No good deed goes unpunished, and that goes double for The Avengers. But the time has come for Empyre, leading the Skrulls to unite into a stronger alliance than ever before... and finally prove that they were the victims of Earth's Mightiest Monsters.
Back in 2008, Marvel launched a mega-event series called Secret Invasion. The story centered around the heroes of the Marvel universe suddenly discovering that some of their closest allies have been secretly been shape-shifting aliens called the Skrulls for a long time. Nick Fury being...well, Nick Fury, had a plan for this and created a secret team of his own to combat the Skrull threat. Eventually, after much chaos, Fury's new commandos and the Avengers fought back and somehow managed to destroy the Skrull armada. So, you'd think the problem would be solved. Well, not so fast.
The Skrull and Kree have been at war for centuries, but have recently been united under the new King of the Universe, Hulkling! Now that the two races are forging a formal alliance, it looks like the Skrulls want some payback for the losses they suffered during the Secret Invasion storyline. To the Skrulls, the Avengers have been the bad guys the whole time. The destruction of their homeworld even once being foretold in a prophecy. Now, under their new king -- and with a whole new army to fight with -- the Skrulls have their sights set on Earth's Mightiest Heroes. And thanks to Marvel's latest official tease of Empyre, they're recruiting other patriotic Skrulls to their cause.
The return of the Celestial Messiah to the Blue Area of the Moon sets off a new chapter in the Kree/Skrull War—only this time, it’s a Kree/Skrull Alliance aimed directly at Earth, and only the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and more of Earth’s heroes stand in their way…
Secret Invasion had the unenviable task of being the follow-up series to Civil War, a storyline that was later loosely adapted into the third Captain America movie. But given its own prominence in Marvel's alien history, it was speculated the Captain Marvel movie would take advantage of the Secret Invasion story arc. In the end, the movie's Skrulls were actually misunderstood victims, leaving Captain Marvel herself to become their greatest champion. e epic scale that EMPYRE is going for, one would think the MCU would want to adapt that storyline into a future Avengers or Captain Marvel movie as well.
Still, the message of this propaganda is clear: The Avengers are the villains responsible for war atrocities, according to the Skrulls, and it's time to join the fight. Fans can probably expect more of the super cool propaganda artwork like the one above by John Tyler Christopher in the near future as Marvel gears up for the launch of EMPYRE.
EMPYRE #1 hits comic shelves in April.
MORE: Why is Marvel's King of Space Attacking Earth in EMPYRE?
Source: Marvel