Pick of the Brown Bag
August 25, 2020
by
Ray Tate
I've been skirting around it. I've been teasing with tie-ins, but wait no longer, this week, the Pick of the Brown Bag looks at Marvel's number one issue of the Big Stupid Event, Empyre. Heretofore known as Empire because my spellcheck insists, and the English don't spell it that way either.
To be fair, I don't believe Empire is a horrible Big Stupid Event. Just an average one. The Marvel editors were sitting around, shooting the bull in the pen, or maybe they actually tasked writer Al Ewing to come up with something big and boffo about the Power Cosmic.
Ewing is the goto guy for such things. He wrote the mostly cool Power Cosmic series The Ultimates before heading to horror with The Immortal Hulk. Dan Slott likely entered the picture to protect the Fantastic. Nobody writes the FF like Dan Slott.
For the sake of brevity, I'm going to assume Ewing and Slott conceived the entirety. I'm sure somebody like Kelly Thompson may have stopped by the office and gifted an idea or two, but Marvel credits Slott and Ewing as the writers. So, that's where the buck will stop.
I like a lot of Empire. The central theme of the Kree and the Skrull laying aside an eternity of racial hatred and consequential war to combat a greater threat to the cosmos is a strong original concept. We've seen this happen before with enemies such as the Klingons and the Cardassians on Star Trek, but the Kree and the Skrull never entertained such a peace. So, this is novel.
The characterization of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers rings true. Everybody sounds and behaves like themselves. No diversions of personae to serve a plot. In fact the heroes' blunders arise from their shared history and their personalities. That's a rarity in Big Stupid Events.
Though keen about the truce, the FF are suspicious of the Skrull. The Avengers are suspicious of the Kree and the Skrull. The FF would be suspicious of the Kree, but they're more familiar with the Skrull.
Every cape and cowl thinks the Kree and the Skrull exploit the naive Young Avenger Hulkling. If you were wondering who that blonde, green fellow is wonder no more.
The Kree and Skrull claim that the Hulkling united their races because he's a product of both. The FF and the Avengers believe he's being duped. The heroes are so blinded by their prejudice against the Kree and the Skrull, that they cannot see the obvious.
The Kree and the Skrull do not need an excuse to band together in order to exterminate a species they deem inimical. They could have just done it. They have no reason to fool Hulkling. They selected him as a leader because they're thinking ahead to after the war. What happens then? Do the Kree and Skrull go back to tearing at each other's throat, or can they achieve a lasting peace?
Blinded by bias, the FF and the Avengers battle the Kree and the Skrull. Most of the fighting is pretty tame because nobody wants to actually hurt each other. That is refreshing.
Iron Man through the creation of a Thor-clone killed Black Goliath in The Civil War. No worries. The current model of Tony Stark is the combination of a new cloned body and a back-up memory recorded before The Civil War. Thus, this version of Iron Man is blameless for the bloodshed caused by so-called superheroes under his direction.
The Young Avenger is more responsible than all the adults in the room. He's even more the hero by giving the enemy a chance to surrender. This presents a dilemma for the reader. Do they root for the Kree-Skrull Alliance, or their favorites the Avengers and the Fantastic Four?
The skirmishes allow for some cool visuals such as a Ghost Quinjet and the demonstration of some major cunning involving Iron Man and Thor's hammer. Outside of the arena, Ewing and Slott include several satisfying moments such as She-Hulk regaining her wits.
And Black Panther donning the equivalent of Batman's Hellbat.
However, there's no moment in Empire that really wowed me on a gut level. Al Ewing's Immortal Hulk and Dan Slott's Fantastic Four do that frequently. Wait a minute. Did the Hulk just devour a guy? Holy. Did Ben Grimm just deck the Hulk? I don't get that feeling from Empire.
Let me just say the art by Valerio Schitti and Marte Garcia display a wide range of pleasure. My caveats do not reflect on the vivid visual narrative. The danger to the multitude is just a let down. The enemy's lack of gravitas and predictability undermine the potential cinematic quality of the war. This isn't the Avengers, the FF, the Kree and the Skrull teaming up against Thanos and/or Galactus.
I'm going to try not to spoil things, but you may be able to guess. So, if you're really intent on keeping things mum. Stop reading now.
Empire essentially portrays a Hippie Uprising. It's the thing that Sgt. Joe Friday feared the most in the latter era of Dragnet.
Dragnet debuted on radio. It transitioned to television in excellent shape. Friday used to investigate cases involving serial killers, the mob and murderous bank robbers.
Early Dragnet was almost noir. That all changed upon the arrival of color television. Suddenly Joe Friday began harassing the free love generation. The show became a kind of Republican pushback against counterculture. The earnest depiction of the LAPD's pursuit against crime became utterly preposterous. That's kind of what happens here.
