Star Wars: Dark Empire (1992) #3 Comic Book Review

Star Wars: Dark Empire #3 was the first Star Wars comic I ever received when I was a kid. It was also my introduction to many of the characters from the Star Wars Trilogy as I didn't see the movies until early 1996. It was given to me by one of the nurses I had at the hospital, along with a bunch of her son's old Star Wars toys that he didn't play with anymore. I'm pretty sure that's who gave me this issue as I don't see my parents buying it for me since it came out before my dad bought me Star Trek #31 and Star Trek: The Next Generation #31.

This was a pretty strange issue to get into Star Wars with, which is probably why I didn't actually get into Star Wars until I saw the movies in 1996. Aside from the artwork which just has really bad colouring with way too much green and pink included, the issue opens with a Rebel fleet, commanded by Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles onboard a Rebel captured Star Destroyer, arriving at Mon Calamari, Admiral Ackbar's homeworld in response to an Imperial attack on the world. The Rebels pretty much lose the battle thanks to new robotic TIE Fighters and new machines of terror known as the World Devastators. Then it shows Leia having a Force vision of Darth Vader which morphs into Luke, who explains that he has turned to the Dark Side in order to save the Galaxy from the reign of terror instituted by the resurrected Emperor Palpatine. And for some reason this causes Leia to faint. From there her, Han, Chewie and Threepio head off to Nar Shaddaa, the Smuggler's Moon where we meet some colourful characters, and where we find out that Boba Fett is still alive after having been tossed into the Sarlacc in Return of the Jedi.

Yeah, the space battles are pretty great in this issue. Though it is limited to two. The first being the Battle of Mon Calamari between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire, and the second being a much smaller one between the Millennium Falcon and a group of bounty hunters who got the bright idea of trying to capture Han and Leia for the bounty placed on them by the Hutts for the death of Jabba as they approached Nar Shaddaa. It didn't work out so great for the bounty hunters.

One of the things that I like about this issue is that it actually laid the foundation for plotlines shown in The Hutt Gambit and Rebel Dawn, the second and third novels in Star Wars: The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin. Nar Shaddaa, Mako Spince, Shug Ninx, and Sala Zend all appear in those two novels and the background notes in the back of this issue are the basis for events that happen during that novel trilogy.

As I mentioned earlier the artwork for Dark Empire as whole, not just this issue, is really weird. Some panels are coloured normally but many of them are a single colour. Mostly green, with some that are just pure pink. Including the characters. I don't know if that's a stylistic quirk of Cam Kennedy's, or if that's just an in house style for Dark Horse Comics in general in 1992 as this is the only comic from Dark Horse that I have from that era. Whatever the case may be, it's an interesting colour choice for a Star Wars comic and definitely not something that other comic book companies have ever done before or since. It does make it difficult to figure out who you're looking at without any dialogue on the page that's for sure.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Dark Empire #3 is probably not the best way to be introduced to this storyline or these characters. With this issue you're approaching the halfway mark in this story and even with reading the opening "crawl" at the beginning of the issue you might be confused with what's going on if you haven't already read issues #1 and #2. It's still a pretty decent issue for the one that's approaching the halfway mark in a six issue mini-series. I'm going to give it 9/10 stars because of the weird colouring choices throughout the issue.

Wookieepedia:  https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Empire_3%3A_The_Battle_for_Calamari