The villain for the crossover event The Last Annihilation will be revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy #15 and promises to be the most dangerous enemy the cosmic team has ever faced. The actual event will not begin until Guardians of the Galaxy #16, but the plan will begin to be put into motion in the previous issue. The crossover elements will be between Guardians of the Galaxy and S.W.O.R.D.
The Guardians of the Galaxy's roster grew exponentially in the thirteenth issue, adding two heroes who took on the Quasar name (Wendell Vaughn and Avril Kincaid), along with Hulkling, Wiccan, Nova, Super Skrull, Moondragon, Marvel Boy, Mantis, Phyla-Vell, Hercules, and most surprisingly, Doctor Doom. These new heroes join the team alongside the modern mainstays of Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Drax, and Gamora. They will be coming face-to-face during the event with the new mutant space agency Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department (S.W.O.R.D.), which includes the likes of Abigail Brand and Beast.
Marvel Comics has teased the reveal of the ultimate enemy with its cover for Guardians of the Galaxy #16 and unveils more information about the fifteenth issue and what else is in store for Marvel's cosmic superheroes. Issue #15 will see the Guardians facing off against Doctor Doom and be written by Al Ewing, who has been trying to take the Guardians in a new direction, with artwork by Juan Frigeri (God is Dead, Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man), colorist Federico Blee (Guardians of the Galaxy, Cable). The other tie-in, S.W.O.R.D. #7, will also be written by Ewing, but the artist is Valerio Schiti (Guardians of the Galaxy, Ms. Marvel). The first preview pages for Guardians of the Galaxy #15 can be seen below, along with the main covers for issues #15 and #16 by cover artist Brett Booth (Teen Titans, The Flash).
The Last Annihilation event comes right on the heels of the Guardians being sanctioned by Super-Skrull and the Galactic Council as superheroes, dubbed by Nova as a galactic version of the Avengers, thanks to the end of the war between the Kree and Skrull. Ewing has been making a lot of game-changing moves revolving around Marvel's cosmic heroes, which seems to be reaching even greater heights with The Last Annihilation event. Ewing talks about the inevitable collision of the two space teams during this event, saying:
“GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY and S.W.O.R.D. have been building their own unique gravity for a while now, and in space, when two objects have gravity, there's a pretty good chance they'll crash into each other - or get sucked into the orbit of something even bigger,” Ewing is quoted as saying. “Marvel Space these days is a fragile coalition of worlds that chose peace over war, a little bubble of hope in a cruel void - but there's an enemy nobody ever suspected readying an attack that'll either cement all those frail alliances or tear them to pieces."
Guardians of the Galaxy #15 will be out on June 23, 2021, the sixteenth issue will be out on July 21, 2021, and S.W.O.R.D. #7 will be out on July 28, 2021. This seems like a great opportunity for S.W.O.R.D. to become an even bigger player in the Marvel Universe, between the organization being introduced to TV viewers in WandaVision and it getting its own ongoing comics series. Having the team interact with the now much more well-known players of the Guardians of the Galaxy seems like a good move on Ewing's part to bring in more readers to both series. Plus, it's a wonderful excuse for the return of Cable, who will also be coming back for The Last Annihilation event in Cable Reloaded.
Source: Marvel Comics