Dark Empire Dark Empire was a series of comic books written by Tom Veitch and illustrated by Cam Kennedy . They were originally released by Dark Horse Comics between December 1991 and October 1992 as a 6 - issue bi - monthly series , which were later compiled and sold as trade paperback . The name generally applies to both the original " Dark Empire " , as well as its two sequels " Dark Empire II " and " Empire ' s End " . All three comic series detailed the resurrection of Emperor Palpatine in clone bodies . Publisher ' s summary . " Six years after the Battle of Endor , the fight for freedom rages on . Darth Vader is dead , but a reborn Empire — under a mysterious new leader — strikes back at the struggling Rebel Alliance . Massive World Devastator s , more powerful and unstoppable than the Death Star , ravage entire planets , while the ruthless heirs of Jabba the Hutt place a monumental price on the heads of Princess Leia and her husband , Han Solo . Along with Lando , Chewbacca , Artoo , Threepio , and other old allies , Han and Leia struggle to protect the future for their unborn child . But their greatest foe may be their closest friend : Luke Skywalker … " Plot Summary . During the Imperial Mutiny , the Rebel Alliance sought to weaken the factions as much as possible by surreptitiously entering systems and battles with captured Star Destroyers broadcasting falsified signals , and provoking attacks by one group against another . On one of these raids to the Coruscant system , in the Star Destroyer " Liberator " ( formerly the " Adjudicator " ) , an " Imperial " - class Star Destroyer captured at the Battle of Endor and , over a five - year period , repaired and modified for covert missions , and its sister ship , the " Emancipator " ( originally the " Accuser " ) entered the Coruscant system , where three Star Destroyers demanded novel and unusual codes for clearance . The codes the Alliance had stolen or bartered with slicers for did not work , and Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian were shot down over the former Imperial City . They should have perished , but successfully landed the gargantuan vessel without many casualties on the surface of Coruscant . For the next several days , Luke , Lando , and their forces hid and fought Imperial battalions . When the news reached Han Solo and Leia Organa , they rushed to the rescue along with Chewbacca and C - 3PO . They arrived in the nick of time to rescue Lando and the crew of the " Liberator " . However , Luke informed them of a great disturbance in the Force . At that moment , a Force storm came out of a hyperspace wormhole . Luke told everyone to go but R2 - D2 stayed with him . As the " Falcon " took off , Luke and R2 - D2 were sucked in by the anomaly . Later , at the Alliance base on the fifth moon of Da Soocha , code - named Pinnacle Base , the Alliance leaders reported that the separate Imperial factions had disappeared into the unknown regions of the Galactic Core . Furthermore , the initial phase of Operation Shadow Hand had begun : fleets of World Devastator s , brainchildren of Umak Leth , machines which destroyed everything in their path , plunging them into vast furnaces which produced weapons and items which could repair or build new World Devastators . The first target , selected for its long and steadfast support of the Rebellion , was the planet Mon Calamari . The recently rescued Lando and his crew were dispatched aboard the " Emancipator " to fight a holding action while the main Rebel fleets assembled . At this time , Luke Skywalker had reached Byss , a Deep Core world enveloped in the power of the dark side . There he met face - to - face with the Emperor reborn ; he revealed that for many years , he took to transferring his mind and consciousness to clone bodies to attain immortality . However , the clones were one crucial step from long life ; they were more ravaged by the dark side than sustained by the Force . Luckily , Palpatine had numerous clones to laugh in the face of death itself , allowing him to rule indefinitely . The Emperor offered him apprenticeship and the prospect of controlling the enormous fleet of Devastators , as well as the rest of the Imperial fleet . Faced with an impossible situation , and deeply impressed by the power of the Emperor , his charismatic presence , his undoubted genius and deep knowledge of both sides of the Force , Luke acquiesced to becoming his apprentice . At this time , R2 - D2 was modified to carry the Master Signal for the World Devastators . Meanwhile , Lando ' s attack force began their attack on the Imperial fleet . Though they were able to break through the Star Destroyer defenses , the Devastator " Silencer - 7 " turned the " Emancipator " to scrap and launched squadrons of robotic TIEs . This forced the crew of the Republic Destroyer to abandon ship . At Pinnacle base , Leia received a message from Luke , telling her not to follow him . Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo have gone to Nar Shaddaa , to find transport to the Deep Core . After landing the " Falcon " in Shug Ninx ' s garage , meeting Han ' s former girlfriend , Salla Zend , Han and Leia went to Han ' s old living quarters . Along the way , they encounter a woman named Vima - Da - Boda , who gave Leia a lightsaber . Upon arriving at Han ' s place , they discovered that Boba Fett was alive and that their friend , Mako Spince betrayed them . Pursued by the hunters , Han and Leia made it to the " Starlight Intruder " , the ship that brought them to the Deep Core . Meanwhile , the Rebels in combat over the planet Mon Calamari received aid from the Alliance reserves , including the new E - wing s . Suddenly , three Devastators fell into the sea because Luke Skywalker shut them down from Byss . After arriving on Byss and missing Fett by a long shot , Leia piloted the " Falcon " to the Emperor ' s citadel . After she , C - 3PO , Han and Chewbacca got off , Salla and Shug took the " Falcon " to a safe place . The four were brought before the Emperor and Luke . Despite trying to fight back , Leia was rendered unconscious and was brought to Palpatine ' s quarters to be turned . There , she discovered that he held hostage an even greater treasure : a mysterious and intelligent artifact called the Jedi Holocron , which the Emperor had stolen during the Great Jedi Purge from Ashka Boda . With both the Holocron and Luke Skywalker under his control , the Emperor appeared to reign supreme in the Force . He revealed that he planned to overshadow Leia ' s third child stirring in her womb as his next new body . In anger , Leia toppled Palpatine from his bed and stole the Holocron . She found Luke , who claimed he was free of the dark side , despite his eyes continuing to shine yellow . Meanwhile , Shug and Salla gained control of a Hunter Killer patrol droid to blast Han and Chewie free . After being joined by Leia , Luke and the droids , the " Falcon " took off from Byss . However , Luke revealed that he had cast an illusionary projection of himself to make them believe he had boarded so they would escape . The real Luke Skywalker then marched into the clone lab during Palpatine ' s last few moments before the transition . When he revealed his purpose , Palpatine allowed his current incarnation to die , hoping to reach one of the clones before Luke destroyed them all . Luke proceeded to go on a destructive spree through the lab , hoping to beat Palpatine to the clones . Unfortunately , he missed one . The newly resurrected Palpatine scoffed at Luke ' s attempts to vanquish him . When Luke attempted to subdue Palpatine , the Sith Lord seized one of the lightsabers he kept stored in the lab and engaged Luke . Despite his valiant efforts , Luke was disarmed and held at blade - point . Palpatine proceeded to complete Skywalker ' s turn to the dark side , reducing him to an obedient watchdog . Meanwhile , on Mon Calamari , the Devastators were still invincible . Luckily , Luke managed to install a code into R2 - D2 ' s memory banks to shut down the Devastators . Though the great war machines were down , the crew managed to power up the factories until control was restored , but R2 - D2 created a new code to make the Devastators recycle each other . Unfortunately , this was only a small part of the Emperor ' s plan . Great new fleets of the Empire were spreading across the Galactic Core , and soon the entire galaxy would fall under the sway of the dark side . Luke traveled with the Emperor to capture his sister , aboard the recently completed and christened flagship , the " Eclipse " . Prior to the " Eclipse " arrival , the Holocron Leia stole from the Emperor delivered a thousand - year - old prophecy to Leia , which told of her battle against the young Emperor : As the " Eclipse " came out of hyperspace , the Emperor demanded to the Alliance for Leia to come to his ship alone , with the holocron ; he even promised to discuss a truce . Despite Han ' s objections , Leia boarded the shuttle , which took her to the Emperor ' s " Eclipse " - class Super Star Destroyer . It was she who appealed to the good inside Luke , redeeming him . Outraged , the Emperor fought Luke in a lightsaber battle , ultimately losing his hand . However , an enraged Palpatine unleashes a titanic Force - storm to utterly obliterate the Rebel Alliance fleet . Using knowledge taught to them , brother and sister turned the Force storm upon him . The result was the complete destruction of the " Eclipse " and Palpatine ( supposedly , though his spirit escaped to fight another day ) . As " Eclipse " was destroyed , the twins fled on a shuttle . Once safely aboard an Alliance cruiser , Luke , his eyes once again blue , proclaimed : Conception and release . " Dark Empire " was originally planned to be published by Marvel Comics ( a single print ad for it was even released ) but eventually found its way as a project at Dark Horse Comics when they acquired the " Star Wars " license . In the late 1980s , Lucasfilm expressed interest in a " Star Wars " proposal from Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy , based on their work on " " series . The original idea for " Dark Empire " revolved around the Empire using an impostor in Darth Vader ' s armor ( or a replica of it ) to use as a continuing symbol of fear to help force far - flung worlds into obedience . George Lucas personally shot down this concept , and instead directed them to bring back the Emperor through cloning . It is unclear whether Lucas suggested the concept himself or merely approved it when pitched ; Veitch has made conflicting comments regarding this . Additionally , " Dark Empire " was originally set shortly after the Battle of Endor ( as that was the timeframe in which the previous Marvel Comics series had left off ) . During the writing of , Timothy Zahn was asked to incorporate references and elements from " Dark Empire " into his books , since they were set chronologically later than the comic . Zahn refused , however , so " Dark Empire " was relocated to being set after the events of Zahn ' s books . Some minor dialogue and art were altered to reflect this change ( as it was too far along in production to implement any major corrections ) and references to the Thrawn trilogy were inserted into the text of " Dark Empire " opening crawl . It wasn ' t until Kevin J . Anderson ' s that " Dark Empire " was first referenced by a " Star Wars " novel . Characters and events mentioned in the holocron used in " Dark Empire " later formed the basis of the original " " series . Controversies . Tom Veitch could hardly have known what George Lucas had planned for the prequels , which were not made for another seven years . The Sith surviving after has been adopted by the rest of the Expanded Universe . Even before the release of the prequel trilogy , some contributors to the Expanded Universe made known publicly their dissatisfaction with the decision to bring Palpatine back to life . In " Vision of the Future , " Timothy Zahn included a conversation that refers to the events of " Dark Empire " with Luke Skywalker mentioning " the resurrected Emperor " and Mara Jade retorting , " Whatever . Personally , I ' m not convinced it was actually him . "