Marvel Heroes Fight Back Against a New Enemy in Empyre #2!

The Cotati’s plan surges to a fruitful head as our heroes start to fight back, Plus Captain Marvel gets an upgrade in this issue from Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, and Joe Caramagna!

Mr. Chris Eddleman: Well Christi, where we last left our heroes, they were in space, hurtling towards the moon in the midst of a—wait, there was another issue? The number 1? Oh alright I’d better read that.

Okay, actually it turned out the Cotati were in fact quite evil, and trying to rip our heroes apart with their fiendish foliage. Oh no! At least Hulkling wasn’t a bad guy!

Mrs. Christina Eddleman: There’s nothing quite like a heel turn in the first issue, am I right? Who saw that coming from our soft, vegan, emo Quoi? Well it turns out everyone but our all-too-trusting Avengers, who are very well known for their incredibly sound decision making. Now it’s time to get into the fallout.

The Monologues of Villainous Plants

Mr.: I think it’s important to point out that Al Ewing (and possibly Dan Slott, but he isn’t scripting) definitely know that plenty of us did not know anything about the Celestial Messiah before this event, and he does everything in his power to explain things to those of us who aren’t clued in to older Avengers lore. Christi, did you still feel lost or was Al treating us right?

Mrs.: Even if the Celestial Messiah hadn’t been touched on in Road to Empyre, I still feel as though Ewing gives us some solid exposition during a classic villain monologue. Normally I’d expect such a soliloquy towards the end of an event, so breaking the mold here is an interesting turn of events. With such a reveal being the launching point for the story, do you find yourself more or less invested in the rest of this event, darling?

Mr.: So I’m actually more invested after this reveal in some ways. I thought the Kree-Skrull alliance sounded a little tired to be honest, so this subversion really amped me up for more. That being said, it’s not my favorite trope to have oppressed people (in this case the Cotati) ultimately become more monstrous than their oppressors. If it wasn’t Al Ewing, I’d be very concerned in the direction this is taking, trope wise. He’s earned my trust though. In addition, the one detail I really honed in on in this monologue was Swordsman’s template being human, which means he understands the destructive power of animals. This makes me think that the corrupting influence on the Cotati to become oppressors stems from this corrupting human influence. It would be a good touch on an already iffy trope. The set-up though made me feel for the Cotati in ways, which makes for good villainy.

Mrs.: There’s nothing quite like a villain with an empathetic backstory. While I agree that we come close to a troublesome trope, I do enjoy some of the parallels we see between our juxtaposed leaders. While Hulkling and Quoi each come from backgrounds of split parentage and have complicated relationships with their parents, they possess two entirely different motivations. Only one of them, however, is dealing with the feeling of being abandoned by The Avengers.

Time for Some Actual Avenging

Mr.: Said Avengers being currently arranged in a bouquet of captives. As Quoi’s monologue comes to a close, after explaining his responsibility for the murders we all saw in Incoming!, he tells Tony Stark that he telepathically implanted a call to right injustice in Iron Man’s mind. Allison and Tony had pointed out in Empyre: Avengers #0 that Tony seemed a little out of it, and I’m betting that was purposeful to show this brainwashing. Stark’s pretty ticked, and we finally get the Avengers escaping their imprisonment, with a cool panel of Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man ready to scrap. The Cotati beat feet.

Mrs.: The method of retreat is certainly an intriguing one. As T’Challa notes, the Cotati have access to organic teleport gateways, not dissimilar from the Krakoan Gateways we’ve seen since HoX PoX. I imagine the Cotati have many more secrets that will be revealed in time. While one may think a villainous monologue ending in retreat would be the end of the fight, we still have much more combat in store. What do you make of the attack of the plants, my dear?

Mr.: In true Marvel tradition, it can’t be a Marvel event unless the Earth itself is under attack, and thus all the heroes have to fight in cities and the like. This is giving me some serious Secret Invasion flashbacks, granted with different aggressors. But the fight isn’t over in space, as some Cotati still fight our heroes aboard the Kree-Skrull space cruiser. How mega awful was it to see the vines trying to rip into poor Ben Grimm, sweetie pie?

Mrs.: Rip into or grow out of? The thought of Ben as a human Chia pet for the Cotati was thoroughly unsettling. We’re reminded of just how devastating the initial attack by the Cotati was, ships with no life signs littering Earth’s orbit. Nothing like a good old fashioned massacre to cement the lines of good and evil in an event. Luckily, the command ship containing Hulkling and the Fantastic Four has managed to put up enough of a fight against the Cotati to have some survivors. Can we talk about the sick Sword of Space that seems to be perfectly equipped to decimate some evil plants, honey?

Mr.: My dearest, I would like to christen this sword the Sword of Plot Convenience, a thing that is lampshaded almost immediately. Of course it’s standard issue for a king (of Space, mind) to get a magic sword that you can just summon out of nowhere, and only hurts foes while going harmlessly through friends. This is one of those instances where Marvel Comics just goes buck wild, combining more scifi tropes with fantasy (granted if you ask some folks it’s all fantasy). I’m honestly super thrilled to not have Hulkling be a bad guy, and that is cemented in him helping his friends almost immediately. A sigh of relief was breathed by all. I think this misdirection was masterfully done. Speaking of masterfully done, this section had some incredible sequences so I have to give it up to Schiti and Gracia for some dynamite art.

Captain Marvel, Accuser?

Mrs.: Who better to amplify the power of the Sword of Plot Convenience than our very own Captain Marvel? Carol, or should I say Car-Ell, is of course perfectly equipped to aid in a tag-team effort with Hulkling. How lucky for us! Though the sword knows friend from foe, becoming a human battery for sword-magic doesn’t seem to be the easiest of endeavors. Would it even be a heroic act if death weren’t on the table, sugar?

Mr.: This is a tiny bit where I’m going to roll my eyes, since we get a one panel death scene immediately reversed in the following pages. Oh well, it is a great introduction to the Accuser’s Hammer, which Reed Richards apparently jury-rigged into a defibrillator on the fly? That’s pretty much completely bonkers and I love it. We got some previews (we specifically sitting next to each other, probably holding hands, in a C2E2 panel approximately three centuries ago) of Carol getting the Ronan treatment. My dear, how is this new color scheme working out for you?

Mrs.: I don’t know if it’s going to be Pantone’s color of the year, but Carol can rock any suit she steps into. I’m personally a fan of the classic blue (which IS Pantone’s Color of The Year for 2020, btw). Aesthetics aside, Carol looks cool as heck as Car-Ell The Accuser. It’s an interesting turn of events as she was present for the fall of Hala and Ronan’s demise. Apparently dying for one panel earns you a ton of brownie points.

Mr.: We get an immediate bit of extreme foreshadowing, as Carol seems to be eager to use this new power, but also concerned she is going to have difficulties controlling it. This means there is no way in heck we’re getting done with this crossover without having some inner turmoil, likely to be covered by you and Cat in Captain C’s in the coming weeks. Christi dearest, how about this cliffhanger ending regarding The Pyre?

Mrs: This sounds like bad news not only for our heroes, but all of Earth as well. While we can all be fairly certain that Hulkling has no plans of wiping out the Earth, the calm resolve with which both Tanalth and Super-Skrull discuss The Pyre is certainly ominous. I love a good cliffhanger, but this one seems designed specifically to cause some anxiety that will have little payout. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong? Maybe the Earth will be destroyed and the Marvel line will end? Things to think about.

Mr.: I generally dug this issue, even if we’re still not to Earth yet. I think it had a great balance of plot and action, and gave us some great motivation and details that are already making this one of the more interesting crossover events I’ve encountered. I think going outside the box with the fake out and leaving several factions up in the air is making this a strong entry in the Marvel pantheon of events.

Mrs.: While the subject matter of our podcast leaves us uniquely suited to compare events, I will agree that this has a strong start while reserving judgement for its overall success. The bar for successful events is perhaps lower than it should be, oftentimes events being judged more by the new status quos they set forth than the merit of the stories they tell. Empyre has so far avoided dividing our heroes and given us an intriguing villain, so I’m definitely in.