The Marvel Universe is currently ramping up to its next big crossover event titled, “Empyre” and today a new comic was released laying some of the groundwork for that upcoming story.
The Skrulls and the Kree are two alien races that have played huge roles in Marvel Comics for years. They will both be at the forefront of “Empyre” and this new issue introduces you to a few of them while explaining the long-running back story of of their roles. Really, “Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War” is as much a Marvel history lesson as it is an introduction to this upcoming comic event.
The Marvel Universe has been around for 80+ years, and it seemingly gets a little bigger every day. Potential fans who want to get into comics can easily get overwhelmed by the number of places they could start and whether or not they can jump in without knowing all of the backstory. Well, "Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War" is a pretty great place to start.
This issue essentially summarizes the history between the Kree and the Skrulls, cramming years of story into just a few pages. You really get to read several Marvel stories in one comic, as the main story throws in these Kree/Skrull history lessons throughout. It really helps to provide a great deal of context for those who may not be familiar with this long-running Marvel story, and serves as a nice refresher for those who maybe read these comics a long time ago.
Even with all of that information crammed into one comic, it sill manages to tell a present day story as well. We were introduced to a family of Skrull operatives disguised as humans a year ago in a series titled “Meet the Skrulls.” Don’t worry, you don’t have to read that whole series to get what is happening here. Their story is summarized in the first couple pages of this comic.
We find the recovering family of Skrulls on a mission to learn more about a project humans are working on to reveal Skrulls living among them. What they find is a relic that leads to a history lesson and a debate as to whether or not they should be at war in the first place.
Much like the series that introduced these characters, this issue humanizes them and gets us on their side, despite the fact that they are an alien race infiltrating Earth. It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture while reading their story because you can truly see things from their point of view.
We also see that they are not just at war for the sake of being at war. They want peace and how the attain that peace is debated within the family.
“Empyre” is set to be a very big event in Marvel Comics. Fans are certainly going to be picking up the new series to see how things play out between the Skrulls, Kree and humans. Before they do though, "Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War" will help to provide a whole lot of context to the story. Plus, it offers a nice little tease for what’s coming as well.
"Road to Empyre: The Kree/Skrull War" is available now.