WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Empyre #5, by Al Ewing, Dan Slott, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Through 12 years and 23 films, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced some of the most quotable, iconic lines in modern pop culture. While the current Avengers and Fantastic Four crossover event Empyre has already recreated some moments from the MCU, a comic book Avenger just borrowed one of Avengers: Infinity War's most famous phrases.
In Empyre #5, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four find themselves in a crucial stage of their conflict with the plantlike alien race, the Cotati. These sinister aliens are determined to wipe out all non-plant life by invading the Earth and spreading the heroes' forces very thin. At the same time, the Kree/Skrull alliance complicates matters with the threat of the Pyre, a contingency that could ignite the sun and destroys the Earth in order to prevent the Cotati from spreading.
While all of these events transpire, the Black Panther holds the fort in Wakanda, defending the vibranium mound from the Cotati. The plantlike aliens intend to plant the death blossom on the mound, enabling the Cotati to control all plant life in the galaxy. And when King T'Challa sees that the Cotati have broken through, he borrows a line from Infinity War and says, "We are in the endgame now."
Despite T'Challa's valiant efforts, the Cotati open a gateway within the great mound, through which Quoi, the Celestial Messiah emerges. As he witnesses the opening of the gateway, T'Challa tells his sister, Shuri, his final warning. Once the Celestial Messiah arrives, his father, the Cotati Swordsman, stabs T'Challa, seemingly killing him.
Quoi then plants the death blossom, which needs 10 minutes to activate activation. Simultaneously, the Kree/Skrull alliance initiate the Pyre, with only nine minutes to activation. Back on Earth, Reed Richards and Tony Stark are hard-pressed to find a solution, realizing that they only have "nine minutes to save the world" from two disasters with Iron Man's latest armor.
When Doctor Strange uttered a similar phrase in Infinity War, it was in similarly dire circumstances. Thanos had just acquired the Time Stone, the fifth out of six Infinity Gems, and defeat seemed all but assured.
In both stories, Marvel's heroes had seemingly lost all hope. However, Doctor Strange, however, utters his famous line with some knowledge of the future. Earlier in the Infinity War, Strange views 14,000,605 possible future scenarios where the heroes fight Thanos, prevailing against the Mad Titan in only one. Strange gives Thanos the time stone in exchange for Tony Stark's life because he realizes that this is the only way that the heroes will defeat Thanos. When Strange says "We're in the endgame now," everything is going according to his plan.
On the other hand, T'Challa says this line after his plan of defending the great mound has failed. While this battle seems to leave T'Challa bleeding out in Wakanda, the Panther may have some plan up his sleeve. T'Challa's apparent death does seem rather suspicious, as Swordsman comments. And Black Panther could have one last move to play, much like Strange.
In both scenarios, Strange and T'Challa are in situations where they depend on others to save the day. In Infinity War, Strange realizes that Tony Stark is the key to the heroes' victory against Thanos. Likewise, in Empyre, Reed Richards and Tony Stark are the two heroes left to save the world when all hope seems lost. When Strange and T'Challa say that they're in the "endgame," they both realize that the situation is out of their hands, even if the time left on the clock is running out.