[.ca] Star Wars: Dark Empire 3rd Edition (ISBN 159307039X)

From Amazon.com:
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

This story was a waste of potential:
Great ideas. But the final product is a true waste of potential. The idea of Luke going to the Dark side was well done and very believable considering it is his fate anyway. But this book has MANY flaws in the story. Too many for me to even list.

This one satisfies your curiosity:
OK, your reading the novels and you wonder why Wedge is driving a large recycler in the opening of a book. Then you read references to the Clone Emperor or resurrected emperor and that Luke once went to the dark side and came back. Dark Empire is where those things happen. It is a pretty good story with above average art work. Some of the art is stunning! It was this comic that got me interested in the art of DAVE DORMAN. DAVE IS AMAZING! Palpatine gets cloned and has a new super weapon. Luke goes to the dark side to stop the Emperor. Coruscant gets blasted (or is it corresaunt now). Leia, undertrained as she is goes to rescue her brother. The two are never more powerful again. After surviving and defeating the resurrected emperor, Leia and luke go back to their old selves in future novels ie: Leia is only barely competitent, and Luke is distracted almost to the point of incompetitence at times (one of my big grips in some books). This is the first of 3 comics on this thread. You can skip the other two, but this one is worthwhile. For an additional treat, do a search of "dave dorman art" and check out where-ever he is. You'll like what you find.

Simply put: some will love it, and some will hate it.:
I first heard of this series over the Internet and what I heard wasn't very conclusive. Some people apparently loved Dark Empire while others called for a lynching of the authors who had deared to create this apparent monstrosity. All in all, I thought the storyline sounded pretty cool, and all the arguing had made me quite curious about the whole thing. So therefore, one day, I decided to just buy it and see for myself. All in all, I really don't know what to think about it. The art is okay, but you have to like this sort of work. To me it seemed a bit strange at first, but eventually I came to somewhat like the style. But again, not everyone will. My brother once referred to it as "kinda arty", I can only agree on that. Especially the colouring seems strange with only one or two colours dominating each panel. It does have a lot of atmosphere, though. As for the story, well, that's just outright BAD. It seems almost as if the people who were supposed to write it wanted to get home early and decided to download some fanfiction from the Web and call it the script. The Emperor returns in this novel, and with that, he renders most of the last film's finale pretty pointless. With the help of some unrealistic Force powers and the "miracle of cloning", Palpatine apparently survived the second Death Star's destruction, and has now returned to rally what's left of his Empire and turn it against the New Republic. Kind of makes you wonder were he was during Timothy Zahn's Thrawn series, the bulk of the X-wing novels, and the several other novels that take place between this comic and the last film. Of course we could live with all of that if most of the rest of the story wasn't so...\obad\c For example, the manditory Imperial superweapons used by the cloned Emperor are pretty silly (imagine a giant vacuum cleaner gone on a rampage), key events such as the Imperial retaking of the capital-planet Coruscant take place even before the story itself starts and are only mentioned in the opening text, and most of all, the dialoge is pretty overdramatic. Of course, Dark Empire also has its strong points. The space battles look pretty cool (again: if you happen to like the art) and there is plenty of action to go around, so if you're into that, this series just might be worth a try. To cut a long story short, not everyone will like this book, not by far. If you don't mind the rather silly story and happen to like comic book art that is somewhat different from what we usually see, Dark Empire has something to offer you. If you aren't so broad minded when it comes to comic art and prefer a more believable (and not so over-the-top dramaticly told) story, HANDS OFF, you'll probably hate it. In case of the latter, you'd better buy the "Heir of the Empire" series comic adaptations or one of the X-wing comics.

Lucas personally approved the Dark Empire plot:
For everybody's information (this is from published interviews with Veitch), when George Lucas asked Tom Veitch to write Star Wars: Dark Empire, Veitch said he thought the Empire would try to keep the fear of Darth Vader alive by putting somebody else inside the costume. Lucas told Veitch, "You can't use Vader, but you can bring back the Emperor if you can figure out how to do it." Veitch proposed that the Emperor had been cloning himself for some time, and Lucas said "great!" ...People need to understand that during the Star Wars revival of the early 1990s Lucas personally ok'd everything, including the plots of the comics. Veitch invented the two-bladed lightsaber (TPM) and the Jedi Holocron, among other things, and these were approved by Mr. Lucas. Cheers.

Just to clarify...:
Ok, first off, I really enjoyed this book. I've been searching for the Dark Empire series for awhile now and I can't believe I finally found it. Some people may not like this book, seeing as how I've already seen people saying that Anakin is the chosen one and it's stupid how after all he did Palpatine can just come back. Well, what you may not be aware of is that Luke is the chosen one, not Anakin. Luke is the one that destroyed the Daeth Star, redeemed his father from the Dark side, and reestablished the Jedi Order, and ultimately brought balance to the Force. Anyway, the book has a great plot, great description, and it's awesome to see how Luke develops/ I personally loved it. If you're Star Wars fan and you're looking for some new material, Dark Empire is worth it.