CRIMSON EMPIRE

First, the story.  I am really enjoying Dark Horse Comics forays in to the Star Wars world that doesn’t include the main heroes of the original trilogy.  The Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt comics and Rogue Squadron have all been great so far.  This one is even better.  Crimson Empire takes place on two backwater planets, far from Coruscant and Luke, Han and Leia, immediately following Dark Empire II and Empire’s End.

Carnor Jax, a former Emperor’s Royal Guard, has taken control of the Empire’s ruling council, and wants to soon call himself Emperor.  Nothing stands in his way except another former Royal Guard, Kir Kanos, who knows that it is Jax who helped destroy the last of the Emperor’s clones.

Kanos inadvertently obtains the help of a New Republic commander on this backwater Imperial planet, and that is when we learn about the awesome training of these guards.  Their "squall", on a platform in the shape of the Imperial logo, high above a wide pit, is really neat to "watch", as are their weapons.  The weapons are of a much more impressive design than those seen in Return of the Jedi.  Kanos helps defend the small Republic base from an inept Imperial attack, and gains the confidence of its leader, Mirith Sinn, who is captured because of a double agent, and is tortured by Jax.  She reveals information of the escaped Kanos, and is then released, to be followed as she goes to help the man she betrayed.

But Jax arrives on the backwater former training planet of the Royal Guards first, and he and Kanos fight in a duel to the death.  That there is more than one death shows what kind of man Kanos is, and leaves Sinn with vengeance on her heart.  That will undoubtedly be the focus of the sequel, Crimson Empire II.

The artwork was fantastic throughout the graphic novel, with striking colours, great fates, and blurry for the items that would be out of the main focus.  If it didn’t have to be sharp, it wasn’t: the viewscreens were just a little grainy, for example -enough to be realistic.  There was even variation in the dialog art, in that when a character was punched in the gut, the words looked strained. 

The only mistake the authors made, I felt, was giving Jax Force powers.  They have shown in Dark Empire I and II that people can be "given" these powers, but I thing that goes against everything we know about the Force, especially after The Phantom Menace showed that it was genetic.  But I can forgive that, since it was barely shown, and the rest of it is so great.

Wedge is the only "regular" who makes an appearance here, though the Millenium Falcon is mentioned.  Wedge looks older!  And I love his new ship!  In fact, all the ships were quite spectacularly drawn, and there were no new ships introduced -finally.

The interaction between the characters was well done.  Kanos worked only for himself, even though his abilities saved the Republic base.  He took out an entire squad of stormtroopers single-handed at the beginning, and nearly half a garrison near the middle of the story!  It was great seeing a Guard in action.  Sinn was eager to recruit him, even though she knew of his past -a true diplomat warrior.  And Jax was as evil as they come, but well done also. 

I’ve said this before, but I can’t wait for the sequel now.  Every time I’ve said that, the sequel has been a bomb, but this time I’m hoping.  Crimson Empire was better than Dark Empire, and a thousand times better than Dark Empire II and Empire’s End.  I hope they can keep up this kind of quality.