A review by michaelchurch
Empyre: Lords of Empyre by Chip Zdarsky, Gerry Duggan, Alex Paknadel, Anthony Oliveira

2.0

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.