Lit Dark Empire article series in Insider

It’s been years since I’ve gone through a copy of Insider, but I was browsing an airport news stand last night during a layover, and they had a copy of Issue 158 there. I went through it and saw there was an article on Dark Empire, apparently the second in a series of at least three. I haven’t seen any of the articles mentioned here, which shocks me because even just from the one in Insider 158, there was some incredible new stuff there. From what I remember:

The original idea for Dark Empire was actually a prequel to the OT which would focus on a group of Jedi Masters who are hunted down by Vader, ending with Obi-Wan the last of them looking out at a young Luke on Tatooine.

It was Lucy Wilson’s idea to instead have the series be a sequel to ROTJ. Also, Lucy Wilson was Lucasfilm director of publications in early 1988… was there anything they were even publishing then?

When Veitch and Kennedy submitted the first concept of the now post-ROTJ DE, it already had a resurrected Palpatine as the villain, which seems to fly in the face of every story about them originally wanting to do a new Vader and Lucas vetoing that.

Before they settled on Palpatine being a clone, other ideas involved him (or at least the one killed in ROTJ, not quite sure) being a spirit in a droid body, or that the original Palpatine had been possessed by an extra-galactic alien invader who used him to corrupt the Old Republic and create the Empire as a step to the conversion of the galaxy to a hive mind. They got the idea for that from them thinking the Royal Guards’ visors looked like ants.

Most interesting to me, the article seemed to say that Palpatine’s search for immortality in ROTS was a direct reference to his resurrections from DE by Lucas.

Has anyone read the first article in this series? Anything as interesting as the stuff from this article? (And besides the actual DE stuff, it had a lot of interesting background on Veitch, Kennedy, and their earlier work and inspirations.) This one ended with the project in jeopardy at Marvel, so I assume the next article is going to cover the shift to Dark Horse and everything that stemmed from that.

 

I will watch this thread with great interest

And look into it

 

People are so interested in learning about the new canon and what it is doing, that things like this almost completely slipped their mind. If I had Insider I definitely would have brought this up, but I wasn't even aware of this.

 

This sounds like something that would interest General Immodet

 

Bugger, Insider is murder to get hold of over here.

 

From issue 157:

Veitch solicited LucasFilm to write a Star Wars comic series.

He was heavily into psychadelics as a youth which seems to have informed his writing and his interest in Jung.

The initial pitch was a story set between the two trilogies about Jedi masters that resisted the Empire and died, under the title The Jedi Chronicles. From the onset, Veitch wanted to explore the mythology of the Jedi.

It's stuff that was basically summarized in the first page of the article in 158. The rest is sort of a bio on Veitch and Kennedy.

Another interesting thing from 158 left out of the OP was that in the pitch that was accepted for Dark Empire, Palpatine's ultimate goal was to possess Luke Skywalker. Also Tom Veitch's handwriting sucks.

Archie Goodwin came up with the idea of someone else wearing Vader's armor. This was rejected because of the prequel trilogy.

 

I've been enjoying this series of articles and was looking forward to the third one, hoping it would cover the infamous problems in reconciling DE with the Thrawn trilogy. Unfortunately, that part of it let me down a little - it sugar-coated things to a degree, and doesn't offer much insight into the old rumors that Zahn refused to cooperate with efforts to make the two projects work a little better together from a continuity standpoint. So that disappointed me a little, but by and large it's a very interesting read. There was an article an issue or two ago about Alan Dean Foster that offered similar insight into the origins of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, also a good read.

 

is there any interesting info in 159?

Edit: Also, Veitch's intent from the onset was to do something like The Force Unleashed. Like his reason for wanting to depict fallen Jedi masters during the inter-trilogy period was to show the true power of the Force in the hands of a Jedi master resisting the Galactic Empire.

TBH I always felt there was some similarities between TFU and DE like that, with Luke sort of letting loose, not to mention Palpatine's Force storms. The introduction of clones in TFU2 further reinforced that notion.

I <3 TFU and DE

Also, the idea for clone Sheev arose because of the Clone Wars. And I get the sense that the original intent for Palpatine's clones were that they were grown long term like the Kaminoan ones, prior to Zahn's Spaarti cylinders. Which is why Luke smashing most of them in #5 is such a big deal. I mean I don't really get the sense that the cloning vats themselves are irreparably damaged, but growing new clones would take forever. Plus you would figure Palpatine had backups, which he did and which were smashed in Dark Empire 2. But also you might imagine he'd have some off-world as well. And since the technology was prominent in the Clone Wars, that it isn't some obscure technology anyway. The prequels bear this out, since there's an implication that the Kaminoans aren't the only cloners, just the best.

 

For sure - a lot about the philosophy and theology Veitch had in mind as he constructed the story, how the project ended up at Dark Horse (apparently Marvel was still trying to retain the project, but Mike Richardson saw some of Cam Kennedy's art and approached Lucy Wilson, and that's how DH obtained the SW license), some pages from the DE script, a story about how George Lucas gave away the TPB to Lucasfilm employees as a Christmas gift. "Dark Empire is available from Marvel," it ironically says in a sidebar at the end of the article.

 

looking forward to reading that

Could you kind of give a summation of the philosophy and theology? I mostly agree with Veitch about the Jungian stuff but his dichotomous stuff between light and dark is missing the point IMO. And seems incongruous with his Jungian bent. Unless he's suggesting that the Jedi should integrate the shadow and become "whole" in a sense that they're lacking as light side crusaders?

 

Got the line?

 

Haven't read the Star Wars Insider for several years. I used to have a subscription, but didn't renew one year when I realized that they hadn't sent me all of the issues over the years (or they had gotten lost in the mail, or both).

I remember buying Dark Empire by Dark Horse back in 1992; great series, and it wasn't until years later that I realized (based on a short blurb somewhere) that Marvel had initially planned on publishing the series. I'm glad DH got the license, though, since I don't think Marvel would have given the SW comic book franchise as much personal attention as Dark Horse did for 20+ years...

 

Yes, that's the ad I remember seeing. Surprised Marvel planned on making DE three issues instead of 6, but then again each issue would have been 45 pages...

I wonder how DH got the license instead of Marvel, especially since Marvel initially planned to publish this?! Did DH win some kind of bid re: the franchise? If this is the case, not sure how - since they were such a small company at the time. Of course, Marvel was having a lot of financial problems in the '90's - I think they went bankrupt at one point (or almost went bankrupt)....

 

I like how it has Boba Fett and Palpatine in the ad.

 

The first DE is freakin fantastic, read the single issues as a kid and it kinda blew my hair back how much freakin stuff was happening. The cliffhanger issue ending with the broken droid repeating "Mr Fett to see you, sir." is one of my favourite cliffhangers ever.

 

I fully support the notion / if / when Fett pops up in the new canon, they just flat out steal "The Sarlacc found me somewhat indigestible" line with Fett holding someone at gunpoint and leave it at that.

 

It basically talks about how Luke, having embraced the light side of the Force to redeem his father, must now be tempted by ultimate power as happens in many myths and Biblical stories. It doesn't go into a ton of detail but definitely focuses on the Jungian stuff.

 

Wow, great find. How about that weird World Devastator...or is that supposed to be the Dungeon Ship? Threepio looks a little misplaced there in the middle of it all...

 

I'm desperately hoping that Fett stays dead, and if we get a spinoff movie it takes place prior to RotJ.

 

yeah he has a quote from an interview in SW Galaxy magazine that's similar:

“From my point of view, I think it’s profoundly important to “penetrate the dark side and learn its secrets.” That’s the hero’s main task, in fact — not simply killing off his enemies. A personality that is divided into warring opposites must somehow become whole and complete. Carl Jung would call it “integrating the Shadow.” The three existing Star Wars films are about the battle of the hero and the Shadow in the form of the dark father. If there are ever to be filmed sequels to the current trilogy, it would be logical and mythologically satisfying to somehow depict “integrating the Shadow.” In psychological terms, that would be inevitable, as part of the process of reunification of the galaxy and the re-emergence of the Jedi Knights. If the dark side is simply suppressed, pushed into the unconscious, then it will surely rise again.”

This comes up again a few times.

It came when the avatar of light resolved into the lineage of the Jedi; when the lineage of the Jedi refined into one single Jedi.
It came when Yoda found himself alone against the dark.
In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that had clouded the Force.
Finally, he saw the truth.
This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known . . .
just --
didn't --
have it.
He'd never had it. He had lost before he started.
He had lost before he was born.
The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this day. The Sith had remade themselves.
They had become new.
While the Jedi --
The Jedi had spent that same millennium training to refight the last war.
The new Sith could not be destroyed with a lightsaber; they could not be burned away by any torch of the Force. The brighter his light, the darker their shadow. How could one win a war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own weapon?

Embracing the dichotomy is the wrong way to go about it. I'd argue that maintaining one's identity while united with the Cosmic Force signifies that Obi-Wan, Yoda, Qui-Gon, and even Anakin (I guess obviously?) had this secret knowledge of the dark side, which I'd suggest isn't so much some esoteric lore or anything of the sort, but merely an acknowledgement and understanding of their own dark side, and integration of it into their ego so rather than denying it and projecting it onto their enemies, as the Jedi do the Sith, and in so doing opening themselves to relinquishing control to their baser instincts, they achieve self-mastery and know their true self. And let it go. Which is why The Ganner should be a Force ghost.

bring back Jodo Kast plz

 

Agreed. Really enjoyed Dark Empire I & II. I'm a first generation SW fan (was a kid when the OOT films came out). So, I was in college when DE I was released, after a long hiatus of years with no new SW material. I remember getting DE I #1 in very early 1992 and being amazed. Really liked the plot, the superb water-color like artwork, etc. It was tough waiting two months between issues, and with no Internet at the time, we didn't know anything about the comics prior to their release.

I liked the literal & figurative darkness in the story, and also enjoyed the return of Boba Fett, which I felt was almost a continuation to Marvel SW #81 (when he escaped from the Sarlaac Pit the first time). Also liked the Emperor's non-human guards in DE I, which I later realized were concept drawings of the Royal Guards from ROTJ (based on the artwork in the Art of Return of the Jedi book from 1983).

As has been said, DE I & Tim Zahn's Heir to the Empire book series were what brought Star Wars back to the public eye in the early '90's.

Did not really like the 2-part Empire's End, thought I would have if Cam Kennedy had come back to draw this - I thought the art here was off, and wasn't really feeling this...

 

I think DE II & Empire's End don't have the same pop that DE I has. The Luke joining the dark side to conquer it is also a fantastic hook. Like there's so many crazy big moment that are pretty wonderfully rendered in DE, the sequels sort of pale in comparison and then there's, like, World Gun or whatever it was. DE II still looks purty, though. I enjoyed them when I read them but they certainly haven't stuck in my mind as much as DE has over the years.