REVIEW: ‘Avengers Empyre,’ #0

Avengers Empyre #0 is published by Marvel Comics, written by Al Ewing, art by Pepe Larraz, colors by Marte Gracia, letters by VC’s Joe Caramagna. The Avengers receive a distress call from the blue side of the moon. There awaits an old friend, with a harrowing message that will ripple across the Galaxy.

Previously, in Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War, the Warner’s, a family of Earth-based Skrull spies, discovered that Hulkling had united the two warring species of Kree and Skrulls. His plan — declare war on Earth.

Currently, however, no one on Earth suspects a thing, apart from Tony Stark who suffers from reliving the same dream. A dream of the past, in which the ancient Kree use advanced technology gifted to them from the enlightened Skrulls, to commit genocide against the Cotati.

After waking in a sweat, Tony receives a call from Captain Marvel that someone on the moon has sent a message to the Avengers. One word, “Help.” After flying out there, the situation is much worse than they feared, and there is little time with which to act.

After having read Road to Empyre, I was left with a real excitement for this upcoming series. Upon picking up Avengers Empyre #0 for review, I actually feel like the pendulum of my interest has swung the other way. The issue itself is ok, but given this is supposed to be the kick-off of the Marvel summer event, I was left feeling quite blasé.

Ewing’s dialogue is focused on the sole narrative from Tony Stark, and it reads with this really uncomfortable sense of religious subtext. Mentions of feeling sacrilegious, having faith, baptisms, and feeling clean. It is a topic that is woven throughout the issue, and it felt very misplaced. Outside of that, the issue has no real wow factor, and the pace really drags along with little to no tension or sense of danger. Yes, not all issues have to be action-packed, but I would argue given the topic of interstellar invasions, the response was more “ok, here we go again, we’re the Avengers”.

The artwork from Larraz left me with no real impression, more of a sense of indifference. I read this comic, but there’s not a particular panel, or page, that left me with a feeling of spectacular wonder. It was all just ok.

The colors were fine, but the tone of the issue was on a darkened moon, so there the coloring comes across quite dulled. There is a panel early on when the Avengers first arrived on the moon that is quite pleasing, but it’s something that could do with some energy and sadly feels quite drab.

The lettering from Caramagna, I have no particular issue with. The experienced letterer balances the dialogue and narrative well throughout the issue, and each character’s speech is easily distinguishable.

Overall, I was left unimpressed with this issue. I expected to kick off this event with a bang! Ultimately, due to many missteps, it has fizzled out my excitement. It is the set up of a larger event, so perhaps this one was more of a plot setting exercise? If that’s the case, I hope issue #1 comes back with a vengeance.

Avengers Empyre #0 is available now.