Warning: The following contains spoilers for Empyre: Avengers #1, by Jim Zub, Carlos Magno, Espen Grundetjern, and VC's Cory Petit, available now.
In Marvel's Empyre crossover, The age-old conflict between the alien empires of the Cotati and the newly merged Kree/Skrull Empire has come to Earth. The Avengers heroes of Earth are scrambling to not only combat the Cotati's planned extinction of all animal life while also keeping the Kree/Skrull Imperium in check. With all of this confusion, a classic Marvel location has seemingly already fallen to the plant-based invaders.
In Empyre: Avengers #1, the Avengers are trying to put together their shattered forces in an attempt to regain some control of their world. The Cotati are attacking all around the globe and using Earth's own vegetation to their advantage. The Avengers elect to send small strike forces to the various points of Cotati attack including a small team made up of Scarlet Witch, Black Knight, Ka-Zar and Doctor Voodoo to Ka-Zar's home and iconic Marvel locale, the Savage Land, which has already apparently fallen to the Cotati.
Marvel's Savage Land is a tropical pre-historic game preserve located in the center of the Antarctic continent. It was created on behalf of the Beyonders by the alien race is known as the Nuwali. The Beyonders were interested in conducting experiments on evolution through a series of preserves set up on several planets. As a result, the Savage Land is a place filled with dinosaurs, mutates, ape-men and oddities like Sauron, the were-pterodactyl energy vampire who fights the X-Men. The Savage Land was originally created as "The Land Where Time Stands Still" in 1941's Marvel Mystery Comics #42, by Joe Simon, Jack Kirby and Syd Shores, but later became the more recognizable Savage Land in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's X-Men #10. Since then. it has played a regular role in the world of the X-Men and Marvel's other heroes.
In the Savage Land, this odd assortment of Avengers finds a slaughtered T-Rex with arrows protruding from its neck. Ka-Zar states that if he didn't know any better he'd assume that this had been the work of the Swamp Tribe, but they would have harvested the corpse for meat and bones instead of simply leaving it rot; this is undoubtedly the work of the Cotati. Scanning the surrounding forest Scarlet Witch discovers that the Cotati have them closed in on all sides, and a fight soon breaks out. Although it seems that the Avengers have the upper hand, Man-Thing explodes from the ground, seemingly under the control of the heroes' floral foes. To make matters worse, Shana, the wife of Ka-Zar, is LAO AWWMINGLY among the Cotati, and she's looking a little green. The Avengers lay around the ground surrounded on all sides, and it seems like the Savage Land has already fallen to the Cotati forces.
The Savage Land may seem like a relatively unimportant win in terms of its strategic value to the Cotati, but it has played a major role in previous Marvel crossover events. Its remote status has led various collections of heroes to use it as a safe haven, as was seen in Age of Ultron. but it represents just how much of a threat they pose to the rest of the Earth.
It is unclear how exactly the Cotati were able to convert Man-Thing and Shanna, but it seems like they have the ability to manipulate and communicate with plants. If the Savage Land is any indication, the lush forests of KRakoa or less industrialized parts of the world could make the tendrils of Empyre stretch even further around the Marvel Universe.