Book Review: 'Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire - Omnibus Edition'
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| (C) 2010 Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Pros: Three hard-to-find Star Wars comics series
by Dark Horse; great writing; nice art
Cons: Shadows of the Empire has been edited
somewhat.
In 1996, one year before the 20th Anniversary of Star
Wars' theatrical premiere and almost three years prior to the release of Episode
I: The Phantom Menace, Lucasfilm Limited commissioned a huge multimedia
project titled Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire.
With Steve Perry's hardcover novel of the same title at its core, Shadows of the Empire was Lucasfilm's "everything-but-the-movie" bid to tell the untold story of what happened between 1980's Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
In Shadows of the Empire, Luke Skywalker is still reeling from the duel with Darth Vader on Bespin, where he lost his right hand to the Dark Lord's lightsaber and was told that his mentors Ben Kenobi and Yoda have kept the truth about Luke's father from the young Jedi-in-training.
Princess Leia Organa, in the meantime, is coping with her own feelings of revelation and loss; after telling Han Solo that she does, indeed love him, she watched him being frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who is on retainer to both Vader and the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.
As the Rebels evade the dreaded Imperial starfleet, Luke and his friends begin to formulate a plan to rescue Han from Boba Fett.
But in the heart of the Empire itself, a new and dangerous enemy has surfaced: Prince Xizor, Underlord of the criminal organization known as Black Sun. Wealthy, physically powerful and incredibly cunning, Xizor is competing with Darth Vader for Emperor Palpatine's favor.
The competition between the Underlord and the Dark Lord of the Sith is not merely about political power or prestige; for Xizor it's a quest to disgrace Vader in the eyes of his Master, Palpatine. Soon, Xizor's sights turn on Vader's one vulnerability: the existence of the young Rebel hero called Luke Skywalker!
In addition to Perry's novel, Hasbro's Kenner division produced action figures, Nintendo released a Shadows of the Empire video game and composer Joel McNeely composed an original soundtrack album.
Of course, Dark Horse Comics, which had supplanted Marvel Comics in the 1990s as the official licensee for Star Wars graphic novels and comic books, got into the action with its six-issue adaptation of the best-selling novel.
Although comics writer John Wagner depicts a great deal of Perry's novel in his six-issue series, he devotes a huge chunk of his narrative to two plot branches not in the original book.
The biggest divergence from Perry's novel is a subplot involving Boba Fett's odyssey to deliver Han to Jabba on Tatooine, which is made difficult not just by Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and Rogue Squadron's attempts to pursue, but by Fett's fellow bounty hunters who want a piece of Jabba's reward for the frozen Corellian smuggler-turned-Rebel hero.
Another new subplot involves Jix, a skilled if rather insolent undercover operative who works for Darth Vader. His mission: to infiltrate Jabba's swoop gang and wait for Skywalker to arrive on Tatooine to rescue Han...and to make sure he is alive in order for Vader to capture him.
All of Perry's major characters - Xizor, his human-replica droid Guri and the Han Solo-like Dash Rendar - and situations are still in the Dark Horse single issues, trade paperback and omnibus edition, with small alterations to fit the needs of each format.
The 2010 Shadows of the Empire Omnibus edition not only includes Shadows of the Empire: Evolution, a Steve Perry-penned sequel set shortly after Return of the Jedi, but also a Timothy Zahn/Michael A. Stackpole story titled Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand.
Shadows of the Empire: Evolutions is set a year after the events of The Empire Strikes Back and shortly after Return of the Jedi and focuses on Guri, the late Prince Xizor's human-replica droid and her Pinocchio-like quest to shed herself of her assassin's programming and ties to Black Sun.
Problem is, though, that the remnants of that organization want Guri back because she has all of Xizor's secrets, and whoever can access them can rule the seamy underworld of the galaxy.
In between the two Shadows of the Empire stories, Dark Horse has placed Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole's Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, a story that follows Mara Jade on her last assignment by her Master, a quest she is determined to complete even after the Emperor dies at the Battle of Endor.
In this story, Zahn and Stackpole blend characters and situations mentioned in passing in their Expanded Universe novels, including Mara's training by Palpatine (established in Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy) and Ysanne Isard, the ruthless head of Imperial Intelligence who plays a major role in Stackpole's X-Wing series.
My Take: Since I have not read the original versions of Shadows of the Empire: Evolution or Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, I don't know what alterations were made to fit them into the 408 pages of the Star Wars Omnibus edition.
However, I do own the trade paperback edition of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and I did notice that Dark Horse Comics condensed it somewhat. The movie-like "title crawl" that opens the comic book series is gone, and some crucial sequences have been shortened considerably.
For first-time readers who have never read any of the novels, comics or trade paperback collections, this won't be a deal-breaker. I only noticed this bit of editorial tinkering on my second read-through (perhaps because I was so enthused by the other two stories in the Omnibus) and it doesn't bug me too much, at least not enough to give the book a lower rating. It is, though, worth mentioning for purists or readers who might want to look for more complete versions of the Shadows of the Empire comics.
For me, the big draw is being able to read Shadows of the Empire and Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand; I like the writing by Perry, Zahn and Stackpole, and the artwork in all three stories is extremely nicely done, too.
With Steve Perry's hardcover novel of the same title at its core, Shadows of the Empire was Lucasfilm's "everything-but-the-movie" bid to tell the untold story of what happened between 1980's Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
In Shadows of the Empire, Luke Skywalker is still reeling from the duel with Darth Vader on Bespin, where he lost his right hand to the Dark Lord's lightsaber and was told that his mentors Ben Kenobi and Yoda have kept the truth about Luke's father from the young Jedi-in-training.
Princess Leia Organa, in the meantime, is coping with her own feelings of revelation and loss; after telling Han Solo that she does, indeed love him, she watched him being frozen in carbonite and handed over to the bounty hunter Boba Fett, who is on retainer to both Vader and the vile gangster Jabba the Hutt.
As the Rebels evade the dreaded Imperial starfleet, Luke and his friends begin to formulate a plan to rescue Han from Boba Fett.
But in the heart of the Empire itself, a new and dangerous enemy has surfaced: Prince Xizor, Underlord of the criminal organization known as Black Sun. Wealthy, physically powerful and incredibly cunning, Xizor is competing with Darth Vader for Emperor Palpatine's favor.
The competition between the Underlord and the Dark Lord of the Sith is not merely about political power or prestige; for Xizor it's a quest to disgrace Vader in the eyes of his Master, Palpatine. Soon, Xizor's sights turn on Vader's one vulnerability: the existence of the young Rebel hero called Luke Skywalker!
In addition to Perry's novel, Hasbro's Kenner division produced action figures, Nintendo released a Shadows of the Empire video game and composer Joel McNeely composed an original soundtrack album.
Of course, Dark Horse Comics, which had supplanted Marvel Comics in the 1990s as the official licensee for Star Wars graphic novels and comic books, got into the action with its six-issue adaptation of the best-selling novel.
Although comics writer John Wagner depicts a great deal of Perry's novel in his six-issue series, he devotes a huge chunk of his narrative to two plot branches not in the original book.
The biggest divergence from Perry's novel is a subplot involving Boba Fett's odyssey to deliver Han to Jabba on Tatooine, which is made difficult not just by Luke, Leia, Chewbacca and Rogue Squadron's attempts to pursue, but by Fett's fellow bounty hunters who want a piece of Jabba's reward for the frozen Corellian smuggler-turned-Rebel hero.
Another new subplot involves Jix, a skilled if rather insolent undercover operative who works for Darth Vader. His mission: to infiltrate Jabba's swoop gang and wait for Skywalker to arrive on Tatooine to rescue Han...and to make sure he is alive in order for Vader to capture him.
All of Perry's major characters - Xizor, his human-replica droid Guri and the Han Solo-like Dash Rendar - and situations are still in the Dark Horse single issues, trade paperback and omnibus edition, with small alterations to fit the needs of each format.
The 2010 Shadows of the Empire Omnibus edition not only includes Shadows of the Empire: Evolution, a Steve Perry-penned sequel set shortly after Return of the Jedi, but also a Timothy Zahn/Michael A. Stackpole story titled Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand.
Shadows of the Empire: Evolutions is set a year after the events of The Empire Strikes Back and shortly after Return of the Jedi and focuses on Guri, the late Prince Xizor's human-replica droid and her Pinocchio-like quest to shed herself of her assassin's programming and ties to Black Sun.
Problem is, though, that the remnants of that organization want Guri back because she has all of Xizor's secrets, and whoever can access them can rule the seamy underworld of the galaxy.
In between the two Shadows of the Empire stories, Dark Horse has placed Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole's Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, a story that follows Mara Jade on her last assignment by her Master, a quest she is determined to complete even after the Emperor dies at the Battle of Endor.
In this story, Zahn and Stackpole blend characters and situations mentioned in passing in their Expanded Universe novels, including Mara's training by Palpatine (established in Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy) and Ysanne Isard, the ruthless head of Imperial Intelligence who plays a major role in Stackpole's X-Wing series.
My Take: Since I have not read the original versions of Shadows of the Empire: Evolution or Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, I don't know what alterations were made to fit them into the 408 pages of the Star Wars Omnibus edition.
However, I do own the trade paperback edition of Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and I did notice that Dark Horse Comics condensed it somewhat. The movie-like "title crawl" that opens the comic book series is gone, and some crucial sequences have been shortened considerably.
For first-time readers who have never read any of the novels, comics or trade paperback collections, this won't be a deal-breaker. I only noticed this bit of editorial tinkering on my second read-through (perhaps because I was so enthused by the other two stories in the Omnibus) and it doesn't bug me too much, at least not enough to give the book a lower rating. It is, though, worth mentioning for purists or readers who might want to look for more complete versions of the Shadows of the Empire comics.
For me, the big draw is being able to read Shadows of the Empire and Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand; I like the writing by Perry, Zahn and Stackpole, and the artwork in all three stories is extremely nicely done, too.
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