Most of the time, I avoid the comic book crossover events into the regular titles. For example, it’s usually fun to read the main maxi-series/miniseries title but it’s less fun when it ventures into the regular monthly comics.

For example, again, Marvel’s “Empyre,” the maxi-series involving the latest take on the Skrull-Kree War, looks interesting on its own. But normally, I might steer clear of its connection in the “X-Men,” or ‘The Avengers,” or “Fantastic Four” titles.

OK, I read the FF “Empyre” collection without having read the “Empyre” limited series.

Writer Dan Slott makes it fun anyway. Of course, he’s also one of the primary writers for “Empyre,” as well as the current regular writer for the “Fantastic Four.” These crossovers are always better if the writer is fully invested in the limited series rather than having it intrude upon his creative realm.

All this may sound confusing but as long as a reader has some basic FF knowledge and even a working understanding of the Skrulls and the Kree in the Marvel Universe, the Fantastic Four arc stands on its own.

The FF encounter a Kree and a Skrull locked in reenacting the greatest conflicts of their respective space races. The traditional FF saves the combative pair then the traditional FF disappear from the pages of their own book because they are off doing battle in the limited “Empyre” series.

So, Slott presents a tremendously fun replacement team of the FF: Reed and Sue Richards’ teenage son and daughter matched with Wolverine and Spider-Man decked out in specially fitted FF uniforms.

Slott’s run on the FF has a been a pleasure. And anyone who can make crossover issues a success – especially without the traditional main characters for a few months – deserves plenty of accolades as well as a look at his work on the limited “Empyre” series.