Empyre #1

[laughing_tree]

On the Avengers side, it's always nice when I really get to take a proper look at Iron Man. Remembering, of course, that I love heroes most for their flaws and faults -- and Tony has some major flaws. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[cricharddavies]

Gasp, shock, amaze, the Cotati are bad. I'm flabbergasted by this development, aren't you?

[leahandillyana]

Considering the Ameircan media's aversion towards complexity, I'm pleasantly surprised they went with this twist.

[jlbarnett]

seriously? It's no longer a twist at this point. Someone with power who claims to be good and to want to help large numbers of people instead of just a general let's not let bad people hurt people, is always going to be bad

[leahandillyana]

That’s a pretty emblematic mindset in itself.

[jlbarnett]

yes it is

[scorntx]

Indeed. Totally shocked. Blown away.
The aliens acting very shady turned out to be the actual villains.

[nyadnar17]

Never in a million years would I believe the Utopian minded Aliens would be evil. I am emotionally crushed by this completely unexpected development.

[zachbeacon]

I think I liked Teddy better when he was Billy's boring boyfriend.


Also I kinda love Thor here. That expression is just so perfect. "Obviously there's something off with Jen now but I just do not have time to deal with that at the moment"

[icon_uk]

I liked quiet Teddy, but I was getting a little tired of him getting no focus when he's the heir to two cosmic space empires.

I also like that he was actually right. He took the chance to trust and unite the factions agaisnt a common foe. And he'd have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling superheroes.

[zachbeacon]

I just always found Teddy to be the least interesting of both his teammates and siblings.

Uniting two warring empires is theoretically a good thing but - when one of their common enemies is humanity - maybe he should be a little more picky about advisors. Also, why would the Kree listen to him anyway? I get that his mom is Skrull royalty but his father was just a Kree soldier who went native after they sent him to spy on the humans. Marv was exiled.

Yes, I'm aware of the sword and the whole "king of space" thing but that hadn't been touched in years. The sword has been a fireplace poker (or was it in an umbrella stand?) since Ewing wrote Teddy out of the Avengers.

[john_wyatt]

I was unfamiliar with the sword and 'king of space' reference you made, but it makes me more intrigued by what I read in Ewing's script in Empyre #1 Director's Cut describing the panel on pages 23 in which Mjolnir hits Hulkling's sword:

"The hammer hits the flat of the blade--and stops dead....like the sword has negated the power of the hammer. (That's why I think this is the framing moment, mirroring the first panel--showing the Star-Sword is as powerful as Mjolnir is. A big beat, given how important the sword will be moving forward.)"

The script also has a number of sentences redacted, making me wonder what's being teased.

[zachbeacon]

Ewing had a previous run on Avengers that kept changing titles/lineups. While Teddy and Billy were on the team, Hulkling was abducted by some aliens that wanted him to lead them*. Then this happens...

https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5863072.html
https://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/5937767.html

After Teddy and Billy left the Avengers in one of the title/lineup shifts, the plot got dropped for four years.


*That actually happens to him a lot between that, the current crossover, and the original Young Avengers series.

[thehood]

So what's the issue with them doing something interesting with him? Though i don't agree with the notion that Teddy isn't interesting already.

[zachbeacon]

In theory? Nothing. Thanks to writers who picked her up after the original YA, Kate has gone from some rich girl playing dress-up to the best character in the group.

But they only want to tell one story with Teddy. Aliens show up to tell Hulkling that he's a very special boy and he should lead them. They've told this story three times now.

[thehood]

That's an over simplification and this particular story is continuing established plot threads. And your previous comment sounded like you just didn't want them to do anything with him.

[scorntx]

Tony... you screwed up royal.
... I mean, at least the Avengers one-shot telegraphed "TONY'S HEAD IS BEING MESSED WITH."
And Jen wasn't firing on all cylinders, and then has her head messed with. Ghost Rider's a newbie at this, Thor is just too trusting and Carol...
... well, Carol makes the worst choice every time.
No idea what T'Challa and Cap's excuse is, though.
"Low level perception filter, or maybe we're just thick."

Quoi turning out to suddenly be evil? Truly, he is Mantis's son.
... plus, he's a teenager.
(Oh, dear. That strawman from that other crossover Marvel's doing might have a point!)

[nyadnar17]

To be fair, even if they knew something was up with the Quoi I doubt they would be ok with genocide happening in their backyard.

[shadowpsykie]

I thought Mantis was a good guy...?

[scorntx]

Yes. Yes she is.
And she has never been suddenly retconned to be evil.
Never.

[coldfury]

It's really weird to try to reconcile Avengers Mantis with GotG Mantis.

[zachbeacon]

This One doesn't know what you're talking about.

[starwolf_oakley]

T'Challa and Cap were "stop the murders first, sort out the politics later." Both the Black Panther and Captain America have been willing to negotiate after the fighting stops. Perhaps they were also willing to go along with Tony and Carol before any lines were crossed.

"Tony and Carol seem a little off, T'Challa. Not 'off' off but..."
"My senses would detect if they had imbibed any alcohol. However, their behavior indicates the Coati are more than just 'convincing' them."
"Well, I'm not going to start a fight with them right now until we know for sure."

[leahandillyana]

Plus, last time I checked, Tony was dead, Jen was dead, Thor was evil, Carol was evil, and Steve was distrusted by the public. Robbie and T'Challa are the only ones who are plausible to be there, but T'Challa has his own space army who are nowhere in sight.

[scorntx]

Well, Jen has the probable excuse that she's a Hulk, and therefore impossible to actually kill right now.

T'Challa's space army is probably sitting around waiting for a call (I think there was supposed to be a Black Panther tie-in, but it got cancelled? Unless it shows up anyway?)

Steve being distrusted by the public prrrrobably doesn't matter when he's in space.

And Tony and Thor... got better?

-Carol was evil-
... as opposed to?

[zerocaloriecola]

Well carol was presenting better options, like 'Lets try diplomacy with Alpha flight" or "On earth the skrull said to beware the trees".

I guess tony was leading here though.

[shadowpsykie]

love that teddy was right... but i am sorry, any story that has Teddy in it HAS TO HAVE Billy Kaplan!

[obsidianwolf]

He's in the event including a tie in all about the current state of their relationship but well it's typical marvel event stuff so you know how it goes

[thehood]

If you mean the Strikeforce tie in, that was canceled.

[lordultimus]

He's showing up later.

[beyondthefringe]

This week, no less.

[onsokumaru]

I actually don't want Wiccan to be in this story. He had too many stories focused on him, and is allowed to go appear without Hulkling in Strikeforce and occasionally alongside magic users.
Now it's Hulkling's time to shine and to be a character instead of being just "&Hulkling".

[leahandillyana]

Agreed.

[thehood]

There have been plenty of stories that focused on Billy and very few that focused on Teddy. So i can understand wanting to give Teddy room too breathe.

[superfangirl1]

Ouch to the panel of mr. fantastic and the thing being stab. She-hulk do your thing girl.

[shakalooloo]

Without Vision around to be the non-human hero hetting torn to shreds to show how dangerous a threat is, I guess a rubber man and a man of rocks are the next best thing.

[phantomfo]

Ghost Rider taking over a Quinjet is just another one of those inspired throwaway beats that Ewing makes seem so easy.

[malitia]

I generally hate events... but this is surprisingly fun, and I kinda feel we can brace ourselves for several betrayals and whatnot before this is over. (What I'm saying: Outside of the Avengers/FF, literally everybody is shady here.)

[starwolf_oakley]

"Tony, what did you do *this* time?"

That will probably be said a lot during this event.

[scorntx]

Get the other Avengers aren't going to let him live this one down any time soon.

[mazway_75]

Sure the alien twist was obvious yet still like how it goes from a seemingly clear Earth vs Kree/Skrull thing to a more unique tale.

[obsidianwolf]

You know this perfectly illustrates the problem with Events being so constant for so long.

Because aside from being really predictable this isn't actually that bad and probably could be a fun romp despite how predictable it is.

However, I'm just so sick of events that I just don't have any drive to really pay attention to it.

[wizardru]

Oh, another event where the heroes are actually the problem, not the solution. That's "new".

It's really getting tiresome how Marvel doesn't want to give its heroes adventures to have that don't start with them making their own problem. Also, getting really tired of 'Oh, Tony's always doing the thing that makes everything bad' that has become his character calling card since Civil War. There was a time when he and Reed weren't the source of all the problems or bad decisions.

And I like Slott and love Ewing, so I like a lot of this, but I'm kind of tired of this kind of plot point.

[alliterator]

Oh, another event where the heroes are actually the problem, not the solution. That's "new".

The heroes aren't the problem. The Cotati are the problem. The heroes were manipulated by the Cotati, but now they understand who the bad guys are.

[thehood]

Except they aren't, the antagonist are the invading forces, not the heroes.

[jlbarnett]

god give me some writers who love heroes for their heroism

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, the last post here made it sound like Ewing hated Tony, and I kinda figured that wasn't right. Ewing's got an honest love for all the toys, which is practically a requirement for a good Marvel writer at this point.

But, unlike a lot of other writers and the company as a whole, he's not ageist.

The fact that Hulkling turns out to be in the right here qualifies as a twist not because it's so unimaginable, but because he's not a member of the "aristocracy," those blessed creations that have been part of Marvel's brand since the Stan Lee days or very soon after.

[thehood]

Plus Al has written Tony before and it never seemed like he hated the character.