Credits:
Written by Tom Veitch
Drawn by Jim Baikie
Lettering by Lois
Buhalis
Cover Art by Dave
Dorman
There’s a wonderful
moment in the movie CLERKS where a conversation hinges on the complete lack of
class-consciousness in STAR WARS. In RETURN OF THE JEDI, the clerk notes, the
Rebels destroy a Death Star space station under construction (albeit fully
operational, if the Emperor is to be believed). Never mind the Imperial
soldiers, who cast their lot when they put on the white shells and Nazi togs,
but what about all those construction workers? It doesn’t matter, because the
heroes are royalty, nobility, their descendants and their loved ones.
Personally, I’d go further and wonder at the huge loss of life of those
white-shelled Storm Troopers, who surely know as little about the dark side and
the Emperor as most of the American GIs knew about concentration camps in
California.
I only mention this because in the Dark Horse and Bantam STAR WARS comics and books, the Empire seems always to be building these truly gigantic weapons for Luke and Han et al to destroy, and never a peep of despair issues from our heroes when thousands of voices cry out at once and are suddenly silenced at THEIR hands. C’est le guerre.
In STAR WARS: EMPIRE’S END, the gigantic weapon is a “Galaxy Gun,” which is really big and dangerous, of course. Luckily that’s not even all that important, it’s just a plot necessity, something you’d feel to be missing if it weren’t there. The story takes place not long after DARK EMPIRE, when the Emperor revealed himself to be alive and kicking and moving from clone to clone. In EMPIRE’S END, Emperor Palpatine is in a spot because Luke Skywalker has managed to destroy every one of his clones, leaving him wasting away. So Palpatine sets his sights on a body he can grow into: the powerful Jedi flesh of Anakin Solo, the infant son of Han Solo and Leia Organa. (In the Star Wars Galaxy, even Princess Magistrates take their husbands’ names.) As the old Emperor makes life hard for the fledgling New Republic, Luke and Leia must fight to save the child, who is blessed (cursed?) with the dark-tinged blood of the Skywalkers.
I admire the decision of the ongoing STAR WARS stories to show the struggle of any new government born of rebellion. It’s realistic to see the Rebel Alliance still fighting its revolution years after what it thought to be the final battle. We get to see Han, Luke and Leia gracefully age as they build a new government, which is more exciting than it sounds, because they keep getting kidnapped. Luke, by the way, has taken to wearing a cape and black gauntlets and bodysuit, after the fashion of his father. It’s disturbing, but cool.
New characters designed for the comic series continue to crop up, and the Powers that Be have made sure they all fit well with the old. But the best treat is Han, who gets to demonstrate a tendency clumsily erased from the Special Edition of A NEW HOPE: he’s no Jedi, and he doesn’t mind shooting in anger.
And sometimes there’s an image that truly adds to the canon: here, the best such moment is Palpatine’s visit to the Planet of the Lords of the Sith, gigantic, Egyptian-looking mummies who dispense dark advice to the Emperor. There’s an empty seat among the mummies, and it belongs to Vader.