Review: Star Wars Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost (1 of 6)

I have to admit that as much as I am a huge Star Wars fan, I have not done a good job at being knowledgeable with the stories that have been written after the events of Return of the Jedi. All I know is that the Empire fell, a clone of Palpatine was created, Luke begins to train new jedi, Han and Leia get married and have some kids and at some point the Palpatine clone dies but a small legion of Empire lovers try to rebuild the Empire. So here is some more back story for Crimson Empire III. This is third and final chapter of the Crimson Empire saga from the mind of Randy Stradley. He came up with the concept of a story about the Royal Guards that Emperor Palpatibe had before the fall of the Empire and their revenge on Luke Skywalker. The story was originally rejected by Lucasfilm and Marvel back in 1983. However in 1997, Dark Horse had the reigns of the Star Wars expanded universe under their belt and were eager to see this story come to life. The story of Kir Kanos was born. The last surviving Red Royal Guard who seeks revenge on Luke.

(Spoiler-Alert)

Not being familiar with the previous stories gives me an advantage and a disadvantage. So this review is not so much a Star Wars story review as it is a story and comic book review. This is the first of six issues by Dark Horse that will bring to a conclusion the story of Kir Kanos. As the story opens up we see that many of our beloved characters are here. Princess Leia is a government official of the new republic, we see Luke Skywalker as an aged Jedi training young padawans. We also see an old villain who we love to root for, Bobba Fett. The story by Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley has a good start to an already complex story. However I found myself wanting to go back and read the first two story arcs (Crimson Empire I & II). The Star Wars universe looks familiar in this story but very different as well. The art by Paul Gulacy evoked a feel that this is the world of Star Wars and these are the characters from my beloved original trilogy, but something is off. Maybe it’s because I’m not a huge Star Wars comics book reader but this just doesn’t feel like a Star Wars story. The opening evokes an almost Star Trek feel. Like Deep Space nine meets Firefly. The character of Kir Kanos looks like the Punisher and we aren’t really told why he finds himself in the predicament he is in right from the get go. Bobba Fett by some random series of events captures him and takes him to a base where a restored Empire is being re birthed. Meanwhile Princess Leia is having an important diplomatic meeting in Coruscant while her children are trying to distract her by sneaking into he meeting. Leai is then interrupted by a character called Mirith who looks like an X-Men. Then on another planet we see Luke training some young Jedi only to be interupted by a mysteries character the warns Luke on an impending plot to destroy the Republic and a man named Devian.

So like a good first issue of a story this sets up three plots which will all come together at some point. However as much as I love Star Wars I must say that I’m not drawn in. Like I said, maybe its because I’m not familiar with the other stories that came before this one but the reality is that a comic book story should be something that you can pick up no matter what issue and want to continue, despite not knowing much about what happened before that issue. I will say that if anything, this issue did make me want to read up on the previous stories. However it’s just out of curiosity and no because I really want to get into this story. I love Star Wars but I have to say this is one Star Wars related series I can’t recommend.

If you caught this issue or the previous issues, what did you think? Let us know.