Fantastic Four Poster #67 vs Annihilus by Michael Ryan Susan Reed Richards

Description

Annihilus is a supervillain in Marvel Comics’ Marvel Universe. The character first appears in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Many years ago, a race of beings known as the Tyannans travelled the cosmos, seeding planets with life-giving spores. During a mission in the Negative Zone to give it life, one of their ships suffered a freak collision from a meteor, causing it to crash-land on the nearby world of Arthoros. Before perishing, the crew of said vessel released their carried spores onto the surface of the planet. Years later, a descendant of one of these spores, a weak insectoid grew to exist among the created lifeforms. Instead of embracing its surroundings and fellow fauna however, the creature grew to be paranoid and aggressive, valuing its survival above all other things due to the overall harshness of Arthoros’s volcanic environment. Eventually, the creature that came to be known as Annihilus, discovered the wreckage of the Tyannan vessel and (thanks to a mutation in the spores that granted it intelligence) was quick to master the technology that lay before it and eventually used said power to dominate and subjugate all other life on Arthoros, as well as threaten the other life-sewn worlds of the Negative Zone with invasion or outright obliteration.

Annihilus is capable of self-propelled flight and can withstand the vacuum of space. He wears “armor”—actually an insectoid exoskeleton with some armored components—that grants him resistance to most forms of injury (extreme temperatures, ballistic force, bullets, etc.) He is also superhumanly strong.

Annihilus wields the Cosmic Control Rod, a weapon of great power. It allows him to manipulate cosmic energy in order to manipulate the molecular structure of matter. The rod is capable of projecting vast amounts of destructive energy and concussive force. Continuous exposure to the cosmic energies of the rod has also retarded the aging process of its wielder, making Annihilus virtually immortal. Though not always engaging himself in direct combat, Annihilus has proved to be a formidable opponent, and was able to defeat the Thing, Thor, Nova Prime, Quasar, and Blastaar in individual fights with relative ease. Annihilus also sometimes wields energy pistols based on Tyannan technology that he has modified.

In Annihilation: Nova, Annihilus killed Quasar, and gained his Quantum Bands, adding to Annihilus’s power. By using these in combination with most of his stored power reserves Annihilus was able to withstand a massive blast from Galactus in the Annihilation series. While the blast destroyed his entire army, along with several solar systems, Annihilus was able to survive.

Michael Ryan is a comic book artist, famously known for being attached solely to Marvel Comics. In 2004, Marvel Comics signed a three-year contract with Ryan, whose first work was New X-Men: Academy X with Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir. Marvel’s editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada, later said, “Michael shouldn’t be so humble about his art. Marvel recognized his talent, as have the fans, and it rocks. We don’t want him anywhere else but here!”. Ryan later became publicly known for his brief tenure on the Marvel Comics’ award-winning series, Runaways with the writer Joss Whedon. He and Sara Pichelli pencilled X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 in 2008. He also briefly drew the Mystique mini-series, as well as the New Excalibur series with the writer Chris Claremont.

Near mint condition.