The comics epic of Lady Qi’ra ends in the Star Wars event Hidden Empire, now collected in trade paperback. The character has hidden from view of the Empire long enough, and in this finale, she shows just how close she came to destroying Darth Vader and the Emperor. Since this is a prequel to the movies, we know what happens, but that doesn’t mean an ancient Sith artifact isn’t cool or how the Knights or Ren came to heel for the Empire, right?
Unfortunately, the answer is mostly no when it comes to entertainment value in this collection. Collecting the five-issue run of the series, things start out excitingly enough – we learn Lady Qi’ra’s Crimson Dawn has acquired a kind of Sith trap that may house an ancient Sith in a prison. Lady Qi’ra has her best people working to open the device, but after opening it, the Emperor — and really, everyone with Force powers — senses a great disturbance. This sets the Empire after Crimson Dawn as it’s a race against time to get the device working and defeat the Empire.
On paper, the concept makes sense, but the story can never sustain the five issues devoted to it here. From the very start, the plan seems weak at best, with Lady Qi’ra and her people not even sure what the device does, let alone how it can be used against the Emperor. The first issue is certainly exciting, especially with how writer Charles Soule frames and paces things. Sadly though, Lady Qi’ra comes off as brash and wreckless with her planning as the story plays out. That’s true even when she rather easily pulls an entire armada out of thin air at one point, which she explains she tucked away for this occasion.
As the story pans out, Lady Qi’ra basically wishes with hope and prayer this device can defeat two of the most powerful people in the galaxy. That’s even with her people testing it and bringing the Empire directly to it. A filler issue plays out a Darth Vader fight that ends up playing out as you’d expect. It also doesn’t help the depiction of Lady Qi’ra that she is never actively involved in the action. She’s plotting and planning from afar and mostly smiling through it.
At one point these two spar for fun.
Credit: Marvel
There’s also the matter of the Knights of Ren, who serve as guinea pigs at one point, get annoyed with their treatment, and threaten the heroes, only to bugger off. They serve as a deus ex machina to ruin everything for the heroes with some ridiculously dumb logic and then get a pathetic result for their actions. If you thought they were underused and underpowered in the new trilogy, this story solidifies that they add little to the Star Wars mythos. It does tie up how they went from Crimson Dawn operatives to the Empire’s stooges, though.
The concept of ancient Sith technology, as well as characters who study the Force and try to use it with technology, is interesting, but the story never delves too deeply into either aspect. Instead, the device is a McGuffin that fizzles in the final moments making for an unsatisfying conclusion to a tepid story from the very start. Soule does give Lady Qi’ra a kind of happy ending, but she’s depicted as forlorn and alone. The heroes win in the end, but what happens here is spinning wheels and a shadow of a nudge toward victory.
The art by Steven Cummings is good, with well-rendered spacecraft and fight scenes. Something that never quite works for me is how Lady Qi’ra is depicted. She’s always beaming with a smile, possibly to convey her overconfidence, and yet she’s supposed to be this hard-trained leader of a crime syndicate. It’s as if Disney required she look as beautiful as Emilia Clarke, but it doesn’t suit her position nor help when the stakes are high.
I wanted to like Hidden Empire for its interesting ancient Sith McGuffin and the idea that a crime syndicate could put the Empire through its paces, but it never earns a thing. The story feels pointless nearly the entire time and is capped off with an unsatisfying ending. One can’t help but wonder if Disney had a hit with their Solo movie, could Lady Qi’ra have played a bigger part in the cinematic universe and, thus, be more impactful in the comics? We’ll never know.
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