By: Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 152 Publication Date: September 09, 2003 Reading Level: Young Adult
Product Description: Join Luke, Leia, Han, and Chewie as they battle the Empire's latest super-weapons: the gigantic, planet-destorying World Devastators! Six years after the Battle of Endor, the Empire has been reborn, guided by a mysterious new leader. With a price on their heads, our heros are on the run. Han and Leia struggle to protect their unborn child from the bounty hunters and Imperial troops that dog their steps. But their greatest danger my lie in the troubled heart of a hero - as Luke succumbs to the lure of the dark side!
Amazon.com Review: Tom Veitch's original comic strip story traces Luke Skywalker's entrance into the Dark Side in the years after the fall of Darth Vader. The Empire is fragmented, and the Rebels seem on the verge of winning their long struggle when the sinister power of World Devastators emerges from the galactic core. These Devastators chew up worlds and manufacture robotic war machines out of the resources they consume. Luke's dark journey seems the only way to halt the massacre. But despite the importance of Luke in Dark Empire, the portrayal of Leia as an emerging Jedi is really the centerpiece of this volume. Married to Han (who goes flat in Veitch's hands) and with two children, Leia is torn between her role as mother and her role as Jedi warrior. While the story sometimes jumps too quickly between major scenes, Veitch does a good job of capturing the epic feel of George Lucas's masterpiece trilogy. Cam Kennedy's artwork is mixed in quality. Some of his drawings of the Millennium Falcon, hunter-killer probes, and robotic TIE-fighters seem to leap directly from the movie screen, while his human figures (especially of Han and Luke) can appear generic. Also, his style of coloring, using washes of similar colors on each page, is good for capturing moods but tends to obscure details. Despite these occasional shortcoming, this comic is recommended for one simple reason: once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down. The other two parts of the Dark Empire trilogy include: Dark Empire II and Empire's End.--Patrick O'Kelley
Terrible illustrations, and writing is even worse. Everything you need to know is in the title of this review. No exaggeration. DO NOT buy unless you absolutely must know the background story for the later Star Wars books. Same is true for Dark Empire II. Haven't read Union yet, but I can't believe it's any better.
Terrible! I barely made it through this. The sound is too loud and annoying, the actors don't ever really feel like they are into it (except Lando- he is fine). I would have much preferred a regular audio book.
thats not luke Some of the worst artistry I have ever seen. I only read these comics because I got tired of the novels kept citing things that happened in these comics. Did Lucas approve of this? He should already be shot for giving us episode 1? We can just add this comic and the first one to his string of offenses against his fan base. And what kind of story is this...? Luke finds trained jedi from the clone wars? I thought Anakin Skywalker was to bring ballance. Two sith - Two jedi (Yoda & Obi-Wan)
Overwritten and stuporous This book may have been well received in 1992, when the only thing you could compare it with was Marvel Comics nine year oeuvre. Fifteen years and several excellent Star Wars comic series later, Dark Empire holds up rather poorly. With a story structure nearly identical to Return of the Jedi, the book is over long on subplot, anemic in its main narrative, and soporifically overwritten. It also commits the worst sin of the comic book convention - reviving dead villains.
Back in 1992 this graphic novel was something of a major publishing event, one of the first wave of new novels and comic books after a decade when it seemed Star Wars was a dead and forgotten property. It was Darkhorse Comics first project on taking over the comic book license from Marvel, which stopped publishing Star Wars in 1986.
To make a big a splash as possible in marketing their new series, Darkhorse and writer Tom Veitch came up with the idea of turning Luke Skywalker into a villain. Or at least that's what they would like you to believe.
As the story unfolds, we find that Palpatine didn't really die at the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. He simply shifted his consciousness into a clone. And now he's back to threaten the galaxy with yet another giant super weapon. Actually, a whole fleet of superweapons, huge pulverizers and vacuum cleaners that scour the surface of planets and suck up their minerals, metals, and other valuable resources. (Which seems rather silly as then you'd have to take those resources and build new factories to produce new manufactured goods. It would be a much better use of the resources to simply control the planets and labor in situ and be able to confiscate their output.)
Not realizing that the Emperor is still alive, Luke follows a pulse in the Force that leads him to Palpatine's lair, where we have a complete rehash of the throne-room scene from Return of the Jedi. This time the Emperor holds out the possibility that the only way Luke can possibly defeat him is through the use of powers of the Dark side. And in one of the many examples of Veitch's purple exposition, we read:
"The Emperor's words blaze like lightening across Luke's mind . . The Dark side has spoken . . . And for once it speaks the truth. A moment of greatest peril has arrived . . But it is the moment for which Luke was born . . .He must challenge the Dark side from within . . . He must penetrate the power of the Dark side, and he must learn its secrets . . There is no other way."
Exactly _why_ Luke believes using Dark powers is the _only_ way to defeat Palpatine is left to the reader to imagine. His sudden capitulation smacks of nothing more than a cheap contrivance, a way to make a cool story with lots of menacing-Luke drawings without having to write a real story. The climax is equally vapid, with Luke having learned from his dalliance with the Dark side, "powers of control and destruction, . . . feelings of great isolation and sadness . . . [and] fear." How these powers differ from a Jedi's power to control and destroy, how these feelings differ from a Jedi's feelings of isolation, sadness and fear - Veitch obviously has no idea.
As in Return of the Jedi, there is an overlong and tiring subplot in which Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, and Generals Calrissian, Madine, and Dodonna plan and execute massive space battles against the Imperials. There's also a completely fatuous and improbable sublpot involving Han and Leia visiting the Hutt world of Nar Shaddaa so that Veitch could work into the book Boba Fett, miraculously revived from the stomach of the Sarlacc into which he fell in Return of the Jedi.
About the only redeeming feature of Dark Empire is Cam Kennedy's art, done in a color style not typically associated with Star Wars. Using a pastel pallete, he paints in water colors outlined by black inks. Many pages are done in various shades and hues of one main color, with perhaps just a touch or two of a contrasting color for effect. (See sample images.)
Altogether this is a book worth missing. And if you want to not waste more of your time and money, you'll also skip the sequel, Dark Empire II, which unimaginably worse. For a much better Star Wars comic experience, try the more intelligently written Republic (published in book form under the Clone Wars) or Legacy series.
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A Sacrilege I bought Dark Empire 1 and 2 to find out what happened to Luke between the Zahn series and the Jedi Academy series. What I discovered, was a Death Star sized hole in the wonderful Star Wars story.
Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy should be dragged to the streets and shot for the sin against Star Wars that Dark Empire is.
First and foremost, the story is horrible. The only thing they got right is that Leia is pregnant, everything else is utter nonsense.
Second, they were completely off portraying the characters. Han is prissy and treats his best friend Chewie like dirt, Luke is WAY too intense, C3PO was crying about Artoo's safety in every frame, Han's friends from Nal Hutta....are just plain wrong, Boba Fett is back some how and has completely lost all of his skills, the Emperor is alive again and lives in clones, I could go on and on about how bad the characters are represented.
The only almost saving grace is the drawings. They look nice, but some things are just WAY off. They have a probe droid that is about the size of a Corvette...a hunter killer...give me a break. They are completely off on the character drawings as well. The covers are right, but open them up, and the characters look completely wrong.
All in all, this "book" was EXTREMELY disappointing. I plan on burning them this weekend so no one else will get duped into owning these copies.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
