Star Wars: Shattered Empire is a four issue limited series serving as a prequel to The Force Awakens written by Greg Rucka, illustrated by Marco Checchetto, Angel Unzueta, and Emilio Laiso.
Beginning right during the events of the Battle of Endor, it is the tale of Green Squadron pilot Shara Bey and Sergeant Kes Dameron, a married couple hoping to settle down to properly raise their son Poe when the Imperial threat has diminished. Of course, the Empire will not take the death of Palpatine lying down. In the event of his death, Palpatine created Operation: Cinder, an galaxy-wide campaign to wreak vengeance on his enemies and take his Sith secrets to the grave, starting with Naboo. The New Republic now has their hands full dealing with this threat.
Tropes featured in this comic include:
- Aborted Arc: The branch of the Great Tree from the Jedi temple on Coruscant that Luke gives to Shara Bey in #4 is never brought up again (It's indirectly mentioned in Poe Dameron 27, and that's it.). It could have made Poe Dameron more important by being Force Sensitive.
- Amazon Brigade: A fighter squadron comprised of Princess Leia, Queen Soruna and Shara Bey, which mobilizes to stop Operation: Cinder on Naboo.
- The Atoner: Queen Soruna of Naboo considers Palpatine a blemish on the political history of her homeworld, and is incredibly eager to work with Leia to form a New Republic and right his wrongs.
- Battle Couple: Subverted. Shara Bey and Kes Dameron may be married, but since he's a ground soldier, and she's a pilot, they never fight together.
- Blood Oath: Literally; the Messenger delivers a secret message from the Emperor after his death to a small handful of Imperial loyalists which can only be viewed by first giving a blood sample from the hand.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: To combat Operation Cinder, Princess Leia, Shara Bey, and Queen Soruna use three mothballed N-1 Starfighters.
- The Cameo: Battlefront II retroactively shows that Iden, Del, and Shriv were participants at Naboo during Operation: Cinder.
- The Cavalry: In issue #3, when it appears that Leia, Shara and Queen Soruna are about to be overwhelmed by numerous TIE Fighters, Lando Calrissan arrives in time with a Republic Cruiser and a small fleet of starfighters.
- The Chains of Commanding: Leia is seen suffering under these, even in the wake of the Battle of Endor. There's still huge amounts of Imperial Remnants refusing to believe the Emperor is dead and carrying out his will, the Rebel Alliance is still fighting and losing members everyday like nothing has changed, and she has been personally hand-writing every letter for fallen soldiers under her command, leaving her emotionally exhausted.
- Continuity Nod:
- In the hangar scene after the Battle of Endor, someone can be heard asking for Corona Squadron.
- Queen Neeyutnee, from The Clone Wars, is mentioned as being responsible for moving the operation of fighters outside the palace, and likewise sealed off the section of the hanger, keeping numerous ships from The Phantom Menace hidden even after Palpatine demilitarized the planet.
- While in the long abandoned Naboo royal hangar, Leia has a brief vision of Darth Maul. She even describes the experience as feeling cold- the same descriptor Ezra uses to describe Darth Vader's presence in Star Wars Rebels.
- Leia also mentions that she had been in Naboo before, shortly after the Battle of Yavin, which happened in the Star Wars: Princess Leia mini series.
- The name of the MC80 Capital Ship that Lando pilots when he brings reinforcements to the battle over Naboo is "Mellcrawler II". The Mellcrawler was Nien Nub's Yacht seen during the events of Star Wars: Princess Leia. To say he's traded up is an understatement.
- Shara poses as Alecia Beck, the Imperial Commander from Smuggler's Run.
- Dressing as the Enemy: Shara disguises herself as Imperial Commander Alecia Beck in order to sneak herself and Luke Skywalker into a base on Vetine.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Poe Dameron, who will be a main character in The Force Awakens, gets name-dropped a few times, since the main characters of the comic are his parents.
- Ello Asty, a Resistance pilot from the same film appears in the background of a few panels of Issue 4, serving as a pilot for the Rebel Alliance.
- Evil Is Deathly Cold: Darth Maul had been so strong in the Dark Side that his lingering presence still gave Leia chills when she entered the Theed Hangar, two generations later. Not to mention it's been years since he died.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Read carefully in a page that has an unnamed Rebel Soldier offhandedly wondering what they ate during the celebration in the Bright Tree Village.
Considering there are empty Stormtrooper helmets nearby, it's probably the best not to think about what they ate. - Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Shara had one with her husband in a Sexy Discretion Shot in the night after celebrating the Rebels victory in Battle of Endor. In the morning afterwards, she's still covered with only Modesty Bedsheet while her husband already got dressed.
- Happy Ending Override: Naboo's celebrations of the Emperor's death lead to rather swift discipline from the Imperial remnant as they attempt to destroy Naboo with a series of intense planet-wide hurricanes.
- He's Just Hiding: In-Universe, Captain Duvat believes that the Emperor still lives and anything else is just Rebel propaganda, and repeating it is a punishable act of treason.
- It Has Been an Honor: Shara and Leia share one of these moments, when it seems like they are going to be overwhelmed by TIE Fighters over Naboo.
- Keystone Army: Averted. Despite the fact that The Emperor is dead, The Empire, which has many elements that wouldn't even have direct evidence of their leader's death, doesn't necessarily fall apart instantaneously, and has to be fought down.
- Like Parents, Like Daughter: Leia puts on a pilot uniform identical to Padme's in the opening of Attack of the Clones and a helmet identical to Anakin's in The Phantom Menace to take part in taking out a threat in orbit around Naboo in a decades dormant Naboo starfighter.
- Natural Disaster Cascade: Using their space-based climate disruption array, the Empire begins creating catastrophic storms on Naboo which cause fires and flooding all over the world, with the intention of rendering the planet uninhabitable. Fortunately, Leia Organa, Soruna and Shara Bay stopped the attack. It's worth noting, the Empire have also used the disruption array to attack other worlds in other Star Wars Disney-canon media.
- Not So Extinct: Luke Skywalker informs a squad of Imperial soldiers on Vetine that the Jedi are not as extinct as they believe.
- Reluctant Retiree: Captain L'ulo submits retirement papers in Shara's name when he learns her husband's own retirement papers have been approved, knowing that she would never stop flying combat missions if he didn't.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Queen Sosha Soruna joins Leia and Shara in the effort to save Naboo from the Empire's weather machines.
- Running Gag: Several characters joke about, despite the fact that they "won", the Rebels are still fighting with the Empire as fiercely as ever.
- Sticky Bomb: The Rebels have taken to dropping specialized magnetic cluster bombs to take out AT-AT Walkers with minimal damage.
- The War Has Just Begun: When Han leads a strike team to take out Imperial holdouts on the other side of Endor, they find most of their post-Endor plans.
- Weather-Control Machine: The Empire uses a climate disrupting array of satellites against Naboo to open Operation: Cinder
- Workaholic: Shara has thrown herself completely into her work after the Battle of Endor, while her father watches over her child and her husband is forced to keep radio silent while in the field, much to the concern of her commander.
