The Dire Wraiths Return!

First, a brief apology. I've somehow let three months slip by without posting to my blog. I had some ideas for posts, but not the time to do them. I'd love to say it won't happen again, but we have a family event coming in July that will probably derail the blog some more.

Moving on, it's time to eat my own words. The Dire Wraiths are, in fact, returning. Their return, however, has nothing to do with the Avengers, as one might have guessed from entries appearing in the Secret Invasion-related Marvel Handbooks. It's Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (a.k.a. DnA) who are bringing them back in Annihilators, a four-issue limited series coming in March. And where there's Dire Wraiths, the Spaceknights are not far behind.

DnA spoke with Comic Book Resources about the series and the Dire Wraiths, in particular. Of the Wraiths, Abnett said, "they're immensely cool." I suggest you check the interview out. The artist on the series is Tan Eng Huat. I'm not familiar with his work, but he did a nice illustration of Rom for the Spacenight 2 auctions, which I also recommend you check out.

The most interesting thing about this to me is something Chris Batista told me back in 2000 when the Spaceknights limited series was coming out. DnA were apparently asked if they'd like to write a Spaceknights sequel (assuming, at the time, that sales would be good enough to warrant such). Batista told me, "they were very ecstatic about the possibility." So I'm most curious if DnA are working from any of Batista's notes from 10 years ago, but haven't been able to get an answer.

As you can guess from the name, Annihilators continues the cosmic saga that began with Annihilation and most recently wrapped up The Thanos Imperative . However, if you're out of touch with Marvel's cosmic heroes, you don't need to know a lot. First, the Inhumans and Ronan are now in charge of the Kree Empire. Gladiator, of the Imperial Guard, is now head of the Shi'Ar empire. And the Silver Surfer is once again the herald of Galactus.

If you're a fan of Rom and want to get caught up, I highly recommend you pick up, The Thanos Imperative: Devastation, a one-shot that just came out this week. And not just so you can read about the aftermath of that event.

(I wish Blogger had the ability to hide text for spoilers, but it doesn't. Therefore, if you don't want anything spoiled, you can stop here. If you need a really good reason for spending your four bucks on this, read on.)

*BEGIN SPOILER ALERT!!!*
The final page of the issue features a previously unseen Spaceknight named Ikon. She carries some kind of cosmic polearm. The Dire Wraiths are talked about, but do not yet appear.
*END SPOILER ALERT!!!*