| Empress | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cover ofEmpress #1 (April 2016), depicting Queen Emporia (centre),Dane Havelok (left), and King Morax (right); art byStuart Immonen. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Format | Limited series |
| Genre | Space opera/science fiction |
| Publication date | April – November 2016 |
| No. of issues | 7 |
| Main characters |
|
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Mark Millar Stuart Immonen |
| Written by | Mark Millar |
| Artists | Stuart Immonen
|
| Penciller | Stuart Immonen |
| Inker | Wade Von Grawbadger |
| Letterer | Peter Doherty |
| Colorist | Ive Svorcina |
| Editor(s) | Nicole Boose Rachael Fulton(associate) |
| Collected editions | |
| Book One | ISBN 1-302-90206-7 |
Empress is acreator-ownedcomic booklimited series written byMark Millar, illustrated byStuart Immonen and published by theIcon Comicsimprint ofMarvel Comics in 2016. Set in theMillarworld, the series follows Queen Emporia, Empress of the Royal Empire that ruledEarth 65 million years ago, as she decides to leave her husband King Morax along with their three children.
In 2023, astand-aloneprequel series,Big Game, written by Millar and illustrated by Pepe Larraz, was published byImage Comics, while a second volume was published byDark Horse Comics in 2024.
The publicity was launched in October 2015 viaThe Hollywood Reporter, withEmpress announced as "a big, fun, bombasticspace opera" fromMark Millar andStuart Immonen,[3] described by Millar in later interviews withIGN andVox as a series his (young) daughters could read.[4][5] On the developing the series' protagonist of Queen Emporia, Millar described her:
[Emporia] was young and impressionable when she married [Morax], just twenty years old, but now she's in her mid-thirties and realizes she has to get out of there. What seemed glamorous at 20 suddenly feels terrifying and for both her own sake and the sake of her kids she knows she has to leave. The trouble is, her husband is the most feared tyrant in the universe. How do you leave him and where do you go? I think all the best science fiction has a very human element at the heart of it and a mother wanting to leave a dangerous relationship is very easy for readers to relate to. I'm not really interested in high-concept ideas as much as human emotions being the driving force of a story. EvenStar Wars was really justa lonely kid who wondered whohis real father was.[3]
The series also gained pre-publication attention when Millar revealed the series would take place on prehistoric Earth 65 million years in the past, where agalactic empire once considered the planet its capital,[6] and that he credited an unnamed "pal" of his who ran theMillarworldchat rooms with giving him the concept for the series;[7] on developing the antagonist of the series, King Morax, Millar noted:
The bad guy in this, Morax, rules ancient Earth and [actually] utterly adores his wife and children. He's not abusive to them in any way and actually has this strong streak of morality when it comes to his family and doing the right thing. The idea [with Emporia] is more that she's now in her late thirties and realises that all the things he does which keeps them in their incredible lifestyle is just unforgivable and she realises that by carving out what she thinks was a nice future for her kids she's actually doomed them to inherit this guy's appalling mantle. Her son is a lovely, gentle kid and she's especially worried about how he'd cope, but the big thing is that she just wants them to have a normal life. It's a bit likeCarmela Soprano in that when she was nineteen this all seemed very glamorous, but the reality of it all has been growing on her and as she hits her late thirties she comes up with a plan.[7]
While originally intended to consist of three six-issue arcs,[8] only the seven-issue first volume of the series,[9][10] collected asEmpress Book One,[11] was published by theIcon Comicsimprint ofMarvel Comics from April 6 to November 23, 2016,[12][13] before the publication of subsequent volumes entereddevelopment hell.
In 2017, aone-shot,Empress: Rulebook, written by Will McLaren and illustrated by Luana Vecchio, was published byImage Comics as part of theMillarworld New Talent Annual 2017, ananthologyannual consisting of one-shot specials containing winning entries from the online contest for up-and-coming creators held by Millar in 2016. Set before the events ofEmpress, the story explores the beginning of Emporia's struggles with living up to the image of empress, and ultimate decision to leave.[14]
In 2023,Big Game, a crossover between every Millarworld property illustrated by Pepe Larraz, was published by Image Comics;[15] while the majority of the story takes place on present-day Earth, 65 million years after the events ofEmpress, theEmpress portion of the storyline is a direct prequel toEmpress, seeingHit-Girl accidentally travelling back in time to the reign of the Royal Empire of King Morax, who on seeing no record of his empire in modernity, sends one of his armies to invade the future under the command of Diabolos the Sorcerer.[16][17] A new volume ofEmpress was published byDark Horse Comics in 2024 and serves as a directsequel to the original comic. Dark Horse also published anomnibus edition of the first volume.[18][19]
Onprehistoric Earth, deciding to leave her husband, Queen Emporia and her bodyguard Dane Havelok commander one of the Royal Empire's starships, taking with them Emporia's three children with galactic emperor King Morax: the 15-year-old Princess Aine, who aims to be exactly like her father and does not wish to leave; the 10-year-old Prince Adam, a "gentle soul" whom Emporia fears would not survive the trials ahead to become an elite ruler; and Puck, Emporia's youngest child, at 18-months-old.[20]
While Queen Emporia is on the run, with the forces of the Royal Empire in pursuit, Dane painted as the royal family's kidnapper in order to prevent a scandal in the eyes of the Imperial public, a plea for help on an alien stopover world along with a broken transporter could end the empress' adventure before it's properly begun, as Dane recruits his pilot, Tor.[21]
Facing off against a new fleet of security sent by King Morax, willing to stop at nothing to get the boss' children back, Emporia and Dane must battle intergalactic beasts at every turn as they teleport between alien war zones and dead worlds in evading the forces pursuing them.[22]
Stranded on barren planet Golgoth without hope of escape, shrouded by a massive dust cloud, when two passing scrap-merchants think they can make a quick profit by selling Emporia's children as slaves, unaware of who they are, the family is torn apart again and left fighting for their lives.[23]
With the heirs stolen to be sold into slavery at an auction, Emporia, Dane, and Tor, find themselves falling into the lap of a tribal priestess thirsty to use them as a blood sacrifice. Meanwhile, King Morax makes progress in tracking down his stolen children, executing everyone in his path, while Aine comes into her own as a warrior against the merchants that planned on selling her off.[24]
After an intrepid chase across the galaxies, Emporia arrives at her long-lost sister's planet to escape King Morax, unaware that she is on psychic vacation, and someone else currently possesses her body. Embedded within her new-age sanctuary, Dane and Emporia decide to enjoy each other's company, secretly observed by Aine, who outraged, contacts her father and brings him to the planet.[25]
As King Morax finally tracks his wife and children down, family turns against one other and old secrets come out into the light.[26]
| Issue # | Publication date | Critic rating | Critic reviews | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 2016 | 8.4/10 | 17 | [27] |
| 2 | May 2016 | 8.6/10 | 6 | [28] |
| 3 | June 2016 | 8.2 | 6 | [29] |
| 4 | July 2016 | 9.1 | 6 | [30] |
| 5 | August 2016 | 8.8 | 8 | [31] |
| 6 | September 2016 | 8.9 | 4 | [32] |
| 7 | November 2016 | 9.7 | 3 | [33] |
| Overall | 8.8/10 | 50 | [34] |
| Title | Material collected | Format | Publication date | ISBN |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empress Book One | Empress #1–7 | Trade paperback Hardback | February 8, 2017 July 5, 2017 | 978-1-302-90206-3 |
| Prequel:Big Game | Big Game #1–5 | Trade paperback | December 20, 2023 | 978-1-5343-9911-2 |
In May 2016, anEmpress feature film was in development.Mark Millar was hired to produce along withJoe Roth andJeff Kirschenbaum, and F. Scott Frazier was attached to write the script, with the film being pitched to studios as "part Star Wars, part Guardians of the Galaxy",[35][36] after Millar had claimed an "A-list" actress to have already been cast to star onTwitter.[37] In August 2017,Netflix acquired Millar's comic book publishing companyMillarworld, and in July 2018, it hadgreen-lit several adaptations of his works, includingEmpress, now to be written by Lindsey Beer,[38] before the project entereddevelopment hell.
