Empire's End (Star Wars: Dark Empire Series)

Rating:
Summary: Good story, great art...but too short....
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A very good, exciting conclusion to the Dark Empire Series
Review: I think this comic was a very exciting conclusion to the Dark Empire series, with the destruction of the galaxy gun first and foremost.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre Finale
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Empire's End- The Conclusion of the Dark Empire Trilogy
Review: The Emperor is back, He's got the Galaxy Gun, and is seeking to turn the galaxy's most innocent child, into the ruler of the Empire. The Child: the newborn: Anakin Solo Vietch is back, and he's better that ever!

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievable boring
Review: This comic is not only childish but it is plainly stupid too. It's a shame because the previous books were very good (DE, DEII). I'm still suffering from trauma after reading the plot of the "Galaxy Gun". Any fan would have created a better fanfiction finale for the Dark Empire series.