Cammi and the Avengers Arena

After the Marvel event Annihilation wraps up in 2007, the cosmic superheroes change drastically. Star-Lord teams up with Rocket Raccoon and Groot for the first time, bringing in Drax, Gamora, Phyla-Vell, and Adam Warlock less than a year later to form the Guardians of the Galaxy.  Ronan the Accuser briefly rules the Kree empire.  Nova rebuild the entire Nova Corps.  The Shi’ar go to war with the Kree and the Inhumans.  Lots of stuff.  But no Cammi.  She doesn’t show again until 2013.  We’ll first take a look at what she’s been up to in Avengers Arena #3, written by Dennis Hopeless and drawn by Kev Walker.

Quickly, let’s discuss Avengers Arena.  It’s Marvel’s Hunger Games.  Marvel’s Battle Royale.  The supervillain Arcade snags sixteen teenagers and forces them to fight each other to the death.  A simple premise, an always great concept, and an interesting way to bring back characters we thought had disappeared.  The roster includes Cammi, Darkhawk, five from Avengers Academy (Hazmat, Reptil, Mettle, Juston, and X-23), two Runaways (Nico and Chase), and seven brand new characters. Meet the new Cammi, definitely not the same as the old Cammi:

Yes, space has been good to the rude little girl we last knew.  Two years have past in the Marvel universe, our dear protagonist hitting puberty among space pirates and other outlaws.  What has Cammi accomplished in those formative preteen years?  Well, getting captured by SWORD for one, but it’s not as if we expected Cammi to run an outer space soup kitchen or anything.  Her father figure Drax has been too busy saving the galaxy and knifing bad guys to keep an eye on her.

Special Agent Abigail Brand of SWORD acts as Nick Fury for anything outside of Earth’s atmosphere. Brand is also Beast’s girlfriend, just so you know.  Want these two lovers’ back story?  Of course you do.  Anyway, y’see, Cammi doesn’t need Drax to continue on that path of her insane fearlessness.  She can finally defend herself beyond provoking Drax into stabbing whoever bothers her.  I’m just saying that while normal 13 year-old girls learn math and science at school, Cammi figured out that while in a gymnastic pose, she could steal fuel from an active, patrolling Sh’iar battleship.  The girl gets a slightly different education for her precious middle school years when she’s unsupervised.

The self-loathing runs deep in this girl.  That’s one of the requirements for a successful superhero.  For her further adventures as a child with a laser gun against twenty plus teenagers with superpowers, you can read the series.  Most importantly, she survives the ordeal, because we should think of Avengers Arena as the prequel to the next step in these PTSD-laced kids’ journey towards Avengers Undercover, the ongoing series she currently stars in.  Because what happens after a bunch of children have to murder each other?  Remember the reason Hank Pym gave for founding Avengers Academy in the first place: these students — all tortured by Norman Osborn during Dark Reign — were the most at risk of becoming supervillains.  No more Hank Pym now.  Let’s take a quick look at two scenes from Avengers Undercover #1 and #4, written by Hopeless and drawn by Walker.

Oh, on a happier note, Cammi receives a long-awaited reunion:

So where is she going with all her Avengers Arena buddies?  Well, I’m not going to tell you, but I will say that it rolls into a giant cluster of vengeance, bad decisions, and lose-lose situations.  Look, the kids are too young for the big time superhero teams, none of their school exist anymore, and the idealized adults expect these kids to go back to their normal lives doing normal things after they saw half of their peers die violently on Arcade’s island.  Arcade didn’t smother them with pillows — they all exploded or were hacked apart or blown away.  So as Avengers Undercover progresses past some vengeance, bad decisions, and lose-lose situations, there’s still one organization willing to take these kids in.  To teach them.  To provide for them.  To care for them.  That’s right: the Masters of Evil.

Three issues left until the series concludes.  But Cammi’ll be in my heart forever.

Cammi and Drax in space, Pt. 2

Our current favorite duo — Drax the Destroyer, an alien/human hybrid with unbeatable fighting skills, and Cammi, a 10 year-old with both above average intelligence and moral skepticism — get to fight in the Annihilation Wave war.  For those not in the know, Annihilus, the bug ruler of the Negative Zone bug dimension decides to conquer the galaxy with his bug army and whatever else Thanos gives him. It goes badly for our heroes.  But Nova Richard Rider leads the defense with the help of superheroes/villains such as Drax, Gamora, Star-Lord, Ronan the Accuser, Firelord, Red Shift, Stardust, and other minor characters I’ve never heard of.

Note: this all takes place before the Guardians of the Galaxy officially forms (the Star-Lord version of it anyway).  Another note: the Guardians of the Galaxy you loved so much in the theater this weekend formed in 2008.  This team has only been running around the universe for six years, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of them.  Oh yeah, and Cammi and Drax and stuff.  But first, war!

See Star-Lord?  He’s the cyborg with the robot eye.  He’s been through some tough times.  Anyway, like all good war literature, the vicious battle must be spread throughout moments of quiet reflection. The soldiers calmly eat and hang out in the makeshift camps before dawn breaks and the next battle begins.  I like to think of Cammi and Drax as friends and confidants, but both are so emotionally damaged that I think the push/pull relationship between the two is the closest they’ll get.

So why does Drax keep an eye on Cammi?  She’s resourceful, but totally useless in a fight.  Most likely, it comes down to Moondragon, Drax’s daughter.  Surprise: Drax isn’t a terribly good parent. Superheroes tend not to be (Batman, Wolverine, Cyclops, Hulk, Catwoman, etc.) with the whole lifestyle of fighting crime against dozens of psychopathic killers.   But like what Wolverine does with young X-Men girls, Cammi can give Drax a second chance to feel those feelings again and whatnot. Protect a child to make up for not protecting his own daughter.  Which brings me to this plot twist:

Okay, so maybe Drax isn’t Wolverine.  If the Destroyer has to choose between keeping his daughter alive and killing Thanos, the big purple guy drops dead every time.  And Cammi now has an ear to add to her collection of morbid alien mementos.  Moondragon’s capture means the end of Cammi and Drax’s friendship.  I mean, they’ll still stay buddies and all, but it’ll have to be long distance. Remember what Cammi figured out earlier: Drax isn’t fighting to save the galaxy from Annihilus, he’s using the army to get close to Thanos.  And so I present to you, the last time our two ever see each other.  Ever.  It’s amazing, and make sure you read Nova’s commentary.

So begins the battle of Drax versus hundreds of thousands of Annihilation Wave bugs.  Armed only with a pair of knives and abs too glamorous to hide behind a shirt, our hero selflessly sacrifices himself to protect Cammi, Nova and all his other friends.  That’s just what superheroes have to do, being selfless and sacrificing themselves and fighting the entire enemy force all by their lonesome. Y’know, except not.

Drax’s character developed by not developing at all.  He won, for one, which alone deserves a standing slow clap.  But like Cammi predicted and Nova got terribly wrong, Drax only stayed behind to break off from the military and sneak into Thanos’ ship.  No sacrifice, no selflessness, but totally fighting the entire bug army himself.

The war continues, but Cammi takes a backseat, as you can imagine from her inability to fight. But don’t worry, as she continues to be a pain in the butt for as long as the others can handle her.  She has a reputation to keep up.

I won’t spoil any of the last two and a half issues of the Annihilation series for you, but I will provide you with a bunch of teasers to make you angry you don’t own this comic yet.  Also, have you noticed just how grander the stakes are in outer space?  Sure, one of the burroughs of New York might be wiped out if the Avengers don’t hit Kang the Conquerer with a hammer enough times, but if our cosmic superheroes fail, the galaxy blows up.  Things get exciting.

When the fate of trillions of planets are at stake, even our dear Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, pitches in.  My friends, Cosmic Marvel rocks.  So what happens to Cammi?  We’ll cover her new Drax-less adventures on Wednesday.  Until then, all I can give you is foreboding and Cammi’s new ally: Thanos’ Chaos Mite fairy.

Cammi and Drax in space, Pt. 1

As we last left off our galaxy’s most wanted man and his companion, a mean 10 year-old child, the two of them had jettisoned into space for more adventures or whatnot.  And by adventures in space I mean caught up in the largest galaxy-wide war in recent history.  Luckily, Drax serves a perfect place in this ongoing conflict.  The brute who has murdered away across every solar system gets to act as a mentor-ish for the main character of the Annihilation event: Nova.  Also, a bunch of stabbing.  But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.  We’ll be taking a look today and Monday at the following:
Annihilation: Prologue one-shot, written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Scott Kolins & Ariel Olvetti
Annihilation: Nova #1-4, written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning and drawn by Kev Walker
Annihilation #1-6, written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Andrea DiVito

To start, let’s pick up exactly where we ended.  Like the very next scene in Cammi and Drax’s space arrest from the end of last time’s article.

A couple of things to take note.  Drax’s personality begins to really shine during this series.  Last time, we witnessed his triumphant return to the Marvel universe after an elongated absence.  Now we’ll see his essence being molded into the grumpy, violent Drax we adore.  Oh, and did I mention that a war’s about to start?  Annihilus (leader of the Negative Zone) and Thanos (former wielder of the Infinity Gauntlet) team up to wipe out the galaxy.  The Nova Corps — Marvel’s Green Lantern Corps — get to fight in the initial battle.  And by initial battle I mean genocidal ambush.

Drax and Cammi, though vital to the story, take a backseat role to the sole surviving Nova, Richard Rider. It’s understandable, considering the Annihilation: Nova series has his name in the title.  The planet Xandar, the Nova Corps headquarters, houses the supercomputer Worldmind which contains all the Nova Corps superpower energy.  It’s Marvel’s Green Lantern Central Power Battery.  With the Nova Corps all dead, Richard Rider gets all the Nova power for himself.  Every bit of it.  Also, the annoyingly sentient Worldmind.

Before all that, prepare yourself for some angst:

Note that not even sub-zero temperatures are enough for Drax to put on a shirt.  We’ll touch upon one of the most common and important of comic book clichés: the “I can’t do this, I don’t have enough power to save the world!” thing.  Allow Drax and Worldmind to enlighten Nova on his potential.  More Worldmind though, as Nova’s helmet contains the sole remaining computer data needed to run the hard drive or RAM or Solitaire or whatever.  I’m not very technical.

I hope you didn’t miss Cammi complimenting Nova’s butt.  I’m more impressed that a 10 year-old knows the word “glute.”   So Drax doesn’t know Rider’s the only survivor of the Nova Corps.  From all of their interactions so far, Rider’s just a weirdo yelling at a computer.  Y’see, normal Nova Corps members can’t do much, but not this Nova.  If he grows some cajones, it’ll be like Green Lantern not just having a lot of willpower but unlimited willpower.  Character growth takes time though, so we’ll have to witness some cowardice beforehand from Rider.

Let’s not be too harsh for poor Nova.  He did just witness an entire planet and all his co-workers spectacularly die moments before stumbling into this bug cave.  Hold out hope: Rider held the rank of Centurion before the Annihilus Wave attack — they’re the elite squad.  The dude just needs some confidence in wielding a power that could destroy planets, and who better to help than a Destroyer? Y’know, and our two protagonists need Nova to escape this planet.

With Nova’s abilities reaching the peak they should be (and I’m skipping all the pep talks and warp portals), Drax and Cammi decide to stick around with Nova for a bit.  Drax will explain in the next page.  Mainly the best place to stand during a battle is behind the biggest gun.

On Monday, war!  Bugs will be sliced, friendships will be tested, and the aftermath sets the stage for the beginning of that wonderful Guardians of the Galaxy team we’ll all see in the theaters today.  I’m super excited too!