Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Marvel Comics, Review | Tagged: Alex Paknadel, empyre, lords of empyre, swordsman, thomas nachlik

Lords of Empyre: Swordsman #1 Review: The Villain's Side

Lords of Empyre: Swordsman #1 is the final one of these one-shots that focuses on the… it would be fair to say "villains" of the series considering that Swordsman and Celestial Messiah both do, and Emperor Hulk set up the plotline that would lead to Hulkling being impersonated in Empyre #5. Alex Paknadel, who also wrote Celestial Messiah, returns for this Swordsman one-shot that feels very much like a prequel to his first story.

Take a dash of Swamp Thing's identity crisis from Alan Moore's run, a bit of Game of Thrones royal lineage anxiety, and throw it into the midst of the Marvel universe at a time when the Cotati war was brewing, and you've got Lords of Empyre: Swordsman. Paknadel enriched Quoi's journey in Celestial Messiah, and does the same for the Cotati that merged with the Swordsman, former Avenger, here. There's a little more going on here, with a sword being stolen from the Avengers, an attempted suicide by tree absorption, and an environmental assault that leads Quoi to very quickly go from a defender of all life at the beginning of the issue to the vengeful Celestial Messiah we know from Empyre by the end. It's compelling but, because the connection between these two leads naturally to a comparison, a tad less focused than Celestial Messiah. The scenes, for example, where we see Leonora Yoon and Robert Chandler felt a bit on-the-nose, so even though their page time was very little in comparison to the rest of the issue, their scenes did feel like pure exposition that could've been better been delivered with a line or two from the workers. Quoi arcs more here than Swordsman, and his descent into "heaven," as he calls it, would have been something that would've enriched this issue further if readers could have seen that visually that from his perspective.

The art by artist Thomas Nachlik and colorist Marcio Menyz continues the trend of these Empyre tie-ins to lean into the visual terror of it all. VC's Ariana Maher gives the letters that classic Marvel feel, while the art team creates something that wouldn't feel out of place in a full out horror book.

One small critique of the whole Lords of Empyre line is not of the writing or art, but of the scheduling. Swordsman might have read a little better before Celestial Messiah, but that's a small quibble, as both stories make their timing and purpose clear.

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