REVIEW: ‘Empyre: X-Men,’ Issue #3

Empyre: X-Men #3, published by Marvel Comics, continues with the high octane action it left off with in the previous issue. In issue 2, we saw a small team of X-Men head to Genosha to investigate a downed Krakoa gate. Upon arrival, they are greeted with a battle between undead mutants and an alien plant race known as the Cotati. It’s bad enough having to fight a zombie horde, the X-Men have to deal with a new villain group consisting of elderly botanists, known as Hordeculture. This issue is written by Vita Ayala, Zeb Wells, and Ed Brisson. The artwork is done by Andrea Broccardo, with Nolan Woodard returning as color artist. VC’s Clayton Cowles also returns as letterer.

As a penultimate issue, this issue brought the noise. The action looked amazing and so did characters in full-page panels, courtesy of Broccardo and Woodard. Each X-Men’s design is different, unique, and gives that nostalgic feel. Not giving too much away, but I was delighted to see Beast and Nightcrawler, two of my favorite X-Men, in this issue. Ayala, Wells, and Brisson capture these characters like how I remember them in previous arcs and other media. It’s also a delight to see the X-Men thriving and fighting side by side after the events of Powers of X and House of X.

With entirely new authors on this issue, it’s exciting to see the synergy of the authors to keep the story moving along and do it big. In issue #2, Magik can feel the source of the issue of dead Genoshan mutants becoming undead and she’s on the hunt to find it. Magik has been the MVP of this side arc in Empyre. Every panel she appears in she kicks ass and takes names, leaving you wanting more. I was disappointed in a good way at how the issue ended, and cannot wait for the final issue of Empyre: X-Men.

In the previous issue, there was a lot of comic relief with the arrival of Hordeculture and them spraying certain male characters with pheromones to do their bidding. However, in this issue, the comedy is toned down a bit and pushed towards the back. It was a nice and smooth shift to the task and battle at hand. The comedy did feel organic.  For example, as Angel weens off the pheromones, he realizes who was pulling his strings, vomits, and pulls off a few old jokes. Multiply Man does the same thing, and there is a brief witty banter exchanged between a few of the characters.

While being an all-around great issue, I am still left with questions, my main ones being who are the Hordeculture and how are they able to pass through Krokoan gates. What are their abilities aside from hand to hand combat, weapon specialization, and the use of pheromones? I feel it’s a bit of a disservice to this band of villains to show up in a four-issue arc and I hope they appear again in the future.

Empyre: X-Men #3 keeps up the momentum, builds on the action, and leaving readers with an amazing cliffhanger and hopes for a more amazing finale of the arc. Empyre: X-Men continues to stand on its own as a side arc without having knowledge of what’s happening during the main events.

Empyre: X-Men #3 is available wherever comic books are sold