Empyre: Captain America & The Avengers

Empyre

by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Jim Zub, Carlos Magno (Illustrator)

When the united Kree/Skrull army targets Earth, Captain America sends out a call for heroes to meet its global invasion! Which Avengers will assemble to fight a war on three fronts? In New York, a villain from the past is super-charged with alien energy! In Mexico, old hatreds turn allies into enemies! And in the Savage Land, the soul of the jungle has been stolen - and Shanna the She-Devil's life hangs in the balance! Prepare for mystery, magic and mayhem in the Mighty Marvel Manner! COLLECTING: Empyre: Captain America #1-3, Empyre: Avengers #1-3

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Graphic Novels, Fiction

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2020

About the author

Phillip Kennedy Johnson earned a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas, where he served as Teaching Fellow for the Department of Jazz Studies, and a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastern Kentucky University. SFC Johnson has performed with the Lexington Philharmonic, Dallas Opera, Washington Symphonic Brass, and the Moscow Ballet, and was a member of the Glenn Miller Orchestra from 2004 to 2005. SFC Johnson remains active as a composer, arranger, teacher, and clinician, and also enjoys a second career as a writer of comics and graphic novels. His work has been published by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, BOOM! Studios, and more.

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike what it says in the Goodreads description this contains the three Avengers and three Captain America Empyre specials. Both books are a complete waste of time and do not need reading to follow EmpyreEmpyre! Huge fans of Ka-Zar & Shanna may want to read the Avengers books; the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Luke Cage, etc, appearances have no bearing at all! The Captain America book is far superior but is just a rehash of the 'Cap fights alongside US soldiers' trope. Barely scraping Two stars, 4 out of 12.

Empyre is beginning to look like, overall, the worse Marvel event, I have ever read... or at least as bad as the very awful Shadowland!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects two 3 issue mini-series; Empyre: The Avengers and Empyre: Captain America.

The artwork on both minis is excellent; absolutely no complaints on that front. Applause for all the artists involved!

The Avengers mini sees two squads of Avengers fighting the Cotati invasion on two fronts.

Firstly, we have the Vision, Luke Cage and Dr. Nemesis fighting a Cotati-amped Plantman in Central Park (I think? Unless there’s another large park in NYC I’m not aware of). This half of the story is basically just a slugfest but it’s done well and it was cool seeing three Avengers working together in a combo I don’t think we’ve seen before.

Secondly, we have Ka-Zar, the Scarlet Witch and the Black Knight tackling the Cotati forces in the Savage Land. I really enjoyed this one as there were some cool surprises along the way and it actually has some long-lasting ramifications for Ka-Zar and his family. It’s also SO GOOD seeing Dane fight with the Avengers again!

The Captain America mini was fine story-wise but it did occasionally feel like Cap-by-numbers as Steve leads a squad of US soldiers against the Cotati attacking Mexico City. The giant Cotati monster felt a little too much like Tundra from Alpha Flight to get any points for originality. I enjoyed seeing Cap telling off the big brass of the US military, though.

Captain America #1-3: story 3*, artwork 4*
Avengers #1-3: story 4*, artwork 4*

Overall: 3.75 stars, rounded up.

My next book: Empyre

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Various Avengers around the world fight the Cotati as part of the Empyre event. None of this is essential reading but it's not bad either, if you're looking for reserve Avengers teaming up to fight alien plant people.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was much better than the rest of the tie-ins to the event. Cap goes along with the army to fight the Cotati, as he should, and the story is nice and interesting with great artwork and some amazing coloring to go with it.

Not a need-to-read for the main event but fun nonetheless.

[Alex Sarll]

Among the many problems with Marvel's disappointing plant invasion event Empyre was that the story mainly featured superheroes fighting aliens on the Moon, or the bridges of spaceships – near Earth, with the fate of Earth in the balance, but with the impact of the Cotati attack on Earth barely glimpsed. The first of the two tie-ins collected here goes some way to remedying that, showing Cap fighting alongside a regular US military unit to turn the tide on the ground. I believe writer Philip Kennedy Johnson has an armed forces background himself, and it shows – this is a story about Cap as soldier, the way that right back to his early days he's as often been a force multiplier for trained human fighters as he has a superhero per se. It's no classic, but it does get across the experience of humanity fighting for survival against "salad people" in a way Empyre proper never did. It's just a shame that Ariel Olivetti's art goes a little past military discipline and into outright woodenness when it comes to the supporting cast's face acting. Carlos Magno, on the other hand, provides some lovely trippy visuals for the Avengers miniseries, only to be let down by the script. Written by the reliably so-so Jim Zub, it's really more an Agents Of Wakanda story, but that's not such a sellable title. Three strands follow various B- and C-listers as they deal with plots that attempt to add more variety to the Cotati thread, but mainly just feel like grasping. And dear heavens, if I've generally considered Ka-Zar little more than Marvel's Tarzan knock-off, spending more time with the rest of his family has really not given me cause to reconsider.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Empyre tie-in, this one covers two different stories:
1) Captain America is doing his best, but needs soldiers helping him out against the Cotati threat. Cotati controller (able to command minor forces and create plant beasts) Shi Qaanth decides to awaken a huge grassy mountain to attack Mexico City. Mission rejected by US Armed Forces, Captain America pulls rank and takes the soldiers to stop the threat anyway.
2) The Avengers are dividing their forces across the globe and the 3 issue "Empyre: Avengers" series deals with 3 Cotati attacks:
a) An attack in the Savage Land. Ka-Zar, Zabu, Scarlet Witch, Black Knight and Doctor Voodoo tackle Cotati who have taken control of Shanna and Man-Thing.
b) An attack in Central Park NYC. Luke Cage, Vision, and Doctor Nemesis take down a plant based villain known as Plantman who has sided with the Cotati for the promise of more power.
c) Mockingbird, Wonder Man, and Quicksilver team up with a Kree-Skrull Alliance force to fight Cotati in Mexico, but the Kree and Skrulls allow their previous hostilities to get in the way.

Overall, not essential to understand the whole Empyre crossover, but still decent stories worth a read. If you are a crossover completionist, this one is worth checking out.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are really two stories included in this volume.

Empyre: Captain America #1-3: This one is pretty good. Focused story and nice art that’s consistent. Ties in well with the larger crossover arc, without contradicting events occurring elsewhere.

Empyre: The Avengers #1-3: On the other hand, this one tries to do too much and ends up being nothing more and series of short vignettes that don’t really progress and help the larger story much at all. At least we got to see the Man-Thing in action in the Savage Land (if only briefly).

Nothing really outstanding here, but nothing really terrible either.

[Brandon · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Avengers mini has Jim Zub and Carlos Magno drawing some fan-favourite lower tier Avengers as they fight around the world and adventure through the Savage Land fighting plant people. I like the cast, but the story really doesn't matter or do anything exciting other than seeing Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Ka-Zar, Wonder Man, Black Knight, and various others actually being in a book. The art switches between looking ghastly when there's a close-up on the character's face, and looking pretty damn cool when the plant monsters attack.

Unfortunately this collection as the Captain America mini and it is garbage. Actually offensive, horrible stuff. The mini is about how these religious zealots are invading western civilization and converting others to their side like an infection, taking inspiration from a sacred prophet who wants to end civilization, and the only ones who can stop these monsters are the brave soldiers of the US military. Captain America leads American military forces, championing how it isn't about politics but it's just about what "makes us right". It's garbage military propoganda, written 100% seriously since the writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson is an active part of the military.

The Avengers mini is okay but there's no real reason to recommend it. And the fact that this trade comes with the Captain America mini, probably the worst thing to come out of this entire event, means I highly recommend never touching this trade ever.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume includes two three issue mini-series, Empyre: Captain America and Empyre: Avengers. Hence Captain America & The Avengers, I suppose.

Empyre: Avengers, by Jim Zub and Carlos Magno, feels like an extension of what Zub has been doing over in Black Panther & The Agents Of Wakanda. It's a lot of random ass characters pulling together to be far more impressive than they've got any right to be. This book will make you appreciate Shanna The She-Devil in a whole new light, same with Man-Thing (although I already loved Man-Thing (no jokes, please)). Magno's art feels a little static, but it's highly detailed and well coloured as well - the different locales really pop when the scenes change due to the colour choices.

Empyre: Captain America is by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Ariel Olivetti (speaking of static artwork). Johnson's not a writer I'm very familiar with, but after reading this I'll be sure to take more notice of him. His grasp of Cap's character and his role in wars is obvious, and he managed to make me care about some side characters we'll likely never see again all while adding in a multi-level plot to destroy Cap by the Cotati that plays out across the three issues. Surprisingly good stuff.

Hardly essential, as most tie-ins to event comics tend to be, but not bad at all. If you want more Empyre, then this'll probably do the trick for now.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Captain America crossover didn't really fit very well with the main event, partly because it seemed a bit confused about where it was taking place, geographically, jumping between the vicinity of the Pentagon and Mexico City without much concern for the distance between being covered by conventional ground vehicles. There was also no apparent concern for another crossover tie-in taking place in Mexico City, either... and if any of the people turned green like the main storyline said they should if taken over by Cotati, it wasn't apparent enough for me to see it (though I am color blind, which might be the issue).

The Avengers crossover was a bit better by my standards, though it featured some outlier characters heading to the Savage Land for an adventure. I appreciated seeing the Black Knight in something, and enjoyed the Ka-Zar story, since he gets few enough stories of his own any more. It made sense, but wasn't terribly necessary to the rest of the story, and dealt mostly with less important Avengers characters. I liked that about it, but it also made it feel a bit less important.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects two three issue miniseries related to Empyre, one for Captain America and one for the Avengers as a whole. I liked the Captain America story. It's kind of nostalgic, partnering Cap with some normal soldiers in what is largely a normal battle. Sure, it has approximately zero impact on the actual Empyre story, but it was fun, and I enjoyed seeing Cap go back to his roots. The Avengers mini, on the other hand, was a mess. It's three different stories divided between a bunch of characters who are, technically, Avengers, none of whom are currently appearing in the actual Avengers book. None of the three stories are great, which is made more obvious by how the mini constantly switched between them. It would have been much better if each issue had concentrated on one of those stories, or at least used a less random collection of characters.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aside from the old-school comicbook complaint that "most of these heroes on the cover do not appear in this team book" this was pretty good. Micro-stories about the siege on many fronts that was the Coatati invasion of Earth during Empyre, this starts with Cap and a unit of US Army soliders and spends its time on the ground with the grunts, and ends with even smaller tales featuring Mockingbird, Wonder Man, Quicksilver, the Wakandans, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Voodoo, Man-Thing, Black Knight and the main family of the Savage Land. Fun without being epic, and a worthy extra chapter or six on Empyre.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This pair of titles compiled into a single volume largely focus on the ground-level conflict as Earth's heroes do their best to mitigate the civilian casualties in the ongoing conflict between the Coati and the new combined Kree-Skrull Empire. Captain America's story was very military rah-rah in tone and has Cap attached to a military unit that tries to help him troubleshoot different conflicts. This was largely okay but nothing amazing.

The Avengers mini-series has a few Avengers teams trying to help out around the world as dispatched by Black Panther. Good Avengers-style action with alternate members we haven't seen in a while as the main team is busy off-planet. Generally good stuff.

[Mr Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this mostly because it featured a lot of Avengers that were in Avengers teams around the time I started getting into comics: Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, Wonder Man, Quicksilver, Mockingbird and Vision. Many of whom get little panel time these days.

The story was decent, Zub is a solid writer. I'm a sucker for the type of storyline that requires a team to split into smaller squads to face a threat on multiple fronts. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it without my built-in fondness for the characters, but they definitely account for at least one of the stars...

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty unnecessary. The Cotati invasion has come to many Earth's many corners and the Avengers are there to thwart them. Sadly, because these stories here are tie-ins, they really don't matter. Nothing here effects the Empyre story. The art however, was very good by Ariel Olivetti and Carlos Magno. They both did great especially with the many plant creatures. Overall, a superfluous book that won't be remembered.

[Ernest · Rating 2 out of 5]

This volume is a tie-in to the main Empyre storyline about a united Kree/Skrull army targeting Earth and heroes of Earth having to (again) defend the world. Although at least notionally linked, the stories here largely stand on their own, the writers able to use some non-main storyline characters in different ways. Approached as a filler and read as a discardable volume once done (with some nice art panels), I suppose it can be said to fulfil its objective.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprising to no one, tie-in books can be notoriously awful. Not so with these ones. Good stories. Not essential to understanding the main story plot, but good stories, which is all I ask. The Avengers art and story was particularly good. Some of ths Empyre story logic doesn't always work...but such is life with comic books.

[Bárbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

La primera parte me pareció mejor planteada, además de tratarse más equitativamente de personajes que me parecen más interesantes. La segunda parte me pareció más desordenada, mucho más floja en cuanto a desarrollo de personaje (que es lo que me gusta más, y algo que Marvel en general hace muy bien).
De lo más flojo que vengo leyendo últimamente.

[Willow · Rating 2 out of 5]

These two miniseries just weren't interesting. Nothing really happens, they don't add anything to the main event plot, it's just lots of big splash pages of fights loosely tied together with minimal plot. Maybe if I was following some of the characters I'd care more? But I don't think so.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now let us never speak of this crossover event again.

[David Foxcroft · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather boring and formulaic addition to the Empyre story line. It doesn’t add much to the overall plan and can easily be missed with everything else going on at the moment

[Lillian Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

[Sonic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed results with the Cap series maybe being one of the better crossovers. The Avengers series is like 3 in one and jumps around a lot.

[Bekka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great tie-in to the Empyre event.
TW for war, violence, guns, death, mentions of bombs.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 355