Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Empyre: Fallout Fantastic Four #1 Synopsis by
Rob Johnson
The Empyre War is over and the Kree/Skrull Alliance troops have brought the surviving surrendered Cotati to the Blue Area Of The Moon where they had their garden. Watching them from the shadows is the Area's current sole permanent inhabitant, the Unseen.
The last craft to arrive is a Fantastic Four ship containing the 'substitute FF' (Franklin and Valeria Richards plus Spider-Man and Wolverine still clad in their FF costumes) along with the Kree and Skrull children, Jo-Venn and N'Kalla, who they've been protecting and Alicia Masters/Grimm. As the substitutes meet up with the real FF the alien kids, who now get called Jo and Nicki, drag Alicia off to tour the place where the millennia-long Kree/Skrull War began.
But then they are distracted by running into Emperor Hulkling/Dorrek-Vell to whom they bow down in worship. But he gets them to rise and tells them that their actions (FF#23 and Empyre#6) brought the Alliance even closer together (and helped win the war). At that point Quoi is dragged past doing a Scooby villain impression ("Everything would have worked perfectly if not for you ... interfering little cubs")
Logan senses the watcher and feels like he should know him. Thor tells him it's the Unseen who's taken on the role of the deceased Uatu The Watcher, to watch and never interfere. Thing wonders if he's shown up like Uatu because something important is about to happen, or just because they're invading his home.
Captain America, Iron Man and Mr Fantastic want Quoi to tell them where he and the Cotati got their advanced weapons from, far beyond those of the Kree and Skrulls (and presumably us humans). The Celestial Messiah won't say, but Reed Richards says he's called for a specialist opinion. Another spaceship arrives and disgorges the Profiteer, the Elder Of The Universe that the FF rescued Jo and Nikki from (in Empyre: FF#0). IM hands her a Cotati sword, and the arms dealer to the Galaxy says she'll study it but there'll be a price to be discussed later.
Thor says it's time get rid of Quoi and the Cotati and Emperor Hulkling agrees. Black Panther releases them from their vibranium shackles. Quoi immediately attacks his 'uncle' Thor but Invisible Woman encases him in a forcefield. Franklin Richards goes with Thor and his mother Sue to transport the Cotati to another world far away where they won't be able to find their way back. Angry Quoi protests that this world is barren, but Thor takes the plant-power he got from his mother Gaea (probably in the unpublished Empyre: Thor miniseries, but used as a weapon against Quoi in Empyre #6) and gives it to the planet to turn it green. Then the heroes go home.
The Unseen has viewed all that with the Watcher's eye, and now he turns his gaze on Mr Fantastic and Captain Marvel (accompanied by Alicia, Thing, Wolverine and Jo & Nicki) carrying the ashes of Bel-Dann and Raksor, Kree and Skrull enemies who became friends and were killed (in the Incoming 1-shot) by the Cotati as they aided the Alliance. The group honour their wish to have their ashes mingled in the Blue Area's tunnels where they spent much of their lives.
Peter Parker and Johnny Storm have a buddy-moment together. Spidey explains that they were late arriving because the alien kids made them take them to Disneyland 1st (as promised at the end of FF#23). Peter also asks about Johnny's new alien 'soulmate' Sky, whose world-system declared them totally compatible. Peter likens it to his relationship with Mary Jane which failed but now has blossomed again, and so seems fated.
Profiteer gathers everybody together to tell them that she's examined *all* the Cotati weapons and that she's never seen anything like them before. The only thing she can add is that they are older than any of the Elders Of The Universe (who are survivors of some of the earliest species in that universe). So for her payment she claims all the 'crystalline batteries' in the weapons. Plus the return to her of the alien children.
Everyone says no, but she produces the original contract she had with the Kree and Skrull Empires. They wanted the pair, the Kree Chronicle Of Blood and the Skrull Requiem Of Shapeless Souls, raised to fight each other (see Emp:FF#0). But that couldn't be entrusted to either Kree or Skrulls so they made a deal with the independent Profiteer. And now the Kree and Skrulls are bound by that contract to hand the kids over again.
Someone, this time Mr Fantastic, shouts "Avengers Assemble" but Profiteer expects the Kree/Skrull troops to oppose them. However Emperor Hulkling asks to look at the contract. And then he points out that the Kree and Skrull Empires no longer exist, there is now only the Alliance. So he rips the contract up, and Profiteer leaves in a huff.
The FF invite Jo and Nicki to become part of their 'family'. Hulking agrees but by royal decree he gives the into the care of Ben and Alicia Grimm, who are overjoyed to be getting an (adopted) family. The kids are all for it too. (And it seems that *this* is the event the Unseen was here to witness, which will change the fate of 'countless galaxies'.)
Sue Richards asks if it's true that She-Hulk and Thor are an 'item', and Jennifer Walters answers "Verily". Fire-heroes Human Torch and Ghost Rider bump fists. And everyone goes home.
When he's alone the Unseen examines the Cotati weapons. He concurs that they pre-date the Elders, and also the Asgardians and the Celestials. The Watcher's eye tells him that they belong to the 1st race of the universe. And then the previous owner of the eye, Uatu the Watcher, erupts from it and declares that there will be a reckoning.