Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series) [Paperback]

Tom Veitch (Author), Jim Baikie (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Wars (Dark Horse) | Publication Date: October 7, 1997

Emperor Palpatine has a new weapon -- one that can annihilate a planet. But he's not targeting a planet -- he's targeting the future of the Jedi, Leia's children. It looks like a hopeless situation for Luke Skywalker, who has the critical task of protecting the children. But it's not the first time Luke has found hope where none existed. The finale to the Dark Empire trilogy is collected here.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse (October 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569713065
• ISBN-13: 978-1569713068
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #518,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good story, great art...but too short...., October 14, 2003

By 

Alex Diaz-Granados "fardreaming writer" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series) (Paperback)

At the end of Dark Empire II, the evil Emperor Palpatine stood poised on the brink of victory over the New Republic. Once more, his technical innovators have built a superweapon -- a Galaxy Gun that fires "intelligent" planet-killing missiles -- that threatens the former Rebel Alliance with total annihilation. And once more, the familiar cast of heroes (Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and the rest of the Star Wars crew) must race to stop Palpatine once and for all.

For both sides, this is a conflict for all the marbles, you might say. For Palpatine, it's his final chance to retain flesh-and-blood life. His once-large collection of clones has been destroyed by either Luke Skywalker or renegade Imperial court members, and the clone body he currently "lives in" is breaking down and becoming unstable. His last hope is Han and Leia's newborn, named for his late grandfather Anakin. If he can take over the child's body with his dark side essence, Palpatine can carry out his plan to take back the galaxy. By cloning his new body, he can also rule the Empire forever.

Of course, even the best of Palpatine's plans can be thwarted, and Tom Veitch and Jim Baikie leave no doubt as to which side will prevail in Empire's End. By far the shortest of the three installments in the Dark Empire series, it is also very true to the Star Wars template....good triumphs over evil, there are some awesome space battles, and, of course, a climactic lightsaber duel. The story's brevity (I believe the original comic series was only two issues long) is somewhat surprising, as is the change in look, since artist Jim Baikie's style is very different from Cam Kennedy's.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Finale, June 11, 2000

By 

Jim Phillips - See all my reviews

This review is from: Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series) (Paperback)

I very much enjoyed the first Dark Empire series, and have both in graphic novel. Because Empire's End has not been released over here yet, I decided I couldn't wait and bought it from Amazon to see what I was missing out on. I have to say I was quite dissapointed. The main problem is the general unlikelyhood of the plot devices within. For instance, a Galaxy Gun (quite possibly the most stupidly named weapon ever) missile hitting the new rebel base and not going off! Are we supposed to believe that the emperor's ultimate weapon is going to use faulty detonators? What about R2-D2 hacking into the flagship's computer. How the hell is one droid going to hack into the emperor's personal flagship and take over bridge control? Have the people on board ever heard of security codes? He may be a good slicer, but shutting down trash compactors is hardly akin to taking over a ship's controls. And why wasn't there a squad of bitchass commandoes waiting for them as soon as they came on board? Good points then. Contrary to another review of this saying that the emperor has become a "finger-pointing" caricature, I think his depiction works quite well. He is obviously sick and progressing further into dementia, and the rages he has emphasise this. The art is generally clear and detailed, but for some reason the main characters often look, well, fat. The finale is a damp squib. The emperor goes out with a whimper instead of a bang like in Dark Empire, and the destruction of Byss seems forced and predictable. Overall a dissapointment then, but if you really want to know how the Dark Empire saga ends you may as well buy it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars If this is the Empire's end then where does Pellaeon fit in?, March 1, 2005

By 

Too Right "You On" (Lower Shadowlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series) (Paperback)

As some of you may know, there was originally supposed to be a "Dark Empire III", and this is the end result of that project.
Overall it's not a good result.
However, the downward trajectory was already evident in Dark Empire II (IMHO). At this point in time, I even feel ambivalent about the first series.

However, archaeologically speaking ( in terms of its legacy in the Star Wars expanded universe ), the first Dark Empire is very important. It's those text sections at the end of the comics, a feature that was missed in the sequels.
These pages first described such things as Adegan crystals, Ulic Qel-Droma, the Krath, etc., and also featured the exploits of Sate Pestage.
All in all, a very influential set of text pages.
Also, in the first series the "acquired taste" of Cam Kennedy's artwork had yet to become overdone and grating; some panels were actually rather beautiful ( Leia looking at the hologram of Bodo Baas, etc. ).

By Empire's End, though, even Kennedy isn't involved. The interior artwork has been handed over to someone wholly inappropriate. Even the traditionally impressive Dave Dorman covers have somehow gotten screwed up. I mean, look at the image that's supposed to be Han Solo, on the cover of the first issue. It looks more like a chipmunk-Solo kewpie doll.

The other problem is the story. By the time this comic came out, the readers of SW EU material had already had it up to here with all the superweapons, and now.... yes, another superweapon.
Also, the annoying fact that the clone Emperor seems to be unkillable as long as another series is planned. But the worst bit is about Empatojayos Brand and a "lightning gun" attachment to the Falcon.
It's all well and good to rationalize weak points in a book, but here we begin to go into the "Help, I'm retarded" zone. Does Tom Veitch know what lightning is? Does that sound like any tech that's already been established in the SW universe? COME ON!!!!

In fact, I had forgotten that Byss got destroyed in this series, until I went on a mission to Byss in the game Jedi Academy and found that it was "the remains of the planet".

The only part of Empire's End that I liked was when the Emperor goes to Korriban and is taunted by the sneering ghosts of the ancient Sith. "Emperor of a thousand worlds" and all that. It puts things into maybe a little bit more prespective to realize that they don't see Palpatine as their superior.

One last thing: about the title of this review. I believe that the question of EU canon really comes down to what you like vs. what you don't particularly care for. Since I like the book Vision of the Future ( somewhat more than I did when it came out ), I tend to think the real end of the Empire as a significant threat was the peace treaty with the New Republic. After that there's the so-called Empire of the Hand...