Random Happenstance

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!