twilliamson's review against another edition
2.0
If Star Wars: Dark Empire felt like an interesting, dark new take on the Star Wars franchise in late 1991, Star Wars: Dark Empire II, from late 1994-1995, feels as stale as a story can get. Here, Tom Veitch goes back to the same dark well from which he got his ideas for the first series, repitching virtually the same story over once more. Veitch's story tries to cover the distance between his first story and Kevin J. Anderson's Jedi Search, released in February 1994, wherein Luke determines it is time for him to try to bring back the order of Jedi Knights, but the story as written feels totally uncoordinated; it's story beats and characters don't seem at all consistent with the universe being established in the novels coming out at the time, and its rehash of the same plot elements of the first series shows a diminishing imagination for new stories.
The biggest problem, more than its terrible continuity problems with the universe as established in the novels, is how bankrupt Veitch's ideas had become. Emperor clones and weapons of mass destruction seem to be the only big ideas left in the series, and each issue reads as just another hodgepodge of stolen story beats hoping to make a quick buck. There's little novelty to the story, and its plot simply plods along begrudgingly until its unfinished finale.
The only saving grace of the story is that it is paired with Cam Kennedy's art, which is just as brilliant as ever. His frenetic pacing for action sequences works extremely well, and his punk style is absolute perfection--a beautiful pairing for Star Wars. I did feel, however, as some of his panel layouts in this story felt a bit weird, with some confusing perspective shifts or poorly optimized layouts that lead to illustrations that represent a sort of dead space in the story--panels that contribute little to the story or don't have any relevance to the action--but Kennedy can't be faulted for giving his Star Wars books a unique texture in color and line that sets him leagues ahead of other Star Wars comics artists.
Despite Kennedy's great art, Dark Empire II is still one of the worst Star Wars comics I've yet read, and it's extra frustrating that Kevin J. Anderson's books make so many references to the events of both Dark Empire and Dark Empire II, given how poorly implemented this series turns out to be. If Dark Empire excites me for Star Wars comics, Dark Empire II seems to exist only to prove that nothing good can't be ruined by repetition.
The biggest problem, more than its terrible continuity problems with the universe as established in the novels, is how bankrupt Veitch's ideas had become. Emperor clones and weapons of mass destruction seem to be the only big ideas left in the series, and each issue reads as just another hodgepodge of stolen story beats hoping to make a quick buck. There's little novelty to the story, and its plot simply plods along begrudgingly until its unfinished finale.
The only saving grace of the story is that it is paired with Cam Kennedy's art, which is just as brilliant as ever. His frenetic pacing for action sequences works extremely well, and his punk style is absolute perfection--a beautiful pairing for Star Wars. I did feel, however, as some of his panel layouts in this story felt a bit weird, with some confusing perspective shifts or poorly optimized layouts that lead to illustrations that represent a sort of dead space in the story--panels that contribute little to the story or don't have any relevance to the action--but Kennedy can't be faulted for giving his Star Wars books a unique texture in color and line that sets him leagues ahead of other Star Wars comics artists.
Despite Kennedy's great art, Dark Empire II is still one of the worst Star Wars comics I've yet read, and it's extra frustrating that Kevin J. Anderson's books make so many references to the events of both Dark Empire and Dark Empire II, given how poorly implemented this series turns out to be. If Dark Empire excites me for Star Wars comics, Dark Empire II seems to exist only to prove that nothing good can't be ruined by repetition.
rhganci's review against another edition
1.0
Pretty lame. Nothing notable, except for the birth of Anakin Solo. Art sucked. Lightsabers sucked. Writing sucked. Luke’s foray with the Ysanna chick was lame. Unnecessary and unresolved. There’s something called Empire’s End, but I’ll read in Barnes and Noble some afternoon, if I deign to do so at all.
djotaku's review
3.0
The story had some fun elements like a steampunk Jedi with a steampunk spaceship. But overall, it was a flat sequel that undid a lot of what mattered in the previous story without doing much the advance that main story. That's probably because the source material, unless I'm misremembering, was a couple graphic novels. There isn't a lot of room there to change a lot about the Star Wars extended universe. The only thing that made me groan was the catch-phrase-ification of a lot of the main characters' famous sayings from the first trilogy.
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