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Star Wars: Empire #3
Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 3: The Imperial Perspective
A loyal Stormtrooper, thwarted by the very bureaucracy which he serves, struggles to track down a Rebel saboteur on board the Death Star in the days and hours before the fateful Rebel attack. Darth Vader, the sole survivor of the explosion of the Death Star, crash lands on a primitive world where savagery is the key to survival. A young Imperial lieutenant learns all service comes at a price when his small company of Stormtroopers is attacked by thousands of angry aliens. Assassins from a planet destroyed by the Empire close on their target-the Dark Lord, Darth Vader.
Collecting issues #13-#14 and #16-#19 of the Empire series. All told from the point of view of the major villains of the Star Wars galaxy-the Imperials. But, as these stories show, even the "bad guys" are no strangers to loyalty, honor, and sacrifice!
Collecting issues #13-#14 and #16-#19 of the Empire series. All told from the point of view of the major villains of the Star Wars galaxy-the Imperials. But, as these stories show, even the "bad guys" are no strangers to loyalty, honor, and sacrifice!
144 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
September 19, 2017
What Sin Loyalty - 4 stars
Another take on the events of ANH, and another great one-off. I'm not the hugest fan of the orange/blue color scheme a lot of these comics go for but it's pulled off better here than in most. It became fairly common to put clones in ethically challenging or simply confusing situations in the Clone Wars, but it's rare to see this sort of thing in the GCW. TK-622 has a friend, he has to confront some relatively nuanced decisions, scout out a traitor in his own ranks, watches his world fall apart before his eyes in three ways at once. It's not apologetic--the text obviously doesn't condone the massacre that 622 does--but it's certainly smart and sympathetic, and that's exactly what we're looking for. I'm also pretty pleased that it doesn't end in defection; that sort of redemption is a too-easy way out of the moral complicity of these situations and it's not honest to give that option to every protagonist (after Lost Stars this isn't the only example but 622 was in small company when it was written).
It also does a good job of framing this around the Death Star. Ralltiir comes up again here as a "lost cause" in his mind, a place they might be better off destroying completely. And so while the ethical implications of the Death Star don't come under scrutiny directly--because he's a clone, because he's too focused on smaller tasks, for whatever reason--this Ralltiir scenario and the revelations that come with it provide an illuminating parallel that says everything it needs to.
Savage Heart - 2 stars
This one is kinda jokey and/or super dumb, and it doesn't have a lot of redeeming traits other than being short. Not a fan of the whole "defeat our leader become our leader" trope and this is a particularly stupid example. The art style is meant to be caricaturish but I'm still not a fan.
To The Last Man - 4 stars
Another Imperial-period story that could easily have been a Clone Wars arc--Imperial soldiers stumble into a local ritual situation and it ends in violence due to their lack of cultural literacy or interest. It's a heavily Colonial-themed story, far more than most SW stuff (though that seems to be a bigger direction in the new canon). I feel like this battle must echo some famous event in British South Africa or something but I'm not literate enough in that area to get it. It's generic enough to apply a variety of places, I guess.
The Amanin are explicitly termed "savages" but also coded that way with spears and skull ornaments and tattoos (to be fair, this is how they appear in RotJ as well). The Amanin are one of my favorite alien designs, and I think it's a shame their portrayal here feels so one-dimensional. The story makes one layer of Imperial indifference clear, but could have hinted that even the "we respect you because you're good killers" exchange at the end is still a poor cultural translation.
The strength in this story is again the strong character dynamics among the Imperials. Making these conflicts all about bureaucracy and competence is not the most interesting route in general (and this story is unique in raising practically no moral questions). But despite being a bit boring, the dynamic between Sunber, Gage, and the general is strong enough to carry the story dramatically.
The art here is on the better end, brightly lit and clearly lined, with lots of cool shots of Juggernauts and modified AT-TEs and stormtroopers. Not to mention tons of shots of the Amanin being total badasses.
Target: Vader - 3 stars
Brian Ching is maybe the one artist in the same league as Doug Wheatley in these comics. This has some of the best art in the series, with that same soft-line high-detail approach. Unfortunately the story it's attached to leaves something to be desired. It's yet another one of those "Vader goes out on his own and ends up killing a bunch of people" stories and there are so many of them by and this one really doesn't justify its existence.
Another take on the events of ANH, and another great one-off. I'm not the hugest fan of the orange/blue color scheme a lot of these comics go for but it's pulled off better here than in most. It became fairly common to put clones in ethically challenging or simply confusing situations in the Clone Wars, but it's rare to see this sort of thing in the GCW. TK-622 has a friend, he has to confront some relatively nuanced decisions, scout out a traitor in his own ranks, watches his world fall apart before his eyes in three ways at once. It's not apologetic--the text obviously doesn't condone the massacre that 622 does--but it's certainly smart and sympathetic, and that's exactly what we're looking for. I'm also pretty pleased that it doesn't end in defection; that sort of redemption is a too-easy way out of the moral complicity of these situations and it's not honest to give that option to every protagonist (after Lost Stars this isn't the only example but 622 was in small company when it was written).
It also does a good job of framing this around the Death Star. Ralltiir comes up again here as a "lost cause" in his mind, a place they might be better off destroying completely. And so while the ethical implications of the Death Star don't come under scrutiny directly--because he's a clone, because he's too focused on smaller tasks, for whatever reason--this Ralltiir scenario and the revelations that come with it provide an illuminating parallel that says everything it needs to.
Savage Heart - 2 stars
This one is kinda jokey and/or super dumb, and it doesn't have a lot of redeeming traits other than being short. Not a fan of the whole "defeat our leader become our leader" trope and this is a particularly stupid example. The art style is meant to be caricaturish but I'm still not a fan.
To The Last Man - 4 stars
Another Imperial-period story that could easily have been a Clone Wars arc--Imperial soldiers stumble into a local ritual situation and it ends in violence due to their lack of cultural literacy or interest. It's a heavily Colonial-themed story, far more than most SW stuff (though that seems to be a bigger direction in the new canon). I feel like this battle must echo some famous event in British South Africa or something but I'm not literate enough in that area to get it. It's generic enough to apply a variety of places, I guess.
The Amanin are explicitly termed "savages" but also coded that way with spears and skull ornaments and tattoos (to be fair, this is how they appear in RotJ as well). The Amanin are one of my favorite alien designs, and I think it's a shame their portrayal here feels so one-dimensional. The story makes one layer of Imperial indifference clear, but could have hinted that even the "we respect you because you're good killers" exchange at the end is still a poor cultural translation.
The strength in this story is again the strong character dynamics among the Imperials. Making these conflicts all about bureaucracy and competence is not the most interesting route in general (and this story is unique in raising practically no moral questions). But despite being a bit boring, the dynamic between Sunber, Gage, and the general is strong enough to carry the story dramatically.
The art here is on the better end, brightly lit and clearly lined, with lots of cool shots of Juggernauts and modified AT-TEs and stormtroopers. Not to mention tons of shots of the Amanin being total badasses.
Target: Vader - 3 stars
Brian Ching is maybe the one artist in the same league as Doug Wheatley in these comics. This has some of the best art in the series, with that same soft-line high-detail approach. Unfortunately the story it's attached to leaves something to be desired. It's yet another one of those "Vader goes out on his own and ends up killing a bunch of people" stories and there are so many of them by and this one really doesn't justify its existence.
August 29, 2013
The Imperial Perspective was good, REALLY good. It completely washed out that bad taste left in my mouth from reading The Short, Happy Life of Roons Sewell and instead left me with great satisfaction from such a graphic novel. Each of the four stories I'd give at least four stars. They were pretty good. Why?
Superb characterization. The characters were so defined, likable and detestable but never distasteful. Darth Vader was spot on awesome and terrible (terrible in a good way). The imperial protagonists besides Darth Vader were what they were, a brainwashed clone, and a superb and tactful junior officer.
"What Sin Loyalty Lie" was deep and super fascinating, and "To the Last Man" was the best war/soldier/battle story I've read in any media. I will say however it had a few cliches but they weren't that bad. From "The Savage Heart" you see Darth Vader as the bad ass lord of the dark side that he is as well as how, like in any sort of field of work, workers can get lazy if not watched by a supervisor. The empire is no exception. Little nuances like that truly bring to life any fiction, whether it be the alliance or the empire. "Target: Vader" was kinda cool for the writer got Darth Vader spot on and added some depth we might have saw in the movies.
The writers of this collection of stories knew what they were doing. They truly brought to life the Imperial Empire as the powerful and oppressing force that it is yet din't color it like Rebel Alliance PROPAGANDA. Nay, they made it real, the good and the bad. I loved the artwork in each of the stories but primarily in the first two. The stories weren't complex but they didn't have to be; they were well written regardless. The Imperial Perspective is one of the best graphic novels I've read; best in the Empire series so far without a doubt.
Superb characterization. The characters were so defined, likable and detestable but never distasteful. Darth Vader was spot on awesome and terrible (terrible in a good way). The imperial protagonists besides Darth Vader were what they were, a brainwashed clone, and a superb and tactful junior officer.
"What Sin Loyalty Lie" was deep and super fascinating, and "To the Last Man" was the best war/soldier/battle story I've read in any media. I will say however it had a few cliches but they weren't that bad. From "The Savage Heart" you see Darth Vader as the bad ass lord of the dark side that he is as well as how, like in any sort of field of work, workers can get lazy if not watched by a supervisor. The empire is no exception. Little nuances like that truly bring to life any fiction, whether it be the alliance or the empire. "Target: Vader" was kinda cool for the writer got Darth Vader spot on and added some depth we might have saw in the movies.
The writers of this collection of stories knew what they were doing. They truly brought to life the Imperial Empire as the powerful and oppressing force that it is yet din't color it like Rebel Alliance PROPAGANDA. Nay, they made it real, the good and the bad. I loved the artwork in each of the stories but primarily in the first two. The stories weren't complex but they didn't have to be; they were well written regardless. The Imperial Perspective is one of the best graphic novels I've read; best in the Empire series so far without a doubt.
October 29, 2020
Star Wars Legends Project #237
Background: The Imperial Perspective, released in October 2004, collects issues 13-19 (except 15) of Empire (November 2003-May 2004). 1 issue was written by Jeremy Barlow (art by Patrick Blaine), 1 by Dave Land (art by Raúl Treviño), 3 by Welles Hartley (art by Davide Fabbri), and the last by Ron Marz (art by Brian Ching). Barlow is the author of a few dozen other comics issues and the editor of Clone Wars Adventures and the first half of the Knights of the Old Republic run. As lead editor of Dark Horse's Star Wars comics for several years, Land worked on many, many different titles. He wrote here under a pen name. Hartley is the pen name of Randy Stradley, who wrote dozens of other issues, including most of Dark Times. He collaborated frequently with Fabbri, who also did the art for a few dozen other issues. Ching did the art for a lot of Knights of the Old Republic, among other things. Blaine and Treviño have no other significant Star Wars credits.
The Imperial Perspective is set during and after the Battle of Yavin. The main characters vary from issue to issue, but are all Imperials, most appearing for the first and last time. The obvious exception is Darth Vader, who plays a major role in about half of these stories.
Summary: No one thinks of themselves as the villain. We are all the heroes of our own stories. Several such heroes, who just happen to fight for the Empire, face significant tests as the Galactic Civil War ignites the galaxy: tests of loyalty, dedication, service, and courage as they stand against the enemies of the Empire.
Review: Most of my positive rating for this book is due to the 3-part "To the Last Man" that takes up half of it right in the middle. It performs a delicate balancing act of giving us a sympathetic protagonist while also highlighting both why someone might believe they are fighting for a good cause as an Imperial and at the same time why the Empire is still evil. The chief way it does this is by drawing parallels between Imperial forces and colonialist troops at the height of the British Empire. The fit is so natural and obvious that I couldn't believe I'd never seen it done elsewhere, and it gives us a framework for seeing the underlying issue of Imperial tyranny and xenophobia without explicitly stating it.
The battle scenes throughout this are reminiscent of scenes I'm more used to seeing from the Clone Wars, which is cool. I have to assume that at least some aspects of how the battle plays out, and particularly the way the Empire sets up a defense using technological superiority against overwhelming numbers, must be based on some actual historical battles or campaigns, though I'm not familiar enough to know which. Perhaps something like the Battle of Abu Klea? In any case, extremely effective and highly enjoyable.
The other three single-issue stories are more mediocre. Probably the best of them is the first: "What Sin Loyalty?" It features a dedicated but perhaps not very perceptive stormtrooper who is attempting to locate a spy and saboteur aboard the Death Star during the final hours before its destruction. It's okay but not super-memorable.
The other two, "The Savage Heart" and "Target: Vader," are both Vader stories. In the first, Vader limps to a small Imperial outpost after the defeat at Yavin and crashes, then has to make his way on foot across a wild landscape to rejoin the Empire. In the second, Vader is on the hunt for information about the mysterious pilot who destroyed the Death Star, when finds that he himself is being hunted by some of the many, many enemies he has made during his tenure at the right hand of the Emperor. The thing about Vader stories is, too often writers seem to think they don't really need to be about anything other than Vader being a stone-cold badass . . . which, sure, he is, but that's not very interesting if that's all you've got. And, in both these cases, that's all they've got. Ah, well. It's all totally worth it for "To the Last Man."
B+
Background: The Imperial Perspective, released in October 2004, collects issues 13-19 (except 15) of Empire (November 2003-May 2004). 1 issue was written by Jeremy Barlow (art by Patrick Blaine), 1 by Dave Land (art by Raúl Treviño), 3 by Welles Hartley (art by Davide Fabbri), and the last by Ron Marz (art by Brian Ching). Barlow is the author of a few dozen other comics issues and the editor of Clone Wars Adventures and the first half of the Knights of the Old Republic run. As lead editor of Dark Horse's Star Wars comics for several years, Land worked on many, many different titles. He wrote here under a pen name. Hartley is the pen name of Randy Stradley, who wrote dozens of other issues, including most of Dark Times. He collaborated frequently with Fabbri, who also did the art for a few dozen other issues. Ching did the art for a lot of Knights of the Old Republic, among other things. Blaine and Treviño have no other significant Star Wars credits.
The Imperial Perspective is set during and after the Battle of Yavin. The main characters vary from issue to issue, but are all Imperials, most appearing for the first and last time. The obvious exception is Darth Vader, who plays a major role in about half of these stories.
Summary: No one thinks of themselves as the villain. We are all the heroes of our own stories. Several such heroes, who just happen to fight for the Empire, face significant tests as the Galactic Civil War ignites the galaxy: tests of loyalty, dedication, service, and courage as they stand against the enemies of the Empire.
Review: Most of my positive rating for this book is due to the 3-part "To the Last Man" that takes up half of it right in the middle. It performs a delicate balancing act of giving us a sympathetic protagonist while also highlighting both why someone might believe they are fighting for a good cause as an Imperial and at the same time why the Empire is still evil. The chief way it does this is by drawing parallels between Imperial forces and colonialist troops at the height of the British Empire. The fit is so natural and obvious that I couldn't believe I'd never seen it done elsewhere, and it gives us a framework for seeing the underlying issue of Imperial tyranny and xenophobia without explicitly stating it.
The battle scenes throughout this are reminiscent of scenes I'm more used to seeing from the Clone Wars, which is cool. I have to assume that at least some aspects of how the battle plays out, and particularly the way the Empire sets up a defense using technological superiority against overwhelming numbers, must be based on some actual historical battles or campaigns, though I'm not familiar enough to know which. Perhaps something like the Battle of Abu Klea? In any case, extremely effective and highly enjoyable.
The other three single-issue stories are more mediocre. Probably the best of them is the first: "What Sin Loyalty?" It features a dedicated but perhaps not very perceptive stormtrooper who is attempting to locate a spy and saboteur aboard the Death Star during the final hours before its destruction. It's okay but not super-memorable.
The other two, "The Savage Heart" and "Target: Vader," are both Vader stories. In the first, Vader limps to a small Imperial outpost after the defeat at Yavin and crashes, then has to make his way on foot across a wild landscape to rejoin the Empire. In the second, Vader is on the hunt for information about the mysterious pilot who destroyed the Death Star, when finds that he himself is being hunted by some of the many, many enemies he has made during his tenure at the right hand of the Emperor. The thing about Vader stories is, too often writers seem to think they don't really need to be about anything other than Vader being a stone-cold badass . . . which, sure, he is, but that's not very interesting if that's all you've got. And, in both these cases, that's all they've got. Ah, well. It's all totally worth it for "To the Last Man."
B+
August 2, 2022
This graphic set of stories is subtitled ‘The Imperial Perspective’ and the blurb on the back declares ‘Even the “Bad Guys” are no strangers to loyalty, honor [sic], and sacrifice!’ And I liked that aspect of the book. It gives the Star Wars enemy the opportunity to be seen as individuals, rather than moronic brainwashed figures, voicing ‘bad guy’ imperial platitudes.
The stories are said to take place shortly after the Battle of Yavin, in which the Rebel Alliance destroyed the original Death Star. The first of them explores the mindset of a cloned warrior, dedicated to promoting and defending the interests of the Empire; the second and fourth focus on Darth Vader, his escape in his damaged craft after the Death Star’s destruction, his arrival on the planet Vaal where he has a chance to recover his anger and his fear and to refocus them, his journey from Vaal to Coruscant, and his subsequent journey to Void Station to make sure his informant, Jib Kopatha, falls into line. By the end of these stories, Vader is again his ruthless self.
The longest of the four stories, ‘To the Last Man’, is about the rise through the ranks of Janek Sunber, a career soldier. The story relates his success as a field commander under General Ziering, outperforming his senior officers, Gage and Frickett. His mantra is ‘All Duty Is Sacrifice’, and he is prepared to live by it. Having been denied his battle honours and promotion by the underhand influence of the privileged Gage, he reflects that sacrifice provides its own rewards.
All these tales conclude with a picture of its protagonist - clone, Lieutenant, or Darth lord - on his – oh yes, it’s a male-dominated universe – own, making his way into the uncertain world, following his own set of principles. A perpetuation of that image from the end of Ford’s ‘The Searchers’, with John Wayne making his lonesome way out into the sun-scorched landscape. A successor to Milton’s
“The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
They may be men who are bad or misguided, judged from an outsider’s point of view, but they have their own integrity.
The world of the graphic novel is a literary genre I’m learning to take more seriously, and its characters belong there just as much as Bill Sykes or Stephen Daedalus or Ursula Brangwen belong in theirs.
I wonder if in the future, graphic illustrators will be accorded the same applause as writers are for their descriptive prose. Illustrators may be appealing to a popular readership, they may be adopting a comic-book style pioneered in the USA, but they have their methods and their conventions and their distinctive styles and techniques, it seems to me. The thing I’d wish for, however, is that they delineate the facial features of their characters more distinctly: in ‘To the Last Man’, for example, Sunber, Gage and Frickett are often difficult to distinguish.
Otherwise, this collection fully satisfied my taste for sci-fi fantasy.
The stories are said to take place shortly after the Battle of Yavin, in which the Rebel Alliance destroyed the original Death Star. The first of them explores the mindset of a cloned warrior, dedicated to promoting and defending the interests of the Empire; the second and fourth focus on Darth Vader, his escape in his damaged craft after the Death Star’s destruction, his arrival on the planet Vaal where he has a chance to recover his anger and his fear and to refocus them, his journey from Vaal to Coruscant, and his subsequent journey to Void Station to make sure his informant, Jib Kopatha, falls into line. By the end of these stories, Vader is again his ruthless self.
The longest of the four stories, ‘To the Last Man’, is about the rise through the ranks of Janek Sunber, a career soldier. The story relates his success as a field commander under General Ziering, outperforming his senior officers, Gage and Frickett. His mantra is ‘All Duty Is Sacrifice’, and he is prepared to live by it. Having been denied his battle honours and promotion by the underhand influence of the privileged Gage, he reflects that sacrifice provides its own rewards.
All these tales conclude with a picture of its protagonist - clone, Lieutenant, or Darth lord - on his – oh yes, it’s a male-dominated universe – own, making his way into the uncertain world, following his own set of principles. A perpetuation of that image from the end of Ford’s ‘The Searchers’, with John Wayne making his lonesome way out into the sun-scorched landscape. A successor to Milton’s
“The world was all before them, where to choose
Their place of rest, and providence their guide:
They hand in hand with wandering steps and slow,
Through Eden took their solitary way.”
They may be men who are bad or misguided, judged from an outsider’s point of view, but they have their own integrity.
The world of the graphic novel is a literary genre I’m learning to take more seriously, and its characters belong there just as much as Bill Sykes or Stephen Daedalus or Ursula Brangwen belong in theirs.
I wonder if in the future, graphic illustrators will be accorded the same applause as writers are for their descriptive prose. Illustrators may be appealing to a popular readership, they may be adopting a comic-book style pioneered in the USA, but they have their methods and their conventions and their distinctive styles and techniques, it seems to me. The thing I’d wish for, however, is that they delineate the facial features of their characters more distinctly: in ‘To the Last Man’, for example, Sunber, Gage and Frickett are often difficult to distinguish.
Otherwise, this collection fully satisfied my taste for sci-fi fantasy.
April 18, 2024
(Review from 2024)
This was one of my favorite Star Wars comics in 6th and 7th grade. Fantastic look at various Imperial characters that are spread across the morality spectrum. There’s an issue that follows Darth Vader surviving a crash after the Death Star is destroyed and after besting an alien hyena pack leader, bonds more with the pack than any Imperial Personnel. Another issue is about a clone Stormtrooper whose loyalty to his superior is admirable but whose loyalty to the Empire is not but its due more towards his mental conditioning. Finally there’s the best arc which introduced Janek Sunber to Dark Horse Comic readers and who remains one of my favorite Star Wars characters. His arc is basically the movie “Zulu” set in outer space and shows him being a more moral and competent officer than many of his colleagues. Its bloody but a fun comic that has you at least rooting for Sunber.
This was one of my favorite Star Wars comics in 6th and 7th grade. Fantastic look at various Imperial characters that are spread across the morality spectrum. There’s an issue that follows Darth Vader surviving a crash after the Death Star is destroyed and after besting an alien hyena pack leader, bonds more with the pack than any Imperial Personnel. Another issue is about a clone Stormtrooper whose loyalty to his superior is admirable but whose loyalty to the Empire is not but its due more towards his mental conditioning. Finally there’s the best arc which introduced Janek Sunber to Dark Horse Comic readers and who remains one of my favorite Star Wars characters. His arc is basically the movie “Zulu” set in outer space and shows him being a more moral and competent officer than many of his colleagues. Its bloody but a fun comic that has you at least rooting for Sunber.
April 15, 2019
Imperial Perspective features three skippable, two-star stories and one thrilling, magnificent, five-star story ("To The Last Man") about the toll that war takes and how heroes can be found even among the villains. I can't say I've encountered an Empire-focused story before that so successfully made me root for the Imperial war machine. I was fully invested in seeing the undermanned, cornered Imperial scouting mission overcome the odds to defeat the native Amanins - this despite knowing full well that the Imperials were the invaders and the Amanin were just trying to defend their homeworld.
It helped, of course, that the art for "To The Last Man" was a clear improvement on the rest of the volume - bright colors and clear lines led to some extremely visceral battle scenes. The rest of the so far somewhat lackluster Empire series needs more stories like this.
It helped, of course, that the art for "To The Last Man" was a clear improvement on the rest of the volume - bright colors and clear lines led to some extremely visceral battle scenes. The rest of the so far somewhat lackluster Empire series needs more stories like this.
July 26, 2020
Re-read - pretty sure I read this in the library once upon a time.
Please note that this comic series is now part of Legends, and is no longer canon within the Star Wars expanded universe.
We have four quick tales in this volume:
1) Despite his best efforts, a clone soldier struggles to thwart the Rebels;
2) Vader gets in touch with his inner beast while an officer at a remote outpost learns to relax;
3) The career of Lt. Janek Sunber does not go according to plan;
4) Vader doesn't like being reminded of the past but can't escape it.
I liked the mix of stories in this volume, and none of them dipped into the sort of melodrama that turns me off. I also appreciated seeing different art styles for different stories. On to the next volume!
Please note that this comic series is now part of Legends, and is no longer canon within the Star Wars expanded universe.
We have four quick tales in this volume:
1) Despite his best efforts, a clone soldier struggles to thwart the Rebels;
2) Vader gets in touch with his inner beast while an officer at a remote outpost learns to relax;
3) The career of Lt. Janek Sunber does not go according to plan;
4) Vader doesn't like being reminded of the past but can't escape it.
I liked the mix of stories in this volume, and none of them dipped into the sort of melodrama that turns me off. I also appreciated seeing different art styles for different stories. On to the next volume!
May 19, 2024
There's some solid stories here, but "To the Last Man" is the real showstopper. It's one of the most memorable stories I've ever read in comic form; this is only my third reading of it (I think), yet it's remained in my thoughts for years. The Empire's flaws are laid bare to the reader and yet you completely understand why Sunber remains in service. He's one of the most interesting Imperial characters from the Legends canon. I look forward to revisiting his other appearances in this line.
August 26, 2019
4.5 stars for to the last man, 1.5 stars for the rest.
January 3, 2021
5 great short stories of characters loyal to the Empire.
May 2, 2025
A mostly satisfying little collection, though the art in the middle stories leaves something to be desired.
April 16, 2015
Suddenly, Empire whirls around from a great story, to two crappy ones, then all the way around to some very good ones. I thought the story of Darth Vader's landing after Episode IV a bit blown-up and exaggerated (he really started his own pack, as a leader of the hyenas? Really?) but, it was played up for comedy, so I'll let it slide a bit. But what really steals the show, is the story of the Imperial officers on Maridun. Good God, this story was great. You normally see these as just "those guys in grey" and "interchangeable", but this story tells of their (and specifically Janek's) struggles in conquering worlds. The officers each have their own actions and motives, and carry them out in different ways. And the ending to Janek's arc was very realistic, believable, and overall very humbling.
June 1, 2016
A collection of mixed stories with gorgeous art, overall (the principle artist for "Knights of the Old Republic" draws a few in this collection, I believe). These Empire-focused stories are interesting, if for no other reason than the perspective on events surrounding the events of SW: A New Hope.
January 19, 2016
Overall this collection of stories was just okay with the exception of Welles Hartley and Davide Fabbri's story "To the Last Man" which was really good. Engaging from start to finish with very nice artwork, I'd give that story alone four stars.
May 20, 2010
My favorite story was about Lt. Sunder. An excellent collection.
Read
July 5, 2010SW empire v.3
January 18, 2013
Good comic for SW fans who want stories from an 'Imperial Perspective'.
January 20, 2017
A few stories showcasing the imperial perspective of things. The standout story was the one involving Lt. Sunber. I really enjoyed how that particular story was crafted.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews