Great idea for a thread. Many younger Star Wars fans (of this century's flood of Star Wars material) cannot imagine the early 1990s, when there was no official announcement of new movies (or the Special Editions), and Lucas seemingly content with ancillary products (e.g. novels, TV movies and cartoons, etc.) filling that great void in the wake of Return of the Jedi coming to and going from theaters in 1983.

Dark Empire (along with its sequel series and eventually 1996's Shadows of the Empire) was the major shot in the arm the franchise needed, in the attempt to bring to light the post-ROTJ time period long theorized about by fans for a decade (in a satisfactory, creatively stimulating way, unlike Marvel's dreary, often-lackluster post-ROTJ stories in their monthly). Dark Empire was not a perfect series, but Veitch's story felt like a logical, likely outcome of the original trilogy.

Looking forward to your exploration of this series.

Another thread to bookmark, looking forward to it!

Really glad to see you undertake this thread Wildfire2099...and thanks for your kind words. I'll definitely be following along and no doubt commenting, as I own a whole lot of the Dark Horse SW stuff and really enjoyed most of it.

One question: will you be reviewing each series issue-by-issue or will you do, for example, Dark Empire all in one review?

Glad to see some interest! I'm planning on doing one issue at a time... I thought about the whole series at once, and that might be logical for some later stuff.. but this is the birth of the Extended Universe here.. there is ALOT of stuff in some of the early books so I think it'll be worth exploring.

Getting psyched to do this thread, I was reading some old articles from the time... I knew there was a bit of animosity between Tom Veitch and Timothy Zahn, but it seems like it was even more than I thought! Apparently at one point Dark Empire was going to get a novelization along with the comic, then instead the published wanted Zahn and tried to make the the main story and do a comic adaptation, but somewhere along the way both got made in their respective formats.

I really didn't start going to comic book stores and buy comics regularly until '92, so I didn't read Dark Empire right away (I started with Tales of the Jedi)... I ended up reading a borrowed copy later at college (probably late '93) That being the case, I felt like Heir the the Empire was the 'real' story, and it seemed odd to have Dark Empire shoehorned right after, especially when you consider that also of the events are pretty similar.

I'm looking forward to matching up some of those details... not sure if trying to re-read some of the books would be great for comparison of give me Star Wars overload.. we'll see.

I have all 3 Dark Empire series and the first few Tales of the Jedi series in hand and ready to go, so I'll definitely be doing those first... we'll see if chronological makes sense once there are actual monthly books and minis or not... and how much of the prequel tie-in materials I can stomach

Looking forward to your reviews, wildfire2099! 

I dropped all things Star Wars-related after the Thrawn trilogy, so I didn't read Dark Empire at the time. Looking at the plot on Wikipedia, it's probably something I would actually have enjoyed a lot! I am surprised by how much the sequel trilogy pilfered from it. A trilogy stcking closer to Dark Empire would however have been far more coherent, I'm sure!

Dark Empire #1



Cover dated : December 1991
Issue title : Book 1: Destiny of a Jedi
Script: Tom Veitch
Artwork: Cam Kennedy
Letters: Todd Klein
Cover art Dave Dorman
Overall rating: 7 out of 10

When are we?: The end matter states the books takes place six years after the Battle of Yavin... which places it about a year after Timothy Zahn's 'Heir to the Empire' novel. Grand Admiral Thrawn is mentioned as one of the many Imperial remnants vying for control.

The text pieces before and after set the scene... the Empire has fallen, but the New Republic is barely hanging on to what it has and a new Empire seems a distinct possibility. The good guys are attempting to take advantage of the warring remnants (it is implied, but not stated, that the defeat of Thrawn left a power vacuum that others are trying to fill) and expand their control.

Summary: Luke and Lando crashed a Star Destroyer on a raid of the 'Imperial Sector' and Han, Leia,Chewie, and C-3PO are trying to save them.

They lose one of the two support frigates on the way into orbit (lots of debris from previous space battles), the other (Captained by Nein Nunb , perhaps? Later he is id'ed as a different Sullustan, Captain Snunb) gets to orbit and wishes our heroes good luck as the Falcon proceeds to the planet.

They are ignored by the fighting Imperials and surprisingly easily find their crashed companions. Lando imforms them Luke is off doing Jedi things.

Scavengers then attack, and we get treated to Leia showing off her Jedi powers... then we see a familiar figure save the day:



Luke clearly is ALOT more powerful than he used to be (at least if you haven't read Heir to the Empire) and makes quick work of the scavenger attack, and tells his friends to leave, but he must stay to figure out why there is so much dark side energy is on the planet. They reluctantly agree when a weird energy storm appears and starts sucking everything around up. (Artoo, of course, stays with Luke). Luke allows himself to get caught in the vortex to see what's going on.. to be continued!


My view: Seems a bit callous that a whole Frigate exploded with just a casual mention. I know picking up life pods isn't exactly exciting, but it seems like the other ship should have been saving survivors, not just hanging in orbit.

Veitch does a good job giving information in the story without it feeling like an info-dump...Lando references that Han and Leia are married in passing, and Leia uses a force trick that Luke taught her. Luke mentioned the twins are the future of the Jedi when Leia wants to stay and help.

I do wonder about the premise of scavengers looking to get stuff while an active battle is going on though... why do that when you can wait until it's over? I guess the point is the chaos is at 11 in the galaxy.

I know it's not for everyone, and at times it gets a bit TOO sketchy, but for the most part I really love the art and coloring, it matches the mood well and the characters are all instantly recognizable, but yet Luke is clearly not ok.. that is not how he looks on the cover



Continuity Notes:

The discussion of the center of the Empire is referred to as the 'Imperial System' and 'Imperial City'...not yet called Coruscant. It's also clear it's not the hyper-developed planet-city we have now, as there are open fields where battles are happening.

Veitch leads off the story with a nice reference to the movies, with C-3PO telling Han his odds of not crashing into space debris are terrible and Han cursing at him.

We also have Luke remembering Yoda's 'Size Matters Not' lesson as he crushes a Walker with just the Force.

They talk about Luke learning for Obi-Wan and his father Anakin.. it's implied that his new found power was I guess from communing with force ghosts? No mention of Mara Jade or Joruus C'baoth from the Zahn novels.

Due to the moody lighting and coloring of the issue, it's not totally clear what lightsaber Luke is using... it appears light blue, but so does everything else that is energy related.

Jacen and Jaina are never named, just 'the twins'.

There are pages of text that basically summarize the movies, and give a small bit of the plot background... I guess someone thought people that have never seen said movies might read this comic? Nothing Earth-shattering, though the purple pages with yellow text were an odd choice. Even odder is an acknowledgement in a different color you can barely read that thanks West End games (who made the RPG) for technical assistance.

I don't know how continuity was managed back then; my guess is that the comics would be its own thing, not directly relying on sources other than the movies, but making an effort not to contradict them either. 

That would have been easier to do at first, before there were too many expanded universe books, games and whatnots. A bit like Star Trek, where the multiplicity of novels eventually nixed any attempt at a unified continuity.

As such, I like the idea that Luke's training would have continued under the occasional tutelage of the ghostly Yoda, Obi-Wan and Anakin. (As I recall, the Thrawn trilogy had Ghost Ben explain that he had to go away for good but I don't remember if any mention was made of Yoda and Anakin. The latter was pretty much an unknown quantity at the time).

Good start, wildfire2099! I'm eager to see what happens next!