#annihilus

One thing I really liked about Ultimate Marvel- and particularly the parts that Warren Ellis was involved in- was how it occasionally lassoed these big-picture mythopoeic cosmic antagonists from 616 and hauled them down into the mud where they were just laid bare as stupid evil little bastards. Annihilus isn't a vital keystone in some infinite deathless cosmic recursion that's repeated a million times and will repeat a million times more, he's just an egotistical slumlord tyrannizing the survivors of a universe on the verge of heat death who'd rather start a shooting war with a rescue ship for his own aggrandizement than allow any kind of orderly evacuation to a universe where he isn't in charge. Ultimate Galactus isn't some mythic being from before the dawn of time who plays a vital role maintaining the yadda yadda yadda, it's a Von Neuman superweapon set loose by some race of long dead idiots that exists solely to kill the shit out of everything it encounters, constantly kills the shit out everything it encounters, retreats only because getting destroyed would curtail its ability to kill the shit out of everything it encounters and understands "negotiation" to mean "stalling for time until it can come up with a new way to kill the shit out of whatever it's currently encountering." Nothing noble, nothing grandiose, no rich cosmic tapestry underpinning it. Just stupid evil little bastards