Shadows of the Empire - Comic Review

In 1996, Lucasfilm created a multimedia project to drum up excitement for the 90’s special edition theatrical re-release of the original trilogy. They dubbed this project Shadows of the Empire and with it came a slew of stories through different mediums such as a novel, comics, a video game, and more. One such story is the Shadows of the Empire comic from Dark Horse, a monthly comic series told in six issues running from May through October of 1996. Brought in to write the short series was famed British comic writer John Wagner who had worked with Dark Horse the previous year on Aliens: Berserker, but is most notably known for co-creating the famous Judge Dredd for the British comic 2000 AD. Along with Wagner, artist Kilian Plunkett, known for doing covers for a handful of comics from both Star Wars: Droids comics in 1994 and Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures, was tasked with the pencils for the series. Together, along with a few other great artists, they brought to the Shadows of the Empire multimedia project a fun and exciting look at the raucous and intense time period set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi!

Shortly after the end of The Empire Strikes Back we follow many faces through the underbelly of the galaxy as the galactic chess pieces move throughout the near stalemate of the Galactic Civil War. Luke, just barely starting to get used to his new prosthetic hand, is targeted by not one, but two bounties put on him. His father, Darth Vader, puts out one to bring in Luke Skywalker alive as his plan is to bring him over to the dark side to help him rule the galaxy as father and son. The other, however, is put out by the ruthless and manipulative Prince Xizor, leader of the Black Sun crime syndicate and recent ally of Emperor Palpatine. Xizor’s bounty, however, is to bring in Luke dead and he makes sure to have it look like the orders are coming from Vader himself as Xizor tries to undermine Vader’s place in the galaxy. With Luke being targeted, Leia and Chewie go out to try their best at finding out who and why these bounties have been placed and end up going undercover into Black Sun territory and coming face to face with the ruthless Xizor. Along with the main film characters we also get appearances from Dash Rendar, star of the Nintendo 64 Shadows of the Empire video game, as well as the Human Replica Droid Guri from the game and more notably Steve Perry’s novel in the project.

On the darker side of the galaxy we follow two prominent characters that are barely, if at all, mentioned in the novel: the criminal Jix and the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Jix is hired by Darth Vader to go undercover and infiltrate Jabba the Hutt’s swoop gang on Tatooine to keep an eye out for Fett and the carbonite frozen Han Solo. Vader’s thought is that Luke will attempt to rescue Han the second he arrives on the desert planet and Jix will inform Vader who will then attempt to corner Luke like he did on Bespin. Jix succeeds in infiltrating the swoop gang, to barely successful and often deadly results. Boba Fett, however, has an even worse time as he travels the galaxy just trying to deliver Han Solo to Jabba and collect his payment. The other bounty hunters seen in Vader’s employ on the bridge of his Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back, however, want Han for themselves. They offer to split the payment with Fett, who obviously declines, which leads to what could almost be considered a small war between the faction of major bounty hunters!

The Shadows of the Empire comic is a fast and exciting story. Writer John Wagner takes us all over space as we follow many different threads throughout this massive interconnected storyline. While the storyline involving the Rebels is action packed, it’s really all the darker criminal underground moments that Wagner really comes through on. Following Boba Fett as he battles his way through nearly every single bounty hunter you can think of and through multiple traps really showcases the absolute badass that Fett truly is that never has a chance to be explored in the films. It’s an absolute blast to see how he worms his way out of every corner he gets stuck in. As we follow Jix we see the near hilarious bouts of violence as he digs into swoop gang territory and tries to accomplish his mission from Vader while trying to play dumb about anything he does that comes across as suspicious. And last, but certainly not least, the threads tying both Vader and Xizor together are wonderful. Wagner writes their cat and mouse (more like Wampa and bigger Wampa actually) game of trying to bring in Luke Skywalker with such gleeful deceit and manipulation that it’s an absolute joy every time one of them shows up on the page. Each issue further proves how far they will go, with masterful detail in their operations, to snatch out the victory from under the other.

The artwork here is definitely a unique piece to behold. If you’re more familiar with the slick and pretty artwork of the newer canon comics under the Marvel banner, expect to be in for a great surprise! Kilian Plunkett, who does the pencils for the Shadows of the Empire comic, brings us a wonderfully dirty and messy look at the galaxy along with inker P. Craig Russell and colorist Cary Porter. Together their artwork gives us a beautiful look at the dingy realm of the criminal underworld in the Star Wars universe. Porter’s colors and Russell’s inks beautifully express the dirty “I don’t care about anything but the job” attitude of the bounty hunters as well as just how icky Jabba’s palace really is. Plunkett’s exploration of the worlds around, especially in close up quarters of the Slave I as well as the sprawling landscape pages of worlds such as Tatooine or Coruscant, is absolutely stunning as well. The visual portrayals of both Boba Fett and Prince Xizor are also a sight to behold. Fett’s armor is scuffed and dirty while also being epic giving off a take-no-prisoners attitude. Xizor comes off the exact opposite with his gorgeous regalia showing elegance and power and his person and physical design giving off a cunning and viscous look when needed. Both are incredibly well realized and definitely the visual stars of the entire comic. The lettering from Dave Cooper is fun as well with plenty of wonderful dialogue and sounds exploding off the page. We also get some gorgeous painting-esque covers throughout the series from artist Hugh Fleming that are just begging to be framed in a museum!

The Shadows of the Empire comic is a fun and often badass tale. The Rebel highlights here aren’t as fun as the villainous aspects, but if you’re more interested there then I can highly suggest you look into the novel and video game. Here we get a wonderful, violent, and often grimy look into the darker and more criminal aspects of the greater Star Wars galaxy during Imperial rule with fantastic results. The storytelling is a blast, especially when it comes to the bounty hunter fights and the behind the scenes battles between Vader and Xizor, and the characters of Boba Fett and Jix are wonderfully realized as well. It’s a fun look into the time between the final two films in the original trilogy that had barely been expanded upon at the time.

If you’re interested in the criminal workings of the galaxy, or if you’re looking for something to get you hyped for the upcoming Marvel Star Wars event War of the Bounty Hunters, this is definitely something to look into!