Star Wars: Dark Empire II

Title:
Star Wars: Dark Empire II

ISBN:
9781593075262

Price:
$19.95

Publisher/Year:
Dark
Horse, 2006

Artist: Cam Kennedy

Writer:
Tom Veitch

Collects:
Star Wars: Dark Empire II #1-6, Star Wars: Empire’s End #1-2

Rating:
1/5

I
loved the Star Wars movies, for all their faults (particularly in episodes
1-3). Still, I have studiously avoided the various novel and graphic excursions
into the post-film era, so I've remained ignorant of the changes that have been
wrought in the lives of Luke, Leia, Han and all the rest.

Dark
Empire II obviously follows hard on the heels of Dark Empire I, but for some
reason Dark Horse sent me only the second book in the series. So much is
confusing for a neophyte like myself that the book is fairly incomprehensible
-- but let's assume that most of the people reading this book had previously
devoured every iota of text printed in the Star Wars line.

OK,
so Emperor Palpatine is back from the dead, his spirit inhabiting a youthful
clone of his dead body -- for a second time, apparently, since Luke seems to
have killed the emperor already in the previous book. Let's accept that the
emperor has the power to imbue countless people and creatures with his
"dark force," giving them Jedi-like abilities without lessening his
own strength at all. And let's pick up the flow as Luke seeks out the few
surviving and potential Jedi’s in an attempt to restore the Old Republic. Oh,
and Boba Fett, the bounty hunter killed badly in Return of the Jedi, has been
resurrected, too, and he's still chasing Han Solo for the late Jabba's reward.

Accepting
the storyline as is, I still had a few problems with this book. First, the art
is terrible. Luke, Han and Leia never look like Luke, Han and Leia. Implied
motion is static. Postures are awkward. And the color palette seems to have
been limited to the extent that numerous pages are almost monochromatic; with
the exception of a few details, everything is greenish on one page, orangeish
on another, and so on.

Second,
the dialogue sounds clumsy and forced. George Lucas could write better dialogue
than this, and if you saw Attack of the Clones, you know that's saying
something.

And,
third, the action zips by so quickly that you might start wondering why they
even bothered. There's not much drama or suspense when a conflict takes only a
page or two to resolve.

In
scouting around, I've seen much better Star Wars comics on the shelves. While
Dark Empire II might make more sense after reading Dark Empire I, I'd still
call this one a book worth skipping.