Drax the Destroyer: Earth Fall

Drax the Destroyer: Earthfall #1-4

by Keith Giffen, Mitch Breitweiser (Illustrator)

The crash of an interstellar prison transport spells big trouble for an isolated Alaskan town when Paibok the Power Skrull, Lunatik, the Blood Brothers and Drax the Destroyer come calling. It's not a social call.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Keith Ian Giffen was an American comic book illustrator and writer. He is possibly best-known for his long runs illustrating, and later writing the Legion of Super-Heroes title in the 1980s and 1990s. He also created the alien mercenary character Lobo (with Roger Slifer), and the irreverent "want-to-be" hero, Ambush Bug. Giffen is known for having an unorthodox writing style, often using characters in ways not seen before. His dialogue is usually characterized by a biting wit that is seen as much less zany than dialogue provided by longtime collaborators DeMatteis and Robert Loren Fleming. That approach has brought him both criticism and admiration, as perhaps best illustrated by the mixed (although commercially successful) response to his work in DC Comics' Justice League International (1987-1992). He also plotted and was breakdown artist for an Aquaman limited series and one-shot special in 1989 with writer Robert Loren Fleming and artist Curt Swan for DC Comics.

Giffen's first published work was "The Sword and The Star", a black-and-white series featured in Marvel Preview, with writer Bill Mantlo. He has worked on titles (owned by several different companies) including Woodgod, All Star Comics, Doctor Fate, Drax the Destroyer, Heckler, Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, Reign of the Zodiac, Suicide Squad, Trencher (to be re-released in a collected edition by Boom! Studios)., T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, and Vext. He was also responsible for the English adaptation of the Battle Royale and Ikki Tousen manga, as well as creating "I Luv Halloween" for Tokyopop. He also worked for Dark Horse from 1994-95 on their Comics Greatest World/Dark Horse Heroes line, as the writer of two short lived series, Division 13 and co-author, with Lovern Kindzierski, of Agents of Law. For Valiant Comics, Giffen wrote XO-Manowar, Magnus, Robot Fighter, Punx and the final issue of Solar, Man of the Atom.

He took a break from the comic industry for several years, working on storyboards for television and film, including shows such as The Real Ghostbusters and Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy.

He is also the lead writer for Marvel Comics's Annihilation event, having written the one-shot prologue, the lead-in stories in Thanos and Drax, the Silver Surfer as well as the main six issues mini-series. He also wrote the Star-Lord mini-series for the follow-up story Annihilation: Conquest. He currently writes Doom Patrol for DC, and is also completing an abandoned Grant Morrison plot in The Authority: the Lost Year for Wildstorm.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the limited series where Keith Giffen changed Drax from a huge, green, purple-caped, wristband-wearing lummox to the slightly-less-huge, green, leather-trousers-wearing, knife-wielding killing machine more familiar to people who only met Drax for the first time in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.

To be honest, that's pretty much all it does, as there's not much actual story here. Oh, it also gave Drax a smart-mouthed, emotionally damaged, pre-teen sidekick but she'd been jettisoned by the time the movie rolled around, so she didn't last long.

The story-telling's OK, the artwork's OK... the book's just OK. Worth reading only for the huge change in Drax, really, but even that isn't really explained properly.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've started into the depths of the Marvel Cosmic universe in hopes of finding enough interesting and fun stuff to bring a deeper appreciation of these weirdo characters to the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And boy does this run deep - even the current run of the last decade just keeps stretching back and back. Took me a while to figure out where it all begins - and it begins with this book, helmed by one of my favourite humour writers from the 80's (who soon drops out and leaves all the heavy lifting to Abnett & Lanning).

Thank god for the girl who gets mixed up with these aliens. If I had to endure more than a few pages of artificially-weird dialogue without someone relatable, I'd never get around to tackling the Marvel Cosmic.

The fact that Giffen gave her a smart ass attitude is just good Giffen, and takes this from tolerable to enjoyable.

Having absolutely no background in the Cosmic crapfest that are these characters I've rarely heard of and could really not have cared less about (save for the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie that despite its weirdo cheeseball heritage actually looks like it'll be *fun*), I'm so glad Giffen decided not to lecture us on the years of irrelevant history of the character and just gave us a rebirth origin to let us off with a fresh start.

Leaves a nice trail of loose threads to keep us interested, bearing on the personalities of the two aliens (Drax and a savvy Skrull) who are far more interesting than the rest of the bruisers we've had to wade through.

Good clean art. Thanks for that.

[ScottIsANerd (GrilledCheeseSamurai) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where Drax gets a pair of pants.

Other than that...this one was pretty shallow.

But it brought us back Drax, and I guess that's something.

[Sami · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drax the Destroyer: Earthfall
By Keith Giffen (Writer), Mitch Breitweiser (Artist)
Published by Marvel, 2005

Synopsis:
A engine failure halts a prisoner transport headed for the Kyln and causes it to fall to Alaska. Now stuck in Alaksa, Drax needs to figure out how to get out and some dangerous prisoners take a town hostage.

Review:
A bit of a flat story to start of the Annihilation Saga, don't expect it to go all crazy with the cosmic stuff as its main local is the middle of nowhere known as Coot's Bluff in Alaska. It's short and a bit of a slow burn. The story of our Drax is mostly about him evolving from dumb guy with lots of brawn to a bit of a ruthless guy with a bit more brawn. I really enjoyed the amount of bickering between our characters, it always feels that they are really annoyed to be in this situation.

I like that Giffen uses more obscure characters by modern standards, even poking fun of certain tropes. "Take me to your leader". Of course Giffen uses one of his own creations. The Blood Brothers were fun to see and seeing Paibok as the only one with a brain was enjoyable. The art is alright. Nothing truly special, it does it's job.

Star Rating = 3,25 out of 5 Stars
Not a must read book by any means necessary but it is short and sweet.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the Drax of the MCU, not really even the Drax of old. This is really an explanation of his resurrection and a prologue to the Annihilation event. Some good action, decent artwork, but not the best example of modern superhero comics. Definitely not a good introduction to the Drax character.

[Jenelle Compton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't even actually kept track of what Glen has made me read at this point. I listed some on here, but comics go so quick. I have not bothered to keep coming back and listing them.

But I told Glen that I wanted to read about the Guardians of the Galaxy. I've read an entire box of comics...Warlock and Thanos, Silver Surfer, Avengers, X-Men....I feel like it's literally HUNDREDS of comics later...DRAX!

Yay! He was a little different than earlier comics Drax, and definitely different from movie Drax. But I really really like Drax the Destroyer, as it turns out.
This was a small little set of comics, just 4 issues. It read really quickly and I very much enjoyed it. I am not a HUGE fan of the little girl Drax picked up, perhaps she'll grow on me. Or I'll never see her again, that seems to happen sometimes lol.

[Rose Swan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. The idea of Pitch Black but the spaceship crashes on earth is a fun concept. That’s about where the fun ends. Not a lot happens in this story. It really just serves to completely change Drax’s status quo. The new design is quite cool and will stand the test of time. The art matches the quality of the story and the majority of the dialogue sucks. Kieth Giffen continues to attempt to write alien dialects and it continues not to work. The only character I really liked was Dex the scene at the end was really heartbreaking.

[Parker · Rating 2 out of 5]

An odd start to a prospective deep dive into Marvel Cosmic's Annihilation-event. Body count is way too high for these small town folks to take everything in such stride. Lotta Grimaces in varying shades of mint and magenta having fistfights. Lotta very 2000s dialogue. Not a lot of info as to who Drax is, where he came from, what he wants or why he should be compelling.

[Mike Jozic · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm kind of torn with this one. I liked a lot of what this is but it does sit a little flat in how engaging it actually is. We get a nice reestablishing of Drax but the collateral damage from this story seems so isolated and secondary to anything and everything.

I like it but I don't love it. I guess more Drax to come in Annihilation.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. Apparently Tis this book that begins Annihilation...

Drax flips between dumb and normal. Alaska gets visited by aliens. Killing.

Whets the appetite for GoTG 2, which I just saw. That Drax is more fun.

[Bat Man · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is solidly OK. Slightly better and certainly more focused than the Thanos series that comes before it, but still nothing to write home about. The ending was slightly more mature than I had expected? But not by much

[Will Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drax and others crash on Earth and they fight and this is short and it is sweet and is a good read for what it is.

[Odo · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5/5.0

[Madeleine Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm currently reading through Marvels Annihilation stuff and getting to Guardians of the Galaxy because...well...the Heroclix I have the most of are from these series and I wanted to be more familiar with the characters...it makes it more fun for me to play with someone I know.
Anyway, so I just read this earlier today and was kind of surprised. I'm not really a huge Keith Giffen fan. Or unfun. I guess I'm *shrugs* about him. And besides knowing that I like using Drax in Heroclix, I don't know anything about him and I know very little about the Skrull (except I did read Fantastic Four #...3? or 2? where the Skrulls posed as them. And then they forced one of them to shape change into a cow and Reed Richards erased his memory so that he would think he was just a cow. True story. Stan Lee thought of some fucked up punishments.) and...well...I don't know much about the Cosmic Marvel stuff.
But despite the somewhat fast/weird pacing of this, I enjoyed it. I can't tell you if it was because it was enjoyable or because I was going "OHHH the Blood Brothers! I have them! Now I understand them better!" and such..

[Silas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Avengers Academy, it was interesting to see the origin of Cammi, who I hadn't ever encountered before reading that book. This book also bridges the gap between the Drax the Destroyer of the 1980s and the character in modern comics. This is an interesting story involving a shipwreck of a prison ship in rural Alaska. A few aliens survive including Drax, the skrull Paibok, and a few other ne'er-do-wells. The story is brutal at times, involving slavery and murder on the part of the aliens, though we see Drax becoming less of a villain and, if not a hero, at least somewhat neutral. This wasn't a long trade, but it was interesting.

[Travis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really nice idea, fixing of the character of Drax the Destroyer from second rate space hero to serious badass. Unfortunately, Kieth Giffen tries to do sci-fi and be really funny at the same time and all it does is render nearly the entire cast annoying and unlikable.

Keith is not as funny as he thinks he is and can't seem to figure out when a story should be funny and when it shouldn't. He guessed wrong with this story, which is a shame, as his new version of Drax is brilliant.

[Dzemo Sh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this, even more than I expected. It was very fun and interesting to read.

I'm pretty new to comic-books, and I've really been enjoying them so far.

I wanted to get into Guardians of the Galaxy comics before I saw the movie, but there are so many characters and backstory. I had to start from someplace, and going back and back, I guess this comic book was the right place to start.

Overall, I'm not disappointed and I am looking forward to continuing with these stories.

[Sorcered · Rating 3 out of 5]

A smart and cheeky little girl is completely unfazed when big bad aliens crash near her Alaskan town, enslaving people and killing indiscriminately: instead, she manipulates them to her own ends (getting away from it all, obviously). A fun reboot of another Marvel old timer. Perhaps I'll get to finish the whole Annihilation soap opera by the time I'll go to the cinema and watch Guardians of the Galaxy...
Story: 3. Art: 3.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is where it all began! The revival of the Marvel cosmic side of things with the Annihilation event. This Drax book isn't included in the "official" compilations for Annihilation, but obviously, Drax plays a key role in things later on.

This is not the best Drax story, but it helps establish the notion of him iterating and regenerating into new versions (which feels closer to the Immortal Hulk run, now that I think about it).

[Brad Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cosmic Marvel Universe has me hooked. The girl with the attitude these aliens run in to during this 4 issue series definitely kept it enjoyable. I'm surprised they didn't kill her. It's almost like her attitude was totally acceptable with their species.

[Nathan Holic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art, great concept, but Giffen writes the most irritating dialogue. The phonetic spellings and forced contractions...often, the interactions are odd, too, with dialogue that tries hard to be smart or non-obvious, but would often benefit from simply being made...well, simpler.

[Charles Gory · Rating 2 out of 5]

Drax is best in space and best when hunting Thanos. This story has neither.

[Nino · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this re-introduction to the character of Drax. Makes me want to read about him more and how he came to join the Guardians of the Galaxy! Time to open my Marvel Legends Drax! #marvelmondays

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

This prologue to Annihilation is definitely a slow burn, but it's a beautiful character piece with beautiful art besides [7/10].

[Fabián · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have enjoyed this if I was half my age. And I'm not even thirty.

[Elchamaco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miniserie de 4 números en el que se presenta a Drax en su nueva forma.

[Mouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slooooooowww, boring, terrible alien slang dialog....and that little girl was so so frikkin annoying! I just wanted one of the aliens to snap her head! Hard to get through!

[✨Jess✨ Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

The art is gorgeous, I completely adored cammi as well as this, my love for drax grew even stronger, also the story line was very intriguing.

[Jedhua · Rating 3 out of 5]

ABSOLUTE RATING: {3/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <3/5 stars>

[River Shen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish MCU's Drax was like this...