Who Are the Annihilators: Marvel's Most Powerful Team Ever Explained

Comic book readers love it when their favorite superheroes (or supervillains) team up with each other, and this is why there are so many different teams in the Marvel Universe. Though these teams have become major pop-culture institutions, Marvel's most powerful team are the much more obscure Annihilators.

Everyone knows about Marvel's classic teams such as Avengers, X-Men, and Guardians of the Galaxy, while more invested fans are familiar with lesser-known groups such as the Defenders, the Illuminati, and/or the Thunderbolts. One team that sadly is not as well-known is the Annihilators: a collection of extraordinarily powerful cosmic heroes defined as "what the Guardians of the Galaxy were meant to be." While this team doesn't get nearly as much attention as they deserve, their raw power makes them one of the greatest superhero teams ever formed.

Origin of the Annihilators

The Annihilators were formed after a string of major cosmic events threatened the well-being of all life across the universe. The first was the Annihilation Wave led by Annihilus in 2006's highly influential Annihilation event. The Annihilation Wave was a massive fleet of starships from the Negative Zone pocket dimension capable of destroying a million worlds in a single day. Annihilus was eventually defeated by Nova. This event was followed by The Thanos Imperative which saw the Magus ally with Lord Mar-Vell, a darker version of Mar-Vell hailing from the Cancerverse. At the climax of this story, Star-Lord, Nova, and Thanos seemingly sacrificed themselves to prevent the denizens of the Cancerverse from spilling into Earth-616.

The Thanos Imperative: Devastation tie-in story features the first appearance of the Annihilators, following Cosmo the Space Dog as he carries out Star-Lord's dying wish. Star-Lord was pleased with what the Guardians had accomplished but wanted them to go even further. The only force that could truly protect the galaxy, Star-Lord reasoned were a team of highly destructive beings. Doing exactly as Star-Lord desired, Cosmo perused the galaxy and sought out five cosmic powerhouses, bringing them together to thwart the warlord Blastaar from laying siege to the Inhuman capital of Attilan.

Members & Enemies

The five heroes that Cosmo brought together are Quasar, Silver Surfer, Ronan the Accuser, Gladiator, and Marvel's most tragic Thor, Beta Ray Bill. The floating Celestial head known as Knowhere serves as their base of operations. As their introductory story comes to a close, Ikon the Spaceknight, a warrior from the planet Galador appears and claims to be the leader of the team. Obviously, this sudden appearance and declaration does not go over well with the rest of the team, and slight chaos ensues but is quickly resolved. Ikon fills the team in on a cosmic threat facing her people, and the Annihilators leave to carry out their first mission.

This mission involves a heavenly body-sized conundrum on Ikon's homeworld of Galador. The Annihilators subsequently take on foe after foe. First, they battle the sorcerer Doctor Dredd, who removed the Black Sun from its place in the Dark Nebula and unleashed its light on Galador, which powered up the Wraith Queen, the leader of Galador's longtime enemies. Ronan the Accuser takes down Dredd, while Silver Surfer engages the Queen. This results in the Annihilators traveling to Limbo to battle Immortus and remove the Wraith world from his clutches, and then, with the combined might of Ronan's, Surfer's, and Quasar's powers, they prevent the Black Sun from going supernova and merge it with Galador's sun, allowing the Galadorians and Wraiths to live in cosmic harmony with each other, rather than existing in ceaseless war.

The Annihilators' story continues in another limited series, Annihilators: Earthfall, which sees Cosmo dispatch the team to Earth after learning of a Universal Church of Truth (who fans might recognize from the Guardians of the Galaxy video game) plot to burn a thousand worlds. They encounter a group of UCT knights disguising themselves as humans, and their presence catches the attention of the Avengers. The two sides battle each other, while Quasar goes after the UCT knights and discovers the Magus reborn as a child. The Avengers and the Annihilators stop fighting, agreeing that the Magus is the real threat. The two teams take down the Magus and the Annihilators take him as their prisoner, returning to Knowhere to lock him away.

This is the last full-length mission of the Annihilators. The team is seen again for the last time in Jim Starlin's Thanos: Infinity Revelation. They appear to fight Thanos and Adam Warlock. Though Warlock caused Thanos' first death, the two team up to quickly defeat the Annihilators. There is no narrative reason for why the team disbanded, so it is possible that the ease with which Thanos and Warlock beat them caused them to reevaluate and go their separate ways.

Where are the Annihilators now?

Despite not being on a team anymore, the members of the Annihilators are still active in their respective parts of the Marvel Universe. In terms of their most recent feats, Beta Ray Bill defeated Surtur for possession of the Twilight Sword in his most recent 2021 storyline. The mantle of Quasar was taken up by Avril Kincaid, who joined the Guardians of the Galaxy and seemingly died during a Chitauri invasion, which brought Wendell Vaughn out of retirement to become Quasar once again. In the recent Dawn of X storyline, Gladiator formed an alliance with Cyclops and the X-Men and allowed them to link the Shi'ar throneworld Chandilar to the mutant paradise of Krakoa. Silver Surfer recently rejoined the Defenders, and alongside Doctor Strange and Taaia, Galactus' mother, defeated and sealed away the villain Omnimax.

Unfortunately for Ronan and Ikon, things haven't gone as well for them. Ikon's homeworld of Galador was destroyed by the Builders, and she is one of three survivors. She hasn't taken part in any major events since losing her home in 2013's Infinity. Ronan is the only member to have died, and he has been that way since the Death of Inhumans story. He was tortured by the new Kree Empire, but was eventually freed, forgiven, and put out of his misery by Black Bolt. While Marvel has recently acknowledged the Inhumans after their death, there has been no such luck for Ronan.

As of right now, the Annihilators are a thing of the past, but that doesn't mean they can't get back together at some point. As Star-Lord put it, they are what the Guardians of the Galaxy were meant to be, and they need to be as strong as the cosmic evildoers threatening the universe. That being said, a largescale cosmic threat that doesn't involve Earth would be the perfect way to bring them back together. They are down a member, but that presents an opportunity for a classic comic book resurrection, or for a new spacefaring entity to join them. As the Marvel Universe is ever-expanding, surely there is a room for another supernova sized threat that can bring the Annihilators back together and have them do what they do best: annihilate.

More: Who Is Ares: Origin & Powers of Avengers' Ultra-Violent Thor Replacement