POBB August 18, 2020

Pick of the Brown Bag

August 18, 2020

by

Ray Tate

Empyre heretofore known as Empire, to give my spellchecker a rest, is the latest Big, Stupid Event at Marvel Comics.  I wasn't too happy with the Avengers participation.  However, I'm no fan of the Celestial Madonna saga from the nineteen seventies, which appears to be rooted in Empire's plot.  

Now, the Fantastic Four enter the picture, but here's the difference.  Writer Dan Slott teams with R.B. Silva and Sean Izaakse to produce a Fantastic Four antic that's only tangential to Empire.  In addition, Slott doesn't mention a fern plant let alone the Celestial Madonna.

You don't need to read this Fantastic Four special in order to understand Empire.  You should read this book if you like fun, the Fantastic Four, Marvel's power cosmic genre and/or quality writing and artwork.  

The story doesn't really take place anywhen in particular.  You can slot it practically anywhere in the current Fantastic Four run.  See what I did there? The tale begins at an intergalactic casino. 

Is the Profiteer a new character or an old character? I don't care.  Just look at her.  So elegant, so vibrant an alien figure.  A huckster in haute couture that boils down a chunk of Marvel history in two panels.  Read on, and you'll discover her to be the sister of the Grandmaster, but even that relationship is merely color.

The Profiteer stages a blood match between the Kree and the Skrull, but not just any Kree and Skrull.

This Elder of the Universe pits children against each other, twenty-four seven.  It's pee-wee Ultimate Cage Fighting.  The Cage holographically recreates famous battle sites from the perpetual Kree/Skrull war, but these are not mere reenactments. Anybody can win, fair and square.  The Profiteer lives up to her name.

With the situation briskly established, it's time to see where and how the Fantastic Four end up at Casino Cosmico.  In the best Scooby-Doo Where Are You tradition, they run out of gas.

Make a note.  This is the only time an imaginatively rendered Cthulhu type beastie doesn't have a connection with the dark god.  No Cthulhu here, just a bit of a call back to the Thing's cosmic wrestling days.  Something the Torch quickly takes advantage of.

Very Chris Evans of Johnny.  The FF soon hit the casino.  The Fantastic daughter Val has a great idea.

We'll see how that pans out later.  I also appreciated the playful dig to the phrase Omega Level.  

The FF attend the latest match between the Kree and the Skrull.  Reed though quickly loses himself to the analysis of the strange new peace between the two bellicose races.  Ben makes a startling discovery that upsets the board.

Of course, this cannot be allowed.  The Thing and the Torch soon intervene.  The Profiteer plays the angles.  Reed and Sue meanwhile do what they do best.

And there you have it.  The makings of a superb Fantastic Four adventure.  I'm not going to spoil anything.  Will Val succeed in breaking the bank? Will The Fantastic Four rescue the tykes in the arena?  

Will they get their needed fuel to jet home? What is the fate of the Casino Cosmico.  You'll need to check that our yourself.

Fantastic Four Empire is five dollars, but it's actually worth it.  Excluding the ads, the book is about thirty pages; so it's double the length of a normal comic book.  The art is Spectrum worthy with a plethora of alien extras that would make Wayne Barlowe green with envy.  Kudos go out also the color artists Marte Garcia and Marcio Many.  As to the story, pure joy.