Star Wars: Dark Empire

Veitch, Tom. Star Wars: Dark Empire Dark Horse Comics, 2010.

1. Six Years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the galaxy is in a state of turmoil. The fragments of the Empire have fallen into war with each other; while the Alliance formed New Republic is attempting to gain control during the chaos. During one of these chaos missions, Commander Luke Skywalker and General Lando Calrissian crash their ship onto the imperial home world of Coruscant. This action causes duo to need rescuing – enter Han, Leia, Chewbacca, and C3-P0. The crew on board the millennium falcon comes down to the surface to save Luke and Lando. They arrive in middle of a battle and have to fight their way to the New Republic soldiers. When they get there and find Lando however, Luke is not there. Suddenly three imperial walkers close in on them. They are trapped. Out of the shadows steps Luke Skywalker who cuts down the walkers and saves the day. There is no time for reunion though as Luke tells Leia he has to go because he feels a darkness coming for him. There appears a great light and Luke and R2-D2 are taken away. From there, the story diverges into Leia attempting to figure out what has happened to Luke and Luke discovering that the Emperor is still alive albeit as a clone of himself. As Leia grows in her force powers, Luke turns to the dark side in an attempt to better understand how to beat the Emperor. Feeling a disturbance, Leia and Han rush to find Luke and turn him from the dark side. The book ends in a climactic duel between the Emperor, Luke, and Leia finishing with the Emperor’s ship destroyed with him appearing to have been finally killed in the explosion.

2. The Dark Empire is the first graphic novel of a trilogy, which is now categorized as part of the Star Wars Legends set of stories. I decided to re-read the first book because one I really love Star Wars and two the newest movie is coming out relatively soon. I wanted to go back to a time of pre-Disney Star Wars where the Extended Universe actually answered some of the burning questions a generation had about their favorite galactic heroes. While I enjoyed the nostalgia, this book is bad. The writing and dialogue are borderline atrocious and it really takes the reader out of the narrative. For example this line from Han after Leia says she senses something is wrong with Luke, “they told me marriage to a Jedi wasn’t going to be easy…they were right”, is just bad dialogue. And it was actual dialogue and not a thought bubble. The one redeeming quality of this book is the artwork. Illustrator Cam Kennedy does a remarkable job of showing the reader emotions of the characters, dynamic movement, and the full breadth of the force. The writing forces you, in a bad way, to read the pictures. When you do read the images, you are left with this awesome story of Luke turning evil for the greater good.

3. This novel speaks to a very particular student, one who is knowledgeable and interested in the Star Wars sage and interested in graphic novels. There is not a lot of room for broad appeal. However, this book can operate as a tool when teaching students about reading images. As teachers, we could look at the framing of images or the colors or how the images are moving in a unique way because the writing leaves the reader wanting; they are forced to compliment each other. All the criticism aside for moment though, these books that relate directly to films are useful because it can spark a desire for reading. It is flawed yes, but it could very easily be the hook that draws students. Plus at over 300 pages in length, it is no small feat for an adolescent to complete the trilogy. Out of the books I could have read my freshman year of high school, I chose this one and then went on to read better books. If this graphic novel can be that for a student, then I believe it has value.