Or…well, it was set for April 15. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the entertainment industry hard and the comic book distribution is no different. As of right now, all Marvel releases are put on hold indefinitely, so I guess consider Empyre #1‘s release date to be “about two weeks after things go back to normal.”
Marvel Empyre Tie-Ins
As for tie-ins, in April* we’re starting off with Empyre: Fantastic Four #0, Empyre: Avengers #0-3, Empyre: Spider-Man #1-3, Lords of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling #1, Fantastic Four #21-22, and X-Men #10-11. May* will give us the Union #1-5, Lords of Empyre: Celestial Messiah, Empyre: X-Men #1-4, Empyre: Thor #1-3, Empyre: Stormranger #1-3, Empyre Squadron Supreme #1-2, Empyre: Savage Avengers #1, Empyre: The Invasion of Wakanda #1-3, Empyre: Ghost Rider #1, Empyre: Captain America #1-3, and Captain Marvel #18-20. Lastly, Lords of Empyre: Swordsman #1 comes out in June*.
*Again, that’s what was originally announced. You can probably a month or two to when Marvel’s comic releases go back to normal.
Time will tell what in there is actually worth reading, but the Savage Avengers tie-in is Gerry Duggan and Greg Smallwood putting together a team-up between Conan the Barbarian and Venom against alien plant people, so I’m all about that jazz! Also, the Spider-Man tie-in is written by Taran Killam, who was one of the brighter spots of the last decade of Saturday Night Live, so that might at least be interesting.
Marvel Empyre Covers and Promotional Images
Another piece of the puzzle is that according to one of the promotional images, one of the big plot points is the crowning of Ronan the Accuser’s successor. Ronan was killed off recently in the Death of the Inhumans storyline, but supposedly one of Earth’s heroes will be wielding his not-quite-as-cool-as-Mjolnir hammer. The covers for certain solicited comics coming in the next few months seems to spoil the wielder, so that might not be the most shocking development in this series.