Hello friends and readers, Empyre sinks in deep as we cover the highs and lows of this week’s crop of tie-ins. Zack Jenkins has some heavy thoughts about Empyre: Captain America #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Ariel Olivetti, Rachelle Rosenberg, and VC’s Ariana Maher and Joe Caramagna. Then we join the extreme team of Conan et al as Justin Partridge gives us all the hits in Empyre: Savager Avengers #1 by Gerry Duggan, Greg Smallwood, and VC’s Travis Lanham!
Empyre: Captain America #1
When I was twelve, maybe thirteen, my parents took me to the National Mall in Washington DC for a rally supporting the troops. We were never a family who talked about politics, but for some reason my mother wanted us to be there. It felt important to her that we stood by our military. Afterall, people were scared. It was the early aughts and patriotism, or some twisted form of it, ran rampant while we invaded Iraq because of 9/11? Weapons of mass destruction? Oil? The young me wasn’t quite sure. Still we listened to that ubiquitous Toby Keith song about putting boots up asses while pre-recorded messages from Dick Chenny and Arnold Schwarzenegger got us energized to support our troops as they liberated these poor people from the holy terror that oppressed them every day.
I think a lot about that day. How the post-9/11 propaganda machine turned my mother, if just momentarily, into an “ooh-rah” supporter of our military conquest. How, at a young impressionable age, I didn’t question a war that would kill over 100,000 humans. I had no reason to believe the US Army could do wrong. Our history classes always seemed to stop right after WWII. In my mind, the greatest generation rose up against tyranny and saved the world. That was the legacy of the Army to me because I was never told otherwise.
If Empyre: Captain America came out that summer, no one would question it. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson is a Sergeant First Class (E-7) in the US Army, an active duty soldier in The U.S. Army Field Band. He is a musical ambassador for the nation’s military. In this book, Johnson presents the United States Army as a thin green line protecting the nation’s capital from the holy terror of the invading Cotati. This ragtag group of soldiers are the only avengers Captain America needs. They are the new Howlin’ Commandos running into battle with their 50 cals and flamethrowers. We are asked to sit in awe as these real world heroes save the day. If Johnson’s dayjob is a musical ambassador for the Army, he is freelancing as a comics ambassador for them.
Putting the political message of this comic aside, it’s a messy piece of craft. Captain America is presented as a generic good guy. His motivation is to beat these alien invaders who were dumb enough to land on his planet. His new platoon of soldiers are interchangeable jarheads with their yes sirs and their no ma’ams. It’s a far cry from the nuanced brush Cap is painted with in his own book. Artist Ariel Olivetti delivers workmanlike lines. Some scenes lean into his tendency to draw over solid models, but Rachelle Rosenberg’s flatter pallet helps balance that. Unfortunately, moments that should shine, the big reveals and epic splashes, lack any real weight.
Make no mistake, what this comic is doing is dangerous. It is worship of American imperialism and might. It is a celebration of $738 billion Pentagon budget during a public health crisis where the CDC only has 8% of that. This is propaganda crafted to create good will between the comics reading public and the largest military force ever known. It is unethical to recommend this to anyone and immoral for Marvel to have published it.
Empyre: Savage Avengers #1
So, I actually like Savage Avengers. Like, no bits (pro-Smits).
I know, I know, throw your paper balls at me until I sit down, but if you can ignore the Zatch Pircher of it all (which I often do and you should too), it’s actually a pretty fun piece’a serialized pulp fiction. While the idea of putting the most “badass” characters on one team sounds like a fevered fifteen-year-old fan-fiction, writer Gerry Duggan has actually mined a great deal of pathos and entertaining violence out of the team, in particular Venom and Conan the Cimmerian, new 616 co-star.
So naturally a one-shot in which these scene-stealers take center stage, backdropped by the ongoing Cotati invasion is bound to be a lot of fun too, right? And that’s exactly what Empyre: Savage Avengers #1 is. A metric f&$%k-ton of fun. And it’s 100% Zircher-free! That’s what’s known collectively as a “win-win”.
We open on a pretty basic, but fun as hell conceit. Conan’s ongoing hunt for Kulan Gath, the Hyborean wizard responsible for his being in the Marvel Universe in the first place (*In Savage Avengers #1, True Blood-levers!*), has cooled and he finds himself taking in some grade-A Lucha Libre in Mexico City. Unfortunately, his fun is running parallel to the Cotati invasion of Earth as they launch a huge, tree scaffolded warship to Mexico City to fill their holds with “meat”. Conan, of course, never shrinks from a fight and after a chance re-encounter with Venom (who is only in the city to LOOK at museums, not to ROB them, he promises), the two take it to the Cotati soaked in Greg Smallwood’s neon infused pencils and highly bisexual lighting.
But even if that bro-tastic concept doesn’t kick your tires properly, Greg Smallwood’s artwork here is truly a marvel. A far cry from the more gritty, grounded, and blood-soaked artwork of the main title, Smallwood transforms Savage Avengers in a sumptuously trippy new battlefield. One littered with his expressive, stony character models and then dipped in rich purples, lime greens, and ice blues that set its worlds apart from the usually grim and over-shadowed main title.
And Duggan’s script once again displays a wit and gruff charm that makes the main title such a treat. Anchored by his grimly hilarious take on Conan, Duggan’s script turns what could have been a rote tie-in into a really charming double-act between Conan and Venom. He even throws the “die-hard” Conan people an unexpected continuity bone with a well-deployed flashback to the famous Conan tale “The Frost Giant’s Daughter”, again making great, unobtrusive use of his own love of the works of Robert E. Howard.
Now is it a perfect comic? Of course not. But is it a clearer example of how and why Savage Avengers works without all the baggage of being saddled with “Comics’ Greatest Centurist” on artwork? You bet your Boots of Wing-Walking it is. Unlike the jingoistic and sour-tasting example detailed by Zack above, Empyre: Savage Avengers #1 is the fun, relatively duty-free kind of pulp you’ll be wanting this week.
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
