‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood’ (1998-99) (Comic book review)

The main thing I remembered from my first reading of “Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood”(1998-99) was that it was really hard to follow. And I wasn’t the only one. A letter writer mentioned the confusing storyline and the editor sympathetically suggested that “Crimson Empire II” is best read all in one sitting.

It’s good advice, because this six-issue series does flow better in one sitting, and ultimately I liked it slightly more than the original “Crimson Empire,” which – for all its stunning art — I found to be lacking in characters worth rooting for. In the sequel, I still wasn’t hooked by the portrayals of Kir Kanos – a grizzled man-of-few-words who aims to wipe out the Imperial ruling council – and Mirith Sinn – the New Republic commander who leaves her post to follow Kanos all over the galaxy.

Sinn is again thinly drawn. In the first “Crimson Empire,” I got the impression that she felt Kanos could be a valuable ally – until the end, when she vows to track him down and kill him because he killed her second-in-command. In “Crimson Empire II,” writers Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley throw us into a Mirith-Kanos romance that I’m not sure they earned (although one letter writer picked up on it, noticing subtle glances between the characters in the first series’ art).

I do give them credit, though, for having these lovebirds with extremely different world views go their separate ways, rather than having someone abruptly change sides. As Kanos tells Mirith before flying off into the sunset: “We both know that your heart still belongs to the Republic, and my allegiance is still to the Emperor.”

(By the way, Kanos flies off in an X-wing on that final panel. So we can presume that not only did the New Republic choose not to arrest this former Emperor’s Royal Guard and charge him with war crimes, they also gave him a quality starfighter. I guess we’re not supposed to think too hard about that.)

The supporting cast, on the other hand, has a vibrancy that approaches the level of Dave Stewart’s colors (he’s joined here by Paul Gulacy on pencils and Randy Emberlin – taking over for P. Craig Russell — on inks). Grappa the Hutt is a source of deliciously dark humor. His throne room parties and the way he dispatches disappointing servants to the creepy Zanibar aliens are like a horror version of “Return of the Jedi.” And Xandel Carivas, a pudgy man on the council who fancies himself Emperor, is an entertainingly slothful bureaucrat.

The character I remembered most is Nom Anor, who pulls the strings of Carivas. I’m almost certain that Richardson and Stradley tacked Nom Anor on to this already overloaded cast of characters once they found out about the Yuuzhan Vong invaders in the upcoming “New Jedi Order” book series. When Carivas’ schemes inevitably fail, Nom Anor, always shown shrouded by shadow, tells him: “Those I represent have made new plans. Plans that no longer involve you.”

Later in 1999, with the release of “New Jedi Order: Vector Prime” (which takes place several years further down the timeline from the “Crimson Empire” saga), we learned “those he represents” are the Vong, and that Nom Anor is an advance scout for the invasion. Still, I love little bits of synergy between Dark Horse and Lucas Books, so I’ll allow it.

But overall, “Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood” is too jam-packed with interweaving characters and schemes. (A reader could accuse the title of being a running ad for new action figures, except that the Expanded Universe was never represented in a big way by Kenner’s action figure line.) Even on this one-sitting re-read, I didn’t grasp all of it. I did enjoy Grappa and some of the council’s shenanigans and all the wonderful art. But, as with the first installment, Kir Kanos is a cliche and Mirith Sinn is cardboard. Still, the writers have one more chapter of the trilogy to give them some heft.