REVIEW: ‘Empyre: The Avengers,’ Issue #1

Empyre: The Avengers #1 is published by Marvel Comics, written by Jim Zub, art by Carlos Magno, colors by Essen Grundetjern, and letters by Cory Petit. With the Kree/Skrull Alliance battling the Cotati across the globe The Avengers have their hands full trying to minimize the civilian casualties. Knowing that the Alliance won’t bat an eye at reducing Earth to cinders if they have to in order to stop the Cotati the Avengers leadership gathers on the Wakandan helicarrier to plan their next steps.

As we wade fully into the next big Marvel crossover event it highlights a unique struggle when reviewing the comic book medium. As a periodical mode of storytelling, it more often than not breaks its stories into multiparty pieces. While each part should build out the whole, it also needs to stand on its own. Much like how each movie in a connected trilogy must give a satisfying narrative in its own right along with the overarching story.

While this isn’t usually to big a problem in your standard comic story when the plot comes to encompass as many issues and series as these large scale crossovers the problem becomes much more significant. Trying to make each comic a satisfying read in and of itself becomes all but impossible with forcing so many stories beats that the narrative becomes a convoluted mess. Instead, issues are often left feeling incomplete, so the story beats can occupy a larger number of issues. As we are reminded here.

With the true nature of the Cotati threat having been revealed, the heroes of Earth find themselves on the Blackfoot attempting to regain their balance. While the situation is certainly dire, its not one that the Avengers are unfamiliar with. Zub does a great job of making sure the experience among the Avengers is fully present within the script. With Captain America giving his expected inspirational speech, and Black Panther giving out assignments to Avengers squads you can feel the reassurance radiating from these experienced leaders.

Though Empyre: The Avengers #1 captures its protagonists with excellent skill, it’s plot is a little weaker. By following several different teams to their destinations a lot of stuff gets started, but none of it gets a finish. While this helps set up the larger storyline down the road, it leaves this particular piece of media feeling incomplete. If it could’ve kept its focus just a little tighter, it probably could’ve been a more rewarding comic experience in its own right.

The art of Empyre: The Avengers #1 does a great job capturing its moments. Magno uses some great choices of perspective to give what could’ve been a standard mission briefing some extra life. That, coupled with his ability to put the reader right in the middle of the action, creates an all-around excellent illustrative performance.

Along with excellent pencils Empyre: The Avengers #1 is further aided by a vibrant color palette on the part of Grundetjern. The colors used are always bright, giving each panel hat little bit of added energy to push it over the top.

The final part of this story’s presentation belongs to Petits’s competent lettering work. Petit’s arrangement of dialogue boxes allows the story to flow smoothly for the reader.

Empyre: The Avengers #1 is a solid start to its piece of a larger storyline. While it suffers from being a bit too busy, it delivers a collection of Earth’s heroes doing what they do best.

Empyre: The Avengers #1 is available on July 22nd wherever comics are sold.