Star Wars: The Crimson Empire Saga Hardcover – September 12, 2012

Crimson Empire was the first Star Wars comic that I read. Stories like these are what kept Star Wars alive and fresh during the nearly 20 years between films.I love the stories about those minor characters that you see in the films. When you saw the Crimson Guard with the Emperor for the first time, you knew there was something fascinating about these guardians of the most powerful being in the universe. This story delves into some of those characters.The art is fantastic, sort of that stylized 90's colorful art. Awesome battle scenes. It really captures the imagination.Great story, give it a try. I highly recommend getting a paper copy of this trade.

A lot of the time when your reading SW books your imagination doesn't quite fill in the gaps that the author leaves. A lot of SW books have little to no detail because they are movie or game based. This is where the top notch illiustrations took this story line to a whole new level! Richardson does a great job on developping the main character. I was very impressed with the quality of the story and blown away with the illustrations. Great read for all!

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!

The crimson empire saga is the story of kir kanos, last of emperor Palpatine's crimson clad imperial guardsmen. It is a story of revenge and redemption, as over the course of the trilogy Kanos grows and changes in ways he'd never have expected. I did especially like his changing relationship with Mirith Sinn, and how her arc is a fitting mirror to his own. I also liked the villain of the first series. Jax, and I wish he had stuck around for the rest of the trilogy. The rest of the villains throughout the trilogy are far less memorable than jax, but I suppose that's the problem when you make sequel to whats unseemly a self contained story.Of the three series contained here, the first series is by far the best. It's quite self contained, and any knowledge of the universe at the time is explained quite well. It's also the simplest, Kanos wants Jax dead, and Jax wants Kanos dead. The second series is abit of a mess, with an overly complicated plot and a good deal of unseemly wasted page count on the random side characters that don't advance anything. In particular I'm thinking of the hutt character, as well as the mystery hooded figure who doesn't actually come into play at any point in the saga. Perhaps he comes into play in some later star wars story, but in this it reeks of a dropped plot line. The third and final series is a worthy sequel to the first although the scenes with Han solo also seem unnecessary. I did like the ending of the saga, even though I would have referred a bit of a more definitive ending in terms of certain character relationships.The art of the saga get progressively better with each series. In the first series it's still reasonable good, but some of the faces and body proportions are bit weak. By the third it's really good if standard comic art. The fight scenes are well done throughout, and the ship battles are a great to see.In conclusion, I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good revenge story. Don't worry about the context of this in the greater star wars saga, the most pertinent information is explained well enough, in my opinion. As long you have seen the star wars movies and remember who the emperor is, your good.

I love this series! It is beautifully painted, has good dialogue, and has a very compelling narrative. I cannot help but like the protagonist, Kir Kanos. He is brave, unselfish, noble, determined, and deadly. Even if his primary goal is to exact vengeance for the killing of the truly evil Palpatine, I cannot help but cheer for him. This is truly a compelling read that refuses to be put down.

This was the first saga I read on my phone in the Kindle version and it was a great read. The transitions from scene to scene add some suspense and dramatization. Highly recommended!