InsaneJournal

Though it did come out the same year as that godawful game in 1997.

In the spirit of Martial Arts Week here's some Star Wars kung fu in the form of Crimson Empire. The six issue mini take's place just right after Empire's End with Palpatine dying his final death at the hand of Han Solo and some poor dying Jedi Knight who sacrified his body to end Palpatine from putting his soul into Han/Leia's kid, Anakin Solo.

So the Empire is pretty much in chaos right due to all of this? Sort of. The Crimson Guard aka Palpatine's bodyguard have been marked as traitors to the Empire and all but one major Guardsman (Kir Kanos) has survived the Empire's culling of the guard.

So why are the Guard who are the most loyal to their Emperor being hunted down? Because one of their own, Carnor Jax has declared himself Dark Lord of the Sith and heir to the Imperial throne. Even more, just before a large group are slaughtered by the Empire they discover that Jax also was the REAL person behind Palpatine's death. That he bribed Palpatine's doctors to make sure the Emperor's clones all had a limited life span.

Kanos can't do much with this knowledge, but remain hidden and wait till the heat dies down. Instead, he finds himself plunged in the war between Empire and the Rebellion with Jax appearing not soon after hearing a Crimson Guard is helping the Rebellion cause.

This is a unique little Star Wars tale where a ton of major events happen within it (shaping the Empire for what it is when the Vong show up). Only three major characters of the Star Wars Saga show up in the first mini. The two obvious being Vader and Palpatine in flashback form (all of which I'm gonna post). Whose was the other? Why Wedge Antilles, who just has a cameo near the final issue kicking some Empire behind.

Honestly there are a ton of Star Wars cliches a bound. But I have to admit it's a real fun read and some awesome art and color. It's one of my favorite Star Wars stories of all time. And once in awhile, I'll pop open the issues and read them. Oh and here's some music to help the mood:





Anyway, here's the first flashback involving both Vader and Palpatine from #1:












OUCH! What a lesson learned.

Onto the final flashback with our Dark Lords of the Sith in #2:











Again ouch. I hope you enjoyed this and the darkside dickery. I'm going to post the Jax/Kanos fight in the final two issues probably later this week when I get a chance. Tommorrow.. er today well later today scans of Cass vs Slade round 2 with Rose now thrown into the mix.

I hope you enjoyed this little part of the Star Wars verse. As for why there where so many creators added to this is because Richardson and Standley wrote this with Gulacy on art. I couldn't help but add Dave Stewart though to this because this dude rocked with the colors in this series. I mean seriously the stuff above in the final flashback where awesome.