Hidden Empire #2 - Comic Review

The leader of Crimson Dawn, Lady Qi’ra, has shown her hand. She has given up her secret plan in an attempt to scare Emperor Palpatine. Hidden Empire #2 shows Qi’ra the ramifications of this decision as the Emperor attempts to destroy all she stands for. He’s taken out her flagship and assumes her dead, but he’s now looking out for the disturbance in the Force by the Archivist and Kho Phon Farrus trying to activate the Fermata Cage, an ancient Sith artifact that may or may not hold Lord Momin. At the same time, we find Qi’ra, having barely escaped the destruction caused by the Sith Lord, on her way to a hidden base in order to regroup and plan for what’s coming next.

Writer Charles Soule slows things down, just a bit, from the explosive first issue and instead lets the story breath a little in Hidden Empire #2 as he explores the actions of the various players throughout this event. It’s still intense and cool as hell, but it is nice to be able to let things build more to what is coming. There’s also quite a few little twists and turns scattered throughout the issue that make it a must read. To top it off, Soule also excels at writing my current favorite Star Wars character, Kho Phon Farrus, who once again proves to be as disastrous as ever by being very single-mindedly obsessed with Sith culture.

The artistic team for Hidden Empire #2 consists of artist Steven Cummings, inker Victor Olazaba, colorist GURU-eFX, and letterer VC’s Travis Lanham. This team continues to blow away all my expectations with this series. Every single person is fantastic in this issue, from the incredible detail and character designs (again, Kho Phon Farrus looks stunning) to the deep and rich colors throughout every setting by GURU-eFX. I want to do a special shoutout to Lanham too who has a blast with tons of different text bubbles and sound effects, especially the sounds involved with the Fermata Cage!

Paulo Siqueira and Rachelle Rosenberg bring us the main cover art for Hidden Empire #2 with an epic piece capturing a powerful Darth Vader burning a Crimson Dawn flag. The first variant cover is the Connecting variant from Steven Cummings and GURU-eFX which features the Archivist and Kho Phon Farrus. It’s absolutely stunning, but I might be a little biased since I adore Kho so much. Next is David Lopez with the Travel variant showing off Qi’ra and company next to the entrance to Qi’ra’s hidden base and is quite possibly the most unique and cool variant I’ve seen. Last, but not least, is Declan Shalvey’s Battle variant which is definitely my favorite of the bunch, again because of my bias, as it shows an epic, and absolutely gorgeous, impending battle between Darth Vader and Kho Phon Farrus! This is probably my favorite cover since W. Scott Forbes’ cover for Doctor Aphra (2020) #19.

Hidden Empire #2 continues the epic and dangerous final arc of Qi’ra’s quest to destroy the Sith. It’s wild and exciting and not one to miss, so fire up your TIE Interceptors and zoom down to your local comic shop to pick up a copy today!