Is Everyone As They Seem in Empyre #4?

Grim solutions start to percolate, a desperate plea is made, and no one is as they seem in Empyre #4 by Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, and Joe Caramagna!

Mr. Chris Eddleman: Christi, sun and moon of my life, it is awfully odd skipping issues, even though we do it for our sanity. Last we spoke (at all, we remain silent in our home and only communicate through comics reviews and podcasting), we were wondering who the mystery space figure was, and what was really going on here? Last issue, we found out Tanalth the Pursuer was in fact, Hulkling’s Grandma in Disguise and that she was masterminding the Alliance for her own purposes. Surely this is the last twist.

Mrs. Christina Eddleman: Darling, I must confess an indiscretion on my part. Last week I wrote about an Empyre tie-in with another. I promise you, it meant nothing. No really, nothing, as Captain Marvel’s adventure in the tie-in seems to have no impact on this issue. A classic event move. But boy do we have a lot to unpack in this issue, so let’s get to it!

Alexa, How Do I Blow Up The Sun?

Mr.: So the biggest complaint I’ve seen about Empyre, dearest, is that it’s a very boring event comic. You and I have read frankly far too many events, and I’m kind of refreshed with the scheming, to be quite honest. It’s an event that’s kind of light on punching, mostly relegating the combat to the tie-ins, whereas your older events (looking heavily at the distinguished competition) loved to just summarize tie-ins for page after page. I love the intrigue and the conversation, I guess I’m just super boring, huh?

Mrs.: Only my favorite sort of boring, my love. It is certainly refreshing to read an event that is more than one long, protracted battle. This is a long, protracted battle with INTRIGUE and CONVERSATION! The overarching theme of a new generation dealing with the consequences of the choices made by their forebears adds a complexity to the punching that is refreshing. They didn’t start the fire, but one of them may need to blow up the sun, as it were. Is this your classic trolley problem, sugarplum, or something more?

Mr.: It’s always wild to me when in superhero comics, they just get really metric with it. Millions, vs TRILLIONS?! It’s all big numbers right? Well, Hulkling has somewhat suddenly decided to turn from benevolent heroic king to very evil emperor, and use his Death St–err Pyre to destroy the sun and get rid of this whole Cotati problem in one fell swoop. I think for this to be a trolley problem, the heroes would have to be the one making the choice, my sweet, but instead it’s now a problem to fully overcome. Why choose the one or the many when instead you can stop the trolley. Ethicists need creative solutions. Not just broad spectrum Round-Up in cosmic form. What do you think about this “turn” for Hulkling?

Mrs.: Before I realized something was up, I thought it was a really strange bout of bad writing. I kept thinking, “Clearly I missed an issue where Hulkling experienced a personality altering event.” In the tie-in that didn’t matter, Hulkling was definitely upset with Carol, but not death-sentence upset. Clearly other forces are at work here. What did you think about Carol and Johnny’s banishment, my sweet?

Mr.: I think it’s the kick in the pants that this crossover needed to really get the momentum going. While I enjoy the intrigue, Carol and Johnny have in fact been standing on a spaceship throne room for three issues. They got in a fun fight, beautifully rendered by Schiti and Gracia, Carol whalloped my new favorite character Captain Glory, and poof, Mur’Gnn teleported them away. This was a fun little fight to me, and got to show a little bit of character for Mur’Gnn, since she clearly had other motivations here than simply serving her emperor.

Mrs.: Whether or not the only spell she had prepared was indeed a teleportation spell, I really enjoyed where the two wound up. The only thing Mur’Gnn was prepared to do at a moment’s notice? Take people to Billy’s house. Sounds like really solid mage-work. I agree, however, that it’s just what we needed to get us back to earth.

Alexa, How Do I Stop my Son?

Mr.: Now we get into the meat of the heroes’ problems, as Tony and Reed have a man-to-man about the impossible sun-destroying power they have to face. Ewing really makes me like these guys, which is basically impossible to do because they’re both egotistical smarty pants. Tony Stark trying to fix a problem by building an Iron Man is pretty great if a little silly, and provides us with a nice Chekhov’s gun for later.

Mrs.: I need to know though, what will this armor bust? Plants? Reed has some real dad energy with the salt-and-pepper hair and beard, and it frankly makes me uncomfortable. I refuse to find him endearing…. But we did establish in our first article that we were both Sue, so maybe we’re weak to Reed? This is all contextualized by the narration of T’Challa, giving us further insight into the motivation and fears of our Avengers. Things are definitely not going well in Wakanda. What do you think of the dilemma facing the King of Wakanda, my banana nut muffin?

Mr.: You’re maybe getting into this too much, dear. So the nature of kingship is a classic T’Challa issue, and through him we get a fantastic juxtaposition to the very sinister scorched Earth tactics of one Dorrek VIII. I loved the narration from Black Panther, even as the fight for his kingdom looks more and more desperate. I like that as king he remains peace minded, even as he goes to war. A clever little bit, which leads us into some much needed family therapy.

Mrs.: A surprise therapy session with an estranged mom is a total nightmare scenario that only goes well in fiction, so I’m very glad that Mantis isn’t successful in her attempts to mediate a peace with Quoi. Her arguments are sound but, “Can you live with doing a genocide?” is probably a question Quoi has already pondered.

Mr.: A solid argument to be sure. One of the themes of this crossover has been that the Cotati have become victims to the human influence foisted upon them by Swordsman, the human side of Quoi. I think it’s fitting that the likewise Cotati-influenced-but-also-human Mantis is using her compassionate human side to try to talk her son out of his current course of action. A nice duality.

Mrs.: I agree, the Cotati were very peaceful before the Celestial Messiah came along. Swordsman and Mantis as a more nuanced devil and angel is enjoyable. Maybe family therapy would have gone a bit better if it hadn’t been interrupted by a twist!

Alexa, if that is Your Real Name.

Mr.: So while this began a little bit last issue, it’s become pretty clear that a subtheme of this crossover, or maybe just one of its oft used motifs, is deception. And that comes into play to interrupt our reunion as we get the revelation that back on the moon, She-Hulk was horribly murdered and taken over by Cotati, in a design that is incredibly gross (thank you Valerio Schiti). This was a pretty good twist, and is a very Al Ewing thing, since it looks to lead into her Immortal She-Hulk tie-in that’s coming out later. Jen hasn’t really been in the Hulk books, and I’m thrilled that Ewing is likely bringing her in, even if it had to be in horrifying fashion. Thoughts on this twist?

Mrs.: I thought Jen had just gotten to be smart again when she got a cool hammer, but I guess she just got inhabited by vegetation. Super bummer that she’s dead; super hopeful that she’ll come back rebooted in a run I can get excited about. Should we have seen this coming? Maybe. Am I glad I didn’t so that reveal could totally shock me? Absolutely. Deception is so fun, and I’m sure that’s not all folks. Who else might be pulling the wool over our eyes, my apple strudel?

Mr.: So I think that Dorrek VIII is of course, not Teddy, but instead his shape-shifting Skrull grandmother who I mentioned above. However, with the realization that the Cotati can simply use green people (what a wild reveal), it is slightly possible that he is being taken over by the Cotati. However I doubt they’d go this far on the Pyre plan if that were the case but it would be another interesting twist.

Mrs.: While both are possible, I have to agree that your first theory is sound. What led us to believe that it was certainly Teddy because it was his DNA? The hammer Tanalth (or as we now know, R’Klll) gave Carol. Not suspicious at all. What really puts our minds at ease that Hulkling hasn’t had a major personality change is the big reveal of the issue. Cue the wedding bells!

Mr.: What a lovely ending! There was trepidation amongst fans about this issue because of the way it was advertised, which was Conqueror Hulkling! So, people were a bit nervous about this relationship. However, we get the this big splash page of the wedding of Wiccan and Hulkling, the first gay hero-hero wedding in Marvel. A feel good conclusion to be certain, and a definitive that whoever is playing the part is NOT Hulkling. A great wrap-up (with semi-cliffhanger) to an issue I loved.

Mrs.: It’s about time! Who would’ve thought an issue where She-Hulk had a plant crawl out of her face would have given us such a heartwarming ending. Intrigue, body horror, romance, what more can a gal ask for? While Empyre isn’t immune to event pitfalls, it’s certainly delivering the content I crave (okay, maybe not the body horror though).