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★★★★★ 4
"Thus die all traitors."
Format: Hardcover
At a grand 504 pages, this big book covers the Crimson Empire series in its entirety. Containing the first, second, and third mini-series as well as Bounty Hunters: Kenix Kil, Dark Horse Extra #21-24 "Hard Currency", and Dark Horse Presents #1 "Third Time Pays for All". While some of these stories truly pale in comparison to the original series, they all still form a big story that is collected in this book. Slightly smaller than a regular TPB, this hardcover edition looks nice with a dustjacket (although mine was very off-center) but utilizes a glued binding on this thick book so you lose a bit to gutter loss.
The first story in the book is the classic Crimson Empire series. The six-issue series is collected here in full with a truly timeless story by Randy Stradley and Mike Richardson. Paul Gulacy did the awesome art within the issues. The writing and art work well together with the vibration of the blades to the movie-like, choreographed 12-page fight scene between Kanos and Jax at the end. A truly epic tale with lots of action and mystery that made you feel like you were watching another Star Wars movie but condensed into six issues of a comic book! This alone is worth the purchase price but you get even more stories after this!
Bounty Hunters: Kenix Kil follows the Crimson Empire in a tale following Kir Kanos after the end of the Crimson Empire series and was the third issue in the Bounty Hunters series. Kir becomes the bounty hunter Kenix Kil to move through a bounty hunter-filled planet and get what he needs and get out alive! Javier Saltares did the penciling while Randy Stradley reprised his role for the story. The story's short but tells a bit more about Kir and his journey. The drawings, while not as good as the first series, look good enough to get the story across.
Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood is next directly following the first series as Kir Kanos, as Kenix Kil, continues his quest to destroy what's left of the traitorous Imperial leaders. However, the return of an old friend side-tracks his quest and brings him to an even bigger journey! The old writing team of Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley return in this story as well as the original artist Paul Gulacy. The art's great and the story, though a bit dense, works well. There isn't quite as much action this time around but the story's just as good. The Zanzibar creatures are one of the creepiest things you'll ever see in a Star Wars comic, too!
Next up is the very short four-part comic entitled Hard Currency that appeared in Dark Horse Extra #21-24. The comic is written by Randy Stradley so you know the writing's done well but the art is by Isaas Buckminister Owens and is one God-awful mess. The characters are horribly out of proportion and it looks extremely cartoony. It's very, very short with only a few pages but even if you get past the art, the comic reads like a calendar with the book turned on its side. So, the whole process of reading this out of a 500+ page book is just annoying. I know they probably couldn't print it any other way but it's still inconvenient. However, what you get is a neat story wrapping up the fate of a character that has ran through the first two series and a bit more about Kir's alter ego Kenix Kil. Unlisted, the book appears to start with the third main series but actually contains an 8-page prequel comic that originally appeared in Dark Horse Presents #1 entitled The Third Time Pays for All. The writing has Randy Stradley again and, thankfully, Paul Gulacy on art duty (although his other works here were better). Once again, a short glimpse into the life of (a newly outfitted) Kenix Kil on a bounty-hunting mission while he reminisces about his past run-ins with Mirith Sinn.
Mike, Randy and Paul continue their work with the Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost where Kir Kanos rejoins Mirith Sinn one last time to thwart an Imperial thug from destroying the New Republic and the New Empire in one fell swoop! Leia, Luke, Han, and Chewie appear in this tale as well as Boba Fett to round out a classic cast. The art's great, once again, and the writing, while probably my least favorite of the series, is still pretty good with an epic fight between Kir and Devian. At the end of the book, we get the Crimson Empire Handbook entries on some of the characters as well as a few more covers to gawk at. While this hardcover book looks really nice, Dark Horse still fails to make a truly great edition for this series through the book itself. The contents are great but the small size and lack of comic covers are disappointing. Sadly, that's just how Dark Horse releases their hardcovers and TPBs. But, if you're looking to read the Crimson Empire books, this is the one to get!
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Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2013