Writer: Chip Zdarsky and Anthony Oliveira

Art: Manuel Garcia

Inker: Cam Smith

Colorist: Triona Farrell

Price: $4.99

Release Date: July 22nd, 2020

The Summer Space event of the year is upon us! Coming at you full throttle! A Blast in the face, neck, and chest region that started way back in December of 2019 with INCOMING! This is an all out War the likes of which you have never witnessed! And now! That you have gotten a taste of the mind bending, eye lids fluttering, toe curling pleasures that war!! on a mass scale!!! can bring you!…just a taste that is…and I do mean…Ooooh My…just a taste! NOW! I bring you!

A slight prequel of back filler to stuff in the cracks of this Vegetation Event. Its not the Meat and Cheese more like the tossed salad portion of the meal, but the problem is I have already gotten my steak and I do not want to go back and eat an over dressed salad. Even if my steak is chewy, and the waitress hasn’t refilled the steak sauce bottle in two months.

That sounds unfair, you might say. To that I say sure..but the salad was late. That tossed salad could be the most delicious, succulent, tongue lathering salad I have ever put in my neck hole, but if I have already moved on, do I know ,or care what I have missed?

This issue is about filling in the reader on some of Hulkling’s history. Which is needed considering Marvel in its infinite wisdom decided to build an event around characters that have been sidelined for awhile. Instead of giving this to the reader in the beginning of an Event to have a better understanding of some ramifications going in to the main event it comes out the following week. I bring this up for a reason. Chip Zadarsky is a really good writer but he has to do so much heavy lifting in this story it becomes bogged down in the amount of information it has to convey, and the very limited feelings/emotions you could squeeze out of this story are lessened by the fact you already know the out come.

The tension of the struggle to power was nonexistent because you saw Hulkling commanding the Armada in Empyre #1. The moments between Billy and Teddy were nice but they don’t really feel like they are going to be integral to the story and to be honest I have no connection to their relationship because I have not read New Avengers yet, and yet again we already know the out come to this talk they have.

The only thing this comic gives us is some insight into the other factions of kree and/or skrull that do not want peace or Hulkling as their king. (Hint) its the Kree lady that no one has ever seen or heard of before that is doing double cross apple sauce and so she has been Accused!

Final Thoughts:

It’s a competent story with quality art but honestly it would have been better if it came out before Empyre #1. It would not have made it more exciting or entertaining but it might have had a chance to generate some emotion from just its placement in the overall event. I applaud the effort but frown at the outcome.

6.4/10