Realm of Kings #1 - Discussion & Spoilers

[Expletive Deleted]

Realm of Kings: The One-Shot by Abnett, Lanning, Manco, and Asrar, out today . . .

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Want to know what's on the other side of the Fault? H.P. Lovecraft's Marvel Universe.

Quasar takes a trip into the Fault and pops out the other side in an alternate New York where he encounters a tentacled monstrosity. A team of Avengers (of a sort) show up and defeat the monster, which turns out to be . . . an alternate Hulk, who reverts to Banner form when unconscious. Wendell figures out that something is horribly wrong when they summarily execute Banner. Unfortunately, their Scarlet Witch hexes him in place before he can escape.

The Avengers take him back to their base, and we get some exposition. This universe's Avengers worship Lovecraftian entities. Yog Soggoth gets namechecked, as well as the Many-Angled Ones. They've effectively used up their own universe, and they're looking to use the Fault as a gateway to a fresh one. Quasar manages to get free with a little help from the Vision (creatures of pure science apparently aren't susceptible to the corrupting influence), and smacks around the ersatz Iron Man and Thor before fleeing back into the Fault. Just before he leaves, though, he takes a look back and is horrified by the extent of the Lovecraftian entities.

The final twist: our Quasar took a trip to their side of the Fault, but at the same time their Quasar took a trip to ours, landing at Project Pegasus.

All in all . . . it's interesting. It's a pretty standard story for Quasar, exploring an alternate universe, but the horror angle puts a unique spin on things. Asrar's art on the MU side of the Fault is fine, but Manco's art on the other side is what really sets this issue apart. As a one-shot, it's definitely recommended.

That said, for all the novelty of the horror angle and the awesomeness of Manco's art, I'm not sure how it really fits with everything else that's going on in the cosmic side of the MU right now. If this was the kickoff for a normal event, sure. Cosmic heroes versus Lovecraft, why not? But this "Realm of Kings" thing seems to have the various cosmic groups going in entirely different directions. Nova will be taking on Sphinx, the Guardians look like they'll be continuing with their Magus storyline, and the Kree and Shi'ar seem to be wrapped up in internal conflicts. And who knows how the Son of Hulk book connects to all this, if at all. If someone were to pick up this one-shot, like it, and want to find out where the story continues, I don't know if I'd have a good answer for them.

So . . . anyone else pick this up?

Also, if anyone wants to start a thread for the RoK: Inhumans issue that came out today, feel free.

[Cthulhudrew]

Could be kind of interesting if DnA had tied this in with Asteroth and the weird dimension she came from in Oeming's Stormbreaker mini.

I find it kind of curious that the Vision is somehow "normal" despite (presumably) having been created by creatures that are corrupted, but maybe it's explained in the issue. I'm planning on picking it up this weekend- Manco doing Lovecraft? Sounds like a match made in Heaven... or the Outer Realms.

[Noona1]

I got it ..it was interesting

[XPac]

This really does seem rather removed from the other things going on in Realm of Kings... but nonetheless it looks really fun.

This is a fun mingling of the cosmic stuff and the straight up horror... and it really works. It's a very different kind of cosmic story than what we've seen before.

I'm not if Realm of Kings will even have one central story anymore, or if all these seemingly unrelated things are going to happen under one umbrella... but in the least I'm a LOT more interested in Realm of Kings than I was before.

[stingerman]

I thought it was good.

As a rapid Quasar fan I was happy with it also.

ED you are spot on as I thought the same. What's next? Also, you are correct regarding the direction of the other books. Maybe down the line, the Evil Avengers emerge and they need to unite to face a common foe, etc etc.

Heck, I want to know what is going to happen at Project Pegasus and all. Nothing has been mentioned in any of the solicits, talk about a cliff hanger! lol! Would be interesting if they use this Quasar on earth and he interacts with the earth-based stuff.

Both Asrar and Manco did a great job. That was a nice touch.

Awesome one shot, which I will read again and again.

[XPac]

Originally Posted by stingerman

I thought it was good.

As a rapid Quasar fan I was happy with it also.

ED you are spot on as I thought the same. What's next? Also, you are correct regarding the direction of the other books. Maybe down the line, the Evil Avengers emerge and they need to unite to face a common foe, etc etc.

Heck, I want to know what is going to happen at Project Pegasus and all. Nothing has been mentioned in any of the solicits, talk about a cliff hanger! lol! Would be interesting if they use this Quasar on earth and he interacts with the earth-based stuff.

Both Asrar and Manco did a great job. That was a nice touch.

Awesome one shot, which I will read again and again.

Maybe in the end we'll get some sort of love craftian Avengers throw down with the egyptian Avengers (if they show up... we've got Sphinx so ya never know).

[stingerman]

Originally Posted by XPac

Maybe in the end we'll get some sort of love craftian Avengers throw down with the egyptian Avengers (if they show up... we've got Sphinx so ya never know).

Yeah, that is true.

Its kinda odd, Marvel announced the RoKs: Son of Hulk mini when the IG and Inhumans are ending I think. So I suppose we are getting four more months of Realm of Kings? - at least in Nova and GoTG I am assuming? Though they could have just slapped the RoK tag on to explain why Hiro goes micro.

[doublewhiskeycokenoice]

for a one-shot, i thought this was really good. as a rabid darkhawk fan, i was hoping DnA would toss him in, but hey, dem's the breaks.

luckily i'm also a Quasar fan, who looked baaaaaad ass in that costume. was that the same one from Annihilation? it looked a little different. either way, this was a really fun read, and i had a blast, but i'm unsure of which books it'll run in with, as it seems like someone pointed out before, that all the other teams are off doing their own thing.

the whole lovecraft influence was cool. it reminded me off marvel zombies, but in a more serious, and less campy tone.

[Umbra]

I thought it was good. Very intresting. I love what DnA are doing with cosmic marvel.

[Sanity or Madness?]

Originally Posted by Expletive Deleted

The final twist: our Quasar took a trip to their side of the Fault, but at the same time their Quasar took a trip to ours, landing at Project Pegasus.

See, I read that differently - mostly because, if horrorverse Quasar stayed the same coming over to the MU, why did MU Quasar turn into a copy of his counterpart going the other way?

The way I saw it was that "our" Q was dumped into the body of his counterpart while they were both in the Fault, and after getting back, the demonic infection was beginning to present...

Originally Posted by Cthulhudrew

I find it kind of curious that the Vision is somehow "normal" despite (presumably) having been created by creatures that are corrupted, but maybe it's explained in the issue.

The Vision & Scarlet Witch were apparently married before this Earth became a Lovecraftian hell...

[Expletive Deleted]

Originally Posted by Sanity or Madness?

See, I read that differently - mostly because, if horrorverse Quasar stayed the same coming over to the MU, why did MU Quasar turn into a copy of his counterpart going the other way?

A quirk of his energy form, maybe?

Originally Posted by Sanity or Madness?

The way I saw it was that "our" Q was dumped into the body of his counterpart while they were both in the Fault, and after getting back, the demonic infection was beginning to present...

It's possible, but he appeared to revert to his energy form as he was leaving the evil universe. If we're talking about a merged or infected Quasar, that doesn't quite square up.

[XPac]

Hmmm... I'm almost wondering if all this isn't just an elaborate way to get Quasar to have a physical body again.

[Tazirai]

I'll be picking it up tomorrow. So I'll hold on till I read it.

[Agent_Torpor]

Originally Posted by Cthulhudrew

Could be kind of interesting if DnA had tied this in with Asteroth and the weird dimension she came from in Oeming's Stormbreaker mini.

I find it kind of curious that the Vision is somehow "normal" despite (presumably) having been created by creatures that are corrupted, but maybe it's explained in the issue. I'm planning on picking it up this weekend- Manco doing Lovecraft? Sounds like a match made in Heaven... or the Outer Realms.

The less DnA ties into anything Oeming did, the better.

[strathcona]

I always enjoy a good story with Quasar, so I liked this issue. However, I hope the real Quaze does come back from the Lovecraft-dimension soon. I don't want to have his eveil version the only version running around for the next few years.