If you like your comic books to be styled after the Golden or Silver Age, you’ll do yourself a favor by steering clear of Empire.

Mark Waid, no newcomer in the revisionist super-hero drama, takes a bold dramatic approach to comic storytelling. In Empire, the bad guys have won. They not only have won, but they rule the world and have done it in the nastiest, cruelest ways possible. Just when you’ve thought you know what evil is, Waid goes one step further. By stories end you’ll almost start feeling sorry for the main lead, the tyrant Golgoth. At the very least, you may have some understanding.

This is the genius of Mark Waid’s limited series, published in its entirety into one volume. He proves it actually is possible to tell a story from a villain’s point of view: the world he attempts to create, and some motivations for doing so. He also proves that just when you thought you understood what evil truly is, there’s always something or someone else just as horrific. In Empire, all of the main characters are as amoral and wicked as possible. The majority are addicted to substances or delight in unorthodox behavior, sexual or otherwise. Yet it’s also a grand study of characterization. All of the characters may be bad, but to different degrees. There is no stereotyping here, and characters aren’t necessarily ‘drones’ of the main baddie. Your opinion of certain characters may, and should, change as the book progresses. It was amazing how rich and detailed Mark Waid made both the characters and the world that Empire takes place in such a short span of time. Most creators need a twelve-issue maxi-series to even hope to attain that.

If there is one major hang-up to Empire is that it is way too bleak. This of course was the idea of the series, but there is absolutely no hope at all to be found in these pages. That makes it hard to qualify or recommend as escapist reading. Any glimmer of hope is immediately shot down within its panels, and the only humor to be found is a morbid, dark humor.

On the other hand, everyone should check out Barry Kitson’s artwork in these pages. It’s stunning! I’ve been a fan of Kitson’s since he started doing L.E.G.I.O.N back in 1989 and here he shows no signs of letting up. His style is super clean, and he has an amazing grasp on character and layout designs. If there is any reason to read and enjoy Empire, it’s due to the one-two punch of Waid’s dramatic characterization and Kitson’s gorgeous character designs and overall look to Empire. Is Kitson still doing a monthly series? I certainly hope so!

I always hate saying this in my reviews because it sounds so wishy-washy, but here I can’t help it: Empire isn’t for everybody. I appreciated it and believe it pushes the envelope of what type of stories super-hero books can tell. I also believe that this book will find the cult status, or even respect, of certain fans the same way books like Watchmen has. On the other hand, it really is a bleak book in which tyranny has prevailed and that may be hard for some to swallow.