Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy

Star Wars: Dark Empire #0-3

by Tom Veitch, Todd Klein (Contributor), Cam Kennedy (Illustrator)

Six years after the fall of the Empire in Return of the Jedi, the battle for the galaxy's freedom rages on. The Empire has been mysteriously reborn under an unknown leader, wielding a new weapon of great power. Princess Leia and Han Solo struggle to hold together the New Republic while the galaxy's savior, Luke Skywalker, fights an inner battle as he is drawn to the dark side, just as his father... Collecting the complete Dark Empire saga for the first time - Dark Empire, Dark Empire II, and Empire's End - this Star Wars hardcover is a must-have addition to any Star Wars library!

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Comic Book, Fantasy

352 pages, Hardcover

First published December 28, 2004

About the author

Tom Veitch was an American writer, known for his work in the comic book industry. He was also a novelist and a poet. He was the brother of comics writer and artist Rick Veitch.

Reviews

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the early 90s, at the same time the novel Heir to the Empire was published, there was also a Star Wars Renaissance going on over at Dark Horse comics. Dark Empire came out at about the same time as the first installment of the Thrawn trilogy, and back then they were both "canon" but they had to sort of shoehorn continuity into each other (like with Han and Leia's kids). Technically, Dark Empire takes place after.

With these challenges of the New Republic fighting the vestiges of the Empire, in this comic form there is much less political detail but a lot of action. It works well playing to the strengths of the medium. Unlike even an adaptation of the novel, the comic goes works as it paints broad strokes showcasing this new war. And that art, especially in the first volume, very dynamic.

Sadly it doesn't count anymore. Luke turning to the dark side and all that. However, it does seem that the upcoming Rise of Skywalker just might bring back the plot of the Emperor's return... so if you are an old school Star Wars fan, you can say you read it here first ~

(Now re-reading years after the release of Rise of Skywalker, and tons more new Star Wars media, and I have some more perspectives. Dark Empire often gets a bad rap, but I think there was a lot of value at the time. No it's not as good as the much smarter Thrawn trilogy, and it's unfortunate they stepped on each other's toes when each had a plot point of Leia being pregnant with a Jedi, and it's easy to tell the original script of Dark Empire didn't have the other two kids already born. But, playing to the strengths of the comic medium, the ambition of the first installment of Dark Empire did work for me. They bring back the biggest villain, Coruscant is lost, Luke betrays for a while, at least a lot happens! Oftentimes too fast, as a page of a comic showing a battle isn't the same as a movie scene. Overall this works as a comic even if it wouldn't as a novel. There is the problem of always upping the ante and having to make the war go on and on, until a sudden conclusion. Also, I do like the exploration of new Jedi and lost Jedi coming back to the fold--definitely better than what new Star Wars media has done. Unfortunately, when the Emperor keeps coming back to life and the New Republic has to be the underdog all over again in the sequel Dark Empire II it all feels much weaker. Furthermore, Boba Fett continues his tradition of looking cool and not doing much as he comes back to life too--funny how so much of what was criticized about Dark Empire ended up becoming canon anyway recently. Lastly, it all culminated in the short Empire's End which is even worse. The art by Cam Kennedy in the beginning is excellent, feels like 2000 A.D., and I love how he draws and shades the Millennium Falcon. Although the solid block coloring is an odd choice. In any case, despite flaws, I like the dynamic energy of the introduction which was a positive for early 90s Star Wars, and it's still a damn better story than the filmed sequel trilogy... The old Expanded Universe shall always be my headcanon)

[CS · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bullet Review:

Dark Empire - 3 stars. Meh but not horrible

Dark Empire II - 0 stars. Stupidest of the stupidest. I can't believe the same team did this.

Empire's End - 0 stars. Maybe BARELY better than DEII. Emperor has full blown mustache twirling as he races after a baby.

Full review to come - because I can't not for a Star Wars book I've seen alluded to SO MANY TIMES and am so underwhelmed with upon finishing.

THIS was the story all the books referenced back in the day?! What about the one where Luke dresses up like a woman and makes the Emperor fall in love with him?!



Full Review:

Chronologically in "Legends" Star Wars EU Time, this falls between the Thrawn trilogy and the Jedi Academy trilogy, although I believe it was written years before the Thrawn trilogy and set after that I think due to some arrangement with Bantam and Dark Horse.

The book opens with Han and Leia hurrying to save Lando and Luke, who crash-landed their Star Destroyer on Coruscant. Why did this happen? Why is the Empire back when it was soundly defeated in both Return of the Jedi and the Thrawn Trilogy? Get used to having questions that never get answered.

Luke then senses a Force Storm (what is this? Where was the foreshadowing that this was a thing?), which sucks him in and has him face to face with...the Emperor! He's been reborn in one of the millions of clones he has. The Emperor's mission? To have Luke replace Darth Vader at his side and rule the galaxy.



Meanwhile, the Empire, ever infatuated with the idea of spending quadrillions of credits on weapons of mass destruction that will just become massively destroyed weapons, have developed World Devastators. Which if you've seen "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" are basically the same things used to destroy Earth for a bypass.

And I'm supposed to take this concept seriously. No wonder I never told people back in the day I liked Star Wars - might as well admit I liked Blue Beetle and Wonder Dog while I was at it.

Leia eventually can't take that Luke is being turned by the Dark Side (which the only way I could tell is that he wears black - he actually commands his troops to self-destruct or deploy stupidly so that they die, making Luke once again an accomplice to the unnecessary murder of billions). She bullies Han, who insists that Luke is a big boy and is totes not being turned by the Dark Side because the Force is hokey and all that razzmatazz, to take her seriously - plus, Force Woo means she just happens to know that Luke is on Byss. How? Why? This galaxy has World Devastators. Nothing has to make sense here.

Han and Leia zoom out to Nar Shaddaa and meet up with one of the only other females in the book, Salla Zend, Han's ex and a super pilot herself. Oh wait, there's also yet another one of those Jedi who somehow didn't get killed in the purge, Vima, who just happens to be on Nar Shaddaa, who HAPPENS to be in Leia's path and who HAPPENS to have a plot convenient Holocron. And because all old Jedi are weird, she talks about herself in third person.

Lando and Wedge head off to defeat the World Devastators before Zaphod Beeblebrox becomes president instead of Mon Mothma and whales and blabberfish, Han and Leia bully Shug and Salla to help them rescue Luke (and later on shame them when they - gasp! - are upset that their business and ships got decimated when helping Han and Leia) - but can they save him if he's already been turned? Even if that turning just means listening to Evanescence and shopping Hot Topic?

That was only Dark Empire - and while I snark heavily, it was not all that bad.

No, I reserve that for Dark Empire II and Empire's End.

So, although everything gets wrapped up in Dark Empire, someone saw that there was a market for Star Wars and pumped out DEII and Empire's End. These two tag team in probably the worst graphic concoction of bad jokes (The Millennium Falcon is an old ship and is broken all the time!), horrible art (Leia looks like a fat man most of the time), nonsensical plot elements (Han and Leia racing back to get Vima, meeting Brand, Luke in the middle of a war deciding to head to Ossus and recruit Jedi), bad romance (Luke and Jem in a "blink and you'll miss it" romance - has Veitch ever SEEN people fall in love?!), new stupid superweapons (starring the ACME Galaxy Gun), terrible villains (Sedriss is laughable and the Emperor comes back AGAIN to twirl his non-existent mustache - by this point, the Emperor is the Boss Hogg of this series, so ineffectual and yet everyone keeps running from him acting as if he's so bad), and absurdly overdramatic! irrelelvant! narration! - and yes, I mean even worse than the Marvel comics from the 1970's!



At least the 70's Marvel comics were bad because that was the time period. Jaxxon the Rabbit was ridiculous, but everything in the 70's was ridiculous. I mean, look at those panels above! Had anyone heard of PANTS in this galaxy?! Dark Empire II and Empire's End came AFTER "The Watchman" and Frank Miller's Batman stuff - who the frak thought anyone could take this sh!t seriously?!

And now for the long-awaited return: Nerd Nitpicks!

1) All those damned Jedi. Darth Vader was TERRIBLE at eradicating the Jedi. He missed Vima, Brand, Ranik Solusar, and the entire colony on Ossus! WTF!

2) Superweapons. After this book, no one should have ever been allowed to ever touch the word "superweapon". World Devastator was bad, but nothing compares to the abject stupidity of the Galaxy Gun. I said it in a status update - I've seen more realistic weapons of destruction in Looney Tunes.

3) New Alderaan. Want to hide your kids and keep them safe? Put them on a planet and just have people randomly land on the planet without radio contact. That SURELY won't arouse suspicion - even though every half-civilized planet in this galaxy has radio communications with ships to make sure to clear them and give them appropriate landing directions.

4) The Emperor wants your baby! Because, you see, it makes MORE sense for him to steal a baby and put his soul in it, and then wait 18 years than to take one of his Force-sensitive lackeys and do the same thing. Nevermind that no one even knew that you could use the Dark Side to preserve your soul long enough to put it in a new body.



I cannot believe that this compilation costs almost $100 on Amazon. I can think of a million other things I'd rather spend $100 on than this, including:

+ A bike (and I hate bike riding)
+ Yarn
+ More books
+ Hand sanitizer
+ Trail mix
+ Full body wax

I respect the hell out of Dark Empire, because it wasn't actually too awful and made me nostalgic for my teenaged years of loving Star Wars. But Dark Empire II and Empire''s End are abominations and need to be purged from all memory.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Empire:☆☆☆☆

Dark Empire II:☆☆

Empire's End:☆☆



Dark Horse Comics started making Star Wars comics in 1991, 4 years after Marvel quit publishing them, and it started with a bang: Dark Empire, set 6 years after Episode VI, was a real blockbuster one, a success so great and unexpected that Dark Horse quickly released two sequels following the format of original movie trilogy, becoming together with Trawn novels the milestone of the SW Extended Universe, now turned into Legends/What Ifs after Disney acquired the universe license.



I really loved Dark Empire's storyline, it just nailed Star Wars' essence and characters for me, and artworks were good too, just lacking details when drawing faces, sadly following parts of this trilogy were just not much good ones with their 90s comic-book cheesiness and so lame characters that I can't remember one name of them but for Jem.



And Palpatine totally jumped the shark here becoming a ridiculous moustached villain... Oh good grief.
Still far better than that trainwreck of Episode VII and (*BEURRRKKK!*) VIII movies, not many hopes about next being a decent one, but that's all.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty terrible 90s Stat Wars series with an incoherent plot and dull artwork. It gets 2 stars from me for having the awesome world devastators which should have been in the newest Disney trilogy.

[Michael Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Wars merchandising in the 90s was all about the trilogies. As well as the Special Edition re-release of the original trilogy and the start of the prequel trilogy, there was the Thrawn trilogy (which took place after all that), the Dark Empire trilogy (which took place after that) and the Crimson Empire trilogy (which took place after that). There was also a Hand of Thrawn 'duology' in there somewhere, but don't ask me where.

Unfortunately, sometimes those trilogies ended up as a structural gimmick - a way of signifying importance without necessarily working out an arc to fill it. And so it is with the Dark Empire trilogy.

The first instalment, Dark Empire itself, is actually quite good. It's full of the high concepts and grandiose imagery Star Wars needs in order to be Star Wars: Luke bringing down AT-ATs with the Force, Imperial dungeon ships (and now I want every franchise to have dungeon ships), and a vast machine vacuuming up a Star Destroyer.

The full-page splashes – so often in 90s comics a sign of artists wanting to maximise the amounts they can make from selling on the original artwork – are used intelligently to show the scale on which the conflict is occurring. When the World Devastators make their first appearance, it is with all the weight and might with which that first Star Destroyer rumbled overhead in 1977.

Even what should be the story's most gimmicky element – the return of Palpatine – is handled very well. Resurrected, he is no longer a man, but the ultimate expression of the power of the dark side, existing largely without form, moving from clone body to clone body as each one dies. The sadomasochistic overtones and violation of the body are classic signifiers of perverted villainy, but no less effective for that. Now he's back, he's even less real than he was before, hiding in a city of light, deep within the galaxy's hellish core.

I guess he's a bit like Sauron, but there are all sorts of horror influences in there (Dracula, Hellraiser, Rosemary's Baby), and it all fits beautifully with what Revenge of the Sith later revealed about his master, Darth Plagueis, and his quest for life eternal. The hive mind of the Star Wars Expanded Universe gave Palpatine a rather brilliant character arc.

But the problems are in the second and third instalments: Dark Empire II and Empire's End. There's just too much that is familiar: from the start, characters are heading back to places they left in Dark Empire, repeating the same cons and making similar threats.

As with many a trilogy, the first part stands on its own, but the latter two are interdependent. The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi got around that by stuffing each with new locations and characters equal to or superseding those introduced in A New Hope: they may be telling two halves of the same story, but it's difficult to argue they feel like two halves of the same film.

The structure of Star Wars is built around recurrent leitmotifs, but sometimes they can swamp the song. It was one solid criticism of The Force Awakens and it's even worse here. Not so much a trilogy as a great new story followed by an extended re-run.

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad follow up to Heir, the story moves nicely from start to finish and as other stories have done, brings with it a satisfying ending.

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ouch, my childhood.

When I was a kid, Star Wars, and specifically the Dark Horse Comics, was everything to me. I would beg my parents to take me to comic stores to scrounge back issues. And my most prized finds were the Dark Empire issues. This was the big event Star Wars series back then, and I was just a little too young to have caught it as it came out. I remember the day I finally found the final issue of the first 6-issue series I was missing, and I could finally read the whole thing. I read it over and over and over again, completely enthralled. It led me to hunt down just about every Star Wars comic that Dark Horse ever released. I spent basically all of my tiny allowance on these things.

Now, it's been nearly 30 years, and my tastes have changed. And this, unfortunately, is terrible.

It honestly bummed me out so much to read this and realize it doesn't hold up. I used to think this shit ruled. But, it's honestly just... nothing. The plotting is lazy and frivolous, every character speaks in the exact same stilted manner, regardless of their personality, major events just kind of happen with no buildup or payoff.

I mean, the premise of the first arc is that Luke turns to the Dark Side in an attempt to infiltrate the newly-resurrected Emperor's inner circle. Not a bad premise at all! How will Luke handle such a soul-crushing tactic? Will he be swayed by the evil energy he's surrounded himself with, or will he be able to maintain enough of himself to pull this off? It should feel like an undercover agent who has to do heroin to prove himself to a drug cartel. It should be difficult, impactful. It absolutely isn't.

Instead, 90% of the action is just Han and Leia running around doing a bunch of fetch quests, blowing up meaningless facilities, and other bullshit. Luke's entire Dark Side journey happens off screen, with just a few moments where Leia tries to "get through to him." Which just... work? Immediately? It's just objectively bad storytelling to begin with, but it also feels amateurish. Like the writer was not confident enough to pull off the emotional journey Luke is going on, so he just didn't bother to show it and let you make up your ideas about what happened. It reads like someone trying to recount a story for you, or like a very thin Wikipedia article.

And the rest of the "trilogy" is only downhill. Dark Empire II and Empire's End are both essentially premise-free. They're just tossed-off sequels that don't explore any of the Dark Side themes from the first one at all, making it feel like the entire journey of the first one (weak was it was) was even more pointless. I almost put this book down without finishing it, but felt I owed Little Me enough to actually see it through.

In any case, it's stupid to feel like I'm mourning something I used to love about Star Wars of all things, but it does feel that way a little bit here. I'm sad this isn't good! But I guess it's also good that I am not still a little baby who will enjoy anything with a lightsaber in it. Trade off.

[11811 (Eleven) · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, this stuff is best experienced in audio. The sound effects are priceless and some of the voices sound surprisingly authentic (Han, Leia, Lando "Colt 45" Calrissian.) As dumb as it was, I enjoyed it.

*I just realized Billy Dee Williams voices Lando in this production. That explains why he sounds like him.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 2 out of 5]

A common complaint I hear about Disney’s Star Wars Sequel Trilogy is that it “steals” a lot of plot points from Star Wars Legends but instead of using these (debatably) better plot points and characters they make inferior versions. Palpatine’s return from the dead is perhaps the most cited example, ostensibly because it worked better in the “Dark Empire” comic. I knew a lot of these plot points before the Sequel Trilogy was ever announced and I already was wary of some of them just by reading the Wikipedia articles about them. Still with the Sequel Trilogy about to celebrate its 10th Anniversary, I thought I’d at least give the original Dark Empire comic, plus its two sequels a shot to see how they compare.

Dark Empire: We start in media res with the New Republic back to being the Rebel Alliance after losing large parts of the Galaxy to the resurgent Palpatine’s forces. Luke does help lead some of the resistance before being captured/turned by Palpatine, leaving it up to the other heroes to rescue him and fight back. Both Palpatine’s return and the reversion to the Original Trilogy’s status quo make this similar to the Sequel Trilogy and frankly I dislike it just as much. Palpatine’s return barely gets an explanation so it's just as frustratingly lacking as “Somehow Palpatine Returned”. Palpatine’s return subsequently leads to Luke’s fall to the Dark Side which I really hate as it negates his big moment in the climax of Return of the Jedi. Or does it? Luke falls, supposedly gets command of Palpatine’s armies but otherwise doesn’t really do anything “dark”, just stands around menacingly. It’s a plot point only meant to cause issues for Luke later on.

In general the central conflict I was underwhelmed by but the story does have its moment. Boba Fett officially returned from the dead in Legends with this story and even if he still comes off as incompetent he’s at least doing stuff finally. The Battle of Mon Calamari is also a nice set piece and the World Devastators are a fun variation on the Star Wars superweapons. Lastly I did appreciate how Leia plays a key part in turning Luke good again and defeating Palpatine. The artwork I’m more mixed on even if it reminds me of Moebius’ “The Incal”. Had Dark Empire ended here I might have rated it 2.5-3.0, fair for its day and props for ambition but nothing special. But then because everything in Star Wars needs a trilogy the story keeps on going and that’s when the series really falls flat with me.

Dark Empire II: Picking up right afterwards, Palpatine returns from the dead yet again and continues his war to destroy the Rebellion and get Leia’s unborn child as his next body. Luke meanwhile tries to restore the Jedi Order and it's a very easy task considering how quickly he finds them and many already trained and raring to go. Among their number is a “not-Mara Jade” woman who Luke falls in love with no build-up and no problem but because she’s “not-Mara Jade” she gets “fridged” by the end. The only other thing this comic does different from part 1 is the bulk of the conflict comes from Sedriss and the Dark Jedi that are just gritty 90s edge-lord versions of the Knights of Ren. Even if they have more plot “significance” than the Knights, they’re still annoying distractions while Palpatine bides his time and are dispatched easily (Sedriss long before his subordinates). Everything else in Part II is a retread of Part I, the Rebels have to contend with Imperial superweapons (the Galaxy Gun which is basically Starkiller Base that shoots missiles instead of lasers), Lando’s efforts to lead Rebel ground forces stalls, Boba Fett pops up to harass Han mostly ineffectually, etc. It brings nothing new to Dark Empire as a series.

Empire’s End: At this point it becomes clear that a story that should have been confined to just the first Dark Empire was out staying its welcome. This series was ultra short and maybe has one fight with the remaining Dark Jedi before the climatic confrontation between Palpatine and the Skywalker-Solos before the comic ends with a quick scene to get rid of Palpatine’s flagship and Galaxy Gun. Luke loses more of his Jedi but it really feels anticlimactic because we were introduced to them briefly and they got bare minimum of characterization. Debatably anticlimactic is Palpatine’s *final* death where he’s gunned down by Han Solo of all people and his spirit trapped in a dying Jedi’s spirit who drags him off to Star Wars’ afterlife. All in all it really feels like diminishing returns is in full effect with this sequel.

To a degree, I see “Dark Empire” as a product of its time, an early attempt among Legends work to keep the Skywalker family story going after the original movies and trying to create a grand epic worthy of a summer blockbuster. But whereas Timothy Zahn’s “Thrawn Trilogy” went with quality writing this went with sequel escalation and spectacle only a comic book could do. Perhaps Legends fans see it as iconic and the Sequel Trilogy knowingly or unknowingly took inspiration from it (or at least the worst parts) but for me I really don’t get the appeal. When it comes down to it with me, Thrawn Trilogy is an infinitely preferable follow-up to the Original Trilogy pre-Disney reboot.

[Hazel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tenía curiosidad por leer algo del antiguo Canon de Star Wars, no porque sea muy fan de la saga, de hecho y a excepción de la trilogía original las películas no me da mucho más. Las veo cómo todo el mundo y las disfruto, pero no soy de los que están comiéndose las uñas de nervios meses antes del estreno. Aún así quería entender porque la gente se queja tanto con lo nuevo que se está haciendo, por lo que he cogido esta historia que es una de las más clásicas, en la que Luke se torna al lado oscuro y...

...Esto es muy malo.

No sólo es que la historia sea un "meh", es que el dibujo de este cómic es, en mi opinión, bastante malo. No transmite nada y el autor se ve obligado a recurrir a la típica voz de narrador para contarnos lo que está pasando y lo que los personajes están pensando, y eso no me gusta nada.

Seguro que estos productos tienen bondades que yo no sé ver, no lo niego, pero tengo claro que esto no es para mí. Me quedo con las pelis y tan feliz...

[Daniel Greear · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this to be mildly interesting at best. I don’t know why I read it but it was included in Kindle Unlimited and I figured I’d give it a try. I’m not typically a fan of comics so it took my love for Star Wars to read this. I remember Dark Empire was a pretty big deal in the 90s and I had a copy of one of the books, which has long since been lost.

The artwork is the best part of Dark Empire. The rest of it- the story, the characters, etc., are all average. The characters don’t feel like themselves in other Star Wars media and the story is odd. Palpatine returns, and then returns again! I think Disney stole that when they made the new movies (I’d say this is still better than those though).

I felt the ending was rushed and I also don’t know where this fits into the overall EU storyline. Of course, it all doesn’t officially matter anymore since it’s now Disney owned.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

10-11ABY

This trilogy has a nice hardcover compilation of all three story arcs. It is hard to find and fairly expensive if you do find it, but it is easier than getting ahold of the individual issues. The comic is rather old, and the art makes it a bit hard to read (but perhaps that is a personal taste). This comic was planned out in 1988 and was meant to be right after the events of Return of the Jedi, but Heir to the Empire was likewise in the works at the same time. To make this comic canon in the old extended universe, the writers changed the date and some content to kind of follow the Thrawn Trilogy. There is an absence of characters we really like from the Thrawn Trilogy, but there is also an addition of characters who become important in the New Republic and the New Jedi Order.

Dark Empire starts with the Empire trying to bounce back. Using giant machines called World Destroyers, the Empire continues to attack planets loyal to the New Republic. One such planet is that of the Mon Calamari. Lando finds himself stuck dealing with this, but luckily the New Republic has two star destroyers at its disposal. Luke feels a great darkness and goes to seek it out at the galactic core, where he finds that Emperor Palpatine still lives, his essence placed within a clone of himself. Luke turns to the Dark Side to try and infiltrate the Emperor’s stronghold. Meanwhile, Leia fears for her brother and wishes to go help him, even though she is pregnant with her and Han’s third child. Along the path to save Luke, Leia meets an old Jedi woman who give Leia her lightsaber, and they have a run-in with Han’s old girlfriend. Leia must face her brother and the Emperor and bring Luke back to the light.

Dark Empire II starts off a bit slow, but once it picks up, it is vastly more interesting than Dark Empire. Palpatine has been reborn in a clone, but it is a weak clone. His anger and hatred makes the clone body age and whither faster. Meanwhile, Luke has brought the Dark Jedi, Soulsar to the light side. With Soulsar’s help, the two Jedi travel to a planet rumored to have ancient Jedi artifacts. Little did they know a whole race of force users (all to be potential Jedi) lived on the planet. Soulsar and Luke not only leave with some magnificent texts, but with two of the force users to become Jedi. An ancient tree, once a Jedi, mutilated the Emperor’s dark users, and a whole batch of lightsabers are uncovered, ready for Luke’s mission to restore the Jedi. Yet another Jedi is found, Brand, who has lost most of his body to an assault by Darth Vader and is mostly machine. The tale concludes with the birth of Leia’s third child and the need to protect that child from the Emperor.

Empire’s End is only two issues and is all about Palpatine seeking Leia’s newborn for him to transfer his essence into so that he may live, since Luke had destroyed all his clones. With the help of his new Jedi, Luke brings down the Emperor, but with great sacrifice. The other problem at hand is the Galaxy Gun, a weapon so strong it can destroy an entire planet! Now the New Republic must find away to destroy this and shatter the Empire forever.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been reading all the new Marvel comics lately and whining about them for the most part, so I thought it was time to go back and compare them to what Star Wars comics used to be. Then I noticed I'd never actually reviewed most of those when I first read them, so I figured I'd start at the beginning. Which makes this not a particularly fair comparison--Dark Empire is a fairly singular work even among the early Star Wars comics. It doesn't feel like a mediocre Star Wars story. What it feels like, oddly, is a scifi manga.

The plot isn't quite as inscrutable and hard to follow as eg Blame!, but it's pretty close, for a Star Wars. It starts in the middle of a battle, in the middle of a war, with absolute no orientation, which I guess is also how ANH starts and is theoretically fine except I was pretty sure at first that I'd just skipped the first volume or something. The thing that makes it really weird, and the constant negative factor in everything about this series, is that the character decisions make no sense. So readers would have been coming into this in '91 having heard nothing of Luke since RotJ, only to see him immediately and without context just turn himself over to a reborn Palpatine. We never, then or after, get a sense for why he thinks to do this. Are the rebels so desperate? Well, not particularly. It seems they were supposed to be winning until the reborn Emperor reveals his reserve forces. It's just one of those goofy Force things. He gets a feeling it's a good idea so he does it. Very weird!

And things just go on from there. Over time it becomes a bit more coherent. You get a sense of the broad strokes premise, there are running subplots and side characters, and you can at least tell what's going on and why. The storytelling is still pretty bizarre, though. The pacing is way too fast, compressing what could easily be three films worth of story into what would be around 3 arcs of a modern Marvel SW comic. But that's only a side effect of a larger sense that this story is infantile nonsense that comprehends its source material in a very distant, imperfect way. The comparison to scifi manga like Blame! comes up not just from the plotting, but in the emphasis on vast scifi designs. It's to the team's credit that this has as many new places and designs and ideas as the prequels put together and far more than the sequels. There's an absurd number of new ships and droids and superweapons and walkers here. Some of them are pretty cool, even. The E-wing is a classic design IMO. Pinnacle Moon is a good Star Wars planet. The HK droid, just a probe droid but giant, is super dumb. But combined with the pacing, and the fact that many of the story arcs are just about weapons factories and controlling weapons, and the fact that much of the random incidental dialogue is just people saying like "wow those new DX-9 Cidlskfian Shields are really doing the trick!" gives the sense that the writers care way more about gadgets than the story they show up in. What makes that even worse is that the Empire seems to have a nigh-infinite reserve of giant ships. The first Eclipse SD gets swallowed by a "Force Storm" within like 10 pages of its first introduction, and there's instantly a new one.

The thing that really feels childish about it, though, is the handling of the Force. Of course it starts with Luke just dallying over to the Dark Side, betraying Palpatine, and then coming back with no indication anything significant has happened at all. The Force, and especially the Dark Side, is depicted as a kind of inert pool of magical energy, where the only important factor in who wins a fight is who has learned secret techniques that counteract the secret techniques of their opponent. There's an enormous amount of dumb "sith sorcery" here (a concept I'm embarrassed to admit I was always intrigued by as a kid but which now strikes me as borderline nonsensical, anathema), from the Dark Side used to put pilot brains in shadow droids, to the Chrysalis beasts, to the way Palpatine tries to extract Force Juice from the Ossus kids, and on and on. What's worse, I think, is the way the breathless summary text (a habit I hadn't even noticed the recent series had given up, thankfully) discusses it. It's so weird! The thing that really seals it for me are the Force Storms and Force wormholes. Just utterly arbitrary, enormous, out of all sense of proportion or meaning.

All of that and I haven't even talked about the art, which is just ugly as hell. I don't understand the series of decisions that led to this color palette but it's a shame. Everyone is splotchy and clashing and nothing ever looks good or cool or beautiful. And even the pencilling is bizarre. The sense that the character dialogue is either generated by a markov chain trained on the films or represents totally new people is exacerbated by the character designs, which are both unrecognizable and ugly. Why is Leia dressed that way?? Like parachute pants? And her hair somehow constantly falling at an angle from her head such that her profile is a trapezoid? So weird!

Anyway, it's dumb and childish and borderline incomprehensible, only redeemed by its so-bad-it's-good bizarreness and the scale and creativity of its ambition. What's more interesting to me, though, is the legacy of all these choices. So much of what Star Wars is now came from this series, or was reproduced in it incidentally. So much of KOTOR and TOR can be traced pretty directly traced back here, through Tales of the Jedi. So much of the Legends EU, so many of its dumbest tendencies, reference Dark Empire, and copy the way it depicts the Force as much as the way the movies did. It was carried forward into the Legends canon. And yet, the cool new designs just got totally abandoned? What's up with that? What's more remarkable than that, to me, is that we're recycling some of the dumbest ideas in this series in stories that, because they have decent characters, don't feel nearly as dumb. You read about Palpatine's clones and think, "god, how did the editors let them go through with this?" but then in 2015 Marvel's having Cylo do the exact same thing in the Darth Vader comics. You look at the Galaxy Gun and laugh at the absurdity of its escalation. . . and then Starkiller Base is even more egregious. And yes, those things are still bad. But they aren't the make or break elements of their stories. It isn't the stupid superweapons that make Dark Empire bad. It's the way it handles its characters and the shallow, dumb approach it takes to the universe.

[Drew Tucker · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was enjoying this pretty well until I got about 1/4th of the way in, and came upon luke's dark side falling moment. The little amount of effort and attention given to this momentous event ("lip service" as my mother would call it) immediately turned me off. I cannot think of another word to describe the cheesy, plot drive filled two pages that showed luke's transition than stupid. Luke has to join the dark side to beat them? I mean honestly? It's like the author completely missed the point of anakin's and luke's stories in the The Original Trilogy. Nevermind that luke beat the emperor before by NOT JOINING THE DARK SIDE!!! He has to have a much better reason to fall to the temptation than "I have to defeat the dark side by becoming one of them and using their powers against them." I hate to fanboy out on this one, because I normally hate fanboys, but star wars (and the moral/point of the stories it tells) have been precious to me since a young age, and seeing a major character sent so casually into the hand of doom just turned me off. I want to WANT to finish this, but I'm not sure if I can.

[Jordan B Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

I give these comics some slack because they were the first attempt to bring back the Star Wars story after the Original Trilogy (the beginning of their writing was in 89, prior to Zahn). Some elements don't make as much sense with the prequels or some of the other later EU material, but that's alright. The artwork is really unique, and there are some great concepts in the first Dark Empire story. The second is significantly worse, and the third was clearly rushed (and there was a lot of behind the scenes drama that led to this). Some of it is pretty pulpy, unlike Zahn's trilogy, but I still had a bit of fun with it. The dialog is not always the best. I revisit these every couple years, and as clear as their flaws are, I enjoy them far more than anything in the current Disney era.

Dark Empire 1: 4/5
Dark Empire 2: 3/5
Dark Empire 3: 3/5

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan of the art.

Really not a fan of the story.

And I really don't like the art.

[Sebastian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really, really dumb names for characters.

[Grimalkun Sithari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Contrary to popular belief the Expanded Universe was never canon. Tom Veich himself acknowledges this, along with other EU authors. George Lucas was very vocal about his opinions on the place of the EU. He stated the EU took place in a 'parallel Star Wars universe'. Tom Veich himself confirms this. - Quotes Below

"And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn't at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn't come back to life, the Emperor doesn't get cloned and Luke doesn't get married."

~ George Lucas, Flannelled One,Total Film Magazine Interview, 2008
https://ibb.co/x5q1RrQ

..
"That said, I think George has always felt that the comics were an “alternate Star Wars universe” from the films. I don’t think he ever saw the comics as canon — although he did use them as a resource for ideas and images."

Tom Veitch, EU Author, Dark Empire Trilogy 2016

..

"I don't read that stuff, I haven't read any of the novels. I don't know anything about that world. That's a different world than my world. But I do try and keep it consistent. The way I do it is they have a Star Wars encyclopedia. So if I come up with a name or something else, I look it and see if it has already been used. When I said other people could make their own Star Wars stories, we decided that, like Star Trek, we would have TWO universes: My Universe and than this other one. They try to make THEIR universe as consistent with mine as possible, but obviously they get enthusiastic and want to go off in other directions."

~ George Lucas Starlog Magazine Interview, 2005 - https://ibb.co/Km1CcNs

..


“There are two worlds here,” explained Lucas. “There’s my world, which is the movies, and there’s this other world that has been created, which I say is the parallel universe – the licensing world of the books, games and comic books."

~ George Lucas, Cinescape, 2002

..


“Those of us writing the EU were always told, all along, from the very beginning (have I stressed that strongly enough?), “Only the Movies are Canon.” Sure, it was disappointing.”

~ Kathy Tyers, EU author [Truce at Bakura, Balance Point] Interview, 2018

http://starwarsinterviews.com/various...

..

Podcast Interview with Steve Perry, Author of Shadows of the Empire from the Expanded Universe

-

Interviewer - 'So what are your thoughts about your book and all the ones that came other than
this last year are no longer part of the Official Star Wars Canon ever since Disney took over?

Steve Perry - "Ohh they never were! Nothing was ever canon other than the movies."

The Ritual Misery Podcast with hosts Amos and Kent, 2015
..



"There's this notion that everything changed when everything became Legends. And I can see why
people think that. But, you know, having worked with George I can tell you that it was always very clear -- and he made it very clear -- that the films and the TV shows were the only things that he considered Canon. That was it."

Dave Filoni interview on 'The Star Wars show' [41.40 mark]- https://youtu.be/hcNXPNXOv2A?t=2500

..

"They’re there to be enjoyed as unofficial Legends. But, as Zahn also points out, the Expanded Universe wasn’t really ever official regardless of what the fans thought."

~ Timothy Zahn, The Daily Dot Interview, 2016
..

"I get asked all the time, 'What happens after "Return of the Jedi"?,' and there really is no answer for that," he said. "The movies were the story of Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, and when Luke saves the galaxy and redeems his father, that's where that story ends.""

- George Lucas, Flannelled One, May 2008, "George Lucas: 'Star Wars' won't go beyond Darth Vader", interview with Los Angeles Times


..

”The novels and comic books are other authors' interpretations of my creation. Sometimes, I tell them what they can and cant do, but I just don't have the time to read them. They're not my vision of what Star Wars is."

~ George Lucas 2004

..


"I like to refer to the Interview with Lucas in the Special Editions.When asked about the novels and what not, he simply says:

”Those are another author's interpretation of what I've created, and not to be taken seriously, as far as what is really going on in the Star Wars world.”

~ George Lucas

..


"Q: What do you think of the Expanded Universe of books?

A: "The books are in a different universe. I've not read any of them, and I told them when they started writing I wouldn't read any of them and I blocked out certain periods."


~ George Lucas 2003

..

Howard [Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, in charge of the EU] tries to be consistent but sometimes he goes off on tangents and it's hard to hold him back.He once said to me that there are two Star Trek Universes: there's the TV show and then there's all the spin offs. He said that these were completely different and didn't have anything to do with each other. So I said "OK, go ahead".

George Lucas Interview - Total Film.com Magazine

https://ibb.co/MRy8TVz

..


"What George did with the films and The Clone Wars was pretty much his universe ,” Chee said. “He didn’t really have that much concern for what we were doing in the books and games. So the Expanded Universe was very much separate."


~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator, SYFY WIRE 'Fandom Files' Interview, January 2018

..



“Lucas’ canon – and when I say ‘his canon’, I’m talking about what he was doing in the films and what he was doing in The Clone Wars – was hugely important. But what we were doing in the books really wasn’t on his radar.”

~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator, SYFY WIRE Interview, 2018


"Q: Do you supervise the development of all the off-movie stories? After all, Star Wars exists in books, comics.


A: "You know, I try not to think about that. I have my own world in movies and I follow it."
~ George Lucas, Flannelled One, July 2002 - From a The Force.Net

..


"George Lucas says there has never been any war between the Jedi and the Sith in his Star Wars Canon" - An excerpt from StarWars.com‘s oral history of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace:


Everybody said, “Oh, well, there was a war between the Jedi and the Sith.” Well, that never happened. That’s just made up by fans or somebody. What really happened is, the Sith ruled the universe for a while, 2000 years ago. Each Sith has an apprentice, but the problem was, each Sith Lord got to be powerful. And the Sith Lords would try to kill each other because they all wanted to be the most powerful. So in the end they killed each other off, and there wasn’t anything left.

"But anyway, there’s a whole matrix of backstory that has never really come out. It’s really just history that I gathered up along the way. It’s all based on backstories that I’d written setting up what the Jedi were, setting up what the Sith were, setting up what the Empire was, setting up what the Republic was, and how it all fit together I never really got a chance to explain the Whills part."

George Lucas’ vision of the galaxy’s ancient times is clearly different from the Expanded Universe. Many wars between Jedi and Sith in the Old Republic era were told in games, books and comics. The current Lucasfilm’s canon didn’t explore this era yet.'


https://naboonews.wordpress.com/2019/...

..

"The dual universe question comes up often. I know George Lucas has mentioned it being two universes, but that’s not how I see it. His vision is definitely not beholden to ours, but ours is definitely beholden to his."

~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator, Facebook chat, August 2012

https://ibb.co/7JX07GC

..

And what goes in the blank timeline spaces of the Film Only universe - can we never know the history or background of that Star Wars universe like we can in the EU Star Wars universe?

"Nothing. That's why it's film only."
~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator,StarWars.com 2007

https://ibb.co/3dBN7Sw
----

"I think people over emphasize the importance of the canon level. The intent of the canon levels was, as the main intent was 'if someones looking for the ships from a film, they can than use those fields to check for them only in the films,and thus seperate that from what was in the EU. So we can look at it case by case. I think there is an over emphasis of what those fields mean and what they represent".


~ Leland Chee, Continuity Database Adminstrator


"That 'level of canon' thus helps in terms of bookkeeping. Those 'canon levels' are for the holocron."

~ Pablo Hidalgo


ForceCast #273: The Galaxy Is Reading - Interview with Leland Chee and Pablo Hidalgo, 2013 Starts at about the 1 hour mark so 1:00 - 1:02 mark

http://www.forcecast.net/story/home/F...

..


"But Lucas allows for an Expanded Universe that exists parallel to the one he directly oversees. […] Though these [Expanded Universe] stories may get his stamp of approval, they don’t enter his canon unless they are depicted cinematically in one of his projects.”

~ Pablo Hidalgo, Star Wars: The Essential Reader’s Companion, 2012

..

"What George Saw as Canon"

"In the old days, George Lucas saw his universe as separate from publishing [EU]. He wasn't at all interested in connecting."

~ Pablo Hidalgo [Lucasfilm Story Group] 2016
http://i.imgur.com/6ZOkAau.png

..

"From Star Wars Insider [The Official Star Wars Magazine] - Issue 77 , Using Dark Empire & The Thrawn Trilogy As Examples. -


"So do episodes beyond Return of the Jedi exist? Nothing beyond possible story points and ideas, certainly not fleshed out story treatments or scripts. Fans often wonder if Dark Empire or the Thrawn Trilogy were based off those notes or are meant to be Episodes VII, VIII, IX. - That's not the case.


Those works are the creation of their respective authors with the guidance of editors at Lucas Licensing. They are not, nor ever were, meant to be George Lucas' definitive vision of what happens next"

~ Pablo Hidalgo, 2004 - https://ibb.co/K9PMgH3

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are three things that are guaranteed in life -- death, taxes, and the existence of clones in the Star Wars universe.

I'm kind of surprised that this was the Heir to the Empire of the Star Wars comics; that is, it ushered in a new wave of Star Wars storytelling that went above and beyond just what Lucas had in mind. Aside from the main conceit of the first part of the collection (that is, Luke having to embrace the Dark Side in order to better understand his place in the Force), this whole thing is trash. The writing is overly dramatic (it's like reading a teleplay from the original Batman series), the artwork is either drab or hideous, and the plot is ... well, check out that third guarantee above. That's the go-to device for when a Star Wars story has to make a big reveal.

Look, I don't expect a Star Wars story to be high literature, but I do want it to be rational, interesting, and engaging. Dark Empire is none of those things.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always interesting to see post-Return of the Jedi stuff, but this was a pretty mixed bag. Very indicative of an expanded universe trying to find its footing. Bringing the Emperor back is pretty dumb, and while the art is honestly kinda cool, it lacks a lot in the way of character writing. It also brings back Boba Fett, which is something. The sheer amount of Jedi survivors who are brought back is also a little silly. I do think there's some good here, but this is a solid 5/10, it had a very anti-climactic ending.

[Andrew Sorrentino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember these!

I read these back in the day when they were first published. I enjoyed Dark Empire and Dark Empire II. Upon rereading, they're only okay. The Star Wars action is there. The characters are familiar. The images of the starships is a definite highlight! The plot seems merely okay. It feels like the heroes are going through the same motions from the movie trilogy. Adventure and danger. Chases and escapes. Villains and threats. I have found similar themes in Star Wars stories when I pick them up.
Chapter three in this edition is disappointing. No Star Wars vibe. Lousy dialogue. Repeat threat.
The painted covers for each chapter are delightful!

[kesseljunkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read my full review and musings on my blog here: Star Wars Legends Review: Rediscovering the Dark Empire Trilogy for Fans of the Saga.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark Empire is probably one of, if not the most popular and influential Star Wars comics to ever be produced. Not only did it put Dark Horse on par with Marvel and DC as a producer of popular franchise comics, but it was one of the first truly successful spin-off Star Wars story arcs that told a the cohesive story many fans of the original trilogy had been clamoring for since the end of Return of the Jedi. Even I remember sometime in the mid-90's as a kid of about 7 or 8, and a young new comer to the Star Wars story, hearing about Veitch's seminal series and distinctly recall seeing that haunting image of Luke Skywalker on the cover of issue #3, turning to dark side.

Unfortunately, as popular and "essential" as Dark Empire is, in all honesty, it's really not even that great.

I get that this was written only a few years after Lucas wrapped up the original trilogy, and I get that there was a lot of speculation and fan fiction floating around the literary and comic book world in regards of how to continue the story. I get that new ideas about the history of the Jedi, and the entire fictional galaxy were still being fleshed out and built upon and I totally understand that fans and authors alike didn't want such a fantastic story to end. So of course, looking back now, 20 something years later and after a completely new Star Wars fanaticism has taken over, this series is going to look kind of quirky and a bit of a jumbled mess.

That's probably why I am willing to give this collection a 3 star rating, despite the fact that it probably should be getting something closer to a 2 star. Like I said, the story is cohesive...at least in the sense that it has a clear beginning, middle and end. The issue is that the story itself is weak and relies too much on rehashing ideas from the original story than devise something all on its own. Bringing back Emperor Palpetine (despite the very clear and obvious fact that he was totally wiped out by Vader at the end of Jedi) made no sense. I mean, I get why Veitch did it, but the explanation for his return was a cop out. Ditto Luke's brief foray into the dark side. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely an interesting concept and something fans had all been wondering about since Palpetine tried so desperately to coerce him to do, but once Luke is there, his stint as a "dark Jedi" is woefully short and his reasons for doing so make for an insane continuity flaw. The rapid pace of events is somewhat understandable as this is a comic book series and not a full length novel or film, however the amount of suspension of disbelief that Veitch expects his readers to exert over the increase in tech, military might, and overall power of the Imperial forces after only five years post battle of Endor is incredibly high. Also didn't help that he constantly makes the Rebel alliance out to be a bunch of bumbling idiots who are continuously on the brink of annihilation, losing countless secret bases, ships and personnel.

The other issue that didn't exactly help Dark Empire came at the cost of its illustrations. Yes, I know that this series is 2 decades old but even then, the artwork was flat out abysmal. Cam Kennedy's drawings look about on par with a 5th graders and the colors are an absolute mess of over abundant greens and yellows. There's no vibrancy or brightness or anything that really distinguishes one scene from the next. Come to think of it, that's most likely why there had to be a ridiculously annoying amount of narration in damn near every panel. Kennedy's work was so horendous that someone, somewhere felt it was far more necessary to tell the readers what was happening, rather than show them. No doubt comics and graphic novel illustrations have made a huge leap in talent and clarity in the last 10 or so years but c'mon, even Rogue Squadron, the other influential series released at the same time, has far superior artwork and presentation than this.

Being a Star Wars fan, and one who has somehow found themselves on a weird binge of all related reading materials, it's not really a big surprise that I would eventually find my way to the classics and influencers of the new wave of Star Wars hysteria we're fortunate to be part of these days. Even though I found Dark Empire to be incredibly overrated and sloppy, I still have to be at least somewhat thankful I was able to find it and read the entire series in one collected volume. Despite my relative lackluster opinion of the series as a whole, it's still hard to deny the power and impact this comic series had. And even now, 20 or so years from that first time I saw Luke as a dark Jedi warrior, I'm finally able to understand why that image was so powerful and famous.

[J.M. Brister · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although Star Wars Episode VII made many Star Wars literature non-cannon, that doesn't mean that fans of the franchise have to forget about what was previously written. There are many fans who gravitate toward the books. However, there are other options for Star Wars literature. Star Wars comics are nothing new, but they are one of the Star Wars universe's best kept secrets. Typically grittier in tone, the comics expand upon the Star Wars universe, and their plots are interwoven between the novels. One of the darker series is the Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy. Set six years after Return of the Jedi, Dark Empire explores Luke Skywalker's decent into the dark side.

The Dark Empire series was originally a bi-monthly series that started in late 1991. Published by Dark Horse Comics, the trilogy consists of Dark Empire I (six issues), Dark Empire II (six issues), and Empire's End (2 issues). The series is written by Tom Veitch. However, there was an artist change between Cam Kennedy, who did Dark Empire I and II, to Jim Balkie, who drew for Empire's End. The trilogy was published in a hardcover edition in 2010, which unfortunately appears to not be in print at the moment, which has caused the price of this edition to skyrocket. However, buyers can still purchase the individual paperback books fairly cheaply. Another alternative is purchasing in e-book format. For the purposes of this review, the hardcover addition will be highlighted.

Dark Empire begins after Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy. The New Republic is desperately trying to battle the last remnants of the Empire. However, they have even more to deal with than they had bargained for: a new type of weapon, called "World Devastators" are wrecking havoc all over the galaxy. Not only that, but Emperor Palpatine is back in a cloned body. Wanting to smash the rebels once and for all, he develops his power even more by studying the Sith. The Emperor, however, has plans in mind for Luke, who this new Emperor "Reborn" hopes to turn to the dark side.

To see the rest of my review, visit my blog, Chronicles of a Geek Mom: http://jessicabrister.blogspot.com/20...

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard about this trilogy and the events within for over a decade, and I think all the hype kind of ruined it for me.

I actually enjoy the artwork in all three of the series, as well as the overall storyline. That said, a lot of the actual dialogue and plotting are kind of mediocre. A lot of the characters seem like two-dimensional pastiches of who they were in the movies, thanks to cheesy dialogue and a lack of development. There are a ton of new characters, but none of them seem all that memorable. Even the emperor, newly returned, seems to be a lame plot device more than an actual villain. It's especially weird that he's able to hand out Dark Side powers like candy whenever he wants to bother our heroes with characters more powerful than storm troopers.

Not only that, but there's a bunch of stuff in the comics that are probably no longer canon based on the prequel trilogy of movies. At the time when these comics were originally published, they were probably pretty revolutionary, but they just haven't aged all that well since then.

[Nape · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hoo boy do I have mixed feelings about Dark Empire.

On one hand, it has some really cool ideas in it. And almost all of them are spoilers, sorry! lol. Well, except for this: I really liked Brand's character. He reminds me of like MODOK or Krang or something, except not evil. Or maybe Maw, from Dark Forces 2 after he's been cut in half. Anyway, I really like him. Also: Palpatine comes back as a clone, which in the 90s felt a little bit more original somehow. Maybe because it was before the prequel trilogy, and the TV series, which are all about the clones. It also establishes Palpatine as a real-deal evil sorcerer, able to send his consciousness into other bodies, or imbue other people with knowledge of the dark side. That's probably pretty cheap, (Because then the inevitable question comes up: "Why didn't he just do this before?" lol.) but for some reason I kind of liked it. Also, the idea of Luke joining the dark side to destroy the new empire from within was neat. Him becoming a super Jedi who has knowledge of the dark and the light added an extra dimension to him that I enjoyed. Plus I like that the way he and Leia defeat Palpatine at the end of the (first) book is by basically thinking him to death with the force, lol. Maybe it's dumb, but I enjoyed it. It was also cool that Luke discovered a society of people who are force-users that just aren't associated with the Sith or the Jedi, and works with them to rebuild the Jedi order. Plus, there's that hidden planet inside the toxic space gas that has flying steampunk ships. What the fuck? Weird as hell, but I secretly kind of dig it. Especially because it's got like a space version of Skull Island sort of vibe, which really works with the whole "Adventure Serial" quality of Star Wars, So like... There's a lot of really cool stuff in this series, concept-wise. Oh, and I almost forgot: Luke force projects in this! They used that in one of the Disney sequel movies. Except... Well, that's a topic for a different review, lol.

Also, for the record, I really enjoyed the art in all three volumes of this series. It was quintessentially 90s, all moody and dark, with every character looking edgy as fuck. All the forgettable, interchangeable darksiders look like they're from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Even Luke looks like Count Dracula with his Darth Vader suit and vampire collar. There was eerie, Halloween neon green and purple, and I just really enjoyed the way it looked. Definitely a personal preference, though.

But the thing is... Every single cool thing I mentioned above is either accompanied with ten other things that suck, or is implemented in just the worst way possible. First, let me say that this series has some of the dumbest names I've ever heard in my life.

Let me give you my Top 5 Dumbest Names in the Dark Empire Series:
1. Xecr Nist (How the fuck do you say this one?)
2. Vima-Da-Boda (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, honey, don't you know that I'm--)
3. Rayf Ysanna (Gesundheit!)
4. King Impatojayos. (I'll forgive this one because they just call him brand, but what the fuck? Is this a name, or a kind of hot sauce?)
5. Krdys Mordi (C'mon... That first one is almost all consonants!)

Let me also include a brief sample of some of the things that actually happen in this series:
-An ancient Jedi (who has turned into a tree) explodes to kill one of the bad guys.
-A native girl who doesn't speak Basic trips and falls on Luke, (anime character style,) and they mind-meld using the force, and he learns to speak her language, causing them to fall in love.

Plus, the other thing that sucks so much about this is that like... It doesn't do anything new or interesting or new with our main cast. (Which it should, since it's set after the OT.) No new memorable characters are really introduced. (Sorry, Brand!) Like... In Heir to the Empire, Han and Leia are struggling with their roles in the New Republic as newlyweds and politicians. Luke is working through being the last Jedi, and carrying on their legacy. And even the Disney sequel series focuses on new characters in addition to the legacy cast. For example, like... The Book of Boba Fett is about Boba Fett setting himself up as a crime boss, right? He's done running around the galaxy chasing bounties. He's got a hot waifu, and he's settling down. But in Dark Empire, it's like... he's still doing the same old shit? And since this is set after the Thrawn trilogy, he's gotta be like, what, in his 70s, or something, right? Or, consider this: maybe you don't like Kylo Ren, but you have to admit they did way more with him than they do with Han and Leia's kids in this series. They're just babies that appear in a few panels. They're just plot devices!

I don't know. I think the first book in this series, Dark Empire is passable. I might recommend it, as some fun reading if you really want some out-there Star Wars legends books. But Dark Empire 2 is complete garbage, and Empire's End is only barely fun, in a B-movie sort of way. Like the second live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. People really hype this series up as something amazing, but I think it's really only worthwhile as a curiosity, or something that had some interesting ideas. It's too bad that Rise of Skywalker fumbled the ball with these ideas, too. (Maybe that just means they're bad ideas, after all? lol.)

[Leonor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only reason this is not a 5-star review is that the concept itself is kinda shitty: the Emperor resurrected is really not an imaginative villain. But this is truly a work of art, especially Cam Kennedy's art in DE I and II. Veitch, like in his Tales of the Jedi, writes top-notch Star Wars as usual. Some of the new supporting characters could have received more development, but the limited series format doesn't allow for much.

[sologdin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Always already almost victorious villain brings yet another superweapon in attempt to seduce bucolic virgin.

The superweapon this time recaptures the parody in Spaceballs and plays it straight.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a huge fan of the art in the first two sections, and the style made it hard for me to read, but it was interesting to see the beginnings of Jacen/Jaina/Anakin Solo. I've become more intrigued with the Extended Universe mainly because it's now considered moot.

Needs more Lando. Everything needs more Lando.

[Sylvia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice fast read of all three dark horse comics Dark Empire. I love Star Wars Universe and I love comics. These three stories about the final wars and real death of the evil emperor Palpatine was very fast paced. A pageturner which I enjoyed.