That's a great cover image by Dave Dorman -- probably his best of the whole series.




This was Luke's doing, right? Leia has a vison of him guiding the Imperial fleet with the Force a few pages before and, as Lando says, it looks as if the person in charge of that World Devastator wanted to lose. I think Luke guided the crippled E-Wing fighter into crashing into a strategically significant part of the World Devastator using the Force.




Slave II is such a crappy ship design. Urghh!




Agreed. Something else I noticed was that, in the scene when Han and Leia are being chased through the streets of Nar Shaddaa by Boba Fett and Dengar, Solo and the Princess's dialogue is sometimes interchangeable, to the point where, when the characters are viewed from a distance in Kennedy's artwork, it's hard to tell which character is saying what. Other times, Vietch seems to get the "character" of each person's dialogue spot on, but it's definitely uneven.

As an aside, during the pursuit through the streets of Nar Shaddaa, Kennedy seems to be really drawing a lot on his years of depicting Mega City One from the Judge Dredd comics.




These towering bodyguards are based on artist Nilo Rodis-Jamero's unused concept art for the Emperor's Royal Guards from ROTJ.






Yeah, I thought that was weird too.




As I said earlier, I am really not a fan of the day-go/discotheque colouring in these issues. I just kind of ignore it and it doesn't spoil my enjoyment, but I'd love to see this series re-coloured by somebody with a more traditional comic book palette.




Copping from the old Marvel Star Wars comic, issue #81 perhaps?




Which is a shame because I'd have loved to have seen IG-88 in the story. I like having Dengar there with Fett, but yeah...I'm not entirely sure why Fett wouldn't just be working alone.




Philistines!

You are quite correct, but it wasn't an entire planet that was an Imperial home world: it was just a city on the planet Alderaan. As you rightly say, this Imperial City became the Death Star in subsequent drafts of the first Star Wars movie, while the floating city aspect was re-used for Cloud City. The concept of an entire Imperial home world planet was first originated during early versions of the RotJ script.




That's interesting. I know of most of Dune's influences on SW, but hadn't realised that about Geidi Prime being a city planet. I'm totally unfamiliar with Asimov's Foundation series, I'm afraid.

It's worth noting though that the idea of the entire planet of Coruscant being a city originated with author Timothy Zahn in Heir to the Empire, not with George Lucas. Lucas's Imperial Capital planet, Had Abbadon, was not supposed to be covered in one huge city. Indeed, the Emperor's castle on Had Abbadon was surrounded by a lake of lava, which is a concept that was eventually reused for the planet Mustafar in Revenge of the Sith and Vader's Fortress in Rogue One.




I've heard the whole "Star Wars swiped Valerian" accusations before and I think they are basically bullsh*t. The so called "swipes" are pretty tenuous to my eyes and also often feature ideas that have appeared in a number of other sci-fi stories prior to Valerian. There was even a whole info-graphic going around on the internet about it some years back, showing examples of these alledged swipes, but like I say, it all seemed pretty tenuous to me.

Besides, Lucas was never particularly shy about naming his influences when it came to Star Wars, be it Kurosawa's Hidden Fortress, the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serials, the EC sci-fi comics, or Dune. I've never seen any real evidence that anyone associated with the look of the original trilogy, such as Lucas, Ralph MacQuarrie, or John Dykstra, was a fan of Valerian or even aware of those comics.

Did the prequels' concept artist Doug Chiang or someone working for him have a stack of Valerian books under his desk to regularly swipe from? I've never heard about that or seen any evidence to support such an accusation. Frankly, it sounds like something someone on the internet made up.

I'll third that.

But...Kirby sure did draw some dynamic, exciting and hugely imaginative superhero comics. I'm more of a Ditko and a Romita man, myself, but Kirby's work on Fantastic Four in the '60s, for example, was exactly what a comic of that nature required; nobody else drawing/writing in mainstream comics at that time could've done as good a job on that comic as Kirby did. I assume the same would go for Thor too.

I've been re-reading the Star Wars: Dark Empire series for the umpteenth time in order to join in with wildfire2099's "Star Wars by Dark Horse" review thread. It's a fun series, with lots of action and is a pretty breezy read.

Back in 1991, this series marked the welcome return of SW comics, coming four years after the original Marvel series ended.

OK, I'm back from holiday and I've just re-read the first three issues of Dark Empire. Overall, I think this series makes for a pretty strong revival of Star Wars comics, even if it is ultimately inferior to Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy of books.

Tom Vietch's writing is pretty good and he manages to capture the "voices" of most of the main cast members. I love the "story so far" recaps at the start of each issue and how they are formatted like the opening crawl from the original trilogy.

Dave Dorman's cover art is pretty good for the most part. In particular, I like that some of the covers look like unused Star Wars movie posters, rather than a traditional comic book cover. Just like the "story so far" crawl on the first page of each issue, these painted covers somehow make the series feel more important than just another comic book and more like a proper sequel to Return of the Jedi.

Anyway, here are a few comments related to specific parts your excellent reviews, wildfire2099 ...




I have always quite liked Cam Kennedy's artwork and I already knew him when Dark Empire came out from his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper in 2000AD. But Dark Empire might well be the best art that I've ever seen from him. He manages to tell the story very clearly, while still capturing the Lucas-style "faster, more intense!" flavour of the action sequences that we expect from a Star Wars movie. I'm reminded that originally this series was supposed to be published as a 3-issue prestige format series and I think Kennedy is raising his game here art-wise, knowing that this wasn't "just" another comic book series.

That said, I do NOT like the colouring and never have. I don't necessarily expect everything in a comic to be coloured realistically, but the florescent pinks, greens, reds and blues that bathe everything make it look like the story is happening in a discoteque! Not that the colouring choices spoil my enjoyment at all, but still, I'm really not a fan of the day-glo palette used.




Yeah, I think Kennedy goes out of his way to deliberately draw Luke unlike how he looked in the original trilogy. His depictions of Han, Leia and Lando...and even the Emperor a bit later on...are very good and instantly recognisable as the characters we know and love from the films. But Luke is definitely off and I think that is a deliberate choice to underscore how fraught and over-burdened he has become by the encroaching Dark Side.




I think this is something that is a holdover from when the story was first written for Marvel, back in late 1989 and early 1990. Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire book, which was the first place where the Imperial Capital Planet was named as Coruscant, came out in 1991 and was likely started after DE was complete. Certainly, it was published after DE was finished. Vietch may've done a little bit of tweaking to get things to line up more with Heir to the Empire – such as referring to Han and Leia's twins, though they weren't named as Jacen and Jaina Solo. Likewise, Thrawn isn't actually mentioned in the story itself, if memory serves, right? Nor is there any mention of Mara Jade or Jorus C'baoth. Even if Vietch saw an early draft of Zahn's book, those characters may not have been named in it yet.

Incidentally, the concept of an "Imperial Capital Planet" or "Imperial City" originates from an early draft of the script for Return of the Jedi, in which George Lucas was toying with the idea of an Imperial world called Had Abbadon (Ralph McQuarrie even did concept art for it). The Imperial Capital Planet was first mentioned in print in Marvel's Star Wars #61, written by David Michelinie in early 1982.




I have always assumed it was the lightsabre that he constructed on Tatooine as part of his Jedi training, in order to replace his father's, which was lost on Cloud City. Not that Kennedy draws it remotely resembling that lightsaber, of course, but yeah...I'm pretty sure that's what it's supposed to be.




Yes, they are moving fast. I love that about Vietch's story pacing: it's very much like the full-throttle storytelling of the first three Star Wars films.




I agree. Issue #2 definitely feels less tightly plotted than issue #1.




Ha! this will be our first point of real disagreement. I always thought that the World Devastators sucked.

Kennedy's design for them looks cr*p, but I also find it cringy how often Vietch has to have characters telling the readers that these things are far more lethal than the Death Star. I mean, c'mon…the World Devastators (God, I hate that name) are clearly a pretty big threat, but more lethal than a moon-sized battle-station that could destroy an entire planet with one superlaser blast? I don't think so!




I've still never watched The Rise of Skywalker – I was too annoyed by The Last Jedi to bother watching it. But yes, from the little I know of the film's plot, it does indeed sound very reminiscent of Dark Empire.





Yeah, Han's "voice" isn't always perfect in this series, but that's an example of Vietch really nailing it. You can definitely hear Harrison Ford saying that line.

Unfortunately, at other times the characterisation of Han just seems kinda off. I mean, at one point (in issue #2, I believe) Vietch has Solo uttering the word "Gosh!" I really can't imagine Ford saying that!

To be honest, this slightly off characterisation of Solo was also a recurring problem in the old Marvel series too, especially under the pens of Roy Thomas and Archie Goodwin.




Well, don't forget that there were all those stories about Lando's "little manoeuvre at the battle of tanaab". Plus, he was a seasoned veteran of the second Death Star battle.

But hey, this is the same Rebel Alliance who let Luke Skywalker fly an X-Wing Fighter against the first Death Star -- their most perilous and important battle to date -- with little more experience than bulls-eyeing womp rats in his T-16 back home!




In a nutshell, this is my entire argument against anything involving the Skywalker family that is set after RotJ. Whatever you have happen, be it the resurrection of the Emperor, the resurgence of the Empire (or First Order, whatever), or an alien invasion from outside the SW galaxy, it will always devalue the ending of Return of the Jedi. That particular story ends with RotJ.

The only adventures that really work for me, without undermining the character arcs and sacrifices in the original trilogy, are those that don't centre on Luke, Leia, Han, or the Empire. Like The Mandalorian or the Crimson Empire comic trilogy.




Leia's encounter with Vima-Da-Boda here really made an impression on me back when I first read this issue. She's such a mysterious character and it's great that the foundations of the later Tales of the Jedi comics are being laid.




One continuity error that I think you might've missed: General Rieekan makes an appearance in this issue, but established canon at this point was that he had been killed during the battle of Hoth, as detailed in the Empire Strikes Back novelization by Donald F. Glut.

Anyway, great reviews Wildfire2099. Keep 'em coming!

I'm away on holiday for a few more days Wildfire, but when I get home I'm gonna start re-reading these issues again (for the upmteenth time) and chiming in with my thoughts on the issues you're reviewing. Love seeing that you've begun though; these early Dark Horse series were all pretty good and, more importantly, were sooooo welcome to us content-starved Star Wars fans back in the mid-90s.