Crimson Empire II: Council of Blood #6 (of 6)

Story: Mike Richardson, Randy Stradley
Pencils: Paul Gulacy
Inks: Randy Emberlin
Colors: Dave Stewart
Cover: Dave Dorman
Editor: Diana Schutz

Carivus decides to return Baron D'asta's daughter to him in order to stop the Baron's fleet from attacking the city. Mirith Sinn and Kir Kanos bring D'asta's real daughter to him first, and inform him that the one that was on the council was a clone spying for Black Sun. Baron D'asta, along with Kanos and Sinn, goes to meet with Carivus. Kanos kills the would-be Emperor. Meanwhile, Grappa the Hutt is captured by the Zanibar after he broke a deal with them. reviewed 10/17/99 The Story SPOILER WARNING! Maybe it's just me, but I think the clone plot device is a bit overused here. Plus, the clone Feena D'asta reveals she knew all along she was a clone, and I seem to recall that clones are not supposed to know they are clones because when they do they go insane. The main "bad guys" (including Xander Carivus and Grappa the Hutt) are still extremely stupid, as they were throughout the series, and one wonders how they got this far for this long. Also, the mysterious man in weird costume Nom Anor's motivations are still not revealed. Why was he planning on killing all the Council members while using the stupidest one of them? After Kir Kanos was shown as more human with some weaknesses in issues 4 and 5, he's back to his invincible mode killing a highly-trained squad of soldiers single-handedly. I know he's one of the elite Imperial Guards but come on! Throughout the series, he's been known to kill armies and shoot down TIE fighters with a blaster! I'm glad that he didn't change his allegiance at the end, even with Feena D'asta wanting to share her life with him. But I still don't care for any of the cardboard characters. I hope, now that the Crimson Empire Handbook is out and that Nom Anor is back as the villain in Vector Prime, that Dark Horse will leave this unrecuperable series alone. There was talk of doing a third series this fall, but it is not listed yet on Dark Horse's release schedule up to January. The Art Let me start with the cover. As always, Dave Dorman is great, but the design of this cover is way to cliche. I mean, it's a Frazetta Conan cover, except with blasters. The hero on top of a mound of enemy soldiers holding the heroin while he's killing them all... Come on, man! And the interior art is still not up to par with other Star Wars series. The way Gulacy draws ships, Hutts and large eyes bugs me. Nom Anor looks cool, as does the Zanibar ship. Sinn's new costume is way better than the super-heroine one she had in the previous issues. And my favorite character: Schmood the Yuzzum. Conclusions It's finally over. 4.5/10. Not Recommended.
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