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3.41 AVERAGE


The story that the awful Disney trilogy should have done... oh wait, they did, but mangled it horribly. Luke's development as a Jedi is greatly explored here where he makes some significant realisations about the Force. It was also great seeing Leia's developing Jedi powers as well. Han also makes some critical developments regarding his ever-increasing involvement with the Force.
The story is well paced with a good feeling of impending doom making for some good tension, particularly when events delay the characters from thwarting that doom.
Unfortunately, this great story uses some dated story-telling techniques common to comics of the era, which can be forgiven. However, I cannot forgive the abysmal artwork which is pretty eye-searingly horrendous all the way through, from the badly rendered characters to the vomit-inducing colour pallet. If ever there was a Star Wars story that needed a modernising face-lift, Dark Empire is the one to have it, it's got a great story hidden behind a garbage visage.

It was a ok story. I am fine on how they portrayed luke but the story gets a little weird.

It’s a great installment of old Star Wars Expanded Universe and it was made to be an epic (with all its hits and misses included). Tom Veitch writing emulates the dialogues from the classical trilogy (episodes IV, V and VI) and the artwork by Cam Kannedy is amazing.

There are some minor loopholes here and there and some bad design choices for starships and vehicles. I must also mention Empatojayos Brand, one of the most bizarre character designs I’ve ever seen. The main villain is also poorly written, despite being a major villain in Star Wars universe. I can't understand why, if the great villain, who claims to predict the whole future, lets slip so many banal things.

The first two thirds of this trilogy are great, mostly because of Veitch/Kennedy collaboration. Kennedy’s artwork is really remarkable and stands off everything else.

Nonetheless, despite its flaws, it has a lot of accolades. The Dark Empire trilogy was responsible to revamp the Star Wars vibe in the 1990s’ altogether with Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy and it’s a big deal because it launched the old Expanded Universe (called Legends nowadays). It is a must read to every Star Wars fan.

This is a solid story. Luke and Leia dance with danger as they work to revive the Jedi and fight to stop Emperor Palpatine for good. Mean while, the rebel alliance must deal with the fact that the emperor is dead set on planet destroying weaponry. Seriously, J J Abrams should have consulted Veitch for planet destroying weapons, the two here are distinct from the Deathstar and very dangerous. Unfortunately, the writers don't put them to good use. A series of successful (as far as the narration is concerned) evacuations can take the impact out of death machines just as bad as Death Star 3: Made of a Planet.

This is my first time reading Expanded Universe/Legends comics. The main characters from the original worked well, but there wasn't enough time for me to get attached to a lot of the new characters. I liked Grand a lot, but of all the new characters, only others two feel like ones that I won't forget eventually, and one of them, it's because of his hair.

The story delves into Han's past, which is nice, as well as the consequences of killing a major crime boss from a major crime family. So many bounty hunters, but I still struggle to understand why Boba Fett is such a big deal with other fans.

I have more mixed feelings on the art. The coloring is gorgeous, and the artist does a good job capturing the look of characters from the movies, but the characters that I first saw in the comic never really wowed me. They only stood out with more eye grabbing design's (Grand's robotic body, Salla's distinct hair and poses--I never knew I needed a female smuggler--, mohawk kid's mohawk).
adventurous hopeful tense fast-paced

This was hilarious, peak campy Star Wars 

Umm, I'm not going to lie, it was just really fun.

I know this story gets a lot of flack and there is much to be desired but the concept is way too appealing not to be enjoyable to some extent. Luke coming over to the dark side to learn about his father and trick the Emperor is the best in-character way to get him there imo and it's just fun seeing him both struggling against and acquiescing to Palpatine. #feels

As I said in one of my status updates, this is no longer canon as Disney erased the Extended Universe canon when they took over the franchise. I'm not bothered - we comic book fans are used to canon being changed and alternate universes. I can still enjoy the story.

What's interesting is that this is a radio play based on a comic book. If I remember correctly, it's by the same people who did the NPR radio play of the original trilogy. The voice acting is a little wooden, but Billy Dee Williams stops in to do Lando and his acting is great.

The story is interesting, but seems a little rushed when taken out of the context of a comic book. The idea of Luke toying with the Dark Side, given his family history is interesting.

One thing I don't get about this storyline is that only Leia and Han's kids are potential Jedi. Yet, before Vader killed the Jedi, there were tons of Jedi. And no reason to think it was hereditary.

There are three things that are guaranteed in life -- death, taxes, and the existence of clones in the Star Wars universe.

I'm kind of surprised that this was the Heir to the Empire of the Star Wars comics; that is, it ushered in a new wave of Star Wars storytelling that went above and beyond just what Lucas had in mind. Aside from the main conceit of the first part of the collection (that is, Luke having to embrace the Dark Side in order to better understand his place in the Force), this whole thing is trash. The writing is overly dramatic (it's like reading a teleplay from the original Batman series), the artwork is either drab or hideous, and the plot is ... well, check out that third guarantee above. That's the go-to device for when a Star Wars story has to make a big reveal.

Look, I don't expect a Star Wars story to be high literature, but I do want it to be rational, interesting, and engaging. Dark Empire is none of those things.

Kind of read this by accident. When I started, the very concept was a little off-putting, there were multiple inexplicable resurrections that would seem to make the entire story from Return of the Jedi irrelevant. Then the latest movie came out and made the plot here seem a lot more reasonable.

I can't say it's good. I hated the artwork with it's lack of color variation, the awful character names (although they don't stand out in Star Wars), and the story itself (while not as bad as TRoS and the rest of that trilogy). I actually liked the last segment the best, it seemed like it was a quick, desperate attempt to wrap things up, but at least there was a discernible point to it.