So, Solo: A Star Wars Story was released this weekend. Some of my favorite movie
reviewers (Jeremy Jahns, Chris Stuckmann) didn’t have great things to say about
the movie. Since I'm off work for the weekend, I thought I'd take a bite and go see it for myself. It was okay for the most part and surprising in a couple of places. Today’s
post isn’t about the nerf-herding pilot with a nice smile, though. It’s time
to, once again, jump back into the original Expanded Universe, aka “Legends.”
Today, it’s Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire Trilogy.
Star Wars: Dark Empire, a six-issue miniseries, was released by Dark Horse in 1991.
It was originally supposed to be released by Marvel, but things didn’t work
out. Also, the writer, Tom Veitch, had to work things out with other writers
like Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson because they were also doing things in
the Expanded Universe. Its sequel, Dark Empire II, was released in 1994. The
final story, Empire’s End, was released a year later. Tom Veitch wrote all
three books. The artwork for the first two was provided by Cam Kennedy while
Empire’s End had artwork done by Jim Balkie.
For some reason, this image of Luke in the Vader mask has stuck with me for years.
It was around 2004 or
2005 when I first heard about Dark Empire. I actually found Dark Empire II at
MTSU’s library. I was searching for something Star Wars-related and I found it
in the young section. A few years later, I again ran into the Dark Empire
Trilogy (which collected Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and Empire’s End) at
Pulaski’s public library. I didn’t finish reading it, though. Over the years,
I’ve added the first two entries to my collection. Since Marvel has Star Wars
now, all of their Expanded Universe series is on Marvel Unlimited. I was able
to finally finish off the trilogy there. Since Empire’s End was only two issues,
that was easy to do… a little too easy.
The trilogy takes place six years after the Battle at Endor.
Even though Vader and the Emperor are gone, it’s still a struggle for the now
New Republic. Remnants of the Empire have gathered together and actually
reclaimed some worlds that were under Imperial rule. Still, things aren’t too
bad. Han and Leia got married and had two twins, Jacen and Jania. Luke is still
the cool Jedi in black, Chewbacca still roars, C-3PO still acts annoying, and
Lando is one bad man with a ‘stache. I’ll try to describe these as quick as
possible:
Okay, what the heck is this dude doing in the last panel? Must have learned from "The Abridged Book of Force Fighting"!
- Dark Empire – In Dark Empire, the New Republic has to deal with new threats from the Empire. They’ve created ships called World Devastators that are supposedly worse than the Death Star (not really in my opinion). Then, Luke gets captured by the Empire and turned to the Dark Side! What’s worse is that Emperor Palpatine, who was thought to be dead, is alive and kicking. Add the fact that Han and Leia have bounties on their heads (killing a Hutt kind of does that) and you realize there’s a lot going on here. Luckily, things aren’t too dire. Leia has become a Jedi Knight and is pretty good at it. We also find out that Luke’s turn isn’t as black-or-white-as we thought. We end the book with the threats more or less taken care of and with another Solo on the way.
- Dark Empire II – This sequel takes place a few months after the previous book. Now, Luke is on the mission of recruiting more Jedi to the fight. The Alliance also tries to take out the Empire’s base on the planet Byss. The Empire is still a major threat with “Dark” Jedi are doing the bidding of the once again resurrected Palpatine. They even have a new weapon that rivals the Death Star called the Galaxy Gun. While our heroes fight the good fight, the Empire’s Galaxy Gun and Dark Jedi are a big match for them. While new and former Jedi are found, Luke loses one that somehow became a lover (?). The Alliance’s base is destroyed and Leia’s new son, Anakin, is almost taken by Palpatine for some dark Sith stuff. Luckily, our heroes reunite after all the calamity that happened and make plans to finally end the Empire.
- Empire’s End – The final, pretty quick part of the trilogy takes place sometime after the last series. Emperor Palpatine is dying in his inferior clone body and needs to find another, powerful host. Luke and the Jedi do their best to keep Leia’s son safe as well as fight the good fight against the Empire. Things pretty much wrap up quickly with Palpatine finally kicking the bucket and the Empire base on Byss being destroyed. Even though Luke lost some of the new Jedi, the galaxy is saved once more even though you couldn’t tell by the end of this piece of crap.
So, what did I think of this whole trilogy? Honestly, I’m
kind of mixed on it. While it does do some interesting things, it’s not exactly
that good. I’ll elaborate more below. Since it’s 14 issues in all, I gotta pace
this out a bit. So, I’ll start with what is probably the best of the trilogy.
Dark Empire
While it’s not a perfect entry, Dark Empire is an entertaining
read. The story is good for the most part. It takes the characters we know and
love and has them go through some tough stuff. The galaxy is at war again and
the Empire remnants getting good ground with new weapons. This is a pretty dark
book in more ways than one. Heck, it’s called “Dark Empire.” Most of the charm
and humor you’d find in the original trilogy isn’t here. If someone would make
a “funny” joke, they’d say Zack Snyder wrote this or something.
So this was what folk were wanting from The Last Jedi... man, I've been bamboozled!!!
Luke and Leia especially go on a big arc. Luke supposedly
succumbs to the Dark Side like his father did. What we find out later is that
he basically succumbed in order to destroy the Empire from within. He also
wanted to know how it felt like. It’s weird to take him on that path and some
of the reasons for it are kinda sketchy. Still, it’s an interesting ride. Leia
also makes the jump into a Jedi warrior here. She even gets her own lightsaber
and cool robe so she can match with Luke. It’s she who is able to get Luke away
from the clutches of the Emperor this time.
Then, we get to ‘ole Sheev Palpatine. Yeah, he’s back and
he’s even weirder than ever. We find out that Palpatine has been using
clones to prolong his life. I guess this was done to explain that white
pastiness in ROTJ. He’d use ancient Sith arts to inhabit a new body. Star Wars
has always been a space fantasy with little sci-fi thrown in. The Dark Empire
Trilogy pretty much dives into the fantasy part with Palpatine. The dude’s
pulling powers out of nowhere like Force Storms… yeah. It’s weird that they’d
bring him back this way and I know fans didn’t like this. I can’t call it bad
yet, though. At least Palpatine in this part is something to be
reckoned with.
Nice cape, Leia. Don't go pulling any of Superman's moves, okay?
Then, we got the rest. Han’s still Han even when he’s
dealing with Jedi stuff. Lando does his general work and that’s always cool. We
even get the return of Boba Fett as he tries to capture the Solos for a
bounty. We even get a couple of new characters who have connections to Han:
Salla and Ninx. I liked them. We also get some idea on old Jedi history. We
find out that Palpatine has a holocron and it plays a role in this and the next
part.
Okay... what's really great about Boba Fett? I know he looks cool and all, but before this, he didn't live up to the coolness.
Then, we get to the artwork. Cam Kennedy was mostly know for
doing work on 2000AD books like Judge Dredd. What apparently got him noticed
was his work on a book called The Light and Darkness War. Kennedy’s style here
is admittedly weird but is really engrossing. He uses different colors to hit
certain moods. It kind of reminds me of Frank Miller’s work on Sin City but colored.
He gets the looks of the characters down for the most part but does take
certain liberties here and there. The only thing I don’t like is that sometimes
objects can become a little indistinguishable since everything is in the same
color. While it’s not the best artwork I’ve ran into, it’s interesting to say
the least.
Huh... I guess Rian Johnson does know his stuff!
Overall, I did like this part. The story was engaging and
darker than what we had gotten before. It has twists I didn’t necessarily see
coming. The biggest criticisms I have are the dialogue and some plot
elements. The dialogue given to some characters was a bit flat. Luke’s dialogue
especially feels weird. Also, having the Emperor here is weird, but it at least
it makes sense here. Still, its shortcomings don’t stop it from being my
favorite book from this trilogy.
Dark Empire II
Next, we get this part of the trilogy and this is where the problems
come in for me. I can’t call it a bad one, though. If anything, it’s just a
little below Dark Empire to me. While it does new things, some of it comes off
as a rehash of the first part. Even though it’s not perfect, it does feel more
like a standard Star Wars story than the last one did. Since Luke isn’t being
all dark and broody, the “darkness” has kind of lifted off a bit. You wouldn’t
be able to tell by the artwork, though. Even though the ending does remind me
of Empire Strikes back, it does feel a little lighter than the last one.
All right, guys! Get those flashlights shining! We're lost, remember?
I guess I’ll start off with Luke’s mission to bring the Jedi
back. While he has Leia in a smaller role, he gets help from a former Dark Jedi
called Kam Solusar. He also finds former Jedi that went into hiding during Darth
Vader’s scourge: Vima, a old beggar Leia ran into Nar Shaada,
and King Empatojayos of Ganath, a king using machinery to survive. We even find
out that there are Non-Jedi Force users on Ossus, a planet that has an old,
abandoned Jedi Temple. Two of the Ysanna, Jem and Rayf, join the group. Jem especially
plays a weird role in that she and Luke suddenly hook up. I’ll talk about that
later, though.
Man... now the New Republic is facing rip-off Cylons? That's.. totally cool.
With Luke’s plot, we get the inclusion of Dark Jedi, fallen
Jedi who aren’t completely Sith. The one we get a taste of is Sendriss and he’s
a little lame. Since Palpatine’s back, Sendriss is basically the Darth Maul or
Count Doodu-- Dooku, I mean. One does wonder what goes through George Lucas’s
head when naming folk. Anyway, Sendriss’ end comes on Ossus when a giant tree
Jedi grabs him and blows up… yeah, you read that right. It turns out that
“Swamp Thing” was Ood Bnar, the creator of the holocron in this trilogy.
So, the MCU isn't the only place with talking plant aliens? Figures.
Other than Luke’s mission, some things are rehashed. Leia
and Han go back to Nar Shaada and run into Boba Fett again. That bounty is
still in play. At least Boba is more of a threat here. Palpatine comes back in
another inferior clone again. If you thought they finally took the old man out,
you’d be unfortunately wrong. He also starts to act even more hammy than
before, so that’s not good.
Good going, Chewie.
While the story does rehash some things, things don’t get
good until the end. Palpatine more or less wins here with his new weapon, the
ridiculously named Galaxy Gun, and his Dark Jedi killing Jem. The New
Republic’s plan to destroy Byss also fails. They try to attack Byss “Trojan
Horse” style, but fail when thrown up against mutated Rancors. Luckily, Salla
and Ninx (from the last part) help out. Still, the heroes get to reunite for an
ending that reminds me of Empire Strikes Back.
Yay... he's back... looking like Dracula. Blah...
I don’t have much to say about the artwork here. Cam Kennedy
does the same job he did on the previous entry. He still uses colors in an
interesting way. I will say that things do look more stylized here. The pencils
look more sketchy this time around and I still don’t know what to think about
that. Also, the problem with things being hard to see is also a problem. Still,
I can say that Kennedy does try to make the artwork look visually interesting.
Overall, Dark Empire II is a couple of steps below its
predecessor. While it tries to do new things, it also goes into rehash mode at
times. I also wasn’t a fan of what was done with Luke’s and Jem’s romance. It
feels forced and comes out of nowhere. Veitch tries to use the Force to explain
it, but it doesn’t work for me. Still, it is a pretty decent read in the end.
It feels more like a Star Wars story than the last entry did and that is a good
thing. Unfortunately, this is where the “good” ends.
Luke getting a lady is nice and all (the whole "Jedi can't marry" thing is kinda stupid), but doing it like this is bad.
Empire’s End
We see the trilogy conclude with Empire’s End and it’s kind
of a bummer. Instead of being a six-issue mini like the last two were, it’s a
packed two-issue mini. While the New Republic trying to end the Empire for
good, a dying Palpatine is still after Leia’s son, Anakin. While it’s rushed, I
can say that the story is okay for the most part. It feels like things are
coming to an end. The Empire finally comes an end and Palpatine finally kicks
the bucket. Unfortunately, it’s the execution of the story that’s the problem.
When the big moments happen, I definitely felt underwhelmed.
Palpatine especially was pretty bad. Not only did he feel like a cartoon bad
guy, his death scene was pretty dull. It doesn’t help that the artwork was not good in most of these scenes, but I’ll get that later. We get the end of
the Empire here and it feels weird. Everything’s going so fast that you have to
go back and decipher what just happened.
Palpatine's last act of evil was trying to snatch a baby. Our villain, everyone!!!
This thing is a rushed beast. It actually doesn’t start out
like that in the first issue, but once the action starts, it becomes a rush of
images and dialogue. The last few pages is where it’s really a problem. I’m not
sure why this ended up being two issues. I read somewhere that some didn’t like
the previous entry, so this part was cut down to the length we got. Whatever
the reason, it was a loss. We get little character development here with the
whiplash pace. When I got to the final page, I was wondering if Ashton Kutcher
was going to pop on the screen next! The dialogue (which wasn’t great in the
previous two entries) is still not good as well.
This is our last page for this trilogy, folks. Yeah, what the crap indeed!
The artwork is another problem. Jim Balkie comes from the
same company Cam Kennedy came from: 2000AD. He also worked on some Judge Dredd
comics and I can definitely see that here. He’s not exactly a bad artist, but
his style just didn’t mesh with what came before. He get the character
designs down, but that’s about it. He doesn’t do much with the color scheme
that Kennedy did, and while that’s not a bad thing, it does make his artwork
seem drab and uninteresting. I wonder if the artwork was a rush job as well
since this whole mini seems like a rush job.
Okay, I thought this was funny.
In the end, Empire’s End is a dud. While it’s not the worst
thing I’ve ever read, it’s not even close to decent. It was clearly written to
end the trilogy and that’s about it. I’m just glad I read this on Marvel
Unlimited and didn’t buy it.
…………………………………………………………………
In conclusion, The Dark Empire Trilogy was a mixed bag. While
it is a weird piece of the Star Wars universe, it is not a bad one. Dark Empire
is a pretty engaging read even with its flaws. The other two are less so
especially Empire’s End. Still, it is something that should be checked out if
one is wondering about the old EU. Well, I'm off to bed. Until then, Peace, God bless, and may the Force be with you. Also,
don’t tick off talking trees. Didn’t Lord of the Rings teach us anything?
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