Lords of Empyre

Empyre

by Chip Zdarsky

Emperor Dorrek VIII is the son of Kree hero Mar-Vell and the Skrull princess Anelle. For years, he lived on Earth as the heroic Young Avenger called Hulkling, evading the clutches of both bloodthirsty empires. But his long-avoided destiny has caught up to him - and now Hulkling must take the throne! Elsewhere, the young Cotati called Quoi faces his hour of ascension! Will he become the Celestial Messiah, the role he was prophesized to play - or will his mother, Mantis, stand in his way? Plus: The Avenger called Swordsman may be long dead, but his shadow looms large across the galaxy! And when the Kree/Skrull armies target Earth, they'll encounter resistance - in the form of the Squadron Supreme! COLLECTING: LORDS OF EMPYRE: EMPEROR HULKLING (2020) 1, LORDS OF EMPYRE: CELESTIAL MESSIAH (2020) 1, LORDS OF EMPYRE: SWORDSMAN (2020) 1, EMPYRE: SAVAGE AVENGERS (2020) 1

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

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 17, 2020

About the author

Chip Zdarsky is a Canadian comic book artist and journalist. He was born Steve Murray but is known by his fan base as Chip Zdarsky, and occasionally Todd Diamond. He writes and illustrates an advice column called Extremely Bad Advice for the Canadian national newspaper National Post's The Ampersand, their pop culture section's online edition. He is also the creator of Prison Funnies and Monster Cops.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

All of these but Celestial Messiah were surprisingly good. Typically, ancillary tie-in books to events are crap, but these actually added to the overall story.

[Baba · Rating 1 out of 5]

The three 'Lords of Empire' one-shot and the Savage Avengers one-shot aren't that connected to each other, as the the first three look at the background of key players, Swordsman, Hulkling and Quoi, whereas the Savage Avengers is essentially 32 pages of Conan and Venom fighting Cotati in Mexico City (with poor art). The big question, is, are these worth reading for the Empyre reading order? The truth is ...NO! 3 out of 12.

Also all the man on man kissing and cuddling which is meant to promote/show diversity (The Hulkling issue), just looks false, and like it is written and drawn to tick a diversity box, like a lot of Marvel's so called diversity.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a collection of four one-shots, this is a pretty mixed bag. The first three at least offer some interesting backstory to the whole Empyre event; the fourth is just a pointless slugfest... but it does have the best artwork of the bunch.

Emperor Hulking: story 3*, art 3*
Swordsman: story 4*, artwork 3*
Celestial Messiah: story 4*, artwork 3*
Savage Avengers: story 2*, artwork 4*

Overall: 3.25 stars, rounded down.

My next book: Empyre: Captain America & The Avengers

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The major players of Empyre get some spotlight here, as Swordsman, Hulkling, and Quoi's one-shots shed some light on their inner motivations that fuel them during the event.

Collections of one-shots don't often land the way Marvel want them to - mostly because the one-shots aren't that well connected, or are just throwaway stories that aren't important to the overall plot of anything. That's not the case here at all, thankfully.

Emperor Hulkling's solo story, by Chip Zdarsky with art by Manual Garcia, is a five star book all on its own. Zdarsky explains where Wiccan's been while Hulkling's been busy in space, absolutely nailing their relationship and giving us some screen time with them together that there was just no room for in the main event. Plus it has the line 'I want that twink obliterated!' in it, so I have to love it for that.

Quoi's not a character I expect most people are familiar with (I know I wasn't), so getting a chance to look into his mind is super helpful. Writer Alex Paknadel and artist Alex Lins also bring Mantis in, again giving us some more time with the two of them together that Empyre doesn't afford us, so that's nice. There's also a clever little Guardians Of The Galaxy retcon in here too that I appreciated a lot, even if it's a bit on the evil side.

Swordsman's book, by Alex Paknadel and Thomas Nachlik (although I could have sworn it was Rod Reis, but he just did the cover), bridges the gap between his previous appearances in Avengers yeeeeears ago and Empyre to show his fall from grace and his new outlook on the human race. You can kind of see where everything's going to end, but that doesn't make it any less painful to read as Swordsman teaches his son why he should murder everyone. A+ parenting, plant dude, well done.

Lords Of Empyre should almost be required reading for Empyre, to be honest. The stories here give us a lot more time with some of the more obscure characters from the main event that deserve some more fleshing out, and the context that they give the Empyre main event is well worth the price of admission alone.

[Dimitris Papastergiou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd say this is a must to read along with the Empyre event to get a bigger experience of it. Great artwork and good stories to go along with it.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This tie-in to Empyre breaks into four separate stories:
1) Emperor Hulking - Easily the best of the bunch here. We get a really intimate look at Teddy's relationship with Billy, and how the beginning of his time as Emperor is. In the midst of this whole galactic struggle, it was very nice to see the "human" side of the Half Skrull/ Half Kree hero.
2) Celestial Messiah - Offering a deeper look into Quoi and how he was tested and chosen to lead the Cotati, including his fights and debates with his mother, Mantis.
3) Swordman - A complicated character in this saga, this issue tries to make sense of the character who is so torn over what to do. A very aggressive scene here when he removes himself from the tree he is living inside of to take down the people cutting down trees.
4) Savage Avengers - This story is hilarious! When the Cotati invade Mexico City, the most unlikely team-up is there to save the day: Conan and Venom! LOL You can only imagine what these two battle lovers get into.

I'm glad I read two of these, but the other two I could have skipped. Read if you are a crossover completionist or a fan of these characters.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Literally just here for Billy and Teddy. No surprise that I liked the Emperor Hulkling story the best, by far. Any time I can see more of their relationship makes me happy. The Celestial Messiah and Swordsman issues seem to exist mostly to give background to Quoi, a character who is very important to the Empyre event but who has a pretty obscure origin. Probably useful for that, and not bad as stories. I haven't been reading Savage Avengers, so I didn't bother to read that issue. Is this necessary? Of course not. But if you're invested in Billy and Teddy, or you want more background about who Quoi is, you may find reading this volume worthwhile.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really uneven, but interesting. Three of the included tales focus on back stories to fill in some gaps that the Empyre collection fails to provide.

Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling: If you haven’t read the Young Avengers series (you SHOULD read it by the way), this story gives you the background you need to understand who Hulkling is (and that he’s NOT actually related to the Hulk). Probably my favorite of the 4 stories included here, but I’m bias as Hulkling and Wiccan are favorites of mine.

Lords of Empyre: Celestial Messiah: This one fills in the necessary information on who Quoi is and where he comes from. If you’ve read The Avengers: Celestial Madonna (another classic Avengers story that everyone should read) and Avengers: Celestial Quest you’ll already have the basics. So this won’t be necessary. Unfortunately, this also kind of directly contradicts with the next selection and the art wasn’t quite to my liking.

Lords of Empyre: Swordsman: Again, if you’ve read The Avengers: Celestial Madonna (seriously! Read it, it’s wonderful), you probably don’t need this one. Directly contradicts some of the motivations provided in the previous story, so it’s a little problematic, like that one was. Better art though, more consistent throughout.

Empyre: Savage Avengers: Hmm. Well. That’s a thing. Apparently. Conan the Barbarian (yes, THAT Conan) and Venom team-up to defeat an invasion force in Mexico City. I’ve not been reading Savage Avengers, but apparently Conan the Barbarian (yes, THAT Conan) is now living in the 21st Century and friends with Venom (aka Eddie Brock). Not a bad story, but really just felt like filler to pad out the collection. Otherwise this was just weirdly entertaining. (Seriously? Conan the Barbarian (yes, THAT Conan) in the 21st century? Well, there were those two What If? stories ... and there was that Marvel Team-Up with Spider-Man and Red Sonja, and that one with Spider-Man and Kull ... but those were in classic Marvel reality, not the Marvel Now reality ... still there is precedence, I suppose.)

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

This companion book to the larger Empyre event is rather lackluster and feels very typical of the sort of side stories that get dragged into things. Only the Hulking book really stands out as being more delightful to read even if some of the dialog can get campily ridiculous - and I recognize that may not be for everyone. The Celestial Messiah story feels more closely tied to the larger events but I'll only be able to confirm this fully once I finish the rest of the title. The same goes for the book about the Swordsman, or at least the plant entity that has taken on the Swordsman's form. The Savage Avengers tie-in was rather forgettable.

[Jessica Walsh · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you know me, you know I picked this graphic novel up for just the Billy and Teddy story, and though there's a handful of other stories in there to build up the events of Empyre, I didn't read them. I really just wanted my favorite couple from Young Avengers… and if you're like me you can actually probably avoid this book all together, unless you want it to complete a collection.

Read the rest of the review on Well, Are They? A Queer Review Blog

https://wellarethey.blogspot.com/2021...

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here for Hulkling and Wiccan, always.

[Emilie]

4 1/2 stars or so for the Emperor Hulkling story. I haven't yet read the rest, but I was here for the Hulkling and Wiccan story.

This is a fairly quick story of how Young Avenger Teddy Altman, who learned at the age of seventeen that he was half Kree and half Skrull, goes from hiding from the Kree and Skrull forces who want him to rule them or believe he's destined to rule them, to actually being an emperor of both sorts of space aliens. Teddy's in his early twenties in this book, in that nebulous sort of comic book time in comics universes that go back many years in real time.

Teddy's fiancé Billy Kaplan, codenamed Wiccan, has a past in which he's gotten a lot of bullying and/or prejudice for various facets of his identity. Here he's facing prejudice against him from Teddy's bullying Kree and Skrull advisors simply for being a human. It was almost refreshing that he wasn't facing prejudice this time for being a mutant, and gay, and Jewish, and a nerd. Billy has mastered his magic to a considerable extent by this time, and (sometimes stealthily) holds his own and supports Teddy.

A highlight for me was seeing Teddy punch the Super-Skrull in the face. Teddy has many, many reasons for doing so. First among them for him is that the Super-Skrull killed his mother. It turns out that she wasn't his biological parent, as he'd believed, but she'd raised him since he was an infant. Teddy was seventeen when the Super-Skrull revealed that she was a Skrull and casually murdered her. It was good to see more follow-up about Teddy's feelings about that.

Other than wanting to punch the Super-Skrull in the face repeatedly, Teddy wants peace and no more killing. His Kree and Skrull advisors think that being raised as a human has made him soft, and want him to renounce his humanity and found family. This gets more follow-up in the Empyre series, but although Teddy a.k.a. Emperor Dorrek VIII may look like he's following his advisors' advice, he remains the kind-hearted person he has been through the various Young Avengers series. As Kate Bishop observed in her Young Avengers Presents comic years ago, "Teddy might be half-alien, but he's all sweetheart..."

Teddy isn't a genius like some of the other Marvel superheroes, but he thinks things through better than many who are far older than he is. He doesn't abuse his strength, and he considers his options. Having an even temperament and the ability to control his first impulses makes Teddy pretty rare among Marvel superbeings. These qualities are not weaknesses.

Billy is bright enough, though he struggles with anxiety and depression. He is able to recognize and express his feelings clearly, probably at least partly from the influence of his psychologist mother. Billy has had some lessons in learning to think through possible ramifications of his actions before he takes them, especially since he has very strong magic powers. Emotional intelligence and remembering those lessons in thinking about his actions serve Billy pretty well.

This story was amusing in places, and good as an introduction to Hulkling and Wiccan's roles in the Empyre miniseries.

Adding: I was quite entertained by some of the hilarious captions and dialogue.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of one-shots to flesh out the Empyre event! The Lords of Empyre issues themselves should be pretty essential reading for the event- not because they're incredible must-read stand-out issues, but because they help fill in a lot of history for readers who aren't as experienced in Marvel history. I haven't read many old Avengers stories so having issues dedicated to who Swordsman is, what Mantis' whole deal is, and more background on the politics with the Kree-Skrull War is great. They make the event feel a lot bigger when you know more of the history behind it, even if the history itself is a bit all over the place.

The Hulkling issue was my favourite, maybe because I'm such a big Young Avengers fan already, but it was funny and sweet and the moments with Teddy considering his role in Empyre in comparison to his father Mar-Vell's legendary actions. The best part of the Empyre event is seeing Billy and Teddy actually get to do things, so having an issue introducing them and their bond is good catch-up for new readers as well as a rewarding payoff for previous fans. Thanks most in part to the art trio of Manuel Garcia (pencils), Cam Smith (inks), and Triona Farrell (colours) who serve up some iconic looks for Hulkling, some gorgeous colourful pages, and some tender moments between the couple.

Oh and somehow Greg Smallwood was convinced to do a tie-in for Savage Avengers with writer Gerry Duggan, and it's random filler about Conan fighting plant monsters but it's Smallwood so it looks cool. Entirely skippable and does nothing for the event, but as I said... it's Smallwood depicting Conan (and Venom) fighting plant monsters, and that's cool.

[Michael Church · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a tie in to Empyre, this was fine. The individual stories focus on key characters with Quoi, Teddy, Swordsman, and, of course, Venom as he appears in the Savage Avengers. It’s kind of like this was some old plot thread that someone at Marvel realized there was this big dangling plot thread about Quoi’s destiny and they wanted to do something with it. Meanwhile, most of the fandom had completely forgotten about it and, if not for this big lead in, it would’ve been utterly baffling and meaningless. I also still have a hard time reconciling comics Mantis with MCU Mantis, and it just really is striking to see a story that is so squarely based in her comics history. Which, I get it, that’s a “me problem,” but it doesn’t make it any less jarring.

The individual stories are fine except for the Savage Avengers issue, which was largely pointless. There is good history and character information shared about each of them. Given my partiality to the Young Avengers, Teddy’s issue was my favorite.

Again, like the main title. If you’re not dying to read what finally happened to Mantis’s son from decades ago who was supposed to be the “Celestial Messiah,” this book won’t have much resonance for you.

[Alex Sarll]

Three character pieces which, if hardly essential reading, and possessed of very patchy art, fill out the motivation of key players in the disappointing main event, and probably make for better reading than it did. The Teddy/Billy scenes in Emperor Hulkling were probably the high point, albeit also a bit jarring if one reads them right after WandaVision while still in the headspace of Billy as a kid.

And then there's also a completely inexplicable Savage Avengers issue where Conan teams up with an oddly out-of-character and bro-tastic Venom to fight the invasion in Mexico City. If you've always wanted to see Conan driving a combine harvester through an army of plant aliens, your very specific dream just came true.

[AJ Easterday · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What're you looking at, not-so-little green man?"

"Everything. I'm looking at my everything."

Did romance even exist before Billy Kaplan and Teddy Altman?

This book is a mixed bag. The Emperor Hulking story in this collection is by far the best. I loved it. I didn't love the Celestial Messiah story as much, but it does provide a lot of helpful context and backstory that really adds to the Empyre story overall. I found the Swordsman story to be kinda boring, and it doesn't feel necessary or add much to the universe the way the previous two stories do. The Savage Avengers story in this collection also doesn't feel like a necessary addition, but at least it has very pretty artwork by Greg Smallwood.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of mostly prequel stories for Empyre, and one random story featuring Conan and Venom. Some of them are a little bit inconsistent with the main event and other crossovers, but apart from that Conan and Venom story, the stories are remarkably well-written and emotionally affecting, adding a great deal more pathos to the event that wasn't as present in the main Empyre comic, which was already a better-written crossover event than most Marvel events. As for the Conan one, at least it was fairly light on text, and passed by quickly, because there wasn't a lot of substance to it, and I guess it just didn't fit anywhere else.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lords of Empyre contains decent one-shots that expand the backstories for the various heroes/villains in Empyre. We see how Hulking's relationship with Wiccan suffered due to his becoming emperor, how Mantis and Swordsman's relationship unfolded, and how Quoi and Swordman's relationship came to be. Lots of relationship stuff, I guess! The Quoi/Swordsman story was the least interesting.

The real winner in Lords of Empyre is the last one-shot, in which Conan the Barbarian and Venom battle Cotati in Mexico City. It's dumb fun with brilliant art in vibrant neons.

[Bárbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Por alguna extraña razón, se me dio por leer este volumen de atrás para adelante. Por ende, empecé leyendo Swordsman y terminé con Emperor Hulkling.
Debo decir que no me equivoqué, porque de este modo, mi disfrute iba en ascenso a cada historia. En cuanto a las historias individuales, me parecieron bastante coherentes en lo que respecta a worldbuilding, el tomo se sostiene bastante bien por sí mismo. De todos modos, la primera sigue siendo la que más me llegó, por tratarse de personajes a los que les tengo mucho cariño (además, las referencias que se deslizan a Star Trek gracias al ingenioso sentido del humor de Billy son un bienvenido punto extra).

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a way, this was even more "Road to Empyre" than that actual volume was. Lots of deep background on Quoi and the thing that has become the Swordsman, kind of, but the standout story for me was the lead, with Zdarksy handling Wiccan & Hulkling's relationship with sexiness, fun, seriousness and emotion. I would put this second in reading order I suppose, just after "Road" and before the main core of the story. Good, but not great; ends with a story that manages to make Conan and Venom "cute," which is problematic.

[ik.ben.henri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of background stories so you know what is going on in the empyre event.

Especially liked the first one with the hulkling and the second and thirt one with Sequoia and swordsman. All three heroes I didn't really know but have seen pass before as second grade heroes.

The issue with conan the barbarian,... Awful. The idea that they teamed up conan with venom as savage avengers... The idea that conan is even part of the marvel universe is simply wrong... I'll just ignored that part and skipped it.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much better than I expected. Three of the four stories collected here were really good, especially Chip Zdarksy's very touching story about Teddy and Billy. It was superb. The book was full of history without reading like an encyclopedia. The Venon/Conan tale was a throw away though. The are was very good in each story. Overall, a very good and important background piece for Empyre.

[Willow · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit of a mixed bag. Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling is incredible, an easy 5 stars. Great pacing, great character moments and hilarious to boot. Classic Zdarsky. The rest? Meh. Ranged from "fine" to "boring and contributed nothing to the overall event story" bumping the collection down to a 3 overall.

[Pat · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a mistake for me to read the tie in issues before the main series, but even excluding the confusion it felt dull and underwhelming. Too bad as some of the characters have been quite entertaining in other series.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this is basically the culmination of the Celestial Madonna/Messiah Saga (unfortunately without Steve Engleheart's involvement) and a natural progression of Young Avengers.

These are an assortment of preparatory one-shots for the main event.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few good stories. The Savage Avengers one was pretty good. I wish the Conan stories could be included in Marvel Unlimited.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adored the Hulkling story. It was a delight from start to finish.

The middle... er, um...


And the Conan/Venom story was fun, too.

[Ellie Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

69/100

[Lillian Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives some background info to the main players in this series.
Plus a strange little comic with Conan and Venom teaming up in Mexico.

[Elian · Rating 3 out of 5]

billy and teddy supremacy