Empyre (2020) #1 (of 6) by Al Ewing
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is what Marvel does best. Big, bold, exciting…it looks gorgeous and it’s skilfully written.
Maybe the big twist would have been obvious if I’d ever sat down and thought, “I wonder what’s going to happen in Empyre,” but as I didn’t I kinda just accepted who was in the right and who was in the wrong until, whoops, silly me…of course Tony has got the wrong end of the stick and is so damn sure that he’s in the right that he doesn’t stop to consider any other possibility, because that’s what he always does. Meanwhile, Reed is so bust considering every possibility that things get way out of hand before he’s decided to act. And, see, this is why I say this is what Marvel does best, because it builds these clear characterisations then dumps the characters in a story together and then what happens happens. And, yes, with hindsight it’s completely predictable, but when you let yourself get caught up in the story and carried along with it then it isn’t.
This is only #1 (although we’ve had a couple of #0s and a “road to” issue before this) and, honestly, I have no idea what happens NEXT. Sure, I might have been able to work out what happened a the end of #1 if I’d thought about it, but that’s just the beginning. I have no idea how things play out from here. We’ve got another five issues, plus innumerable tie in issues and n epilogue to go before we get to the end of this story…and I’m quite happy to just sit back and enjoy the ride till we get there!
Random Ramblings Of A Ragamuffin 