Dark Empire
Dark Empire | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Dark Horse Comics |
Schedule | Monthly |
Title(s) | Dark Empire I Dark Empire II Empire's End |
Formats | Original material for the series has been published as a set of limited series. |
Genre | |
Publication date | Dark Empire I December 1991 – October 1992 Dark Empire II December 1994 – May 1995 Empire's End October–November 1995 |
Number of issues | Dark Empire I: 6 Dark Empire II: 6 Empire's End: 2 |
Creative team | |
Writer(s) | ISBN 1-59582-612-2 |
Dark Empire is a
Part of the
The series received mixed-to-positive reviews, and is credited as helping revive interest in the franchise in the early 1990s.
Publication history
The Dark Empire I story was originally developed by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy for Marvel Comics. Veitch and Kennedy were approached by Lucasfilm based on their success with The Light and Darkness War.[1][2] After difficulties with Marvel, the project was picked up by Dark Horse Comics.[3] According to Veitch, he pitched franchise creator George Lucas the idea of a different character wearing Darth Vader's armor, which Lucas rejected but said he would allow Palpatine's return, as well as his use of a clone body.[4] However, Star Wars Insider's series of retrospectives on the creation of the series in 2015 clarified that Veitch's editorial contact throughout the development of the series was Lucy Autrey Wilson.[5][6][7] This was further illuminated in 2022, when Wilson spoke about the development of the series, saying: "Tom Veitch, the story he wrote... You know, we were kind of letting people do what they wanted then. He wrote his story. I didn't ask George anything."[8] Lucas, after reading the trilogy, stated to Wilson that Palpatine would never have been cloned.[9]
Dark Empire I was a six-issue limited series published bimonthly in 1991 and 1992. Dark Empire II was also a six-issue limited series published from 1994 to 1995. The final installment, Empire's End, was a two-issue limited series published in 1995. The trilogy is set after Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, which was published from 1991 to 1993.
The individual comic issues each feature several pages of prose "endnotes" that provide additional background for the story, such as contextualizing Palpatine's goals and worldview through excerpts of encyclopedic volumes called the Dark Side Compendium written from his in-universe perspective.[10][a]
Collections
The various series have been collected into trade paperbacks:
- Dark Empire (collects Star Wars: Dark Empire #1–6, 182 pages, May 1993, ISBN 1-56971-073-2)
- Dark Empire II (collects Star Wars: Dark Empire II #1–6, 168 pages, September 1995, ISBN 1-56971-119-4)
- Empire's End (collects Star Wars: Empire's End #1–2, 64 pages, September 1997, ISBN 1-56971-306-5)
The entire metaseries has also been collected into a single hardcover, which also includes Star Wars Handbook 3: Dark Empire, a collection of illustrated essays on the characters, locations, and other elements of the story:
- Dark Empire Trilogy (352 pages, Dark Horse Comics, September 2010, ISBN 1-84856-887-8)
It was collected again under
Plot
Dark Empire
Six years after the events of
The taskforce returns to the Rebel fleet in the Da Soocha system. Rebel commanders discuss the appearance of the Imperials coming out of the Deep Core and discover that
Meanwhile, Luke awakes from the light of the Force storm and finds out he is aboard an old Imperial prison ship heading to
Leia has visions of Luke being pulled to the dark side of the Force and wants to travel to Byss and save him. She and Han travel to
Leia discovers that he holds hostage an even greater treasure: a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the
Han's group travels to Mon Calamari as Rebel commando forces lay siege to the World Devastators, which have been shut down by a special master code Luke was able to steal and give to R2 and C3PO for transmission to the machines. The Imperials aboard the machines still have the factories running and attack the Rebels. R2 rigs the World Devastators to destroy each other.
As the Rebels celebrate on Mon Calamari, Alliance command determines that the World Devastators are part of a larger Imperial offensive to conquer the galaxy. Leia studies the Holocron and sees an old prophecy about a pregnant woman coming to save the Jedi from doom. At the same time, a small Imperial fleet, led by the massive flagship Eclipse, appears above Da Soocha. The Emperor demands that the Alliance surrender Leia to him and Luke. Leia travels on her own and appeals to Luke to break away from the Emperor. Palpatine creates a large Force storm to destroy the Rebel fleet, but Leia and Luke work together to amplify the storm beyond the Emperor's power and turn it against him. The siblings escape the doomed warship, and as Luke sees the last remnants of the Eclipse being vaporized, he declares the Jedi Knights will rise again.
Dark Empire II
With Emperor Palpatine apparently perishing aboard the Eclipse, more worlds defy Imperial edicts, especially those that have been recently reconquered. One of these is the arms manufacturing planet Balmorra, whose planetary governor, Beltane, has begun supplying the Rebels with the latest military vehicles, such as the Viper X1 Automadon, a war droid designed to convert energy from enemy laser fire into power for its own turbolaser cannons. The Emperor's Dark Side Executor Sedriss leads a force to subdue the planet, but Beltane's troops hold the line and Sedriss is compelled to negotiate a supply agreement with him. Sedriss returns to Byss, where he kills two Dark Side Adepts who've been killing other clones of Emperor Palpatine that Luke missed. Palpatine possesses one clone to Sedriss' surprise and orders the Imperial offensive to continue.
Having pledged to reestablish the Jedi Order by finding any surviving Jedi in the galaxy, Luke Skywalker returns to Pinnacle Base on the moon Da Soocha V (orbiting Da Soocha in the Cyax System of Hutt Space of the Outer Rim) with Kam Solusar, a former Dark Jedi. Beltane tips the Rebel Alliance of a shipment of new Vipers bound for the Empire's Deep Core stronghold of Byss, and Alliance commanders accept Wedge Antilles' suggestion of intercepting the shipment for a surgical strike using the droids, with Rebel commandos in the attack. Although Luke presses for liberating more worlds to provide more staging areas for an all-out strike on Byss, Mon Mothma asks him to concentrate on rebuilding the Jedi Order instead. The Jedi Holocron educates Luke about the planet Ossus, a former Jedi-populated world destroyed by the Sith thousands of years earlier.
Han, Leia and Chewie fly back to Nar Shaddaa to find Vima-da-Boda, at least where Leia last saw her. However, Vima has disappeared and every bounty hunter on the moon is still out for them, including Boba Fett, as well as an Imperial force led by two Dark Side Elites. Leia successfully fetches Vima after flying into the deeper reaches of Nar Shaddaa. Aboard Nar Shaddaa's traffic control tower, Mako Spince sees Han and guides an Imperial Star Destroyer's tractor beam on him. Han turns the tables by flying close to the tower, forcing the tractor beam to lock onto the structure and pull it instead at full power. The tower impales the Star Destroyer and it crashes into Nar Shaddaa. Fett, back in his old ship Slave I, chases the Millennium Falcon into a nearby acidic gas cloud. Han takes the risk and flies into the cloud, surprisingly appearing on the other side and stumbling onto the long-lost world of Ganath. Ganathan engineers repair the Falcon and equip it with a lightning cannon while the team meets Ganath's ruler, Empatojayos Brand, a veteran Jedi who survived the Empire's Jedi Purge. Inspired by the possibility of a Jedi rebirth, Brand joins Han's party while leaving Ganath in the hands of a military officer. Han takes out Fett and heads to a secret hideout on New Alderaan, where Han and Leia's twin children are under care.
Luke and Kam fly to Ossus and chances upon the Ysanna, a warrior tribe which has rudimentary Force powers. They fight off the Ysanna attacks and sensing they are indeed Jedi, the Ysanna chief welcomes them. Having known about the trip, Palpatine orders Sedriss and fellow Dark Side Elite Vill Goir to capture them. Solusar kills Goir, but Sedriss takes one of the Ysanna hostage and leans against a tree. To everybody's surprise, the tree is a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar, who wraps Sedriss in a fatal embrace and they die in an explosion of Force energy. Bnar's heroic sacrifice leaves a part of him in the soil and a hole underneath his location reveals an old cache of lightsabers; Luke successfully discovers an old Jedi library. Two Ysanna tribe members, siblings Ralf and Jem, join Luke and Kam in leaving the planet with their elders' blessing.
Lando leads the Rebel infiltration into Byss and start the attack when the Viper droids are offloaded. The droids prove superior to existing Imperial defenses until Palpatine releases an army of dark side-mutated monsters on the attackers. The Vipers, which are attuned against energy attacks, are cut to shreds under the monsters' mauling. Salla Zend and Shug Ninx mobilizes fellow smugglers nearby to rescue the Rebel strike group and escape Byss.
On New Alderaan, Leia prepares for the birth of her third child as Han and Chewie attempt to rendezvous with Lando's group. Luke's party arrives with grim news: he had reached Da Soocha to see a large missile appear and destroy the planet, with the Rebel Alliance command presumably killed. He uses the time to train the Ysanna siblings as Kam and Empatojayos practice their Jedi skills as well. Unknown to them, Palpatine's Dark Side Elites have tortured a Rebel pilot into revealing the location of New Alderaan. Palpatine sees this as an opportunity to capture the Skywalker siblings and Leia's offspring in one fell swoop. The Darksiders attempt to poison Luke, but Vima saves him as the entire settlement goes into action to fight the Imperials, who have deployed AT-ATs as backup. In the course of the fighting, Jem is killed and Rayf saves Leia's twins from being kidnapped. The Millennium Falcon and Lando's forces arrive and defeat the Imperial assault, then evacuate the New Alderaan survivors.
The Rebels relocate to the space stations of Nespis VIII, where they discover that the Alliance had evacuated Pinnacle Base before it was destroyed. On Nespis VIII, Han and Leia's son
Empire's End
After perishing in battle with Luke and Leia Skywalker in Dark Empire I, Emperor Palpatine is forced to occupy an inferior clone body, since it was the last clone body that remained. Unknown to him, his personal physician had been corrupted by
The last clone body not destroyed by Skywalker or traitorous Imperials is now aging rapidly, and Palpatine's final end is near, unless he can either fix his genetic material (an impossibility since no unaltered samples remain) or insert his spirit into another body. After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet
Palpatine follows the Solos to
Adaptations
In 1994 and 1995 respectively,
- John Cygan – as Luke Skywalker, Wedge Antilles, Vill Goir, Okko and Umak Leth
- Joe Hacker – as Han Solo, Boba Fett, Empatojayos Brand and Lo Khan
- Ann Patricio – as Princess Leia and Mon Mothma
- Emperor Palpatineand Governor Beltane
- Jim Ward – as C-3PO, Kam Solusar and Executor Sedriss
- Jem Ysanna
- Andy Cowan – as Admiral Ackbar, Zevulon Veers and Baddon Fass
- Billy Dee Williams – as Lando Calrissian
Later in 1995, a Dark Empire: Collector's Edition CD set was released that collected the two Dark Empire audio dramas as well as an exclusive adaptation of Empire's End.
Impact
Along with Timothy Zahn's books, Dark Empire has been credited with sustaining the profitability of Star Wars during the 1990s.[12] By the end of the decade, it had sold over 100,000 copies.[13]
Dark Empire has appeared on a number of lists of best
The later Dark Horse comic Crimson Empire trilogy takes place after and references events from the Dark Empire trilogy.
Following its 2012 acquisition by
Following the release of the final sequel trilogy film,
Although first glimpsed prior to Dark Empire in
References
Footnotes
- Byss, Luke Skywalker read all three completed volumes of the hundreds the Emperor had planned. These are titled The Book of Anger, The Weakness of Inferiors, and The Creation of Monsters.[10]
Citations
- ISBN 0-87431-194-2
- ISBN 0-7869-1849-7
- ^ Cronin, Brian (November 29, 2007). "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #131". Comic Book Resources. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015.
- ^ Bacon, Thomas (November 1, 2022). "Palpatine's Star Wars Resurrection Was George Lucas' Idea". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
- ^ Star Wars Insider 157. Titan Magazines. April 21, 2015.
- ^ Star Wars Insider 158. Titan Magazines. June 9, 2015.
- ^ Star Wars Insider 159. Titan Magazines. July 21, 2015.
- ^ "Lucy Autrey Wilson: Director of the Expanded Universe and First Employee of Lucasfilm". March 30, 2022. Archived from the original on August 12, 2022.
- ^ Trent, John F. (November 4, 2022). "Former Lucasfilm Director Of Publishing Lucy Autrey Wilson Reveals George Lucas Informed Her 'The Emperor Would Never Have Been Cloned'". Bounding Into Comics. Retrieved February 7, 2023.
- ^ a b Slavicsek 1994, p. 115.
- ^ Windham, Ryder; Wallace, Daniel (2006). Allie, Scott; Simpson, Robert (eds.). Star Wars: The Comics Companion. Dark Horse Comics.
- ^ Greene, Jamie (February 26, 2018). "How Dark Empire kickstarted Star Wars comics for a new generation". StarWars.com. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
- ^ "The Dark Empire Saga". StarWars.com. April 5, 2000. Archived from the original on April 8, 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
- ^ "Luke Skywalker (The Power Of The Force)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ "Princess Leia Organa (The Power Of The Force)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ "Palpatine (The Power Of The Force)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ "Imperial Sentinel (The Power Of The Force)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ "Luke Skywalker (Dark Empire II)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ "Palpatine (Dark Empire II)". Jedi Business. Retrieved March 3, 2020.
- ^ Andersen, Andy (May 5, 2017). "Star Wars: 15 best stories that are no longer canon". ScreenRant. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ Martin, Tim (December 18, 2015). "Luke goes Dark: The 10 best Star Wars Expanded Universe stories". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ Ring, Robert (September 16, 2010). "Star Wars: Dark Empire Trilogy". The Sci-Fi Block. Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ Britt, Ryan (April 4, 2013). "Star Wars: Dark Empire is all about addiction". Tor. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
- ^ "The Legendary Star Wars Expanded Universe Turns a New Page". StarWars.com. April 25, 2014. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
- ^ Nero, Dom (September 5, 2019). "Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker Palpatine twist might be spoiled in the Dark Empire comics". Esquire. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
- ^ Gonzales, Dave (December 19, 2019). "Answering the biggest questions about Palpatine's return to Star Wars". Polygon. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
- ^ Britt, Ryan (December 20, 2019). "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker easter eggs & references". Vulture. Retrieved January 26, 2020.
- ^ Bacon, Thomas (February 29, 2020). "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Book Confirms Palpatine Was A Clone!". ScreenRant. Retrieved February 29, 2020.
- ^ Miller, David (January 24, 2023). "All 5 Ways Emperor Palpatine Has Died In Star Wars Canon & Legends". ScreenRant. Retrieved February 6, 2023.
- ^ "Fett, Boba". Star Wars Databank. Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on November 26, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2022.
Sources
- ISBN 9780345386250.
External links
- Star Wars: Dark Empire on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
- Dark Empire I at the Grand Comics Database
- Dark Empire I at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Dark Empire II at the Grand Comics Database
- Dark Empire II at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Empire's End at the Grand Comics Database
- Empire's End at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)