Star Wars Dark Empire II

Rating:
Summary: He should have stopped while he was ahead.
Review: Ick. As good as Dark Empire 1 was as far as characterizations, plot, and pacing, this destroys it. Most of it seems to be a rehash of the original story, and the new elements introduced seem trite and contrived. The Emperor is back AGAIN, with a NEW superweapon to threaten our heroes. Whoopty-do. Nar Shadda (the Smuggler's Moon) is revisited, as is Byss, the Dark Side homeworld. New characters are introduced, but they seem needlessly rediculous. It is obvious that Veitch rushed this to cash in on the success of Dark Empire 1, unfortunately. It in no way lives up to its predecessor. Further, Cam Kennedy's artwork grows tiresome quickly, especially if you've already read DE1. Probably the only plus are the covers drawn by Dave Dorman, which are showcased in the back. He, at least, is able to capture the essence of Star Wars, although even they aren't as good as the DE1 covers. This is another one of those that you really shouldn't bother with unless you HAVE to own every Star Wars stor

Rating:
Summary: Oh No! The clone had a clone!
Review: The clone emperor cloned himself and Luke must stop him again. This is the sequel to Dark Empire and is very entertaining. There is a Dark Empire III, but you can skip that one. Dark Empire II is worth a listen.

Dark Empire and Dark Empire II take place Six years after the Battle of Endor, (but after the Zahn trilogy). Luke discovers that the emperor is still alive. Luke researches whether a jedi has ever returned from the dark side. This is cool, because this acknowledged the earlier comics dealing with the jedi and sith 3,000 to 5,000 years ago (learned in the holocron's that Luke has gathered.)

This is the description of the comic which the audio tape is based on.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad for a pair of smugglers...er, comic book artists....
Review: The struggle for mastery of the galaxy continues in this second installment of Dark Horse's Dark Empire graphic novel series. Although Leia Organa Solo and her twin brother Luke Skywalker defeated the clone of Emperor Palpatine, his minions, led by Warlord Sedriss, continue their campaign to wrest star systems away from the New Republic and back into the Imperial fold.

Even worse, the spirit-force of Palpatine still resonates even though it is disembodied, and although rebellious members of his own court have destroyed more of his clone bodies all the Emperor needs is one in which to take physical form. Knowing that he will really die forever without another body to inhabit, Palpatine sets his sights on Leia's third child, Anakin Solo. If he succeeds, Palpatine will achieve two of his most cherished goals: continued survival and revenge upon the man who betrayed him at Endor, Darth Vader.

Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy return to dazzle Star Wars aficionados with their story and artwork in Dark Empire II. As in the best Expanded Universe novels, this creative team mixes classic Star Wars characters from the movies and meld them with a cast of new friends and foes, while enriching the "galaxy far, far away" with new worlds and exotic aliens. They even follow the trilogy's structure by making Dark Empire II a cliffhanger, making sure we readers looked forward to the concluding installment, Empire's End.

Rating:
Summary: Oh boy, he's at it again!
Review: To put in bluntly, this sequel has mostly the exact same plot as it's predecessor.
The Emperor returns from the dead, again...he has a superweapon, again...and he is out to blow people up...again.

In that sense, this book is actually something like the prototype sequel. It takes everything readers liked about the original, and provides us with more of it without bringing in anything really new.
Of course the writers did bother to invent some new ships, characters, weapons and sofort, but nothing that really adds to the story. It is just more of the same stuff we got from Dark Empire I.

In addition to this, one of the major drawbacks to this comic is the fact that a lot of the new things the artists DO come up with are kind of ridiculous. I mean, which Evil Emperor would give his new superweapon a name like "the Galaxy Gun"? And how come the Emperor can magically turn any random underling into a powerfull Dark Jedi all of a sudden? If he could do that, why did he bother with Luke in the last book?

If you were one of the people who enjoyed Dark Empire I, and you insist on reading more of the exact same thing, then you might want to buy this book. If you didn't like the original, you're certainly not going to like this one either.
The only other people who might wish to bother with this comic are the vivid Boba Fett-fans. Like all other villians from DE I, he returns in this one AND he has a lot more screentime than he did in the last book.