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An enterprising painter could paint a Legion Luke as a clone of The Emperor, His clones were younger before he started to deteriorate from the Dark Side.

Cool lightsaber fight, too bad they used some of the questionable artistic choices from the source material.

I'm a huge fan of the EU, but I have to admit, I hate Dark Empire and it's sequels. The artwork was poor, and the story was pretty shoddy. Its funny, but I find the synopsis of the story in The Essential Guide to Warfare to be superior than the actual comic's story.

On 8/26/2019 at 2:29 PM, Alpha17 said:

Cool lightsaber fight, too bad they used some of the questionable artistic choices from the source material.

I'm a huge fan of the EU, but I have to admit, I hate Dark Empire and it's sequels. The artwork was poor, and the story was pretty shoddy. Its funny, but I find the synopsis of the story in The Essential Guide to Warfare to be superior than the actual comic's story.

can't believe what I read. Dark Empire poor artwork?? You must be a marvel reader that don't understand the monocolored panels and the sketch-like wonderful art they used a long time ago. It was a great achievement and an incredible expressionist artwork that was in fact decades forward the rest of the styles. They managed to reflect a DARK galaxy using single colored panels combined with strong lights and shadows that were Cam Kennedy's signsture. I am sure you missed something or are too young. And, understand that now, with tons of material out there, it seems easy to do a star wars sequel, but it was very difficult to make that days because everyone was dead (Vader and Palp) and the empire was shattered and the idea of clones was still not really used. In fact, in the rpg the way of entering inside another's body has been (since Tom Veitch idea) explained as the "other" way of surviving death (in fact, dark side of becoming a luminous being, and in fact, what G. Lucas used in episode 3 to lure anakin to the dark side: being able to save his wife through the dark side). So not specially a waste of time, specially considering other sequels or prequels. And consider that the idea of different stormtroopers fighting against them because they represented different parts of a broken empire. It was a great source of stories and battles empire vs empire that were incredible, not to mention it was the first time we saw Mon Cal...

3 hours ago, Tubb said:

can't believe what I read. Dark Empire poor artwork?? You must be a marvel reader that don't understand the monocolored panels and the sketch-like wonderful art they used a long time ago. It was a great achievement and an incredible expressionist artwork that was in fact decades forward the rest of the styles. They managed to reflect a DARK galaxy using single colored panels combined with strong lights and shadows that were Cam Kennedy's signsture. I am sure you missed something or are too young.

There is no need for you to make baseless assumptions about Alpha17's age or visual acuity. Art is subjective. Everyone is allowed to interpret it differently.

7 hours ago, Mokoshkana said:

There is no need for you to make baseless assumptions about Alpha17's age or visual acuity. Art is subjective. Everyone is allowed to interpret it differently.

Exactly, Alpha17 could just have great aesthetic taste when it comes to comic book art.

Then it would be a better way to explain things, with words such as “I don’t like” rather than “it is poor”.

It is NOT poor, you can say you don’t like it, of course, but saying that the work of a well known artist such as Cam Kennedy is poor and that the choice of art is questionable (obviously you have not seen Boba Fett spin offs or Judge Dredd art) and that Tom Veitch story is shoddy, even saying that it is better a Guide... come on, it is not respectful. Tastes are tastes, but one should try to be respectful with an artist that has been aknowledged globally for more than 40 years.

22 hours ago, Tubb said:

can't believe what I read. Dark Empire poor artwork?? You must be a marvel reader that don't understand the monocolored panels and the sketch-like wonderful art they used a long time ago. It was a great achievement and an incredible expressionist artwork that was in fact decades forward the rest of the styles. They managed to reflect a DARK galaxy using single colored panels combined with strong lights and shadows that were Cam Kennedy's signsture. I am sure you missed something or are too young. And, understand that now, with tons of material out there, it seems easy to do a star wars sequel, but it was very difficult to make that days because everyone was dead (Vader and Palp) and the empire was shattered and the idea of clones was still not really used. In fact, in the rpg the way of entering inside another's body has been (since Tom Veitch idea) explained as the "other" way of surviving death (in fact, dark side of becoming a luminous being, and in fact, what G. Lucas used in episode 3 to lure anakin to the dark side: being able to save his wife through the dark side). So not specially a waste of time, specially considering other sequels or prequels. And consider that the idea of different stormtroopers fighting against them because they represented different parts of a broken empire. It was a great source of stories and battles empire vs empire that were incredible, not to mention it was the first time we saw Mon Cal...

4 hours ago, Tubb said:

Then it would be a better way to explain things, with words such as “I don’t like” rather than “it is poor”.

It is NOT poor, you can say you don’t like it, of course, but saying that the work of a well known artist such as Cam Kennedy is poor and that the choice of art is questionable (obviously you have not seen Boba Fett spin offs or Judge Dredd art) and that Tom Veitch story is shoddy, even saying that it is better a Guide... come on, it is not respectful. Tastes are tastes, but one should try to be respectful with an artist that has been aknowledged globally for more than 40 years.

If I don't like something, I can most certainly consider it poor. You are more than welcome to consider it God's gift to the comic world, but I don't have to. Dark Empire had great concepts in parts, with the Imperial mutiny you mention being a perfect example. I still think the Warlords era of the Empire to be one of the best and under-utilized aspects of the EU, and something I'm saddened Disney did away with completely. Anything that hearkens back to Roman civil wars is great in my book. That said, I still stand by their execution being shoddy in DE. We don't get to see the Empire rally and retake Courscant, we don't get to see the warlords turn on one another, and we don't get to see why the New Republic is so battered and broken, it all just is in DE. Thankfully, later guides would explain that. As for being "too young," I'm 30, which is hardly considered young to most people, but just might be too young to consider this type of artwork decent. After all, the 90s approach to comics with random pouches, guns, poor proportions, and bad coloring to be edgy isn't my thing. Ironically, though I'm not a Marvel fan, (DC all the way!) I do find it funny how superior some old, early 80s Marvel SW comics seem in comparison to Dark Empire, at least in artwork.

You may like the art style, but I'm not the only one that hated it. Besides coming across as a washed out film, with the colors not matching what we should be seeing, little else makes sense. Most new designs remind me of a Warhammer- or Terminator-style aesthetic rather than Star Wars, and I honestly have a very hard time telling which poorly drawn character is Leia when she's wearing a hat. (as she does for much of the first half) Considering how important Leia's pregnancy is to the story, its odd that you really can't tell that she is pregnant until the last volume, when they swap out artists. (And while not a big improvement, it is noticeably better) You're right, I don't get the point of the single color panels. If used sparingly, they might serve a purpose to draw attention to the characters eyes, but as frequently as they're used, it just gets annoying. The artwork for Sparky's dark siders is almost laughable. Sedriss looks like a 90s Punk Goth, not the right hand man of a Galactic Emperor. The rest of the bunch aren't any better. You're more than welcome to enjoy the art, but I simply can't. Though I tend to ignore popularity contests like this, I would be curious to know how a Legion army painted in the style of Dark Empire would rank in a painting contest compared to one painted like the actual movies. I'd bet the vast majority of people would prefer the more "realistic" style rather than Cam Kennedy's.

Story wise, characters repeatedly make bad decisions for no real reason. Luke's "fall" to the Dark Side just sorta happens, and comes off as a way of giving Leia something to do rather than being a well executed plot point. Parts of the story, like the advancing technology leading to the E-Wing, are great, but other parts simply aren't. Why the heck did Luke just randomly fall for one of his students in Vol. II? Eh, weird. Your argument about Star Wars sequels being hard is more than a little disingenuous. Heir to the Empire came out months before the first issue was published, and Dark Force Rising was out well before the end of the first volume. That trilogy is infinitely superior to DE in almost every respect, from characters actually acting like themselves to an important role existing for everyone.