Book Review 'Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire' (Dark Horse Comics TPB)

Trade Paperback Edition cover art by Christopher Moeller. ©1997 Dark Horse Comics and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

In 1996, almost a year before the theatrical release of  The Star Wars Trilogy: Special Edition, Lucasfilm's marketing division conceived a massive multimedia campaign called Shadows of the Empire. Centered on Steve Perry's eponymous novel set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, the project included an original soundtrack album, Nintendo video game, a set of Kenner/Hasbro action figures, a behind the scenes book by Mark Cotta Vaz, Topps trading cards, and even references to its events in Brian Daley's Star Wars: Return of the Jedi – The Radio Drama.  In Steve Perry's own words, the unofficial tagline for this massive campaign was "Everything but the movie."

"Everything but the movie" included, naturally, a comics adaptation, and Dark Horse Comics – an Oregon-based publisher which at the time owned the licensing rights once (and presently) owned by Marvel Comics – was happy to oblige. On May 7, 1996. Dark Horse released the first issue of a six-part series written by John Wagner and illustrated by artist Kilian Plunkett.

Like the Nintendo video game that was released that year, Wagner's six-part comics series is based on Perry's Bantam Spectra novel – which was a New York Times best-seller in 1996 – but has its own independent story thread that focuses on Boba Fett and the other bounty hunters seen in a brief scene of 1980's The Empire Strikes Back. 

Ultimate victory lies within the grasp of
the dreaded Galactic Emperor Palpatine as
the tattered remnants of the Rebel fleet
desperately seek sanctuary and time
to muster new allies.

A grim Luke Skywalker, reeling from Darth
Vader's revelation on the cloud city of Bespin,
ponders his own destiny and that of the Rebel
Alliance. Meanwhile, the search ensues for
Han Solo, captive of the notorious
bounty hunter, Boba Fett.

To deal a final blow to the Rebellion, Palpatine
has hatched a new plan of which even Lord
Vader is unaware. To aid him, the Emperor
has enlisted the services of the vast criminal
underworld that lurks within the
Shadows of the Empire...  - Title Crawl panel, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire


Set three-and-a-half years after the Battle of Yavin, Shadows of the Empire is an interquel that begins where Irvin Kershner's Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back left off. (As imagined by Wagner and Plunkett, this is literally true; the first panel we see after the "title crawl" introduction depicts the Rebel fleet "heading away from the camera" (as it were), just as moviegoers last saw it before the "iris out" to the end titles in Empire. 

In a scene that's not in the novel, an Imperial strike cruiser and its TIE fighter escorts discover the Rebel fleet in a remote sector of the galaxy. Princess Leia Organa is shocked, but General Crix Madine says it was purely by chance; the fleet, he points out, makes "a large blip on their scanners."

Luke Skywalker, despondent after the duel with Darth Vader in Cloud City, is eager to join Rogue Squadron in a search-and-destroy mission against the Imperials, but desists when See-Threepio points out that Luke hasn't quite mastered the use of his new cybernetic hand; without realizing it, the young Rebel has bent part of a briefing table while gripping it with the prosthetic replacement for his sword hand, lost in the clash of lightsabers with Vader on Bespin.

Guri's storyline, prominent in the novel, is reduced in the comics adaptation  Topps trading card art by Tim and Greg Hildenbtandt . © 1996 Topps Trading Cards and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

For the most part, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire follows the main plot of the interquel novel but doesn't focus as much on the main characters from the Original Trilogy.  Fan favorite Guri (the sexy but deadly human replica droid employed by Black Sun's Prince Xizor) makes a few brief appearances, but in Wagner and Plunkett's portion of the saga, her role takes a back seat to Boba Fett and his odyssey to bring the frozen-in-carbonite Han Solo to Jabba the Hutt's palace on Tatooine.

Vrenga Jixton, aka "Jix" as a swoop bike gang member "working for" Jabba the Hutt. Topps trading card art by Tim and Greg Hildenbrandt. © 1996 Topps Trading Cards and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

Another plotline unique to the Dark Horse Comics six-issue series and its 1997 trade paperback compilation is that of Vrenga Jixton, aka "Jix," an undercover Imperial agent who works directly for Darth Vader. Assigned by the Dark Lord of the Sith to infiltrate Jabba's criminal organization in Mos Eisley, Jix is to watch out for Luke Skywalker's inevitable return to Tatooine in a bid to save Han from the clutches of the vile Hutt crime lord.


My Take

23 years after its creation, Lucasfilm's Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire multimedia project is still one of the few Expanded Universe (now Legends) concepts that the Disney-owned company founded by filmmaker George Lucas could add to the official canon effortlessly and, dare I say, successfully. After all, it was conceived to generate excitement for the soon-to-be-released Special Edition of the original Star Wars Trilogy; swoop bikes, ASP droids, and the dashing pirate Dash Rendar's ship, the Outrider, make cameos in the 1997 version of Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. In addition, Shadows introduced the Black Sun crime syndicate and the Falleen race to the Star Wars galaxy; they are featured in several episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 

George Lucas did not personally oversee the Expanded Universe; he allowed Lucasfilm Licensing to deal with the franchise's licensed anciliary projects so he could focus on the tech tools and writing needed to make the Prequel Trilogy. He was, of course, aware of it because it was a major project that involved many licensees, including Kenner Toys (by then a division of Hasbro), Varese Sarabande Records, Bantam Spectra, Nintendo, Lewis Galoob Toys, Topps, and Dark Horse Comics. And rumor has it that Lucas said that Shadows of the Empire is a story he would have made in the late 1980s if he had had the resources.

For proof of this, look no further than Dark Horse Comics' Shadows of the Empire series. John Wagner and Kilian Plunkett (who moved on from drawing comics for Dark Horse and signed on as a designer/animator on various Lucasfilm Animation projects) capture the essence of the project's keystone –  Steve Perry's novel – and at the same time tell a different portion of the overall story.  Not only does Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire harken back to the classic 1970s and early 1980s Star Wars comics by Marvel, but it also shows that Lucasfilm could still take Steve Perry up on his suggestion and make a Shadows of the Empire animated film.

Overall, Wagner and Plunkett do an awesome job with this six-part series, which I have in the 1997 trade paperback edition. It keeps the core plot and many scenes from Perry's prose novel, but like the Nintendo Shadows of the Empire video game, it diverges from the source by adding material at the beginning that links the story to The Empire Strikes Back visually.

Interestingly, Wagner does a call-back to Bantam Spectra's Tales from the Bounty Hunters in the scenes where Boba Fett is making his obstacle-strewn way to Tatooine. If you've read that book, you'll note that ideas from a short story in that anthology are present here as well.

If you have not read Perry's novel or played the Nintendo game, you'll still enjoy Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire graphic novel. Just be aware that you won't get the whole story, and that the comics version emphasizes its own narrative over Perry's.