I got the Saga HC too. Really nice book. I'd actually get more collections like this if they did them, as it just feels like it'll last longer. Finally finished the story a couple of days ago (I've had the issues since they came out, but didn't have time over the summer to finish reading, then forgot until the collection came out). On the whole, didn't love it, though didn't mind it either. A definite improvement on CE2, though nowhere near as memorable as CE1. I feel like it could have used another issue or two, as Issue 6 especially felt very, very squeezed in, with Devian's duel too short, too little explanation of the space battle, the appearance of Feena's clone seeming underdeveloped, and too abrupt an ending for what is meant as the final conclusion to the Crimson Empire story. I realise Kanos is already established doing various errands later on in the timeline, which may have been why he couldn't have a happy ending with Mirith, but I'd at least have preferred a couple more pages for some proper closure. Still, all that aside, I still enjoyed it, which is much more than I can say for a lot of middling novels. Luke surprisingly didn't bother me that much when I re-read those scenes. On first reading, I was thinking "Wha...?", but when I re-read, I was able to imagine him talking in a much less confrontational manner than his Marvel He-Luke facial expression was suggesting.
All anyone needs to know about CEIII is that nothing of any permanent consequence happens, and the Solo children are briefly turned into Bruce Campbell getting sucked into the fake Necronomicon, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and a googly-eyed troll doll.
I like the way people act like that Solo kids shot isn't exactly like every other panel Gulacy has ever done for CE titles.
That's why Crimson Empire 1 was the best: the characters' faces were hidden by red and black helmets.
There were still plenty of eyes to cross, and nothing saved us from badly-rendered bodies, proportion and perspective errors, and all the other stuff that would embarrass an amateur.
Considering it was canceled the first time because of the then upcoming prequel trilogy, I guess people were expecting something more meaty than "it's not your old Bantam warlord: he has Acclamators!!!!!!!!".
While I've always thought its be cool to see a warlord make use of all those scrapped warships (sorta like Thrawn did with the Dreadnaughts, I suppose), I actually really didn't like the Acclamators in CE3... It just seemed wrong that Devian ever thought they'd be able to stand up against all those modern Imp Star IIs that the Remnant now had. This is the main area where I think the fleet battle needed some more discussion, as there are reasons in the story for it -- Pellaeon was attacking Coruscant, the place would be undefended, so Devian didn't need top of the range warships, etc -- but in the text this didn't seem to get enough explanation, which made things feel a bit flat and as if the Acclamators were just there for the purpose of "Hey! Wouldn't it be cool to use those great looking ships from AOTC!?" Really just wanted a line by one of Devians detractors earlier in the story so he had a chance to explain how using old rust buckets was going to work.
I didn't like the use of the Acclamators and other Clone Wars stuff because it ruined the otherwise-great pretend immersion of my return to the late 1990s that the rest of CE3 offered me. I do think Gulacy's art improved slightly for CE3. The key factor there being the word 'slightly' and the fact that it's relative to his earlier work.
I like that Gulacy's art ruined the intended reveal back in CE1 of Carnor Jax and Kir Kanos being clones. Nicely done.
