I mean, Kate, as far as we know, has nothing to do with the Empyre event, so if she's in the Aftermath issue, that definitely means we're getting some Young Avengers related story, right? I don't see why else she would be there. God, I'm MANIFESTING that this will be the lead up to a new YA series. Come on, Marvel, it's now or never!!!
But as for Kate crying.... I honestly don't know what could be. It's specially weird when you consider that the two people in the back (likely the Watts siblings) seem to be smiling??? Like, what could possibly make both of them smile while Kate is crying? I've seen some people speculating that these are happy tears, but look at her face; she doesn't look happy at all! I mean, when you want to portray a character crying happy tears, you do that by putting a smile or a more uplifting expression on their faces, which is really not the case here. Valerio is a really good artist, so I don't think he would miss the mark on how she's supposed to look. So maybe the Wattses are not smiling at all in this shot and it's just the unfinished sketch that makes it look this way, OR maybe they're not actually there, and we're just seeing a flashback of them on the background. Maybe Kate had to leave California and the WCA for some sad reason (a break-up with Johnny, perhaps), and now she's on NY telling her friends about it. Something like that... could make sense.
Wait, Al said that??? Really??? **** yeah! I'm even more excited now. Honestly, even if we're not getting a wedding, I'm just glad we're getting more content. That's all I want.
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I think Anthony was just wrong about the Marvel #1000 short story. A lot of people at the time thought it was a wedding reception for Billy and Teddy, but Jim Cheung himself said on Instagram it was just a welcome party for Eli. Anthony wasn't involved in that particular story, so I think it's possible he just got carried away and thought it was something more, like many fans did.
You mean him getting killed by Knull in the Aftermath issue? I'd say there's no way that is happening, since
Al Ewing is writing it. He's one of the best allies we have on Marvel Comics right now. He doesn't strike me as the guy who would partake in the Bury Your Gays trope, specially with the two characters who are pretty much Marvel's most prominent gay couple right now. The only way he would be killed by Knull is if Donny Cates writes that on his event, but he would need editorial approval to do so, and I definitely don't think the Avengers Office would be ok with anyone killing Teddy immediately after Empyre. Tom Brevoort himself said they're doing Empyre precisely to make Teddy a more important character in the Marvel Universe. It makes no sense for them to allow this character to be killed off right on the next event.