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Star Wars Omnibus #11
Star Wars Omnibus: Shadows of the Empire
In the time between the events in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca attempt to rescue Han Solo from the notorious bounty hunter Boba Fett, while the criminal Prince Xizor and Darth Vader make plans to control, or destroy, the leaders of the Rebel Alliance.
Shadows of the Empire was a multimedia Star Wars event-- a film-without-the-film--in which a major story was told across a series of novels, comic books, role-playing games, a video game, and trading cards. Shadows even had its own soundtrack.
Included here in the complete comic series as well as two stories that followed in its wake: Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, the story of the Imperial assassin who would one day wed the New Republic's greatest hero, Luke Skywalker; and Shadows of the Empire: Evolution, a direct sequel to Shadows of the Empire.
408 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 2010
113 people are currently reading
428 people want to read
About the author
Steve Perry
311 books361 followersLibrarians note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
Steven Carl Perry has written over fifty novels and numerous short stories, which have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Perry is perhaps best known for the Matador series. He has written books in the Star Wars, Alien and Conan universes. He was a collaborator on all of the Tom Clancy's Net Force series, seven of which have appeared on the New York Times Bestseller list. Two of his novelizations, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Men in Black have also been bestsellers. Other writing credits include articles, reviews, and essays, animated teleplays, and some unproduced movie scripts. One of his scripts for Batman: The Animated Series was an Emmy Award nominee for Outstanding Writing.
Perry is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Animation Guild, and the Writers Guild of America, West
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
February 19, 2015
Terrible writing and so-so artwork makes this a very poor read. Not recommended for anyone except maybe the most diehard of Star Wars fans.
June 26, 2015
I find myself reading these Omnibuses all out of order for a couple of reasons. One is that after reading about Rogue Squadron and some Sith from like 5,000 years ago, I just can’t be bothered with the earlier stuff... and the other is that they don't seem to have been released in any order to begin with. I grabbed this one mostly because it has Leia and Chewie on the cover and I just wanted something familiar.
The first of the three stories in the omnibus, Shadows of the Empire takes place between the events in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. From what I understand, it is an adaptation of the book of the same name, which I have not read. I've seen reviews that say it isn't as good as the novel, but I've no idea if those people have the slightest idea what a book to comic adaptation should look like... and I'm certain I don't. As we start the story, Leia, Chewie, and Luke are trying to find Boba Fett, who currently has Han frozen in carbonite. We are also treated to the Emperor being upset with Vader, who continues trying to track down Luke. Side plots about the Black Sun gang and some bounty hunters trying to steal Han from Fett ensure that something is always happening.
Since this was originally a movie tie-in, I was expecting it to end with Luke and the gang about to infiltrate Jabba’s palace(?), or at least planning that out. Instead, the story ends as soon as Boba Fett successfully delivers Han to Jabba. That does make a better ending than I was expecting, but I was still a little disappointed.
My other disappointment in this otherwise fine story was the art. It is fine overall, and in other circumstances I wouldn’t really notice, but this was supposed to be a tie-in. Why don’t Leia, Luke, and Lando look more like the actors? I mean, they do a little sometimes, but come on. You can do better.
Shadows of the Empire – Evolution is the second story, and takes place immediately after Return of the Jedi. This story doesn't really have much to do with the previous Shadows of the Empire, which may be why people seem to dislike it. As a standalone comic, I thought it was a good time. We follow along with Guri, who is a human replica droid. There are only about five of these highly advanced droids who look completely human, this one being programmed as an assassin working for the Black Sun. Guri has left the Black Sun and decided that she doesn’t want to be an assassin anymore. To this end she is hunting down her creator, who hopefully can erase her memory and her assassin programming so she can live a normal life.
While she is doing that, there are some other interested parties after her. After all, she is an assassination droid who hung out with the leader of the Black Sun. She probably knows things, or could be useful in some way. Or perhaps you have a way to force her back into service. If nothing else, these Star Wars stories like to have a lot of players in the game.
This story does have Luke and the Scooby Gang, but they are really secondary to the main plot, which I suspect is another thing that people dislike about this one. They are trying to figure out what is going on with the Black Sun, and end up in the same place as Guri completely by accident. They are merely looking for someone who is looking for her.
There are a couple of funny lines, mostly around women hitting on Han and Leia giving him crap about it. I believe by this point they should be past this, but the comic is treating it like they are still at the point in their relationship where she is calling him a nerf-herder. I think that's fun, but I'm sure others more true to the lore are upset.
The Scooby Gang looks more like themselves than in the previous story, which is a huge plus. As with the previous story, it's good, not great.
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand
For me, this is the highlight of this Omnibus. I was already introduced to Mara Jade from the Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn. I liked those books so much that I have signed copies of two of them sitting on my bookshelf, so I might be a little biased towards this.. This story, also written by Timothy Zahn, takes place around the end of Return of the Jedi when the Emperor dies, and before everything that happens in the novels.
For those who do not know, Mara Jade is a force-sensitive orphan who was raised by the Emperor and made into his spy/assassin (lightsaber and everything). The position known as The Emperor’s Hand. Where Vader is obvious and intimidating, Mara is subtle to the point that no one even knows that she is more than arm-candy for the Emperor at parties.
The emperor at a party.. there’s something you’ve never thought about before.
(No idea why GR hates that gif, but you should see it. Click me.)
We get started with a short introduction to who Mara is and see that she was in the room at Jabba's when Luke was trying to recover Han’s body. She failed in her mission there to kill Luke, and off we go to her next mission to kill a cartel leader trying to replace the fallen Black Sun organization. Eventually we get to the interesting bit where Mara gets a vision of Luke and Vader killing the Emperor, which ends with the Emperor telling her to kill Luke Skywalker. So now she hates Luke and is pretty pissed at herself for failing to kill him when she had the chance.
The Emperor is dead and Mara is taken prisoner during a power struggle within the empire leadership. There is a great sequence about her escape, before running to another planet to hide. Some stuff goes down, and Mara Jade remembers that she's the frikkin Emperor's Hand, so why is she hiding?
The last portion of the story is her attempting to murder the same cartel boss from before, as she has since learned that she killed a decoy previously.
The art is serviceable. None of the Scooby Gang are in this except a few panels of Luke during the vision, so it doesn’t suffer for not recreating movie actors correctly. But it is fairly bland overall.
---
As seems to be a trend with these Omnibuses, three stars. A pretty good read, but nothing amazing.
The first of the three stories in the omnibus, Shadows of the Empire takes place between the events in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. From what I understand, it is an adaptation of the book of the same name, which I have not read. I've seen reviews that say it isn't as good as the novel, but I've no idea if those people have the slightest idea what a book to comic adaptation should look like... and I'm certain I don't. As we start the story, Leia, Chewie, and Luke are trying to find Boba Fett, who currently has Han frozen in carbonite. We are also treated to the Emperor being upset with Vader, who continues trying to track down Luke. Side plots about the Black Sun gang and some bounty hunters trying to steal Han from Fett ensure that something is always happening.
Since this was originally a movie tie-in, I was expecting it to end with Luke and the gang about to infiltrate Jabba’s palace(?), or at least planning that out. Instead, the story ends as soon as Boba Fett successfully delivers Han to Jabba. That does make a better ending than I was expecting, but I was still a little disappointed.
My other disappointment in this otherwise fine story was the art. It is fine overall, and in other circumstances I wouldn’t really notice, but this was supposed to be a tie-in. Why don’t Leia, Luke, and Lando look more like the actors? I mean, they do a little sometimes, but come on. You can do better.
Shadows of the Empire – Evolution is the second story, and takes place immediately after Return of the Jedi. This story doesn't really have much to do with the previous Shadows of the Empire, which may be why people seem to dislike it. As a standalone comic, I thought it was a good time. We follow along with Guri, who is a human replica droid. There are only about five of these highly advanced droids who look completely human, this one being programmed as an assassin working for the Black Sun. Guri has left the Black Sun and decided that she doesn’t want to be an assassin anymore. To this end she is hunting down her creator, who hopefully can erase her memory and her assassin programming so she can live a normal life.
While she is doing that, there are some other interested parties after her. After all, she is an assassination droid who hung out with the leader of the Black Sun. She probably knows things, or could be useful in some way. Or perhaps you have a way to force her back into service. If nothing else, these Star Wars stories like to have a lot of players in the game.
This story does have Luke and the Scooby Gang, but they are really secondary to the main plot, which I suspect is another thing that people dislike about this one. They are trying to figure out what is going on with the Black Sun, and end up in the same place as Guri completely by accident. They are merely looking for someone who is looking for her.
There are a couple of funny lines, mostly around women hitting on Han and Leia giving him crap about it. I believe by this point they should be past this, but the comic is treating it like they are still at the point in their relationship where she is calling him a nerf-herder. I think that's fun, but I'm sure others more true to the lore are upset.
The Scooby Gang looks more like themselves than in the previous story, which is a huge plus. As with the previous story, it's good, not great.
Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand
For me, this is the highlight of this Omnibus. I was already introduced to Mara Jade from the Thrawn novels by Timothy Zahn. I liked those books so much that I have signed copies of two of them sitting on my bookshelf, so I might be a little biased towards this.. This story, also written by Timothy Zahn, takes place around the end of Return of the Jedi when the Emperor dies, and before everything that happens in the novels.
For those who do not know, Mara Jade is a force-sensitive orphan who was raised by the Emperor and made into his spy/assassin (lightsaber and everything). The position known as The Emperor’s Hand. Where Vader is obvious and intimidating, Mara is subtle to the point that no one even knows that she is more than arm-candy for the Emperor at parties.
The emperor at a party.. there’s something you’ve never thought about before.
(No idea why GR hates that gif, but you should see it. Click me.)
We get started with a short introduction to who Mara is and see that she was in the room at Jabba's when Luke was trying to recover Han’s body. She failed in her mission there to kill Luke, and off we go to her next mission to kill a cartel leader trying to replace the fallen Black Sun organization. Eventually we get to the interesting bit where Mara gets a vision of Luke and Vader killing the Emperor, which ends with the Emperor telling her to kill Luke Skywalker. So now she hates Luke and is pretty pissed at herself for failing to kill him when she had the chance.
The Emperor is dead and Mara is taken prisoner during a power struggle within the empire leadership. There is a great sequence about her escape, before running to another planet to hide. Some stuff goes down, and Mara Jade remembers that she's the frikkin Emperor's Hand, so why is she hiding?
The last portion of the story is her attempting to murder the same cartel boss from before, as she has since learned that she killed a decoy previously.
The art is serviceable. None of the Scooby Gang are in this except a few panels of Luke during the vision, so it doesn’t suffer for not recreating movie actors correctly. But it is fairly bland overall.
---
As seems to be a trend with these Omnibuses, three stars. A pretty good read, but nothing amazing.
August 17, 2025
Strictly ok stuff
May 29, 2021
The first part of this collection takes place between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Leia is still hunting around the galaxy for Han as Luke deals with not one but two bounties on his head, one for being taken alive and one for confirmation of his death. There is plenty of action and I'm okay with that. Unfortunately this is where the book blows its wad as the last two thirds completely drop the ball. The middle section focuses on Mara Jade between the death of the emperor and before Heir To The Empire. Don't attack me, you Star Wars fans, but Mara Jade does nothing for me and this collection doesn't change my mind. The last part is about a new character who apparently was introduced before but I'm unfamiliar with. In fact, I can't recall this character's name. It's not important, what is important is she has big boobs and a skin tight outfit that gets ripped in strategic places.
May 3, 2023
Man, this is a stinker of a collection. It starts with the Shadows of the Empire comic series, which runs in parallel to the book of the same name, and is more a side-quest than anything else. Then it jumps into a Mara Jade story by Timothy Zahn, which should have been more interesting, but Zahn isn't much of a comics writer. Almost everything necessary for the story was told to us through her thought bubbles, and since it's Zahn, it's overly wordy and overly complicated. Then it concludes with possibly the worst EU story I've read since The Ruins of Dantooine -- Shadows of the Empire: Evolution. I mean, the other two stories in the omnibus were clearly drawn for the male gaze, but SotE:E was clearly just someone's kink on paper.
This is easily a skippable volume. The only reason I didn't settle on one star is because it does extend the lore. Barely.
This is easily a skippable volume. The only reason I didn't settle on one star is because it does extend the lore. Barely.
August 5, 2018
The story lines are really weak.
August 30, 2020
Now that I'm reading this comic again while simultaneously reading the novel, I better understand certain design-choices that were made.
For example, in the beginning of a fight where the novel focuses on Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, the comic will show Boba Fett's side of that fight. But because of this, it is not recommended to read this comic alone since most of the plot is in the novel and these are more like, "extended scenes" for what is actually happening. The novel describes the whole fight, while Boba Fett is just one little element of that bigger fight.
Another example is Xizor's first meeting with Darth Vader. The book follows Xizor before and during the meeting. While the comic only shows Darth Vader preparing that meeting. Completely leaving out the meeting itself.
Because of this the comic does not stands up on its own. The same for the computer game that only shows Dash Rendar's personal events.
The art is typical nineties art from the period. It's nothing to write home about.
For example, in the beginning of a fight where the novel focuses on Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles, the comic will show Boba Fett's side of that fight. But because of this, it is not recommended to read this comic alone since most of the plot is in the novel and these are more like, "extended scenes" for what is actually happening. The novel describes the whole fight, while Boba Fett is just one little element of that bigger fight.
Another example is Xizor's first meeting with Darth Vader. The book follows Xizor before and during the meeting. While the comic only shows Darth Vader preparing that meeting. Completely leaving out the meeting itself.
Because of this the comic does not stands up on its own. The same for the computer game that only shows Dash Rendar's personal events.
The art is typical nineties art from the period. It's nothing to write home about.
September 19, 2011
I remember when Shadows of The Empire came out and was a big deal. I read the book and I liked it. The Comic adaptation unfortunately is rather forgettable and has little to recommend it. The Mara Jade story was more interesting and had better art. It just flowed better. The final story about Xizor's assassin droid was decent, but the appearance of Han, Luke, Leiah, etc while welcome was not integrated well into the story.
April 17, 2021
Solid writing and art direction across the board here.
June 17, 2017
The SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE OMNIBUS collects three graphic novels from that Star Wars universe, the first being SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE and then two more that relate to the SHADOWS story. These stories all take place post EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, with the latter two taking place after the destruction of the Second Death Star.
SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE is about the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Boba Fett after The Empire Strikes Back as they attempt to get Han Solo back and deal with the rising threat of Prince Xizor, a black market gang leader who is hunting Luke Skywalker in an effort to discredit Vader and gain the Emperor's favor. We get to meet lots of awesome new characters, including one of my favorites Dash Rendar, a Han Solo substitute who helps the gang out in various capacities. I won't go into it too much, but this is a great story and they really should have made this a movie before they did the prequels. It's an essential story in the Star Wars extended universe and shouldn't be missed. The artwork and writing here are good, it's decently paced without losing too much of the source novel. Highly recommended.
MARA JADE: BY THE EMPEROR'S HAND focuses on Mara Jade's journey after Palpatine was killed at the end of Return of the Jedi. She is initially investigating a rising black market gang called Black Sun who is trying to revive Prince Xisor's business from SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE. When she returns she is almost immediately arrested and put into a cell, certain to be killed by a power hungry lackey under Palpatine's command. She escapes and finds out the Black Sun is still at large, so she goes into hiding while continuing her final mission from the Emperor. It's not bad series at all, written by two of the best Star Wars novel authors Timothy Zahn (who created Mara Jade for his phenomenal Thrawn Trilogy) and Michael Stackpole (primary author of the X-Wing series). Mara Jade is a very interesting character who seems to fit seamlessly into the Star Wars universe despite not being a character we ever saw on screen and she carries the story along very well here. It seems a bit long though, there is a lot of over explaining simple things and reiterating things we already know.
SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE: EVOLUTION follows the female droid Guri, who was Prince Xizor's personal assassin, as she attempts to erase the memories of being under his control. Little does she know two nefarious groups are tracking her and hope to use her for their own purposes, one of those groups being chased by Luke, Leia, and Han. It's a good comic and decent followup to SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE, I like that it wasn't as busy as the Mara Jade story. The presence of our heroes from the original trilogy is nice, but they are kind of relegated to being comic relief in a lot of scenes. Don't expect a story on the grand scale of SHADOWS, it's just a interesting little epilogue.
A great collection of stories, including one of the most important ones in the Expanded Universe. Very highly recommended.
SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE is about the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Boba Fett after The Empire Strikes Back as they attempt to get Han Solo back and deal with the rising threat of Prince Xizor, a black market gang leader who is hunting Luke Skywalker in an effort to discredit Vader and gain the Emperor's favor. We get to meet lots of awesome new characters, including one of my favorites Dash Rendar, a Han Solo substitute who helps the gang out in various capacities. I won't go into it too much, but this is a great story and they really should have made this a movie before they did the prequels. It's an essential story in the Star Wars extended universe and shouldn't be missed. The artwork and writing here are good, it's decently paced without losing too much of the source novel. Highly recommended.
MARA JADE: BY THE EMPEROR'S HAND focuses on Mara Jade's journey after Palpatine was killed at the end of Return of the Jedi. She is initially investigating a rising black market gang called Black Sun who is trying to revive Prince Xisor's business from SHADOW OF THE EMPIRE. When she returns she is almost immediately arrested and put into a cell, certain to be killed by a power hungry lackey under Palpatine's command. She escapes and finds out the Black Sun is still at large, so she goes into hiding while continuing her final mission from the Emperor. It's not bad series at all, written by two of the best Star Wars novel authors Timothy Zahn (who created Mara Jade for his phenomenal Thrawn Trilogy) and Michael Stackpole (primary author of the X-Wing series). Mara Jade is a very interesting character who seems to fit seamlessly into the Star Wars universe despite not being a character we ever saw on screen and she carries the story along very well here. It seems a bit long though, there is a lot of over explaining simple things and reiterating things we already know.
SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE: EVOLUTION follows the female droid Guri, who was Prince Xizor's personal assassin, as she attempts to erase the memories of being under his control. Little does she know two nefarious groups are tracking her and hope to use her for their own purposes, one of those groups being chased by Luke, Leia, and Han. It's a good comic and decent followup to SHADOWS OF THE EMPIRE, I like that it wasn't as busy as the Mara Jade story. The presence of our heroes from the original trilogy is nice, but they are kind of relegated to being comic relief in a lot of scenes. Don't expect a story on the grand scale of SHADOWS, it's just a interesting little epilogue.
A great collection of stories, including one of the most important ones in the Expanded Universe. Very highly recommended.
November 22, 2017
For those insightful and well-read enough amongst us, myself especially included, after being exposed to RedLetterMedia's superb and incredibly amusing critique of the Star Wars prequels, the revelation was received that the singular germ which trumpeted the very sad degradation and ultimate ruination of the Star Wars series singularly occurred when Lucas released his atrocious, annoyingly unnecessary and retroactively painful, Shadows of the Empire story.
Instead of expanding the narrative of Star Wars to a new generation, they instead amounted to nothing more than cheap, commercial, crass, crap for the unwashed masses who would unthinkingly consume anything emblazoned with the once irreproachable and irrefutable Star Wars brand. (A brand that deep down really resonates with all of us. It's appeal is truly universal.) However, if one zooms out from the smaller picture, to the larger context of the development of the Star Wars mythology as a whole, one will realize that this distasteful and highly unnecessary mutation to the saga was not simply realized through the release of the needless addition. But, has its roots, and ultimately its very foundations of its own particularly shitty and new approach to Star Wars within the multimedia * cough more potential products to be sold, cough * venture that was the Shadows of The Empire.
Picture this: Its sometime in mid 1990's at Skywalker Ranch. George Lucas is snorting a copious amount of blow, or whatever hard drug(s) he was on at the time. (How could this nonsense have be conceived otherwise? I can come to no other rational solution. If you an can up with a genuine one, you can call me at 1-800-YOUA-READU-MBASS.) After hitting a particularly huge rail, or ingesting whatever potent cocktail of narcotics he unthinkingly decided to consume, or honestly probably a combination of both; he gets this great idea in his head, "Yes! I have to make the sequels I've always wanted to make! Time to celebrate with a Cherry Coke!." Following a call to his top business execs, being the good money-grubbing businessman he is, he is recommended to come up with some project from his trusted financial advisers, which is preferably multimedia in nature* cough you can sell a book, a graphic novel(s), action figures, and a shitty N64 video game, and we get a 10 percent commission! cough* to test the waters and see if the upcoming trilogy will be lucrative enough to warrant its creation.
If this is proof that everything in life should not be financialized, I have no idea what shouldn't.
Next, let's backtrack just a bit after swallowing that RedPill.
Following the massive success of Timothy Zahn's excellent Thrawn Trilogy a few years back which made it to the top of the New York Times Best Seller List (A real watershed for the Expanded Universe and unquestionably the best piece of literature in this particular niche) Lucas gets to work with his perverse posse of financial advisers. Behind closed room doors they decide that they are going to make this "interquel" commercial venture which is Shadows of the Empire not just as a novel, but a comic series, a video game, a soundtrack, and even some action figures. The whole sha-bang! The plan goes ahead, comes to fruition, and George leans back whilst sipping some Cherry Coke and gleefully waiting to see how much money he can make off this endeavor and hopes that he can make his prequel trilogy once he sees how good the numbers look in his bank account.
And its because of this purely commercial approach to narrative that Shadows of the Empire sucks. It was meant to appeal to as many people (read: kids) as possible instead of creating a real worthwhile story that would fill in some blanks. While, its definitely somewhat inventive, I'll give Jorge that, to do this story as a "story-between-stories," it doesn't matter because of its chronological placement within the context of the Star Wars Expanded Universe that the vast majority of any tension that would be generated otherwise simply evaporates. Why? Because certain variables just can't change, and because of that we have an unshakably good idea what will and what cannot happen. Leia can't die. Lando can't die. Han will still end up at Jabba's in carbonite. Etc. Blah, blah, blah.
Too many know-known's kill off any drama that could have potentially existed. Imagine reading a story in which the author tells you in the first 5 pages that most of the main characters will not die in this volume just because he's that shitty of a writer.
Secondly, the secondary characters themselves are just plain dumb, uninteresting, and thus highly emotionally uninviting. Clearly Dash Rendar is supposed to be a cardboard cuttout of Han Solo, minus the charm and the heart of gold. Instead, we are left with a simple opportunistic smuggler who we don't care about. When he (supposedly, what do you know another story means more $) dies at the end, do we care? Nope. He's just another replaceable smuggler in the universe that's dead. So what?
The Ssme goes with Prince Xixor. Although the novel gives more character and motivation than the comic, through revelation of the incidental deaths of his clan by way of a covert decimation under orders of Vader, we just don't care because he's poorly (read: lazy) characterized. Although he's supposed to be scheming for a horrible revenge on Vader whilst simultaneously running the largest crime syndicate in the galaxy, he just acts like a boorish crime boss. We never see him get worked up over anything. He never does anything really nasty that makes us particularly hate him (that's how most other bad guys are portrayed in just about every single movie in the fantasy genre). His character, and species evidently, are just too damn cold and calculating. Even the whole seduction of Leia subplot (which just seemed to be a stupid addendum to make this series more "Adult") was just stupid and unnecessary. Star Wars is a PG series, you knew nothing was going to happen anyways.
As the characters are shitty and don't add anything really important to the Expanded Universe, neither do the "fill-in" events of SOTE interstitial, meta-narrative really matter. So we get the expanded backstories, of the Bothans stealing the Death Star II plans, Leia's attainment of her bounty hunter disguise, Lando's presumed acquisition of the thermal detonators, Luke's construction of his light saber and that's basically it. Nothing really important is added to the Star Wars series this way, and watching Return of the Jedi with or without taking part in SOTE won't really affect your experience.
Needless to say, the video game was shitty, the novel mediocre, and the comic book lame. (short term profit for mediocre product production. Truly over-financialization is the root of all evil in the world.)The only enjoyable part of this little venture was the side story of Boba Fett and his intra-bounty hunter conflicts to retain Han Solo in the comic book. That's about its only redeeming aspect.
And the only reason this is getting 2 stars and not just one.
In conclusion, when seen within its proper historical context, Shadows of the Empire isn't anything unique on its own. It's only importance lies as a harbinger for the shittiness that was to continue in the Prequel Trilogy. If SOTE hadn't been so commercially successful do I think that the Prequels would have been made? Most likely not, I assume.
A pox on everyone that bought into this franchise when it came out. On your shoulders the blame falls!
Instead of expanding the narrative of Star Wars to a new generation, they instead amounted to nothing more than cheap, commercial, crass, crap for the unwashed masses who would unthinkingly consume anything emblazoned with the once irreproachable and irrefutable Star Wars brand. (A brand that deep down really resonates with all of us. It's appeal is truly universal.) However, if one zooms out from the smaller picture, to the larger context of the development of the Star Wars mythology as a whole, one will realize that this distasteful and highly unnecessary mutation to the saga was not simply realized through the release of the needless addition. But, has its roots, and ultimately its very foundations of its own particularly shitty and new approach to Star Wars within the multimedia * cough more potential products to be sold, cough * venture that was the Shadows of The Empire.
Picture this: Its sometime in mid 1990's at Skywalker Ranch. George Lucas is snorting a copious amount of blow, or whatever hard drug(s) he was on at the time. (How could this nonsense have be conceived otherwise? I can come to no other rational solution. If you an can up with a genuine one, you can call me at 1-800-YOUA-READU-MBASS.) After hitting a particularly huge rail, or ingesting whatever potent cocktail of narcotics he unthinkingly decided to consume, or honestly probably a combination of both; he gets this great idea in his head, "Yes! I have to make the sequels I've always wanted to make! Time to celebrate with a Cherry Coke!." Following a call to his top business execs, being the good money-grubbing businessman he is, he is recommended to come up with some project from his trusted financial advisers, which is preferably multimedia in nature* cough you can sell a book, a graphic novel(s), action figures, and a shitty N64 video game, and we get a 10 percent commission! cough* to test the waters and see if the upcoming trilogy will be lucrative enough to warrant its creation.
If this is proof that everything in life should not be financialized, I have no idea what shouldn't.
Next, let's backtrack just a bit after swallowing that RedPill.
Following the massive success of Timothy Zahn's excellent Thrawn Trilogy a few years back which made it to the top of the New York Times Best Seller List (A real watershed for the Expanded Universe and unquestionably the best piece of literature in this particular niche) Lucas gets to work with his perverse posse of financial advisers. Behind closed room doors they decide that they are going to make this "interquel" commercial venture which is Shadows of the Empire not just as a novel, but a comic series, a video game, a soundtrack, and even some action figures. The whole sha-bang! The plan goes ahead, comes to fruition, and George leans back whilst sipping some Cherry Coke and gleefully waiting to see how much money he can make off this endeavor and hopes that he can make his prequel trilogy once he sees how good the numbers look in his bank account.
And its because of this purely commercial approach to narrative that Shadows of the Empire sucks. It was meant to appeal to as many people (read: kids) as possible instead of creating a real worthwhile story that would fill in some blanks. While, its definitely somewhat inventive, I'll give Jorge that, to do this story as a "story-between-stories," it doesn't matter because of its chronological placement within the context of the Star Wars Expanded Universe that the vast majority of any tension that would be generated otherwise simply evaporates. Why? Because certain variables just can't change, and because of that we have an unshakably good idea what will and what cannot happen. Leia can't die. Lando can't die. Han will still end up at Jabba's in carbonite. Etc. Blah, blah, blah.
Too many know-known's kill off any drama that could have potentially existed. Imagine reading a story in which the author tells you in the first 5 pages that most of the main characters will not die in this volume just because he's that shitty of a writer.
Secondly, the secondary characters themselves are just plain dumb, uninteresting, and thus highly emotionally uninviting. Clearly Dash Rendar is supposed to be a cardboard cuttout of Han Solo, minus the charm and the heart of gold. Instead, we are left with a simple opportunistic smuggler who we don't care about. When he (supposedly, what do you know another story means more $) dies at the end, do we care? Nope. He's just another replaceable smuggler in the universe that's dead. So what?
The Ssme goes with Prince Xixor. Although the novel gives more character and motivation than the comic, through revelation of the incidental deaths of his clan by way of a covert decimation under orders of Vader, we just don't care because he's poorly (read: lazy) characterized. Although he's supposed to be scheming for a horrible revenge on Vader whilst simultaneously running the largest crime syndicate in the galaxy, he just acts like a boorish crime boss. We never see him get worked up over anything. He never does anything really nasty that makes us particularly hate him (that's how most other bad guys are portrayed in just about every single movie in the fantasy genre). His character, and species evidently, are just too damn cold and calculating. Even the whole seduction of Leia subplot (which just seemed to be a stupid addendum to make this series more "Adult") was just stupid and unnecessary. Star Wars is a PG series, you knew nothing was going to happen anyways.
As the characters are shitty and don't add anything really important to the Expanded Universe, neither do the "fill-in" events of SOTE interstitial, meta-narrative really matter. So we get the expanded backstories, of the Bothans stealing the Death Star II plans, Leia's attainment of her bounty hunter disguise, Lando's presumed acquisition of the thermal detonators, Luke's construction of his light saber and that's basically it. Nothing really important is added to the Star Wars series this way, and watching Return of the Jedi with or without taking part in SOTE won't really affect your experience.
Needless to say, the video game was shitty, the novel mediocre, and the comic book lame. (short term profit for mediocre product production. Truly over-financialization is the root of all evil in the world.)The only enjoyable part of this little venture was the side story of Boba Fett and his intra-bounty hunter conflicts to retain Han Solo in the comic book. That's about its only redeeming aspect.
And the only reason this is getting 2 stars and not just one.
In conclusion, when seen within its proper historical context, Shadows of the Empire isn't anything unique on its own. It's only importance lies as a harbinger for the shittiness that was to continue in the Prequel Trilogy. If SOTE hadn't been so commercially successful do I think that the Prequels would have been made? Most likely not, I assume.
A pox on everyone that bought into this franchise when it came out. On your shoulders the blame falls!
November 3, 2019
Stíny Impéria
Má to, oproti dříve čtenému omnibusu X-Wing: eskadra Rogue, zase ten správný pocit Star Wars, a to jak kresbou, tak dějem. Navazuje to na filmy a hezky je to rozvádí, je to hutné, akční... Nové postavy a místa, v jiných knihách Legend pro čtenáře bez encyklopedických znalostí universa matoucí, jsou tady popsány jasně a do příběhu zapadají. A jak jsem pochopil, je to do komiksu převedená kniha, což hezky vysvětluje výše zmíněné a zároveň pro mě nepochopitelné chvíle, kdy se o něčem mluví, blíží se nějaká akce a najednou děj nevysvětlitelně poskočí v čase. To pro mě Stíny Impéria dost shazovalo...
Mara Jade: Císařovou rukou
Zajímavý náhled na postavu, na kterou jsem už někde dříve letmo narazil. Celý příběh doslova jen pro ni, skrze její vyprávění a doplňovaný jejími myšlenkami. Potěšilo mě také vypořádání se s dějem po bitvě u Endoru z pohledu Impéria a navíc to má některé hezké nápady. Na druhou stranu to ale také sem tam divně poskočí (hlavně u oné nejdůležitější události!) a nemá to onu výše zmíněnou lehkost nových postav a událostí (očividně to počítá s nějakou znalostí autorových knih).
Stíny Impéria: Evoluce
Kratší doplněk a dějové navázání na Stíny Impéria, hlavně ale znova rozvedení jedné z ženských postav Legend - tentokrát humanoidní vražedné robotky Guri. Je to hutně doplňováno různými flashbacky a propojeno s postavami Aliance známými s filmů. Tentokrát to na ně ale nijak moc nenavazuje a je to spíš samostatná slabší jednohubka.
Má to, oproti dříve čtenému omnibusu X-Wing: eskadra Rogue, zase ten správný pocit Star Wars, a to jak kresbou, tak dějem. Navazuje to na filmy a hezky je to rozvádí, je to hutné, akční... Nové postavy a místa, v jiných knihách Legend pro čtenáře bez encyklopedických znalostí universa matoucí, jsou tady popsány jasně a do příběhu zapadají. A jak jsem pochopil, je to do komiksu převedená kniha, což hezky vysvětluje výše zmíněné a zároveň pro mě nepochopitelné chvíle, kdy se o něčem mluví, blíží se nějaká akce a najednou děj nevysvětlitelně poskočí v čase. To pro mě Stíny Impéria dost shazovalo...
Mara Jade: Císařovou rukou
Zajímavý náhled na postavu, na kterou jsem už někde dříve letmo narazil. Celý příběh doslova jen pro ni, skrze její vyprávění a doplňovaný jejími myšlenkami. Potěšilo mě také vypořádání se s dějem po bitvě u Endoru z pohledu Impéria a navíc to má některé hezké nápady. Na druhou stranu to ale také sem tam divně poskočí (hlavně u oné nejdůležitější události!) a nemá to onu výše zmíněnou lehkost nových postav a událostí (očividně to počítá s nějakou znalostí autorových knih).
Stíny Impéria: Evoluce
Kratší doplněk a dějové navázání na Stíny Impéria, hlavně ale znova rozvedení jedné z ženských postav Legend - tentokrát humanoidní vražedné robotky Guri. Je to hutně doplňováno různými flashbacky a propojeno s postavami Aliance známými s filmů. Tentokrát to na ně ale nijak moc nenavazuje a je to spíš samostatná slabší jednohubka.
June 20, 2022
Stars: 2
Re-read: No
Recommend to: Maybe people who want to read everything Star Wars or just read the Mara Jade portion.
I was pretty disappointed in the Shadows of the Empire section. I grew up playing the N64 game, and I've read the book a couple of times. If I hadn't just read the book, the graphic novel would've been very confusing and I think I would've missed some major plot points. Either the author seriously miscalculated how many panels would be needed, or the publisher limited him. It was a mess either way. There are one or two scenes that add something that isn't shown in the book or the game, but overall I'd prefer this story in the order of N64 game (by far the best), the book, and then the graphic novel.
The second section of the book is easily the best, which was written by Zahn and features Mara Jade. It was kind of funny that the opening scene of the graphic novel mirrors the opening scenes of the books about Jade written by Zahn (I think Choices of One) with some minor deviations. I don't think the story is amazing, but it was entertaining and worth reading if you're into graphic novels.
The last section deals with Guri. This one is just okay. The character of Guri is very interesting, but we didn't need to have any of the OT characters in it.
Re-read: No
Recommend to: Maybe people who want to read everything Star Wars or just read the Mara Jade portion.
I was pretty disappointed in the Shadows of the Empire section. I grew up playing the N64 game, and I've read the book a couple of times. If I hadn't just read the book, the graphic novel would've been very confusing and I think I would've missed some major plot points. Either the author seriously miscalculated how many panels would be needed, or the publisher limited him. It was a mess either way. There are one or two scenes that add something that isn't shown in the book or the game, but overall I'd prefer this story in the order of N64 game (by far the best), the book, and then the graphic novel.
The second section of the book is easily the best, which was written by Zahn and features Mara Jade. It was kind of funny that the opening scene of the graphic novel mirrors the opening scenes of the books about Jade written by Zahn (I think Choices of One) with some minor deviations. I don't think the story is amazing, but it was entertaining and worth reading if you're into graphic novels.
The last section deals with Guri. This one is just okay. The character of Guri is very interesting, but we didn't need to have any of the OT characters in it.
Read
April 16, 2025I recently finished Star Wars Omnibus: Shadows of the Empire, and as a fan of the Star Wars franchise, I found myself both impressed and slightly let down by this comic adaptation. On the plus side, the artwork really brought the story to life in a way that text alone can’t always achieve. Seeing characters like Dash Rendar and Prince Xizor illustrated in all their late-90s glory was a nostalgic thrill, and the action scenes popped off the page with cinematic flair. I also appreciated how tightly paced the comic was—it moved quickly and kept me engaged, hitting all the major beats from the Shadows storyline without ever feeling bloated.
That said, I couldn’t help but miss some of the depth from Steve Perry’s original novel. The comic trimmed a lot of the character introspection and political maneuvering that gave the novel its weight, especially in regard to Leia’s inner conflict and Vader’s complex motivations. The novel spent more time fleshing out the dynamics between Vader, the Emperor, and Xizor, which gave their power plays more tension. In the comic, those scenes felt a bit rushed or oversimplified. Still, for a visual and fast-paced retelling of a pivotal story in the Star Wars timeline, the Omnibus is a fun ride—just maybe best enjoyed as a companion to the novel rather than a standalone substitute.
That said, I couldn’t help but miss some of the depth from Steve Perry’s original novel. The comic trimmed a lot of the character introspection and political maneuvering that gave the novel its weight, especially in regard to Leia’s inner conflict and Vader’s complex motivations. The novel spent more time fleshing out the dynamics between Vader, the Emperor, and Xizor, which gave their power plays more tension. In the comic, those scenes felt a bit rushed or oversimplified. Still, for a visual and fast-paced retelling of a pivotal story in the Star Wars timeline, the Omnibus is a fun ride—just maybe best enjoyed as a companion to the novel rather than a standalone substitute.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2021
The cover art is great, but I don't find it indicative of the quality of the artwork for what's inside. Shadows of the Empire as a novel was middle of the road for me. I got this because I'd heard that the comic book side of things mainly told Boba Fett's side of the story. But I recognized a bunch of what I had read before. It's also kinda weird hearing Boba Fett joke at the beginning. This is basically a trimmed down version of the novel, and it unfortunately still features some Xizor, who, like much of the other stuff in this omnibus, has not aged well.
Mara Jade - By The Emperor's Hand really requires a lot of disbelief in regards to just how close Mara stood near Luke when he confronted Jabba. The espionage that she had to go through just wasn't that interesting to me.
Shadows of the Empire - Evolution is pretty forgettable. Guri is basically used as the male gaze character, and the story is pretty dull. There is one memorable moment where Han messes with Luke while he meditates. And there's a super cheesy ending where Guri meets Dash Rendar, who looks a bit different from how he was illustrated earlier.
Mara Jade - By The Emperor's Hand really requires a lot of disbelief in regards to just how close Mara stood near Luke when he confronted Jabba. The espionage that she had to go through just wasn't that interesting to me.
Shadows of the Empire - Evolution is pretty forgettable. Guri is basically used as the male gaze character, and the story is pretty dull. There is one memorable moment where Han messes with Luke while he meditates. And there's a super cheesy ending where Guri meets Dash Rendar, who looks a bit different from how he was illustrated earlier.
March 27, 2019
Literally nothing of any value here.
While the comic version of Shadows has some minor additions to the novel, the artwork, lame storyline, and general laziness of the plot leaves absolutely nothing for the reader to enjoy.
Stackpole’s Mara Jade arc is a lesson in monotony. Easily one of the most boring Star Wars stories I’ve ever read, especially considering it comes from Zahn’s otherwise fantastic creation. Then again, I’ve never been a fan of Stackpole’s other comics and novels anyways so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution is just plain weird. Aside from it being wholly unnecessary, it’s storyline is bizarre and obviously a way for Perry to try and make a quick buck off of readers from the original Shadows arc. I will say that it’s art is probably some of the best from the old days of the Darkhorse Star Wars comics.
While the comic version of Shadows has some minor additions to the novel, the artwork, lame storyline, and general laziness of the plot leaves absolutely nothing for the reader to enjoy.
Stackpole’s Mara Jade arc is a lesson in monotony. Easily one of the most boring Star Wars stories I’ve ever read, especially considering it comes from Zahn’s otherwise fantastic creation. Then again, I’ve never been a fan of Stackpole’s other comics and novels anyways so this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Shadows of the Empire: Evolution is just plain weird. Aside from it being wholly unnecessary, it’s storyline is bizarre and obviously a way for Perry to try and make a quick buck off of readers from the original Shadows arc. I will say that it’s art is probably some of the best from the old days of the Darkhorse Star Wars comics.
December 9, 2020
The comic adaptation that is the first third of the omnibus is pretty bad--the political scheming between Darth Vader and Prince Xizor is somehow flat and boring while the CONSTANT internal monologing basically ruins Boba Fett. I almost gave up on the whole book.
But I'm glad I didn't. The Mara Jade story was very good and a really interesting look at a force-trained assassin of the Emperor and what happens to her after the Empire falls. The last story about Guri (a human replica assassin droid that was one of Xizor's top lieutenants who just wants to put her assassin past behind her after the fall of Black Sun) wasn't as complex but was entertaining and fun despite the movie main characters being shoehorned into it.
It's too bad the first story is so bad, it pulls down the volume as a whole. Skip it but definitely check out the other two.
But I'm glad I didn't. The Mara Jade story was very good and a really interesting look at a force-trained assassin of the Emperor and what happens to her after the Empire falls. The last story about Guri (a human replica assassin droid that was one of Xizor's top lieutenants who just wants to put her assassin past behind her after the fall of Black Sun) wasn't as complex but was entertaining and fun despite the movie main characters being shoehorned into it.
It's too bad the first story is so bad, it pulls down the volume as a whole. Skip it but definitely check out the other two.
August 22, 2019
I think what hampers my enjoyment of this book are the newer Star Wars comics written by Jason Aaron. They are fun and have a modern feel applied to a classic story. Shadows of the Empire, however, has not quite aged so well. Maybe it's the art style, which is very good in the first two stories and kind of bad in the third story. It's not bad, just suffers from 90s style inking and coloring. Had Shadows of the Empire been an actual film, it might have been pretty good. But as a comic it's just OK.
April 10, 2018
I read this simply because I loved the Shadows of the Empire novel so much. This omnibus contained that adaptation as well as Mara Jade: By the Emporer's Hand and Shadows of the Empire: Evolution. The Mara Jade one was forgettable but ended well and the Shadows sequel had the best artwork and a lacking story. All in all, you could read the SOTE adaptation and skip the other two IMO.
May 31, 2019
Trade containing the comic adaptation of Shadows of the Empire as well as the stories Mara Jade: By The Emporer's Hand and Shadows of the Empire: Evolution. Very good followup reading for the Shadows novel which I read a few days ago.
November 8, 2023
I wanted to like this more. The artwork is subpar throughout, and the story telling is lazy. Shadows was one of the best things to come out the of non-canonical Star Wars universe, but this did not do it justice.
December 24, 2025
one of the best, ever.
Long before (and after) the Disney acquisition and decisions, this one one of the best expanded SW stories, and it still is. Same with the two sides tales included with this collection. 5 out of 5.
Long before (and after) the Disney acquisition and decisions, this one one of the best expanded SW stories, and it still is. Same with the two sides tales included with this collection. 5 out of 5.
January 9, 2018
its all "legends," but its still good if you know the legends timeline
February 19, 2018
The book of Shadows of the Empire is much better, but I still enjoyed the comics. I think more time could've been spent on these books, they feel kinda rushed.
February 13, 2019
Fun adventure in the time of the "Legends." Lots of different episodes, and the introduction of the nefarious "Black Sun" criminal syndicate.
February 6, 2020
Super cool stories with interesting characters. Takes place before and after ROTJ, would definitely recommend.
July 2, 2020
quick and easy read :)) i don’t really read graphic novels lol so i don’t have anything to base my rating on
May 16, 2021
Really bad. The Mara Jade story was ok, but the other two were borderline incomprehensible.
August 13, 2021
Read for the story of how Boba Fett transfers Han Solo in carbonite to Jabba the Hutt. He’s the best bounty hunter in the league.
October 7, 2021
Great adventures
This captures three complete classic adventures set after TROTJ. They are well written and illustrated. A nice collection to add to the mythic.
This captures three complete classic adventures set after TROTJ. They are well written and illustrated. A nice collection to add to the mythic.
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