Annihilus Fact — November 5, 2026

Today's Fact

He lost his war, his fleet and his life in a single afternoon. His species had already arranged the sequel.

ANNIHILUS WAS KILLED BY NOVA — THEN REBORN AS A BABY WHO REMEMBERED EVERYTHING!

The Featured Fact

At the climax of Annihilation #6 (2007), the Annihilation Wave lay in ruins and Annihilus faced Nova — Richard Rider, last of the Nova Corps — alone. Annihilus boasted that Nova could never pierce his armour. He was right about the armour and wrong about the man: Nova reached down his throat and tore his insides out, killing the Living Death That Walks in revenge for the billions the Wave had murdered.

What almost nobody outside the Negative Zone knew is that Annihilus had bred his own resurrection. His queens existed as a failsafe: if he ever fell, one of them would be compelled to give birth to a new Annihilus carrying the original's full memories. On Kree-Lar, his last queen died doing exactly that, and Ravenous presented the newborn to the legions as their lord, reborn.

Rebirth came with a babysitter problem. By War of Kings: Ascension #2 (2009) the infant Annihilus — a tyrant's mind in a baby's body — had been placed with Catastrophus, a minor Negative Zone lord who used the Cosmic Control Rod to stunt the child's growth and stretch out his own borrowed rule. The assassin Talon killed Catastrophus, spared the baby, and asked only that the creature remember, one day, who had let it live.

Why It's Obscure

An empire's succession plan, written in biology: if the king dies, the king is born again by the weekend.

2006

The Wave breaks — Annihilus's invasion of the positive universe ends with Galactus freed and the Annihilation Wave annihilated by its own intended weapon.

2007

Death by hand — In Annihilation #6, Nova kills Annihilus through the one opening his armour leaves: his open, boasting mouth.

The failsafe

Born remembering — A queen dies on Kree-Lar delivering the new Annihilus, an infant who opens his eyes already knowing every war his predecessor fought.

2009

The kept king — War of Kings: Ascension #2 finds the child-ruler deliberately kept small by Catastrophus, who feeds on the Cosmic Control Rod's power to delay his master's growing up.

Gallery

The tyrant in his armour, the man who killed him, and the war they finished together.

Annihilus close-up with the Cosmic Control Rod capsule on his chest, comic art — **The Living Death, up close**Annihilus in his armour with the Cosmic Control Rod's capsule mounted at his chest — the device his own keeper would later use to keep the reborn tyrant a child.

Nova, Richard Rider, crackling with Nova Force energy, comic cover art — **The executioner**Nova, the last of the Nova Corps — the man who killed Annihilus by hand at the end of Annihilation and still had to share a universe with his replacement.

Annihilation comic cover with Nova in the foreground and Ronan, Super-Skrull, Drax and the Silver Surfer behind him — **The war that killed a king**The Annihilation conflict in one frame: Nova front and centre, with the alliance that broke the Wave and left its master dead on the field.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Annihilation Vol. 1 #6 — Marvel DatabaseIssue record for the finale: Nova kills Annihilus by tearing out his innards, and the last queen dies giving birth to the new Annihilus on Kree-Lar.
Annihilus — WikipediaCharacter biography confirming Nova killed Annihilus in Annihilation #6, that he was reborn as an infant retaining his memories, and that Catastrophus used the Cosmic Control Rod to stunt his growth.
Extermina, Queen of Annihilus — Marvel Universe AppendixDetails the queens' failsafe role: on Annihilus's death a queen is compelled to give birth to his successor, as Extermina did after Nova slew him.