April will see the launch of Marvel Entertainment’s Empyre comic book storyline, bringing the Fantastic Four and Avengers together for a storyline that the publisher teases as “a culmination of decades’ worth of Marvel storytelling.” With that kind of scope, it’s not surprising that the story will expand beyond the primary Empyre series.
In advance of the first issue of the main title, Marvel has announced Empyre: Avengers No. 0 and Empyre: Fantastic Four No. 0, two prologue issues that will introduce the stakes and concepts of the larger storyline, written by the two men responsible for the central Empyre series, Dan Slott and Al Ewing.
Ewing and Pepe Larraz’s Empyre: Avengers follows the team as it’s drawn to something called the Green Area of the Moon to meet old friends and deal with a shared threat, while Empyre: Fantastic Four, by Slott and R.B. Silva, sees Marvel’s “first family” come face-to-face with the final conflict of the Kree/Skrull War ahead of both sides joining together for the new storyline. Both issues, according to Marvel, will “feature first appearances for major new players in the Marvel Universe.”
In a statement, Ewing explained, “Empyre starts with a bang — the Avengers and the Fantastic Four meeting a threat from two sides, with two different strategies — and these [zero] issues will let set readers up to see how they got there. As the Avengers meet with old friends, and the Fantastic Four run into some brand-new ones, both teams face some stark choices and a test of their character as a team. It’s the best way to get inside the heads of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four before the main action begins.”
Both issues are set to be released in April.
