Empyre Aftermath: Avengers #1

[laughing_tree]

I believe it was Joe Quesada who suggested having them already be married when the story starts and making that a revelation, and the idea strongly appealed for a number of reasons. To begin with, I liked the idea of a cliffhanger that was nice. Often, we try to get people to read the next issue by making them afraid for the characters, by leaving them in a terrible situation, or suggesting some awful thing on the horizon. We'd already played with the emotions of Hulkling fans by making him look like a bad guy at the end of INCOMING. This was an opportunity to do something nice for them, to give the fans something they'd wanted for a very long time, and center that relationship at the heart of the event. -- Al Ewing

Comments

[mazway_75]

I was about to say Brand has a point. I mean, same thing in "Secret Wars" when the Illumanti are called out on "you thought just because you're the "smartest around' no one else could help? How many died because you couldn't accept maybe we had different ideas?" So yeah, makes sense she'd be bickering as leaving out a key intergalatic group was a bad move.

Then they have to turn her into the extremist in the end to undermine her own words. Annoying with the newest "well-intentioned extremist" story to come.

[shadur]

I dunno, maybe it's the positioning, but it looks more to me like she's not part of what just destroyed Billy's empyre, she just shows up at the last possible moment with the force she built for exactly this kind of contingency, done in secret because she's goddamn tired of first being kept out of the loop in everything and then getting called as a resource when it's almost too late.

[tcampbell1000]

Yeah, that's how I saw it too.

[mazway_75]

Hmm....re-reading and now does seem that way, I misinerpeted how it seemed it was Brand attacking.

[erikred]

To be fair, I'd imagine there was some deliberate ambiguity intended by author and artist there.

[cainofdreaming]

So, that's Tessa in her group and Manifold and... Alex Hayden? Dunno about the fourth. Two swords, so it might be Wade, or Blade or Shatterstar.

[scorntx]

Given the only team member shown using swords is Kidble, it might be him.
(Unless Sword has a surprise team member... hmm...)

[nyadnar17]

Unless there are some missing pages isn't this just her returning to save everyone with her latest version of SWORD?

[gnarll]

No Magneto. Disappointed.

[scelestus]

Ack! Good point!!

[zachbeacon]

I don't see Scarlet Witch, Vision, or Quicksilver either; that's even worse. Not to mention former teammates like Loki, Blue Marvel, and Hawkguy.

Edit: Come to this of it, has Teddy ever meet Phyla-Vell? I seems weird that no one thought to invite his "sister".

[scorntx]

They're there, just milling around in the background.
Not getting in on the character scenes.
(Well, not Loki. He's not there. ... probably.)

[cainofdreaming]

He's there. Just as someone who is currently little tied up in the closet.

[scorntx]

Wouldn't want to see the closet that could hold Loki...

[cainofdreaming]

Other way around. He's there disguised as someone who is locked up in the closet.

[onsokumaru]

I missed him at first, but the other Hawkeye was here too.
Blue Marvel has never been teammate with Billy and Teddy, IIRC. Only his son was.
I agree it's bad that Vision and Wanda weren't there. But at the same time I'm glad that, for once, it was all about Hulkling. Not about Wiccan and his annoying family drama.
Still bteter than this cover with Weather Chick, Visor Dude and Leech Chick who have nothing to do with Hulkling and Wiccan or with the event.

[zachbeacon]

Okay, good. Clint seemed more willing to give those kids a chance than most early on.

Blue Marvel is always around in the Ewing era so I forget that he wasn't technically in the Avengers for part of it.

Combined the couple have, what, eight parents (nine if you count evil cosmic "mom") ? I know a lot of them are dead (probably not THAT big a deal when one of the grooms is a godlike sorcerer), but did ANY of the living parents show up?

As much as I love Web Man, I'd want my mom at my wedding more. I'd probably still invite Armor Guy, Hammer God, and Kitty-Cat King in the hopes of really impressive wedding gifts.

[scorntx]

Given what happened the last time Magneto came anywhere near Billy and Teddy, hard to blame anyone if they didn't invite him.

Besides, he'd probably just spend the reception sulking about something.
"Oh, getting married on a spaceship. What's wrong, Krakoa not good enough for you kids? I finally live long enough to see one of my grandkids actually married, and it's like this? Feh... (I give it five years.)"

[silverhammerman]

I suppose that technically, Magneto isn't related to Billy right now, since Scarlet Witch's background still hasn't be re-re-re-re-retconned from the reveal that Magneto's not her father.

Kind of surprised that they've didn't undo that whole thing as soon as the X-Men weren't persona non grata at Disney anymore, come to think of it.

[scorntx]

*phew*
For a minute there, it looked like Carol Danvers was going to go through the event without something unfair happening to her.
Couldn't let that happen![/sarcasm]
She really is the Charlie Brown of Marvel.
Always able to snatch failure and humiliation from the jaws of victory.

Really don't think it's fair to blame the entire alien invasion on her.
Like, maybe blame the genocidal plant aliens who lied to them?
Or Tony? Or Cap? They're right there in the room as well.
(I mean, apart from anything else it didn't look like there was much time between "Avengers are told the Kree-Skrull armada is coming" and "all chaos breaking lose"...
... maybe Abi's just picking up bad habits from dating Beast?)


Very disappointed this issue didn't have any interaction between Billy and his parents.
Like, they're there. They're right there! Would a sentence really hurt?
... mind, given the nature of parents in Marvel, maybe existing in a sort of shadowy limbo of existing but never actually doing anything is the best possible outcome for them.
(also no Billy / Wanda interaction. Grumble, mutter, grumble, etc.)


And given we now know the line-up of Brand's Swxrd team, guessing that might be an awkward moment when Teddy gets a look at them.
Either having to deal with the Grandpa in-law, or Hulkling noting she's got Fabian Cortez right there.
After all, if you can't trust a guy who backstabs everyone he's ever worked with, who can you trust?

[phantomfo]

It doesn't seem like Brand is blaming Carol for the invasion. She's blaming Carol for not looping in the rest of Alpha Flight once she realized the invasion was happening. She also does put some similar blame on Tony and Cap as part of the "seven people around a campfire" making decisions for everybody else.

[matrix_dragon]

Also, I thought there was mind shenanigans going on when the Avengers were making their plans at the start of Empyre? I figured keeping Earths space defences out of the loop was part of that.

[zachbeacon]

"You tried to get people killed so I'm making you a diplomat"

Yeah, not off to a strong start as king there, Teddy.


On the bright side someone slapped Carol and I always enjoy that.

[donnblake]

So, the Kree and Skrull empires have been conquered, divided, decimated, annihilated and riven by civil war enough that I don't have a clear idea what "King of Space," means (or when the Kree became a hereditary monarchy). Does Teddy now rule all Kree and Skrull? Do either of those empires have subject species (they've both been fairly aggressive expansionists in the past, and if they've genocided all the races they've conquered... I guess Teddy's going to have to order some more desks for the diplomatic corps) and if so, is Teddy claiming to rule over them as well?

Does he just mean that he rules *all* of space? And all the planets located within it? Because I can think of a few folks that might have a problem with that...

[cainofdreaming]

Well, he's got a sword that the Lady in the Space Lake gave him. That's a good basis for a system of government, right?

[scorntx]

Ordinarily, the argument should be made that distrubin' swords is no basis for a system of government, and that supreme executive power should come from a mandate from the masses.
But this is the Marvel universe. Those masses are almost certainly a bunch of bloody idiots.

[themajesticmoose]

Strange women passing out swords is absolutely a better basis for a system of government than anything the Kree or Skrull had going on before

[lordultimus]

The Kree have gotten disillusioned with the Supreme Intelligence and view Mar-Vell and his lineage through a religious lens. There are Kree and Skrulls that don't acknowledge him, but they're very small and weak. The newly joined empire don't rule all space, but they're the biggest power now.

[donnblake]

Well that's fair. You can probably only nuke your own people so many times before they start questioning whether you really have their best interests at heart.

[bruinsfan]

The Skrulls have been shown to have assimilated the gods of the species they've conquered, but I don't think it was established whether those species themselves still exist or were wiped out and replaced ages ago. I think the Shi'ar are the only empire of the big three explicitly shown to have a diverse population of member worlds, though it would stand to reason the other two would as well.

I believe the former Skrull Empire was the Andromeda Galaxy and the former Kree Empire was the Large Magellanic Cloud. I don't think any of the alien worlds in the Milky Way are under the direct control of either, they're more like the assorted nations of Africa regarding the Axis Powers vs. Allies. With Earth in the Casablanca role.

[cainofdreaming]

Yeah, Milky Way is mostly Badoon.

[shakalooloo]

I'm sorry, I don't care who thought up the idea, I still think that having the wedding be just a flashback bridging two issues was a bad idea for the event.

[leahandillyana]

I still believe this event may be the death of Marvel.

[donnblake]

Because of featuring gay characters, you mean? I was actually leaning the opposite way, and wondering if spotlighting Teddy was intended to raise some awareness of him prior to sticking him in the movies. I think that Disney/Marvel/Skynet/Haliburton realized, with Black Panther (and, the same year, the release of Crazy Rich Asians) that traditionally underrepresented groups would pay to see movies about folks like them. And with the exception of certain X-men, subtextually or otherwise, Hulkling and Wicca are the first characters to leap to mind when I think "Gay Marvel Heroes."

[jlbarnett]

no offense to fans of Brand, but I hope no one ever gives her that moment of glory in a real story

[mistersandman]

Ewing is writing SWORD and he wrote this issue, so I would expect to see that moment occur in an issue of SWORD or some cosmic crossover in the near future.

[starwolf_oakley]

"Funny" references to CIVIL WAR aren't that funny.

"Hey, remember that time we nearly murdered each other because I became a fascist and you became a libertarian?"

[dynamiterave]

Does anyone know what happened with Beast and Agent Brand's relationship? Last I saw they were in a happy situation and gushing over each other, etc.

Now Beast is on Krakoa being .. weird and Brand is over here. Did they break up? Does anyone know of an issue I can look up to see what happened?

[themajesticmoose]

Loved this issue and this event as a whole

This and X of Swords is the first time I've ever actually liked a Marvel event. I normally view Marvel's "Events" like Civil War, AXIS, Secret Empire etc as being both painfully boring and absolute garbage.

But I've absolutely loved every single issue of Empyre especially this one and X of Swords while it had its flaws was still much more enjoyable than any of Marvel's previous X events