The story deals with the resurrection of primary series antagonist Palpatine, revealed to have cheated death by transferring his spirit into a succession of cloned bodies.

[5][6][7] This was further illuminated in 2022, when Wilson spoke about the development of the series, saying: "Tom Veitch, the story he wrote... You know, we were kind of letting people do what they wanted then.

The individual comic issues each feature several pages of prose "endnotes" that provide additional background for the story, such as contextualizing Palpatine's goals and worldview through excerpts of encyclopedic volumes called the Dark Side Compendium written from his in-universe perspective.

Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, and C-3PO are heading to the planet to rescue Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 and Lando Calrissian, who have spent the past several days holding out against Imperial attacks after an earlier raid using the captured Star Destroyer Liberator goes awry and the warship crashes.

However, the Hutts have put a large bounty on Han and Leia, with Spince selling him out to Boba Fett (revealed to have survived being devoured by the sarlacc during the events of Return of the Jedi); the two escape Nar Shaddaa aboard Salla's ship, the Starlight Intruder, with the Falcon attached.

Han's group travels to Mon Calamari as Rebel commando forces lay siege to the World Devastators, which have been shut down by a special master code Luke was able to steal and give to R2 and C3PO for transmission to the machines.

As the Rebels celebrate on Mon Calamari, Alliance command determines that the World Devastators are part of a larger Imperial offensive to conquer the galaxy.

One of these is the arms manufacturing planet Balmorra, whose planetary governor, Beltane, has begun supplying the Rebels with the latest military vehicles, such as the Viper X1 Automadon, a war droid designed to convert energy from enemy laser fire into power for its own turbolaser cannons.

Although Luke presses for liberating more worlds to provide more staging areas for an all-out strike on Byss, Mon Mothma asks him to concentrate on rebuilding the Jedi Order instead.

However, Vima has disappeared and every bounty hunter on the moon is still out for them, including Boba Fett, as well as an Imperial force led by two Dark Side Elites.

Aboard Nar Shaddaa's traffic control tower, Mako Spince sees Han and guides an Imperial Star Destroyer's tractor beam on him.

Han turns the tables by flying close to the tower, forcing the tractor beam to lock onto the structure and pull it instead at full power.

To everybody's surprise, the tree is a millennia-old Neti Jedi Master named Ood Bnar, who wraps Sedriss in a fatal embrace and they die in an explosion of Force energy.

Bnar's heroic sacrifice leaves a part of him in the soil and a hole underneath his location reveals an old cache of lightsabers; Luke successfully discovers an old Jedi library.

Salla Zend and Shug Ninx mobilizes fellow smugglers nearby to rescue the Rebel strike group and escape Byss.

Luke's party arrives with grim news: he had reached Da Soocha to see a large missile appear and destroy the planet, with the Rebel Alliance command presumably killed.

The Darksiders attempt to poison Luke, but Vima saves him as the entire settlement goes into action to fight the Imperials, who have deployed AT-ATs as backup.

On Nespis VIII, Han and Leia's son Anakin (named after his deceased grandfather) is born and the Alliance plots the final destruction of the Empire.

After consulting with ancient Sith Lords on the mausoleum planet Korriban, Palpatine learns that Han and Leia's youngest child, Anakin, has the only workable body.

A fierce duel occurs between Luke Skywalker and his Jedi team and Palpatine; finally, Han Solo wrongly shoots the Emperor, allowing him to be out of his physical form and get what he wanted: Anakin's body.

[19][20] In a review for The Sci-Fi Block, Robert Ring called the series "an essential Star Wars classic" but commented that the ending was rushed.

[21] Writing for Tor.com, Ryan Britt stated that the first Dark Empire miniseries was superior to its sequels and praised it for taking stylistic departures from other works.

Following its 2012 acquisition by Disney, in April 2014 Lucasfilm branded most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the originating 1977 film as non-canonical 'Legends' to create a clean slate for the sequel trilogy.

[23] Following the release of the final sequel trilogy film, The Rise of Skywalker (2019), several critics interpreted the circumstances of Palpatine's return as amounting to a tribute to Dark Empire.