EMPYRE

[Col_Fury]

We're months away from even thinking about this, but the April solicits are out and Empyre is going to be a for-real-with-tie-ins crossover.

Here's what's announced so far:

CAPTAIN MARVEL v9 #18-???
EMPYRE #1-6
EMPYRE: AVENGERS #0-3
EMPYRE: CAPTAIN AMERICA #1-3
EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR #0
EMPYRE: GHOST RIDER #1
EMPYRE: INVASION OF WAKANDA #1-3
EMPYRE: SAVAGE AVENGERS #1
EMPYRE: SPIDER-MAN #1-3
EMPYRE: SQUADRON SUPREME #1-2
EMPYRE: STORMRANGER #1-3
EMPYRE: THOR #1-3
EMPYRE: X-MEN #1-4
FANTASTIC FOUR v6 #21-???
LORDS OF EMPYRE: CELESTIAL MESSIAH #1
LORDS OF EMPYRE: EMPEROR HULKLING #1
X-MEN v5 #10-???

[Midnighter]

Just announced:
EMPYRE: SQUADRON SUPREME 1-2
https://www.newsarama.com/48964-mark-wa ... mpyre.html
EMPYRE: THOR 1-3
https://www.newsarama.com/48970-empyre- ... -gaea.html

[Midnighter]

Also https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/ ... n-may-2020:
EMPYRE: STORMRANGER 1-3
EMPYRE: THE INVASION OF WAKANDA 1-3
CAPTAIN MARVEL 18
EMPYRE: SAVAGE AVENGERS 1

[Midnighter]

... and the latest addition is:
EMPYRE: CAPTAIN AMERICA 1-3
https://www.cbr.com/captain-america-mar ... re-series/

[Somebody]

I'm noticing a running pattern here... a lot of tie-in miniseries, few ongoing tie-ins...

[Also, this thread as it stands should probably be in Newswire :p ]

[StrayLamb]

[Also, this thread as it stands should probably be in Newswire :p ]

Yep, but nobody's moved it yet, Somebody. I don't want to as i'm the newbie and don't want to tread on anybody's toes. Meanwhile, i'm going ahead with some chronology stuff..

[StrayLamb]

Here we go..!

From the Marvel Sampler February 2020 preview of Avengers #0: Avengers, we know that Tony Stark is involved. He appears to be staying at Avengers Mountain, and has short hair again, a mo' and no beard.

From the Empyre #1 preview, we know the FF encounter the combined Kree/Skrull fleet as it approaches Earth on April 4 2020. That's only three days away from when i'm writing this. Yikes! Also, Reed hasn't had a haircut in a while.

In the interview with Dan Slott, he says that since he began his run on Fantastic Four, he's told the other Marvel writers that this was coming, and they're braced for it, so i'm assuming/hoping that date will at least be set in wet cement.

[Midnighter]

In Road To Empyre: The Kree/Skrul War the Warner family (from Meet The Skulls) investigate a laboratory that they discover is being used by the Kree, with Cotati samples inside. Later they are attacked in a motel by a Kree agent, who they then follow up to his house, where he is having dinner with the rest of the family (all Kree undercover), and at that moment everyone receives the Hulkling holographic message announcing that the united armies of Kree and Skrull are heading to Earth.

All this takes place in a few hours, and it must be the first communication they receive regarding the alliance between Kree and Skrull. As a result, it should take place shortly after the final scene of Incoming 1.

[Midnighter]

We can already begin to draw up a timeline of Empyre, taking as a starting point the advance of the joint army Kree and Skrull towards Earth.

In theory, the events of Iron Man 2020 are antecedent to Empyre, so the Tony Stark that appears there should be what will be back from those events. At the moment, from what I have read so far, any story that does not directly mention Empyre should be placed before the event.
With the aftermath of the publication stop there will be a bit of confusion in the sequence of releases, I fear, and who knows what will happen to so many titles that had been announced and are no longer included in the checklist (for example, it seems that UNION will be released in paperback but not in comic-books).

Chronology:

RTEMPYRE:TKSW (Hulkling trasmission, Alliance armada approaching Earth)
EMPYRE:A 0 (Iron Man dreams of Cotati's slaughter, Avengers met Cotati Swordsman and Quoi on the Moon, Alliance armada is visible from the Moon).

[Clive_Reston]

Thank you, Midnighter!

Adding in this week's releases:

FF6 21 1-5 is a set of long-ago FBs

INCOMING! (final scene)
ROAD TO EMPYRE: THE KREE/SKRULL WAR

EMPYRE: AVENGERS 0 and EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR 0 are effectively simultaneous (their final pages are in fact simultaneous)

EMPYRE 1 (1 - 2:2)
FF6 21 (6/7:1-3)
EMPYRE 1 (2:3-6) ~ FF6 21 (6/7:4 - 8:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:1-3)
FF6 21 (8:2 - 9:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:4 - 30)
FF6 21 (9:2 - 20)

Note that at least some of the previously announced Empyre tie-ins that are no longer on the schedule (the Spider-Man, Thor, Stormranger, Invasion of Wakanda, Union, Ghost Rider, Squadron Supreme and Immortal Hulk minis and one-shots, and the Strikeforce tie-in issue) are now apparently not coming out in any form! We'll just have to see what ends up being published...

[Clive_Reston]

Now with this week's releases added:

LORDS OF EMPYRE: EMPEROR HULKLING (1-3) is "years ago," ca. FF 257

FF6 21 1-5 is a set of long-ago FBs

EMPYRE: X-MEN 1 (1 - 2:1) is "one year ago," and involves Dr. Strange

E:X (2:2 - 5) are flashbacks to 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 1 month(s) ago

LoE:EH (5-11:2) is an indefinite amount of time before INCOMING!

INCOMING! (1-52)
LoE:EH (11:3 - 12)
INCOMING! (53-55) ~ LoE: EH (13) - dialogue is not identical but it's definitely the same scene, and I suppose they could be interleaved
LoE: EH (14)
INCOMING! (56)
LoE: EH (15-17)
INCOMING! (57-80)
LoE: EH (18-29)
[there will have to be a substantial break here]
INCOMING! (81-84)
ROAD TO EMPYRE: THE KREE/SKRULL WAR
LoE: EH (30)

EMPYRE: AVENGERS 0 and EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR 0 are effectively simultaneous (their final pages are in fact simultaneous)

EMPYRE 1 (1 - 2:2)
FF6 21 (6/7:1-3)
EMPYRE 1 (2:3-6) ~ FF6 21 (6/7:4 - 8:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:1-3)
FF6 21 (8:2 - 9:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:4 - 30)
EMPYRE 2 (there's a break between pages 17 and 18 that could last at least a few hours if needed)

FF6 21 (9:2 - 20)

EMPYRE: AVENGERS 1 is roughly "7 hours" after EMPYRE 2
E:X 1 (6-30) seems to be around the same time (Genosha is a "staging area" for an invasion of Wakanda... but since "The Invasion of Wakanda" isn't being published, and the Agents of Wakanda are active in E:A 1, who knows)

[Clive_Reston]

This week complicates things a bit, in part because X5 10 is an issue-length flashback to between issues 7 and 8. Here's what things look like now:

LORDS OF EMPYRE: EMPEROR HULKLING (1-3) is "years ago," ca. FF 257

FF6 21 1-5 is a set of long-ago FBs

X5 8 (5) -FB ~ X5 10 (1) -FB ~ (possibly) F.F. 6 (19) -FB (the last of those involves Black Bolt rather than Vulcan, but is implied to be simultaneous)
X5 10 (2-4) -FB
X5 10 (15) -FB

EMPYRE: X-MEN 1 (1 - 2:1) is "one year ago," and involves Dr. Strange

E:X (2:2 - 5) are flashbacks to 9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 1 month(s) ago

LoE:EH (5-11:2) is an indefinite amount of time before INCOMING!

X5 10 (5-14 and 16-22) is all -FB to between X5 7 (in which the Summers group is planning their trip to Chandilore) and X5 8 (in which they're back and Gabriel joins them after the Acanti appears)

X5 8-9 [placement uncertain]

INCOMING! (1-52)
LoE:EH (11:3 - 12)
INCOMING! (53-55) ~ LoE: EH (13) - dialogue is not identical but it's the same scene, and I suppose they could be interleaved
LoE: EH (14)
INCOMING! (56)
LoE: EH (15-17)
INCOMING! (57-80)
LoE: EH (18-29)
[there will have to be a substantial break here]

INCOMING! (81-84)
ROAD TO EMPYRE: THE KREE/SKRULL WAR
LoE: EH (30)

EMPYRE: AVENGERS 0 and EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR 0 are effectively simultaneous (their final pages are in fact simultaneous)

EMPYRE 1 (1 - 2:2)
FF6 21 (6/7:1-3)
EMPYRE 1 (2:3-6) ~ FF6 21 (6/7:4 - 8:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:1-3)
FF6 21 (8:2 - 9:1)
EMPYRE 1 (3:4 - 30)
EMPYRE 2 (there's a break between pages 17 and 18 that could last at least a few hours if needed)

FF6 21 (9:2 - 20)

EMPYRE: AVENGERS 1 is about "7 hours" after Empyre 2
E:X 1 (6-30) seems to be around the same time (Genosha is a "staging area" for an invasion of Wakanda... but since the invasion of Wakanda isn't being published, and the Agents of Wakanda are active in E:A 1, who knows)

EMPYRE 3 is after (at least some of) the not-yet-published FF6 22, per pg. 2, & refers to EMPYRE: THOR, which is now not being published

CM9 18
EMPYRE: SAVAGE AVENGERS 1 is the invasion of Mexico City, which is before E:CA
EMPYRE: CAPTAIN AMERICA 1 appears to be some time after E:A 1--Cap is the only overlapping character

[Midnighter]

Well, Broo isn't with the Agents Of Wakanda during Empyre (at least, I can't see him anywhere), so during Empyre he can already be the King of the Brood.
So X5 10 can take place shortly before X5 8-9, while the Cotati are growing the garden on the Moon, which is fully grown by Empyre: Avengers 0.
But it has to be after INCOMING! and LOE:EH, because INCOMING! has to take place before X/FF2, and that is before current issues of X-Men, Marauders, Wolverine etc. becouse of Kate Pryde.

[Clive_Reston]

Kate Pryde is only off the table in Marauders, I think--and I will bet you a nickel that she'll be back in Marauders 11 or 12, and that Marauders 12 is long enough before INCOMING! that X/FF2 can happen in there too.

What are the dependencies around Kate that require X-Men 8-10 to happen before she returns?

[Midnighter]

Kate Pryde is only off the table in Marauders, I think--and I will bet you a nickel that she'll be back in Marauders 11 or 12, and that Marauders 12 is long enough before INCOMING! that X/FF2 can happen in there too.

What are the dependencies around Kate that require X-Men 8-10 to happen before she returns?

2020 iWolverine take place during the Iron Man 2020 event, that is after Incoming, and refers to events in Madripoor that happens in Marauders during the time that Kate is dead. But I will wait for all the mutant titles to be aligned for X of Swords before I analyze them all in depth together.