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Empyre: Avengers #3

Aug 2020
Jim Zubkavich, Carlos Magno

Empyre: Avengers #3 cover

Story Name:

(no title given)


Synopsis

Empyre: Avengers #3 synopsis by Rob Johnson
Rating: 4 stars
This issue follows the 3 teams of Avengers/Agents Of Wakanda to the conclusion of their stories.

We start with the big cliffhanger from last issue in the Savage Land where Shanna saw her husband Ka-Zar killed. In fact we start with Shanna remembering their lives together:- Their 1st meeting in KZ(1974)#1-2 (vs Malgato and Maa-Gor). Their growing love. Building a home in the Savage Land, getting married and having baby Matthew Plunder. (At some point Matt had a large growth spurt, explained in Fantastic Four: Prodigal Sun as due to a time portal.) Now she and Matt see Kevin Plunder impaled by a Cotati on Black Knight's Ebony Blade.

Then to maintain the suspense we switch to Central Park where Dr Nemesis, Luke Cage and Vision are fighting the plant-life Cotati's ally Plantman and the fungoid minions he calls his Sprout Soldiers. The transformed Plantman has Cage trapped in his vegetable body. Vision buries his hand in the mass, and the pain causes PM to let Luke go. Nemesis fires nano-herbicide bullets at the Sprouts as Cage throws a police car at them. Sam Smithers just grows some more but Vision aborts them by boiling the water in the Reservoir with his solar beam. Then another car takes the boss down. Vizh tries to report to Black Panther in Wakanda but can't get through.

Then we join the 3rd team in Mexico. Wonder Man is trying to stop Kree and Skrull soldiers fighting each other (after he got the Alliance soldiers arguing last issue in order to get out of another situation). Mockingbird is trying to help. Then Quicksilver recovers from his wound and rushes around disarming the warriors, and then dashes off to dump the weapons in the Gulf Of California.

Now at last we can return to the main bout in the Savage Land. Black Knight, angry Matt and Zabu the sabre-tooth tiger are battling Cotati warriors with the aid of Dr Voodoo piloting Man-Thing. Shanna confronts her husband's assassin. The Cotati leader Veltri isn't happy with him either because Shanna was their ally (as was the planty Man-Thing before Jericho Drumm took him over). But last issue the She-Devil realised that Veltri had warped her psychic connection to the Land to make her support the plant Cotati against the meat humans. And now she uses the power her connection gives her to kill the assassin.

Scarlet Witch's spirit form deals with the mage Veltri. And then she returns to her body to help Ka-Zar, and calls Voodoo to leave Man-Thing to help too. Jericho complies because he thinks he's broken the Cotati's influence over the muck-monster. Wanda Maximoff senses Kevin's soul within the blade, but if KZ's body dies they won't be able to return it. Shanna prepares to take her husband into the waters which once resurrected her and gave her the link to the Land (Savage Wolverine #4).

Meanwhile BK, MT, Matt and Zabu are hit by hail of Cotati arrows. Wanda and Jericho struggle to keep KZ's soul in the sword. And as Shanna bathes her husband another arrow heads *her* way. But she uses her power to shatter it in flight, and then she calls on Kevin to return. There's 1 of those blasts of light and he's back, better than ever. He says the Land now realises the danger of the Cotati, and the plant-beings find themselves surrounded by dinosaurs. Game over.

As Dr Voodoo corrals the Cotati in a magic cage, Shanna explains that Ka-Zar is now linked to the Land as she is. Man-Thing wanders off as usual. Scarlet Witch uses magic to try to report to Panther. But she gets Shuri who tells her that T'Challa is dead (see Empyre #5) and Wakanda is under siege.


 

Review / Commentaries


Empyre: Avengers #3 Review by (August 28, 2020)
The only bit of this mini-series to have any consequence is likely to be Ka-Zar's elevation to co-spirit of the Savage Land.

This is the 1st time in this mini-series (or the Empyre event) that Black Knight's current sword has been referred to as the Ebony Blade. He must have got it back after Malekith stole it in War Of The Realms because he had it in Punisher Kill Krew #4-5.0
The Ebony Blade has been known to want to kill, but I think this is the 1st time it has been said to steal the souls of those it kills (it isn't Stormbringer).

The end of the issue says continued in Empyre #5. But Black Panther is dead so we're beyond that and the continuation will be #6.



> Empyre: Avengers comic book info and issue index

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Carlos Magno
Carlos Magno
Espen Grundetjern
Paul Renaud (Cover Penciler)
Paul Renaud (Cover Inker)
Paul Renaud (Cover Colorist)
Additional Credits
Letterer: Ariana Maher.
Editor: Tom Brevoort. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in alphabetical order. All stories.

Black Knight
Black Knight

(Dane Whitman)
Doctor Voodoo
Doctor Voodoo

(Jericho Drumm)
Ka-Zar
Ka-Zar

(Kevin Plunder)
Luke Cage
Luke Cage

(Power Man)
Quicksilver
Quicksilver

(Pietro Maximoff)
Scarlet Witch
Scarlet Witch

(Wanda Maximoff)
Wonder Man
Wonder Man

(Simon Williams)
Plus: Cotati, Doctor Nemesis (Michael Stockton), Matthew Plunder, Plantman (Samuel Smithers), Shanna (Shanna Plunder).

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