Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue ended with Billy Kaplan telling Carol Danvers and Johnny Storm that he and Teddy Altman are married. We continue from there as he explains that it was in the last hour before Hulkling had to go off and become Emperor Dorrek-Vell of the Kree-Skrull Alliance (another replay of the scene in the Incoming and Lords Of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling 1-shots). Teddy suggested they get married and they arranged it all in that time! The other ex-Young Avengers all made it via a variety of superpowers and Billy's family got a live feed of the ceremony.
Importantly their new symbolic connection means that Wiccan's magic can locate his husband. Last issue he told Captain Marvel and Human Torch that the 'Hulkling' who agreed to ignite the Sun to destroy the Earth wasn't Teddy, and now he can take them to the real deal.
Meanwhile at Lake Victoria near Wakanda the Cotati who has taken over She-Hulk's dead body is pounding on Thing without let up, intending to kill him. Invisible Woman and Mantis are hovering nearby in a protective force bubble. Sue Richards tries blocking the blows with a forcefield but Shulk just punches through it. She tries little force bubbles in the foe's brain, but the dead enemy doesn't stop. The Cotati-Hulk tells Ben Grimm to just give up ...
... but that's like a red flag to a bull to Thing. He pushes himself to his feet for his Fantastic Four family and the memory of his dead friend Jennifer Walters. But strangely most of all for the sake of the 2 Kree and Skrull kids they rescued (see Empyre: FF #0 and now the ongoing FF series). For them all he's not going to give up and not going to die. Just call him the Immortal Thing. (I don't need to mention that the current Hulk series is The Immortal Hulk.)
In Wakanda itself Shuri is directing the defence forces. She sends air support to the vibranium mound where Black Panther is using Hulkling's magic Star-Sword to hold off an endless supply of Cotati troops. The Cotati want the soil of the mound to enhance their power. The planes ask where to target their fire, and T'Challa tells them to shoot at the greatest concentration of the enemy, ie where *he* is. He dodges through enemy blows and the bullets of his own side. But the Cotati don't slacken. They don't fear death and their numbers are ever-renewed.
Then a Cotati sorcerer reaches the sacred mound and sacrifices his life to open a plant-based gateway. BP prepares to cleave the portal with the Star-Sword. But another sword pokes through the gate and stabs him. Followed by the Cotati Swordsman and Quoi, the Celestial Messiah.
News of this Cotati success reaches the Kree/Skrull Alliance flagship. But 'Hulkling' isn't bothered by it. It will ensure that the enemy's concentration is fixed on Earth while the Pyre builds to burn the world. At that point Wiccan teleports in to confront the Emperor who orders the Kree/Skrull hybrid sorceress Mur-G'nn to send him away. But then Billy brings in CM and HT and a prisoner they found in a cell - the real Teddy Altman in a Skrull inhibitor mask which prevent him from shapeshifting.
Super-Skrull is stunned that he has failed to protect his liege. Mur-G'nn says nothing (but last issue she sent Danvers and Storm to Billy Kaplan so probably she'd already suspected what was going on). The Kree Captain Glory protests that it's a lie (but we know that he's in on the deception). As Torch carefully burns off the mask, Teddy tells them it was the Kree Tanalth who imprisoned him. Captain Marvel says that Tanalth gave her the Universal Weapon and made her a Kree Accuser, so that's probably why the Weapon was 'fooled' by the false Hulkling. But as an official Accuser she suspends the Emperor's authority and tells him not to trigger the Pyre. But Dorrek VIII says the Pyre has already started, and he challenges his accuser to Kree trial by combat.
(We know from the end of #3 that the not-present Kree Tanalth was actually the Skrull ex-Empress R'Klll. Captain Glory exposed her but then joined her. It is almost certain that Emperor 'Hulkling' has been R'Klll since the beginning of last issue.)
In Wakanda Swordsman finds T'Challa dead, and Quoi plants a Death Blossom in the vibranium soil. But Invisible Woman, Mantis and Thing are still holding out against 'She-Hulk'.
In Avengers Mountain Reed Richards gets news that the Sun is heating up and the Death Blossom is planted. It will bloom in 10 minutes, but the Sun will explode in 9. Then we see that he is wearing the '4' armour that Tony Stark has been working on.