As I continue my self-serving tribute to The Emperor's Pawns, my first official Star Wars project, we come to the subject of the venerable Russ Manning newspaper comics strip.

I'm a huge fan of the old Star Wars comics, particularly the Marvels. But the truth is, when I first came across the Manning strips in republished form by Dark Horse, I wasn't a very big fan of what I saw. But much like Carmine Infantino's work on the early Marvels, I've about-faced in the last few years. Originally published in 1978, before Archie Goodwin and Al Williamson teamed up to bring their particular brand of genius to the Star Wars newspaper strips, Manning's Star Wars was a fun and spirited take on the saga drawn simply and beautifully. Much like the Glove of Darth Vader series, once I understood in what vein the Manning comics had been created, I quickly got over my bias and embraced them.

Making his appearance in The Emperor's Pawns for the first time in 23 years was one of that comics series' coolest villains, the mysterious Imperial Blackhole.


Blackhole

Making his first appearance in twenty-three years is the character Blackhole, originally from the storyline Gambler's World published as a newspaper comic serial (1978, LA Times Syndicate) and reprinted in Classic Star Wars: The Early Adventures (1997, Dark Horse Comics). Most of the information on Blackhole here is newly created, including the fact that this is his code-name and that his shadowy image is a holographic projection. This later led to the revelation of his true identity in The Dark Forces Saga Part 5 (2005, Wizards of the Coast) as the darksider Lord Cronal.

The appropriation of the HoloNet from the public by the Imperial government is explained in the first edition of the Imperial Sourcebook (1989, West End Games). The organization known as the Prophets of the Dark Side, of which Blackhole is said to have once been a part, was introduced in the children's book The Lost City of the Jedi (1992, Bantam).

Palpatine is said to have installed Blackhole as the "head of Imperial Intelligence" in this section, a position that is seemingly already filled by the Director of Imperial Intelligence Ysanne Isard according to the novella "Interlude at Darkknell" in Tales From the New Republic (1999, Bantam). One solution is that Blackhole may have served in the interim before Ysanne Isard; also, Blackhole's bio states that few in Imperial Intelligence "ever noted [Blackhole's] addition to their ranks," and presumably even Isard may have been none the wiser.

Blackhole's Imperial Star Destroyer The Singularity and its TIE wing the 123rd Nightstalker Group are revealed here for the first time, as is his Neimoidian mechano-assembly, bearing a certain similarity to John Paul II's so-called "Pope-mobile." Blackhole's stormtroopers in black armor debuted alongside the character in Gambler's World (1978, LA Times Syndicate), though their tongue-twisting stygian-triprismatic polymer armor is a new creation. Because similar-looking stormtroopers are seen under the command of the darksider Carnor Jax in the comic Crimson Empire #4 (1998, Dark Horse Comics), the soldiers were here retconned as remnants of Blackhole's stormtroopers.

As I mentioned previously, there was some hullabaloo surrounding my original write-up for Blackhole. My original idea was that the character, who originally appeared in a sort of insubstantial form, was not merely employing a holographic-style disguise but that Blackhole was literally a ghostly apparition, a dark side spirit from beyond death. Though the idea was rejected, it was recently repackaged in a more ambiguous form for my project Evil Never Dies: The Sith Dynasties (2006, StarWars.com) as the background for the Sith known as the Dark Underlord.

But the drama doesn't stop there. In my usual way, my original take on Blackhole had merged this concept of a Sith spirit with a little-known background character named Lord Shadowspawn from the Dark Empire Sourcebook (1993, West End Games), who had never been visually depicted. Artist Joe Corroney went ahead and did his take on a more detailed Blackhole holding a Sith sword in true conqueror fashion. He called the sketch "Blackhole a.k.a. Lord Shadowspawn," reflecting the combining of the two characters in the article. Of course, when my text for Blackhole was dropped, Joe had to alter his image accordingly, removing the weapon and quasi-physical details. More recently, however, when describing a scene of Luke Skywalker battling Lord Shadowspawn for the New Essential Chronology (2005, Del Rey), author Daniel Wallace resurrected the sketch Joe had done for our article and gave it to artist Tommy Lee Edwards for reference in his depiction of the character.

Blackhole's story has continued to develop in the years since, revealing that his alter ego is Lord Cronal, a minor character introduced in a roleplaying "adventure idea" in the book Gamemaster Screen for Second Edition (1992, West End Games). As such, I personally do not consider Blackhole and Lord Shadowspawn to be the same character any longer. In fact, in an ill-fated collaboration with Dan for Dungeon/Polyhedron magazine in 2004, I fully developed a new background for the Shadowspawn character. Time will tell if elements of this take on the villain are ever published, though with the upcoming release of Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor, it's perhaps dubious.

One important throwaway line cut from The Emperor's Pawns regarding Lord Shadowspawn did eventually make it into the Star Wars canon, however. Originally, I'd submitted two "adventure seeds" to accompany Blackhole/Lord Shadowspawn's bio. One of those that didn't make the cut had players in the role of Rebels helping Luke Skywalker and Fenn Shysa's Mandalorian Protectors in the final battle against the warlord. Reference to this "crucial blow" to Shadowspawn's forces appeared in Star Wars Insider #80's "History of the Mandalorians" (2005, IDG Entertainment), all but assuring a pretty cool battle in Shadows of Mindor. ~ Abel G. Peña

Continue to The Emperor's Pawns Endnotes, Part 4: Mistress of Teräs Käsi

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