It’s difficult to do a proper review of an “event” book until the final issue - and Empyre is a good example of that.
The series was a bit of a victim of COVID-19, and as the series was finally rolled out (after many of the lockdowns were lifted) the event was truncated a bit and rolled out on a (nearly) weekly basis.
The series featured good art and involved nearly everyone in the Marvel universe, but the story stumbled badly several times over.
The basic idea promised a new Kree / Skrull War - but instead we got the unification of the Kree and Skrull races, who came to Earth to fight a universal menace - the previously peace-loving plant-based race known as the Cotati.
All that required was changing the entire concept of that race, and the character Quoi, the son of Mantis and the Swordsman, who was to be the Celestial Messiah. Instead, he’s just another crazed super-villain.
The series is full of twists that make no sense. The She-Hulk is killed, turned into a plant monster, then revived and altered with no explanation. An alien device about to destroy the sun? Just teleport a bunch of heroes to the sun (no spacecraft needed) to fix the problem - somehow? The Black Panther dies - or does he? Mr. Fantastic wears Iron Man’s armor - but it can stretch?
After a while, I just gave up and rolled on to the end.
Big ideas, but it was just a bit too much and spun badly out of control (which is actually a pretty good analysis of Marvel in general these days).
Stories don’t all have to be cosmic armageddon, folks. Let’s add some character moments, a little humor, focus more on story and internal logic - it would go a long way toward getting Marvel where it should be.
Grade: C
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