When I was about seven or eight I once asked my mum, why there were no stories where the bad guys win. I was confused that the bad guys always seemed to be rich, have good plans and usually a whole army. Yet they could never pull out a win. I didn't want the bad guys to win, it just never made sense to me that they couldn't when they had all the best stuff. Good guys winning just because they are good made no sense to me at eight and it makes no sense to me now (hence why I don't like Green Lantern, I win because I'm good, not good enough? I'll be gooder). Empire: Uprising, is a follow up series to Mark Waid and Barry Kitson's Empire. A story where the bad guy does in fact win. The bad guy is Golgoth, a space warlord who has taken over earth. He has an almost Iron Man look about him, but a bit more bad ass because he has a sword.

So Golgoth rules planet earth, he has brought peace and order (by killing a lot of people). We learn that his daughter has died and he has instituted a global three minutes of silence. This is not like those moments of silence from my old school days, where people would look around trying to make each other giggle. This is a mandatory enforced by martial law moment of silence. If you so much as make a peep you will be shot by the silence enforcers, guards with metal bands around their mouths.

During these three minutes some of the people who aren't pleased with Golgoth's rule decide to rise-up against him. It's during this scene that we see how one man could take over a whole planet. It's brutal and awesome all at once. The world created in these pages feels so real that you can anticipate certain things that are going to happen. Not in a cliche way but in a 'I hope he does this, oh he did that's fucking awesome' kind of way.

The conflicts the characters have feels genuine and not forced. What's nice is that you learn which characters do what and how they feel about the state of the world, but it doesn't feel info-dumpy.

This is an awesome beginning to an excellent comic. I can't wait for the next issue. I don't hand out five stars that often but this one really knocked it out of the park for me.

Score: 5/5

Empire: Uprising #1 Writer: Mark Waid and Barry Kitson Artist: Barry Kitson Colorist: Chris Sotomayor Publisher: IDW/Thrillbent Price: $3.99 Release Date: 4/22/15 Format: Mini-Series; Print/Digital