Product Description: A loyal Stormtrooper, thwarted by the very bureaucracy which he serves, struggles to track down a Rebel saboteur on board the Death Star in the days and hours before the fateful Rebel attack. Darth Vader, the sole survivor of the explosion of the Death Star, crash lands on a primitive world where savagery is the key to survival. A young Imperial lieutenant learns all service comes at a price when his small company of Stormtroopers is attacked by thousands of angry aliens. Assassins vow revenge on the man responsible for killing their families - the Dark Lord, Darth Vader. Four compelling tales, all told from the point of view of the major villains of the Star Wars galaxy - the Imperials. But, as these stories show, even the "bad guys" are no strangers to loyalty, honor, and sacrifice!
Good book. My 40 year old husband really enjoys these book. As a fan of Star Wars, he likes to read all of the various spin off books and he has really enjoyed these.
Great art work wasted on unimaginative writing It's tough being asked to make fantasy Nazi's into regular Joes, or even heroic Joes, so even if I can't work up too much sympathy for the troops that protect the universe by enslaving it, I can image what a nightmare it might have been for some of these writers to get their assignments from Dark Horse. Their charge - convince you that the bad guys, the guys who keep the Emperor's machine running day-to-day, are, well, just like you and me, people with a job to do.
Perhaps the writer who has it easiest is Paul Alden, who has only to have Vader battle a pack of wild hyenas. You will recall that when the first Death Star exploded, Vader was spinning off into space. With a damaged ship and not too many options for pulling into the nearest service station, he manages to crash on a planet mostly empty of sentient life. There's plenty of fauna about, though, and the Dark Lord has to fight his way through them to an Imperial listening post. Thanks to artist Raul Trevino's fine work, Alden's willingness to step out of the way, and the almost complete absence of politics, "The Savage Heart" is sharp and quick-paced, ending with a touch of wry humor.
In comparison, the rest of the work in this volume is verbose, implausible, or, as in "Target: Vader," simply unremarkable. The story starts five months after Yavin with the Dark Lord checking in om one of his Bothan contacts for information on Alliance bases and locations. Lying in wait is a cabal Falleen assassins; what becomes of them is hardly a surprise. Hacking and slashing is provided by one of Star Wars better artists, Brian Ching, whose talents are fairly squandered on a story by Ron Marz that adds little to the lore of the EU and in which we learn even less about Vader (except that he cannot be placated with offers of Naboo slave girls).
Writer Jeremy Barlow takes a stab in "What Sin Loyalty?" at how the average Imperial deals with the daily drudgery of coercion, murder, enslavement, and theft. With only a few pages to deal with these questions, Barlow has to settle for stating things quite simply, that the universe would be an anarchic free-for-all without the Emperor's firm and ruthless control. The message is blunted somewhat by having it delivered by a Stormtrooper, a clone who comes essentially ideologically hardwired. But the deathbed scene of a (non-clone) Imperial gives Barlow a chance to show us a repentant officer, one who until his last moments was unable to express any doubt over the horrible things he did in the name of the Empire. Regrettably, Barlow's work is fairly ruined at story's end when the first person narrative provided by the Stormtrooper continues right up until the moment of his immolation on the Death Star, leaving us to wonder - how did his account survive?
Last (and perhaps least) is the three-part "To the Last Man," the incredulous tale of Lt Janek Sunber. A hick from the galactic sticks, Sunber is the guy Luke Skywalker might have been if he had made it to the academy, the Jefferson Smith of Imperial officers, a low-ranking lieutenant from the James Stewart school of naïve optimism whose Forest Gump-like mantra is "All Duty is Sacrifice." Sunber's not the kind of guy to worry about imperialism, slavery, or genocide. He's got a job to do and there's great value in hard work. On assignment to the Jungle planet Maridun, Sunber chips in to help the troops do field work, much to the horror and disgust of his socially superior fellow officers. When the Imperial forces are attacked, Sunber knows best how to position the troops. When the fighting gets tough, Sunber is the man with the plan. When the general lies dying, Sunber's the man the general summons and to whom he hands off command. And in the end, [SPOILER] Sunber's the man who treats with the aliens to end the war in a jaw-droppingly hackneyed climax in which the aliens reveal that the fighting has been arranged to test the worthiness of the Imperial interlopers. [END SPOILER] The only redeeming thing about "To the Last Man" is the art, provided here by Davide Fabbri and Christian Dalla Vecchia, who do a fantastic job bringing to life a new alien species and in conveying the movement of troops in battle. It's too bad these two got stuck working on this story, which besides being unrealistic to the point of absurdity is also - particularly in its final chapter - overwritten, with too many florid passages telling us what things are like instead of showing us, slowing down battle scenes that should move at a quicker pace.
Skip this book. For completists only.
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Extremely good stories I've read Dark Empire 1 and 2, Mara Jade: By the Empire's Hand, and the first four Clone Wars trade paperbacks, and this beats all of them. (Though Clone Wars #3 comes close.) Anyways, this volume contains the issues 13 and 14, as well as 16-19, for a total of 6 issues. #15 is in Volume 2. These stories range from great to outstanding, but if you want to read about main characters other than Vader, space battles, or Jedi, than look elsewhere.
Here's a brief overview:
What Sin Loyalty? is about a stormtrooper on the Death Star who tries to unravel a plot to kill his commanding officer. It's a satisfying story that deals with the morality of the Rebellion.
The Savage Heart is about Vader getting back to Coruscant from the blown up Death Star. Some aspects of the plot were a little bizarre, but it's a good story with decent characters.
To the Last Man, originally 3 issues, is an exceptionally good work of military science fiction. It deals with one lieutenant who must lead his troops through a desperate struggle against a superior alien force. It has all the definitive qualities of comradery, sacrifice, and duty. There's also lot's of great combat.
Target: Vader had a decent plot, but the story has fantastic insight into Vader's character. It really works after seeing Episode 3. This is definitely a worthwhile story.
Anyways, this is a great comic, definitely worth getting.
Star Wars Fans UNITE! LOL! No seriously though, if you like Star Wars movies at all you'll really like this book. It lets you see a different side of Darth Vader and also lets you see the Empire from a completely different perspective. If you don't buy it, at least go to book store or library and read it. It will change your perspective on the Empire as will the other two books before it.
The people who are the soldiers that we see get blasted on screen aren't that different from you and I (the characters they play I mean) and neither is Darth Vader, except for his overwhelming powers. But absolute power corrupts absolutely (in humans anyway).
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