Star Wars: Hidden Empire

You’ll probably recall that I wasn’t that impressed with writer Charles Soule and artist Steven Cummings’ previous story about Q’ira and Crimson Dawn, “Crimson Reign.”  It suffered because it couldn’t overcome the nagging feeling that none of what went on here would matter given that none of it came up in “Return of the Jedi.”  Moreover, it didn’t offer many surprises of its own and failed to produce any breakout characters, or memorable stories involving established ones.  My expectations going into “Hidden Empire” after this could be described as “low.”

Which is why I was pleasantly surprised with what I got here.  This story did manage to overcome my low expectations and even provided an appreciably melancholy end to the saga of Crimson Dawn here.  It’s not the best “Star Wars” comic I’ve read in recent memory, but it was entertaining enough to make me glad that I picked it up.

“Crimson Reign” ended with Q’ira scattering her operatives to the winds, telling them to cause chaos and distract the Empire’s focus.  This was only successful in buying her some time as “Hidden Empire” starts with Emperor Palpatine having found the organization’s mastermind.  Q’ira does have an ace up her sleeve when it comes to dealing with the Sith Lord:  An ancient artifact known as the Fermata Cage.  She has her scholar Madelin Sun and the studious Kho Phon Pharrus working on how to unlock it alongside the Knights of Ren.  What does it contain?  Palpatine doesn’t know, but Q’ira has an idea.  She believes that an ancient Sith is imprisoned within it, one which will come for the Emperor under the Rule of Two.

Q’ira could be lying about this, but she manages to create uncertainty within the Emperor and the reader with her gambit.  I’ll admit that the idea of an ancient Sith being unleashed in the present day to fight against the Emperor is a compelling idea (even more so if it had been someone like Exar Kun).  That’s just one surprise that Soule has in store for the reader here and there are more to be had as the story goes on.

The writer also does a good job drawing from the events of the other ongoing “Star Wars” titles as well.  There are the expected callbacks to his run on the main title, and some stuff involving “Doctor Aphra” which I’m interested in seeing how it comports with the final arc of the “Ascendant” storyline in that title.  Soule even gives the Knights of Ren a small but pivotal part in the story to show that Q’ira’s judgment isn’t as infallible as we’ve been led to believe.  We even get some memorable scenes involving Darth Vader as he squares off against a forgotten casualty of the writer’s run on his title whose quest for vengeance he renders irrelevant in a few words.

Despite all of this good stuff, the storyline can’t quite overcome the inevitability of its ending.  We may not have seen how things were going to play out, but the end result is still the same.  I also have to take issue with the writer’s characterization of Q’ira.  We’re told that she wasn’t the trusting type, someone who held herself apart from others as she felt she was the only one that could be relied upon.  This runs counter to all of the interaction she has with the cast over the course of the story, as well as the rousing speech she gives to everyone in Crimson Dawn before the final battle.  It does make for a sad but appropriate last couple of pages, mainly because of what the writer has told us rather than what he has shown us.

As for Cummings, the art for this storyline is the same sort of capable yet bland work we saw in the previous one.  He fares better here because there’s more action to be had and he gets to draw a lot of lightsaber fights, space fighting, and things blowing up in general.  Cummings does do a good job with some of the subtler stuff the script asks of him.  Things like the rage expressed by one character after Vader dismisses her anger, and the inside of a ship, showing the reality behind a decision not to aid comrades in a desperate battle.

While I went into “Hidden Empire” out of a sense of obligation, having followed the “Crimson Dawn” storyline far enough that I needed to see how it ended, I’m glad that the end result exceeded my expectations.  Granted, those expectations were already lowered going in but that has to count for something.  I realize that doesn’t make for a ringing endorsement of “Hidden Empire” or the story that it’s a part of, yet I’ll just take comfort in the fact that this could’ve been a lot worse.