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By Tom Veitch, Cam Kennedy & Jim Baikie (Dark Horse Books)
ISBN 1-84576-368-8
Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy returned in a blaze of glory after the success of Dark Empire with this superb continuation of the further battles of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and all those other movie favourites.
The ghost of Emperor Palpatine, deprived of the clone bodies he was incubating, is intent on possessing the unborn child in Leia’s belly. His Dark Side lieutenants struggle to become his successor. The Empire’s last infrastructure remnants are producing more diabolical planet killing weapons to terrorise and subdue the battered, war-weary galaxy. And Luke Skywalker has flown off on a wild goose chase in pursuit of lost Jedi survivors. How can the good guys possibly win this time?
With extreme verve, style and panache, apparently, as this big budget blockbuster fairly rockets along full of tension and invention, with action aplenty and spectacular set pieces for the fans – although it might be a tad bewildering if your Star Wars IQ is limited.
This latest, second, edition also includes the final story-arc of the sequence, Empire’s End, with Jim Baikie replacing Kennedy as artist for a much shorter adventure that wraps up all the plot-threads in a fittingly spectacular if somewhat rushed fashion. Unchallenging fun, beautiful pictures, but perhaps best consumed in conjunction with its predecessor. I’m sure a complete compilation of all three tales can’t be that far, far away.
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