We saw the 2019 crossover War of the Realms a bit ago, and recently from the same dollar bins I managed to get the main six issues of this one: from 2020, Empyre #1-6, written by Al Ewing and Dan Slott, art by Valerio Schiti. I did get a couple of variant covers; I had to upload the above John Tyler Christopher action figure one! There were like 20 covers already scanned, I think they were still missing 20 for the first issue! The action figure covers are always neat, although I rather like the propaganda poster style ones.

I suppose it isn't that surprising anymore, but this series references a lot of continuity way older than the creators, and even older than me, Avengers #89 or further back! After centuries of warfare, the Kree and Skrull empires have unified, under figurehead Emperor Dorrek VIII, better known to readers as Young Avenger Hulkling. Although there are other factors in play, the Kree and Skrulls have united against a mutual foe, the Cotati. The plant aliens had usually been seen as peaceful, and the Avengers are briefly on their side at the start of this one, swayed by Sequoia (Quoi) and his dad, the Swordsman; from the Celestial Madonna storyline way back when. Iron Man disables the Kree and Skrull war fleet, just in time for Quoi's heel-turn: the guilt leaves Iron Man feeling especially betrayed, since he had seen Quoi as "the first Avengers baby." Tony mostly spends the rest of the series like Achilles sulking in his tent--there's a literary reference for you, although I probably got it from the Tick.  

Declaring himself the "Celestial Messiah," the Cotati attack all over earth--a ton of crossover books, I know I read the Savage Avengers and X-Men at the time, both Conan and Nightcrawler were involved!--but their main goal is getting their seeds into the vibranium-infused soil around the Great Mound in Wakanda. This sets up another siege ala Infinity War, but it still works. Swordsman is portrayed as having some rivalry with the Black Panther, and I couldn't tell you if they'd ever even interacted before: this green Swordsman may or may not have been anything of the original Jacques DeQuesne, I think even his corpse had been destroyed more than once. Mantis shows up, to try and rein in Quoi (alone, no Guardians, and I'd say her character has long been far removed from the old Avengers version) but the Swordsman had been pouring poison into Quoi's ear for too long (Shakespeare reference! I'm on fire today) and he was gung-ho to kill all humans...and Kree, Skrulls, animals, all of it. (He did offer to keep the Avengers in a garden, and had put some thought into how to arrange them!)

But, my favorite bit of this one...might be a spoiler, so if you were waiting to read this one, we'll put it after the break!

In the first issue, the Cotati seemingly help (She)-Hulk regain her control and diction, but that was a lie. They had killed Jen, and took over her body! It was already green, a Cotati taking it over wouldn't turn it more green, so it was the perfect vehicle for espionage. The Cotati-Jen kicks the stuffing out of Ben, who refuses to go down: the Fantastic Four had recently taken in refugees, a Kree kid and a Skrull one, and Ben was going to give them a better life if it killed him. There's also a bit where Hulkling gets replaced--I won't say by who, it's another good bit of continuity--and it takes his husband Wiccan to point out the switch, even though the new "Hulkling" is straight-up mustache-twirling evil all of a sudden.

I hope I'm not damning with faint praise, but if you can get this for a buck an issue, you absolutely should! 

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This isn't even the most nonsensical version I've read of this, but it tries harder.

My copy is pretty ratty, but I should scan the whole thing for Internet Archive: from 2009, Toyfare #137, "Twisted Toyfare Theatre: Invasion of the Mego Snatchers" By a big chunk of Toyfare staff: Aclin, Gutierrez, Dietsch; with Bricken, Brucie, Collins, Molino, Powell and Ward! 

This was their riff on Secret Invasion, which goes off the rails around page 4, but no more so than any other version of that story I've seen. (Seriously, I know I've read it, but it keeps falling out of my head.) And Mephisto's explanation of the fix resonates a bit with me, since I remember thinking fans might feel like that back when Ben Reilly replaced Peter Parker as the 'real' Spider-Man. 

As usual, I'm on vacation next week, and as usual, the blog will continue to trundle along aimlessly regardless! See you then.   

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"Sorehead."

It's been a long time, but I swear the Super-Skrull and probably Paibok needed power broadcast or transmitted to them; at least in early appearances. I can't remember if that was a plot point in the Secret Invasion comic, since everything I've read from that keeps falling out of my head?

And, this Squadron is different than the one from the James Robinson series a couple years back; which featured Namor getting his head punched off but he was brought back before the end of the series by the repentant team. No, this Squadron is probably the most recent, but we'll get into that more later.

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"Schlubby."

I'm usually further ahead than this--in fact, I have other storylines with a couple strips done--but this Squadron one I'm barely ahead of the chains. I don't have it super planned out, I'm kind of seeing where it goes. In fact, I didn't think the other Squadron members were going to show up here; Blur may have had his own ideas. His own terrible ideas. 

I also don't like how "Super-Skrull" has become a generic; for me there's one proper Super-Skrull, Kl'rt, with the Fantastic Four powers. He's had a storied career, a jobber's jobber, to use the wrestling parlance. Then there's Paibok the 'Power Skrull,' who pretty obviously seems like they needed a new Skrull for the role of "total dick" because Kl'rt had almost managed to chip out some character development over the years. Anyway, here we've got the Marvel Select Super-Skrull, who was pretty cheap at the Disney Store still as I type this. Didn't love the alternate head on that one, but maybe it'll do something for you.

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"Training."

Huh, it is training camp season for baseball types! Maybe you'll luck out and not get see-through pants. 

I thought about it for about three seconds, and of course it was Peter David on dialogue, for Secret Origins #32, featuring the Justice League of America, and a sequence where Hal Jordan tries a few exclamations before settling on "Great Guardians!" I will occasionally yell "sweet Smurfberry crunch" in exasperation, but probably not as often as...other words. Like Ralphie and my own kids, Talos is probably exposed to profanity on a near-constant basis, although in Talos's case I suspect it's directed at him at least sometimes.  

Also, this helpful post points out that yeet is the opposite of yoink, which might help you: you yoink something off of somebody else's plate, you yeet something out a window. If yeet had been in use back in what, 2005, when the Sentry yeets Carnage into the sun; that would've absolutely been the end of the character.  

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"Off-brand."

The title for this one was intended to keep from disparaging Windex; the fact that it refers to the Squadron Supreme as well is just a happy accident! In-continuity right now, I feel like there's multiple versions of the Squadron on 616-earth simultaneously, along with others that have come and gone. We may have a jerkier batch today, and they may have a plan. A plan that somehow involves Satana and Talos? Oddly enough, yes! Read more!

"Allowed."

I know I would get in trouble, every time I saw a Skrull change shape, I would say "ah, that's a good first try! Lemme know when you're done." I don't know yet if we're going to see more of them, though. I mean, I have more, so odds are, but...
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