Empyre (2020)

[Journey]

I feel this is where we start to feel the sting from all the cancelled tie-ins definitely would have helped establish the Cotati as a legitimate threat, at this point however if this story doesn't end with a Quoi vS Hulking deathmatch I'd be shocked (obviously not to the death, but y'all get the point)

[XPac]

I feel this is where we start to feel the sting from all the cancelled tie-ins definitely would have helped establish the Cotati as a legitimate threat, at this point however if this story doesn't end with a Quoi vS Hulking deathmatch I'd be shocked (obviously not to the death, but y'all get the point)

Yeah, the tie-ins might have helped in that regard. Still a little surprised they cancelled the Invasion of Wakanda mini. I was sort of looking foreward to that. At no point in the main book so far have I felt even the slightiest bit of worry over the heroes being able to beat the plants. And that takes a bit of the fun out of the story.

[Ursalink]

No way for the cancelled books (like Spider-Man and Squadron Supreme) to be out in a "short version or something? I want to believe those comics could give us important clues about the future.

[nandes]

I think the structure of the issue just killed the momentum a bit. Like it's "oh no plant plant are attacking the entirety of planet earth!" but then we move to Tony feeling groggy and Dorrek & co making war plans. It's just a bit of a downer.

[PlatinumThorns]

I thinking canceling the Invasion of Wakanda was mistake. It's been heavily teased, especially in the other tie-ins.

[XPac]

I think the structure of the issue just killed the momentum a bit. Like it's "oh no plant plant are attacking the entirety of planet earth!" but then we move to Tony feeling groggy and Dorrek & co making war plans. It's just a bit of a downer.

In theory reading the tie ins can help with that momentum ... but that's only if you read them.

[XPac]

I thinking canceling the Invasion of Wakanda was mistake. It's been heavily teased, especially in the other tie-ins.

I would still like to know why it was cancelled. I'm sure several of the cancelled tie ins, like Squadron Supreme, probably would not have sold well. But I would think the Wakanda one would do just fine.

[Snoop Dogg]

I would still like to know why it was cancelled. I'm sure several of the cancelled tie ins, like Squadron Supreme, probably would not have sold well. But I would think the Wakanda one would do just fine.

They already had evidence supporting Invasion not selling, which was all the issues of Agents of Wakanda that didn't sell.

[Drops Of Venus]

I think the Cotati are threatening enough. It's not so much about physical strength, but their omnipresence all over the world. How do you defeat your enemy when your enemy is literally all the flora around you? With the Death Blossom, Quoi can pretty much control the entire Earth, and like it was established in Empyre #3, if they get to the Great Mound, Quoi's powers would be amplified to the entire galaxy. Think about the scope of what he could do; this is a guy that can kill you from your insides if you ate as much as a lettuce. It's not that easy to get rid of them, specially when there's the risk that you might end up fucking up your entire ecosystem in the process. I mean, what are you gonna do? Burn down all the forests in the world? That is obviously not a good idea for many reasons. I like that they have nature itself on their side, which makes them a threat in a more creative way.

[jackolover]

I think Teddy is the Emperor of the Kree and Skrulls. They even set up a yearly contact for one or the other. Nobody is looking at Anelle to take over. Teddy is all they want, so I think Teddy is there for the long term.

But it’s fascinating. Teddy is stuck on Billy, a hypothetical son of the Scarlet Witch, who magically brought Billy into existence, and Teddy is in love with this hypothetical Witches son. I’m still wondering if Marvel are going to give Billy an accepted status as a creature, or just leave him a magical construct? I’m trying to compare Billy to something similar, and I suppose you could make Billy like that Wizard from King Arthur’s time, Merlin. I don’t consider Merlin a born creature, but some mystical presence. Nobody knows Merlins origins. He just appears in the mythical story of King Arthur.

[Wiccan]

I think Teddy is the Emperor of the Kree and Skrulls. They even set up a yearly contact for one or the other. Nobody is looking at Anelle to take over. Teddy is all they want, so I think Teddy is there for the long term.

But it’s fascinating. Teddy is stuck on Billy, a hypothetical son of the Scarlet Witch, who magically brought Billy into existence, and Teddy is in love with this hypothetical Witches son. I’m still wondering if Marvel are going to give Billy an accepted status as a creature, or just leave him a magical construct?

He's not a magical construct. He and Tommy were reincarnated into human families.

[Beetle]

He's not a magical construct. He and Tommy were reincarnated into human families.

Those families are constructs too. Billy's family keeps dropping in and out of existence, like those younger brothers. And has anyone ever actually seen Tommy's family?

[Drops Of Venus]

I think Teddy is the Emperor of the Kree and Skrulls. They even set up a yearly contact for one or the other. Nobody is looking at Anelle to take over. Teddy is all they want, so I think Teddy is there for the long term.

They chose Teddy for a very specific reason. He's not just any guy, and his parents are part of the reason why. He was the perfect representation of the union between the two species: the son of the Skrull princess and one of the most respected Kree warriors. So if they would trust anyone to rule in his place, it would make sense that it would be his parents (assuming they would be alive). Plus, there seems to be some sort of admiration towards Excelsior (in Emperor Hulkling, the Skrull zealots who tried to attack Teddy were in awe once they realized he had the sword), and since we know he can essentially lend it to someone he trusts now, I could see the Kree and Skrulls respecting someone who inherits the throne AND the sword, with the blessing of Dorrek-Vell himself.

[Wiccan]

I guess something like that would make sense but I prefer for him to actually stay as the ruler.

He can still show up in other books including a YA relaunch, writers will just have to get a bit creative.

[Sutekh]

As much as I'm liking Emperor Hulkling, and the way that Billy has been, temporarily, written out of it so that his messy drama can't steal the spotlight, I do not want it to be forever either.

I feel like being a ruler *and* a superhero requires one to kind of suck at one or the other. Namor is rarely in Atlantis, and it's constantly getting blown up or having usurpers take over, making it seem like he sucks at being king. Wakanda has suffered more invasions under T'Challa in the last ten years of sliding time in the Marvel verse than the previous ten kings combined, and that's entirely a function of the need for fresh narrative for T'Challa, and yet, in-story, makes it look like he's a disaster magnet and Wakanda would be 1000x safer with someone else in charge. It would be even weirder for a king *of a distant space empire.* Why's he hanging out on Earth with his young human friends, when billions of Kree and Skrull lives are hanging on his (divided) attention?

Either he's a dedicated king, doing his job (and we never see him again, and at the mercy of every single cosmic thing that comes along in the next fifty years that involves Kree or Skrulls, since they'll probably die in droves as event-fodder and make him look ineffectual), or, he's Teddy, living on Earth with Billy, getting up to superhero shenanigans.

Even if a great solution is found for how he can be all things, he's *still* going to be held hostage to every future writer ever who wants to 'shake things up' and kill off a bunch of Kree or Skrulls, or use them as adversaries for whatever reason, whether it be a Fantastic Four or Captain Marvel or Avengers writer. I don't *want* him to be responsible for whatever event-disasters are going to *inevitably* befall the Kree and Skrulls, and I don't want him to be 'in the way' of any future writer who wants to use them as adversaries to an Earthly hero or team and feels the need to kill Teddy off / violently overthrow him to return the status quo of Kree and Skrulls to potential foes.

It's weird to fear good things for the characters you love, but I've been reading comics for half a century now, and 'good things' always get taken away, or used as fodder for events. It's not that I don't want to see Teddy get some good things, I'm just worried about how the 'king' thing *always* ends with the kingdom under threat and hundreds or thousands of it's people killed pretty much annually to challenge the king, like the world's biggest 'women in refrigerators' (only it's thousands of Wakandans, Atlanteans, etc. being crammed in there).

On the other hand, I'd like for their to be some lasting change, as well. A bit more sure of himself (although still willing to step back and let Billy take center stage at times). Perhaps some lingering status with both races, and them consulting him occasionally for a diplomatic or ceremonial role (like the royal family in Britain, only using some space tech communicator to keep in touch with whoever is actually in charge, maybe even his remote location being a deliberate part of how things are run in the new system, so that everyone isn't concentrated in one place, and there's always a distant 'third party' to be the, theoretically neutral, deciding vote), but not actively engaged in running things or sitting on a throne.