Remember this series? It came out roughly the same time as the Thrawn Trilogy, and was initially to stand on it's own, but the story was modified somewhat when Heir to The Empire became a huge success. It's not a somewhat dated story, as it sort of renders several of the victories in ROTJ kind of moot, as Luke breaks his "Never turn to the dark side" vow, and it turns out Vader didn't really kill Palpatine after all, his spirit survived and went into a clone body (Later, he even gets another clone body, which uses a lightsaber-the first time we see Palpatine do so in any licensed SW media). Also, Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc pit.
Dark Empire was followed by two sequels-one a miniseries the same length of the original but lacking the Dark Luke twist (but still featuring Palpatine and Fett) and then a very rushed epilogue called "Empire's End". The "Crimson Empire" series also sort of tied into DE, but was pretty much it's own series (It dealt with the Royal Guard in the wake of Palpatine's "final death").
Apart from the Boba Fett development and a few mentions here and there, DE is mainly ignored by other authors. Zahn sort of semi-retconned the Emperor's clone, suggesting it was in fact a sith imposter who simply used Palpatine's DNA and was not Palpatine himself. The biggest legacy of DE I think was Nar Shadda, the Hutt moon, which is kind of like a rotten version of Coruscant. Also, some of the characters encounter on Nar Shadaa would appear in A.C Crispin's Han Solo trilogy.
There are a few curious things about the series-one, that Palpatine uses his clones to extend his mortality, sort of cheating death-similar to what he claimed Plagueis's powers were in ROTS. Also in Dark Empire II, there's a curious mention that Boba Fett was an Imperial stormtrooper once. Given what we now know about Fett's background and his relationship to the Clones, it's a very curious note.
The art by Cam Kennedy was-and still is-very different from a lot of Star Wars stuff. It's kind of Frank Milleresque in some respects, and the color pallete is mostly in greens and blues, lending a darker feel to the story. It certainly stands out from both the Marvel series and Dark Horse's other Star Wars comics, which tend to use more realistic faces and colors (Although Dark Empire did have Dave Dorman as a cover artist, who did posteresque artwork for the covers).
Any thoughts on this series?
Dark Empire was followed by two sequels-one a miniseries the same length of the original but lacking the Dark Luke twist (but still featuring Palpatine and Fett) and then a very rushed epilogue called "Empire's End". The "Crimson Empire" series also sort of tied into DE, but was pretty much it's own series (It dealt with the Royal Guard in the wake of Palpatine's "final death").
Apart from the Boba Fett development and a few mentions here and there, DE is mainly ignored by other authors. Zahn sort of semi-retconned the Emperor's clone, suggesting it was in fact a sith imposter who simply used Palpatine's DNA and was not Palpatine himself. The biggest legacy of DE I think was Nar Shadda, the Hutt moon, which is kind of like a rotten version of Coruscant. Also, some of the characters encounter on Nar Shadaa would appear in A.C Crispin's Han Solo trilogy.
There are a few curious things about the series-one, that Palpatine uses his clones to extend his mortality, sort of cheating death-similar to what he claimed Plagueis's powers were in ROTS. Also in Dark Empire II, there's a curious mention that Boba Fett was an Imperial stormtrooper once. Given what we now know about Fett's background and his relationship to the Clones, it's a very curious note.
The art by Cam Kennedy was-and still is-very different from a lot of Star Wars stuff. It's kind of Frank Milleresque in some respects, and the color pallete is mostly in greens and blues, lending a darker feel to the story. It certainly stands out from both the Marvel series and Dark Horse's other Star Wars comics, which tend to use more realistic faces and colors (Although Dark Empire did have Dave Dorman as a cover artist, who did posteresque artwork for the covers).
Any thoughts on this series?
