leading an army in the former prison and a general understanding of what happened in that event for why the Skrulls were no longer a part of the cosmic scene (Super Skrull was a big part in Annihilation and Skrulls took a beating from Annihilus's army, so just knowing they were off getting wiped out in Secret Invasion is enough really).
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