Reprinted from three six-issue
comic-book miniseries (1995, 1998, and 1999) based on the prose
novels by Timothy Zahn (1991-1993), adapted by scripter Mike Baron
and various artists
I was
there, nigh on two and a half decades past, when Star Wars
seemed a fad of the past after a dearth of several years in the late
1980s after the completion of the “trilogy” with the appearance
of Return of the Jedi
in 1983. Little if any merchandising was being published when
suddenly there appeared in 1991 a new novel, Heir to the
Empire. I was there … but I
didn't actually pick it up until it appeared in paperback the next
summer, and read it during that bit of a lull in my graduate studies
between finishing up my M.A. thesis and beginning my doctoral
studies. I thoroughly enjoyed it, of course, picked up the
paperbacks of the sequels – Dark Force Rising
and The Last Command –
as they appeared in paperback the next two summers. Together, they
told one long, fast paced, intricate story that basically created
what came to be known as the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Characters, worlds, concepts, a history
spanning millennia would be elaborated by many other creators in both
prose and comics – some even being “canonized” by incorporation
into the revived film series, most notably the Imperial Capital of
Coruscant, which was first named and described in Heir to
the Empire.
Dark
Horse Comics, a small “independent” publisher just getting on its
feet, acquired the license to publish the Star Wars comics
at about the same time as the prose Thrawn Trilogy
was appearing, and worked closely with Lucasfilms to maintain a
more-or-less cohesive continuity in the overall Star Wars
brand. Although I have read very little of it, just a handful of
novels and even less of the comics, it is a publishing and marketing
coup that one cannot help but marvel at, given its omnipresence in
bookstores and comic shops. Even though I have no personal
attachment to it, I consider it a shame that the what everyone
predicted when Disney acquired Lucasfilm a couple of years ago has
now come to pass, that Dark Horse is losing its license to publish
Star Wars material in
favor of Disney's earlier-acquired Marvel Comics. I think there is
no doubt that the quality and success of Dark Horse's efforts through
the years contributed greatly to rejuvenating the Star Wars
brand and making possible the prequel movies as well as the new
movies that are now in production – and made it an extremely
attractive property for Disney to assimilate. No good deed goes
unpunished.
But the
mid-'90s revival of Star Wars
was synergistic, really sparked by the appearance of Heir
to the Empire. Within a year of
The Thrawn Trilogy's
completion in prose, Dark Horse began closing the circle by beginning
publication of the three six-issue miniseries collected here,
adapting the prose novels into illustrated form, first as comics,
then collected in trades, and finally in 2009 bringing them all
together in a fairly massive hardcover edition. Which is what I
found a couple of years ago and decided to pick up, to revisit that
great story I remembered from nigh on two decades past. It actually
sat on my bookshelf unread, for a couple of years, until just
recently, in the wake of Dark Horse's announcement that their
publication and distribution of Star Wars
material would end later this year and their titles would become
unavailable. I decided to pick up the other two of what I perceive
as the key Dark Horse Star Wars
collections – presented in volumes that more or less match this one
– The Dark Empire Trilogy
and The Crimson Empire Saga,
and I started reading this one.
To be
honest, I found it a bit disappointing. Although at twenty-or-more
years' remove, my memories of the story are sketchy, they are fondly
held. The problem is that even at a whopping 440 pages there is far
too little space to translate the dense, driving prose narrative into
graphic form. Mike Baron is quite straightforward in his
introduction:
“Adapting the novels was a simple
process because Zahn writes so visually. Knowing there would be six
comic books for each novel, I simply divided the text into sixths,
making allowances for natural breaks and cliffhangers. I didn't
invent any language. All the language is Zahn's”
(p. 7).
There is
just too much story here for that to work, however. It's a problem I
noticed particularly in the second and third parts, Dark
Force Rising and The
Last Command, where there are
scores of annoying narrative glitches, discontinuities, characters
mysteriously appearing and disappearing here there and yonder. The
problem existed both at the micro-scene and macro-plot level, to the
point of rendering pages and scenes on end basically incomprehensible
gibberish. Had I not at least a general idea of the story's progress
and where it was going, I fear I would have just given up. I pressed
on, but frankly my overall memory of the story are not now much less
sketchy than when I began.
There
are bits I did enjoy. It was neat gaining more than my own mind's
eye interpretation of characters created by Zahn whom I remembered
distinctly – Grand Admiral Thrawn, Mara Jade, Taran Kaarde, C'Baoth
(how the hell do you pronounce that? – “K'Bay-oth” or
“S'Bay-oth”? – or something else? … I mean, I pronounced the
planet as “Kor-uss-kahnt” until The Phantom Menace
appeared and Qui-Gon Jinn told me it was “Kor-uss-sahnt”), and so
forth. On the other hand, the artistic style is overtly inconsistent
from part to part. The first is highly impressionistic with even
established characters being difficult to recognise; the second is
quite realistic, with the established characters closely reflecting
the actors who portrayed them; the third is more generic comic-book
style with far less resemblance between character and actor.
Honestly, I preferred the middle style – for both the established and the new characters.
It was
interesting how much of a nod was given to Grand Admiral Thrawn's uncanny
ability to strategise against his New Republic opponents based on the
artistic and design styles favored by the various races making it up,
perceiving and exploiting weaknesses in their thought processes and
adapting to and defending against their strengths. That is a
fascinating concept that I had remembered being intrigued by in my
original reading of the novels, and although I think it inevitably
short shrift here, enough comes through to give credence to the
military genius threatening the young New Republic. As an example of
the serendipity with which life is filled, I was reading this volume
at the very time I was encountering a similar artistically-based
cultural comparison between Christianity and Buddhism in G. K.
Chesterton's Orthodoxy,
chapter eight.
May the Force be with you, and Thanks for reading.
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