I re-read these comics a little while ago and feel like offering some commentary on them.

The Premise

Some people hate it, but I think Palpatine returning from the dead and turning Luke to the dark side was a great idea.

Palpatine gets some needed love. He's barely present in the OT. Vader is the real villain. That isn't a criticism of the OT--it works excellently to only introduce Palp as a direct threat in the last movie. It also meant that a story with Palpatine as the main villain would explore new ground, rather than rehash a story that's already been told. This is Palpatine's moment to take center stage. I think a story about the ultimate master of the dark side who created Vader is worth exploring.

Luke going dark is a great story. Dark Empire puts a twist on the stock EU narrative of "bad guy shows up with an army/superweapon, the heroes stop him, the end". Luke falling to the dark side and getting redeemed by Leia is an excellent secondary conflict that can't be solved with lightsabers. It also shows us what a threat Palpatine is--he makes Luke go dark! It's consistent with his character as a master manipulator and arch-corruptor, too. If Palpatine doesn't corrupt and manipulate someone, he isn't really being Palpatine.

Luke going dark honors the OT. We take it for granted that Luke is a goody two-shoes, because we've watched the "I am a Jedi, like my father before me" line a million times... but ESB and RotJ both depict Luke going dark as a very, very real possibility. Dark Empire follows through on that plot thread and retroactively lends it greater weight. It makes the OT better by validating that Evil Luke was something that could have happened.

It doesn't invalidate Vader's sacrifice. This is one of Dark Empire's major criticisms. I don't agree. First, Vader's sacrifice saved himself. He was redeemed and died a Jedi, at one with the light side. Second, Vader saved Luke from death at the Emperor's hands. It's really that simple--Palpatine was going to kill Luke for refusing to kill his father, but there's no father to kill when Luke and Palpy next meet. Leia can arguably only redeem Luke because he's not that deep into the dark side. He hasn't murdered a loved one. Vader's sacrifice spared him from the no-win choice of death or cold-blooded murder. Also, Vader's assassination of the Emperor changed the political face of the galaxy. It was a militarily devastating blow to the Empire, allowed the Rebellion to become the New Republic, and bought Luke time to grow in power and wisdom until he was ready to face Palpatine on his own.

Execution: The Bad

Dark Empire had good ideas, but didn't always execute them well.

The dialogue is pretty corny. Some of that is a symptom of this being a '90s comic book, but it is what it is, and not for the better. Luke's fall and redemption feel too abrupt. His dialogue does not successfully sell these shifts in his character, and there isn't a great actor like Harrison Ford to try and sell the dialogue.

The Galaxy Gun is dorky. Sorry, it's just not as cool as the Death Star, and no superweapon ever will be. KotOR's Star Forge came closest because it posed a fundamentally different type of threat. An infinite fleet vs. a planet-exploder. The Galaxy Gun tries to be a bigger, badder Death Star--look, it can destroy planets anywhere in the galaxy!--but it lacks the menace and gravitas of the Death Star. Even the name is lamer.

I don't think the Galaxy Gun was necessary from a plot standpoint. Just give the Eclipse a lower-powered superlaser that can destroy most life on a planet's surface. This still lets it pose an existential threat to Pinnacle Base and still lets the series end with the Eclipse completely destroying the Imperial presence on Byss (just without the planet exploding). A lower-powered superlaser on a smaller spacecraft would also nicely highlight how the Empire doesn't command the same material resources it used to. Years of external and civil war mean they can't just build another Death Star. That lends a greater sense of consequence to the events of the OT, while still establishing that Palpatine can marshal greater material assets than Thrawn--and also that Palpatine's MO has shifted away from "technological terrors" to novel applications of the Force.

The Eclipse also could've been executed better. Visually, it's a really cool ship. But when Palpatine loses the Eclipse in Dark Empire I, he shouldn't just get an Eclipse II. Make the new ship inferior to its predecessor in some way. Or just have the Eclipse I be a normal star destroyer--we don't need a superweapon in Dark Empire I. Palpatine having two identical super-ships feels cheap and makes the first one's destruction feel pointless. Even replacing a normal star destroyer with the Eclipse would feel like the heroes' actions had consequences, by prompting a furious Palpatine to answer their threat with bigger weapons.

Actually, better yet, have the World Devastators produce the Eclipse. Show it getting constructed in Dark Empire I and finished in Dark Empire II. That would give the Devastators a bigger role in the story.

The Dark Side Elite are losers. They go down pathetically easy against the good guys and there's no sense of accomplishment in their defeats. Sedriss feels like a credible threat when he's introduced, but goes down like a punk when he faces Luke. Yes, he should lose their duel, but at least make it more of a struggle. I liked giving Palpatine numerous Force-sensitive minions, which showcases how he wants to rule the galaxy through a dark side magocracy (and is arguably abandoning the Rule of Two), but the execution was bad.

Luke deserved a better romance. The killed-off Ossus girl was completely forgettable. Mara Jade should have been in the comic, not her. Plus, Mara fighting clone Palpatine would have been really interesting! How does she reconcile this with her previous loyalty to Palpy? Don't give me "I don't think they were really him." If she'd seen them in the flesh, I don't think she'd have had any doubts they were Palpatine reborn. I recall there was some kind of dispute between Zahn and Dark Empire's authors that prevented them from working together, and that was so much the worse for DE.

Empire's End feels very condensed. Which it was, due to issues behind the scenes. Palpatine going down to Onderon by himself feels kooky--at least take your Royal Guards, man. You know, the fanatically devoted and incredibly skilled "best of the best" soldiers in Crimson Empire who swore loyalty unto death (and delivered on it). The comic ending with "Long live the New Republic!" as Byss blows up feels like the writers were trying to cram an ending into a limited page count. It's better than nothing, but it falls woefully short of the great endings we got in the OT. The comic doesn't have a proper denouement where the characters get to reflect on their triumphs and tribulations. I'd have liked to see the New Republic recapturing Coruscant, Luke laying plans to establish his praxeum on Yavin IV, and everyone having a grand victory celebration over the Emperor's final defeat.

Execution: The Good

There were still ideas it pulled off well, though.

I like the artwork. This is also "love it or hate it" territory, I think. The art is very, very '90s. If you can appreciate that for what it is, it's great. I think it's fitting for the story it tells. This is a series about Palpatine really taking the gloves off, imposing his vision of a dark side magocracy on the galaxy, and Luke going evil. It's a dark story. The artwork is appropriately dark and gloomy. It would be terrible art for a comic adaptation of, say, Junior Jedi Knights, or even A New Hope. For Dark Empire, it works great. I mean, it's there in the name--Dark Empire.

The plot structure is good. If you look past the cheesy lines, Luke's fall and redemption is a believable narrative consistent with his and Palpatine's characters as displayed in the movies. The fan novelization Test of Wills does an excellent job turning Palpatine's clash with Leia in Dark Empire I from something goofy into something really dark and manipulative that feels worthy of a Sith Lord. What's really notable is that all the author changes is dialogue--he still has Leia and Palpatine take the same actions in the same scenes.

Luke building a new Jedi Order was a great idea. He doesn't do this in the Thrawn Trilogy, just trains Leia. Dark Empire is where Luke recruits his first pupils outside of his sister. This is a story worth telling! My only criticism is that all of them die except for Vima (who isn't really a pupil) and Kam Solusar. Character deaths give us stakes and consequences and should happen, but Dark Empire would've been a good story in which to introduce Jedi who become future pillars of Luke's new order. I'd have nerdgasmed to see Kyle Katarn among Luke's students in Dark Empire. Yes, I know the character didn't exist yet. I can fantasize. He'd already defeated Jerec in-universe! Seeking out Luke for further training makes total sense for him.

Palpatine gets a great death. Han shooting him dead and failing to prevent his spirit from possessing Anakin really highlights that violence isn't how you defeat the dark side. As in RotJ, it takes a Jedi sacrificing themselves to defeat Palpatine for good. The only thing that can conquer his evil is an act of selfless heroism. Not being the bigger badass, not being the better warrior--as Yoda says, "Wars not make one great." Great ending for the character. (God knows it's better than blasting his lightning back on him with two lightsabers.) He also gets some great last words screaming a curse upon all Skywalkers. You can feel how much he wishes he'd just killed them all.

Dark Empire has a great atmosphere. Lucas praised DE and said it was the closest thing he'd conceived of to a sequel trilogy. The panel with Dream-Luke screaming under Vader's mask feels like something right out of the OT. The cover of Leia cowering before a zombie-eyed evil Luke is great. Palpatine's "The great Darth Vader was a sick man in an iron mask!" line is great. Getting to see Palpatine in a bunch of younger bodies is fun. Seeing them age until he's the decrepit old man we recognize from the OT is cool. There's a lot of cool moments like those. No one uses the word "Sith" anywhere because the comic predates the PT, and... I actually liked that. The atmosphere feels more like the OT's. The Force feels more mysterious and less defined.

Exection: The... Neither?

Starting in media res with Coruscant captured by the Empire works and doesn't work. On the one hand, after an initial scene to re-introduce Luke/Leia/Han and establish how much Luke has grown in power, the series takes us straight to Palpatine. I appreciate how we don't waste any time there--Palpatine stayed in the shadows for two movies and there's no need to hold back here. All the same, going from "the New Republic defeated Thrawn" to "the Empire controls Coruscant" feels really abrupt. Maybe the imperial re-conquest could've been its own comic marketed as a prologue to Dark Empire.

In Conclusion

All things told, I would give Dark Empire a B-. Maybe a B if I'm being generous. It's got a great premise, a solid plot, and good art and atmosphere. The main things that drag it down are bad dialogue, forgettable side characters (some are memorable, but many aren't), a dumb gimmick with the Galaxy Gun, and Empire's End being too condensed. There's great potential here and it wouldn't take that much fixing to turn the existing product into something great.

I would be indescribably happy if the Thrawn Trilogy and a Dark Empire with these changes and had been made into movies. They would have been sequel trilogies that told worthwhile stories.