Spoilers for Empyre: Avengers #1!
At first, Marvel's new Empyre event seemed to be a run-of-the-mill alien invasion, setting Earth against the newly-united forces of the Kree and the Skrull intergalactic empires, with the Avengers teaming up with the peaceful Moon-dwelling Cotati to defend the planet. Then everything changed in an instant: when Iron Man disabled the Kree/Skrull fleet, the Cotati rose up and declared war against the alien empires and Earth alike, creating a war between two extraterrestrial factions using Earth as their battlefield. In Empyre: Avengers #1, the real fight begins, and the Avengers discover an important ally has gone over to the Cotati side.
Avengers: Empyre #1 is the first issue in a four-issue miniseries tying in to the blockbuster Empyre crossover event. The opener is written by Jim Zub (Champions, illustrated by Carlos Magno (Invaders), and colored by Espen Grundetjern (The Rise of Ultraman). The Avengers already have one former member who joined the Cotati ranks: Swordsman, a reformed villain who sacrificed himself to save the team and was reincarnated as a member of the species. This version of Swordsman also fathered the leader of the Cotati army, the prophesied Celestial Messiah.
The issue opens with a team briefing on the Cotati presence on Earth. The plant-controlling aliens have set up zones all over the world, connecting with local fauna and using it to form their defenses. The newest conflict zone is the Savage Land, an intact region of primordial wilderness on Marvels Earth, remote and flourishing with prehistoric life. The Avengers send a team led by Savage Land dweller Ka-Zar, who plans to meet up with his partner Shanna to defend the unique resources of the Savage Land from the invaders.
But the Avengers are met with more force than expected. A fallen dinosaur turns out to be bait for an ambush; the team’s mages scramble to deflect the volleys of spears and spores as the heavy hitters struggle to keep their ground. Then that ground rumbles and breaks beneath them, revealing a classic Marvel hero, the Man-Thing, who disrupts the mages and leaves the team stunned on the ground. Man-Thing joins his partner: Shanna, who has been turned green and somehow converted into a Cotati as well.
Man-Thing is similar to DC hero Swamp Thing, except the creature is even more alien and mysterious. Once a human biologist, now a swamp-dwelling plant creature, Man-Thing is silent, plodding, and so inscrutable that some wonder if he is even sentient. Man-Thing has mystical powers over time and space, thanks to his status as the "Nexus of All Realities", and thanks to an acid he secretes in response to the stress of others, his comic book series boasted that anyone that "knows fear" burns at his touch. He has belonged to several superhero teams, working for SHIELD, the Thunderbolts, and a short-lived supernatural Avengers team.
The Cotati command plantlife, which would make him an easy recruit, whether he has agreed to their flora-supremacist cause or is merely a puppet. The bigger question is what the Cotati will do with him. Is he simply hard-hitting infantry who can burn through their enemies? Or will they use his more arcane properties to control Earth across multiple timelines and dimensions?
Empyre: Avengers #1 is available now from Marvel Comics at local comics shops and digital providers.