Empire #25 Idiot's Array Part 2 (of 2) Story: Ron Marz Art: Joe Corroney Coloring: Michael Atiyeh Lettering: Michael David Thomas Cover: David Michael Beck Released: 10/20/2004 Reviewed by: JF Boivin (10/25/2004) SUMMARY: Han is in the clutches of informant/crime boss Jib Kopatha after being betrayed by his former smuggler friend Sheel Odala. Kopatha is trying to find the location of the Rebel fleet for Lord Vader. Only a change of heart from Odala, and the strong arm of Chewbacca can save him.

THE STORY

The story is a bit of an improvement over the first part. But it's still not getting the characters quite right. This time it's Chewie. Remember what happened when Chewie found out Lando had betrayed Han on Cloud City? Here, he just throws his arms up in rage and growls. And did we really need another useless would-be servant of the Empire to disapoint Vader? Everybody knows what happens to them. At one point, Kopatha says "The time Vader gave me is almost up!", and what was he doing when we first meet him in the first issue? Sitting on a chair! He wasn't really looking for the Rebel fleet. At least in this issue, there's a very nice starship battle. And the art is good (see below).

THE ART

I've known Joe Corroney's work for a while, and I know from an interview I did with him in 2001 that he's been trying to work on a Star Wars comic for a long time. Corroney is one of the rare artists who loves Star Wars and really does his research. He's very meticulous in his depictions of characters, starships and even background aliens and droids. Chewbacca and Darth Vader are not the easiest characters to draw, and here Corroney gives us a very expressive Wookie and one of the best depictions of Vader since Al Williamson! And whether intentionally or not, he's even faithful to the work of the previous artist, as the two new characters from that issue Odala and Kopatha look almost exaclty the same, if not better. And I was honeslty impressed by Han's likeness, especially on pages 10-11. There are some places where Corroney tried some ambitious angles and didn't get it quite right, mostly in the first few pages, but overall this, and the great cover by Beck, make the issue worth buying, or at least look at for a while.

CONCLUSIONS

You don't have to get issue #24 to enjoy this one. In fact, it might be better without it.

Rating: 7 / 10 Recommended