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Tag: Star Wars comics

Star Wars: Hidden Empire

Hey everybody,
It’s time for the third crossover from the 2020 Marvel Star Wars comics series. Hidden Empire is essentially the end of “the Qi’ra trilogy”, and sees the Emperor fight back against her so-called Crimson Reign. However, all of the pieces begin to fall into place, as we see why the Knights of Ren were sent to steal a key from Vader’s castle on Mustafar. Qi’ra has a device called a Fermata Cage, which is opened by that key; this action attracts a great deal of dark side power, and draws the attention of the Emperor. A rumour is spread that the Cage contains the spirit of an ancient Sith Lord, which piques the Emperor’s interest; as he must ensure the Rule of Two is maintained, Vader begins to believe that Palpatine might replace him with this ancient Sith. In reality, Qi’ra intended to trap the Emperor and Vader inside the Cage, therefore restoring freedom to the galaxy. However, while the plan does work to a degree, the Knights of Ren double-cross Qi’ra and destroy the Cage’s ability to establish a Force hold on anything. The Knights are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Emperor, who does agree to bear them in mind for future works.

While Qi’ra’s plan ended in failure, she goes into hiding and essentially abdicates from Crimson Dawn, giving Cadeliah full control of whatever remains. In an epilogue, we see Qi’ra in a cantina when the news of the Empire’s defeat spreads through the galaxy. While she didn’t play a direct part in the destruction of the second Death Star, her syndicate war had distracted the Empire for long enough that the Rebel Alliance was able to regroup following the Battle of Hoth, and ultimately gave them the time needed to muster their strength to succeed at Endor. 

Unlike the previous crossovers, the events of Hidden Empire are much more self-contained, with only some references made within the books in the four main series. We begin with Doctor Aphra: Ascendant, where Aphra is still being controlled by the Spark Eternal, and Sana Starros is still trying to rescue her erstwhile girlfriend. Sana is caught up with the internal politics of the Tagge Corporation, as the returned Ronen Tagge is trying to wrest control of the company from his aunt Domina. Domina, who would rather like the power of the Spark for herself, sends Sana off to retrieve it, however Aphra herself senses the Fermata Cage and heads there. Somehow the Spark is separated from Aphra, and Sana and the crew recover Aphra. There’s a tense meeting between Aphra and Magna Tolvan, though they finally clear the air between themselves, and Magna goes on her way. Sana confesses that she still loves Aphra, however she is aware that Aphra is not good for her, so essentially says goodbye.

Needing to clear her head somewhat, Sana heads off to her grandmother’s fortified house in her own miniseries, Family Matters. Despite needing some time away from the front lines, Sana is immediately embroiled in her own family’s drama, as her cousin is pregnant with twins by an Imperial officer. Turns out that the Starros family have some magical doohickey the Empire wants, and as part of the family’s plan to get it back, the cousin has married an Imperial. The story is fine, though hardly setting the world on fire. I’m disappointed, because there was an issue of the 2015 ongoing series, I think it was, with Sana and Lando teamed up, and she seemed like a much more interesting character there. True, the Sana here has been through more, and definitely has an attitude of “don’t got no time for this BS”, but it didn’t really feel like the story was anything, if that makes sense? Further to my rambling critique of the Aphra run last time, here we gain the further lore tidbit that Sana has two dads as well as being gay herself. It really feels like Marvel is just throwing all of the gay characters at the Aphra and Aphra-adjacent books, and the more it happens, the more it feels like it’s being forced, and made a spectacle of. Maybe I’m just the wrong target audience for this? 

Bounty Hunters: Bedlam on Bestine holds a great deal of promise as we have Inferno Squad on the front cover! The elite team led by Iden Versio from the Battlefront video games, it’s really interesting to see them used in comics. The actual Bedlam on Bestine arc sees T’onga’s crew come into direct conflict with Valance and his Imperials, as T’onga takes on a job running supplies for Crimson Dawn. T’onga comes face to face with Valance, and informs him the Empire has bombed his former home planet where he had believed Cadeliah to be kept safe, so the cyborg goes rogue and Inferno Squad are sent to neutralise him as he has potentially seen the Death Star II construction plans. Iden and her team catch up with the bounty hunters, and after a brief fight, they essentially wipe Valance’s memories, which was somewhat anti-climactic in my view!

The storyline also involves some backstory on Zuckuss as he has a seizure while flying the ship, and we learn about his early years on Gand. Interesting in its way, but I’m not convinced that it was entirely necessary. Just when we get the crew back together, Tashu Leech tells them all he’s leaving as nobody stuck up for him against Kanjiklub in the same way they stick up for Valance, so T’onga asks him to take her wife back home as the team decides to go after Boba Fett.

I’ve had some issues with the somewhat muddled storytelling of the Bounty Hunters book, though at times it did feel like the more straightforward of the four, especially the ways in which the books crossed over with the Qi’ra trilogy stuff. However, with the split of Valance as an Imperial lieutenant and T’onga in charge of the crew, things did get a bit muddied. Given how the storyline with Inferno Squad went down here, I’ve not got high hopes for the impending showdown with Fett, but I suppose you never know! 

Star Wars: Quests of the Force has something of a two-part feel, as we start off with Leia and the gang still stuck in No-Space, though Chewie realises they can make it back into the galaxy with the Nihil path engine that Holdo had stolen after she lost it at auction. The rebels agree to take some of the people who have been lost in No-Space with them, and so naturally are able to bolster their numbers along the way. We then have Leia arranging an attack on Coruscant itself, as the Emperor and Vader are both known to be off-world at the time. They target a statue of Palpatine, though this turns out to be a trap and several pilots are killed. It all feels a bit weird, if I’m honest, as Leia doesn’t seem likely to be the sort of leader who would happily risk lives this way. I was a bit disappointed in this volume though, but interestingly we have the suggestion that Luke’s power in the Force has been ebbing and flowing due to the fact that Qi’ra has been playing about with her Fermata Cage. Oh yes, and Lando and Holdo hook up…

The final two books in this time period belong to Darth Vader. Return of the Handmaidens is something that I was kinda looking forward to, really, as we’ve had a lot of build-up with Sabé and the others, and what they’re going to be doing about Vader. Only Sabé is aware that Vader is Anakin, of course, but the other Amidalans are still presumably out for revenge for Padmé. They launch something of a rescue operation, and Ochi of Bestoon is along for the ride because he’s sick of Sabé usurping what he thinks of as his rightful place. He leads Dormé on a mission to infiltrate Vader’s ship and rescue Sabé – because of course, if all the handmaidens resemble Padmé, they must also resemble each other? Well, age is not so much a thing in Star Wars! Anyway, it doesn’t work, and we soon discover that Sabé is very happy where she is – with Padmé’s dying words “there’s still good in him” echoing in her mind, Sabé seems to think she must redeem him.

The Emperor is on to them, however, and with all of the Force stuff going on thanks to the Fermata Cage, Vader becomes an absolute monster! Unbound Force sees him unable to control his power, and he almost tears the ship apart. Sabé is somehow able to remove him from the situation, and they crash together on a desert island planet. However, Vader unceremoniously flings her into the ocean and determines to retrieve a powerful artifact to help focus his power once more – enter Doctor Aphra. She leads him on the hunt for a weird shield thing that he can use to focus his Force powers, though word has got out that he is perhaps vulnerable, and so a bunch of droids decide to try to take him out. Naturally, with his new shield toy, he can control the Force far better, and so the droids all end up working for him. Cue Dark Droids, I guess?

This third crossover series of issues was perhaps the least offensive in that you didn’t really see a lot of the Hidden Empire stuff bleeding into the other series. Knowing that there is a Force-related event going on is perhaps all you need to know, especially as it was quite confusing anyway. I have been enjoying the Vader run up to this point, and was particularly interested in where everything was headed with the handmaidens, but it seems like they were just going nowhere? Unless something else comes of it – there are still four volumes of Vader to go before the end. I think it had so much promise, with the idea of Sabé leading a band of Naboo loyalists who wanted answers and justice for Padmé, only to then see Sabé working as Vader’s lieutenant – for what? There were also missed opportunities with not having Moff Panaka involved, as well!

Anyway, this post is running long now, so I should probably end it here. Dark Droids is the next crossover event, and will see Bounty Hunters and Doctor Aphra conclude into the mix. The ongoing series and the Vader series run on a bit longer, and I hope we will see Bothans getting the Death Star II plans, because that’s definitely something needed as we slide towards Episode VI!

Marvel Star Wars (2020) catch up

Hey everybody,
I’m continuing to make my way through the 2020 series of Marvel Star Wars comics, having reached the Crimson Reign crossover event when I last posted about this stuff. Crimson Reign was volume four for each of the four series here – Star Wars, Darth Vader, Bounty Hunters, and Doctor Aphra – and once we saw how Qi’ra’s machinations to sow discord and create chaos for the Empire fit with each of the main storylines, they all kinda branch off a little bit, and continue their own tales.

Darth Vader: The Shadow’s Shadow is something of a fascinating storyline. Sabé has come to the realisation that Darth Vader is Anakin Skywalker, and at the end of the last volume she confronted him with this knowledge. She goes on to explain that after the Battle of Naboo, Padmé sent Sabé and Tonra to Tatooine to help liberate the slaves, with the express purpose of liberating Shmi. While Sabé couldn’t find Shmi, she nevertheless freed hundreds of slaves, and took them to a new colony on Gabredor III. However, the local Imperial Governor is threatening the slaves as she makes her bid for power, backed by Crimson Dawn. Among the slaves freed are Kitster and Wald, who are older now, but it’s interesting to see how Vader reacts when confronted by his past like this. There is a gratuitous scene of Vader piloting a podracer Kitster has built, but overall I am enjoying how the Vader series is progressing.

Star Wars: The Path to Victory explodes with an opening that sees a Rebel assault on an Imperial parade, as the newly-consolidated Rebel fleets launch an attack to announce to the galaxy that they are still out there. As part of the Crimson Dawn plan to cause problems for the Empire, a family escapes from a secure Imperial weapons development facility, and Luke travels to Coruscant to bring them into the Alliance – the facility, of course, is none other than the second Death Star, and so we’re now seeing the seeds of this sown. Meanwhile, Leia and Amilyn Holdo take a holiday to Spira in the core, where Holdo attempts to bid on a Nihil starpath engine, in an attempt to locate the fabled Kezarat Convoy to gain some much-needed fuel for the Alliance. Though outbid, Holdo later steals the engine and hooks it into their starship, however it takes them to No-Space where the Nihil used to hide from the Republic.

I like how Holdo is being used more in these comics, as she is sold as one of Leia’s closest friends in The Last Jedi. It’s interesting to see how she has basically taken on the role of Winter from Tim Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy, as she has been part of a link with Crimson Dawn to secure supply lines and so on. However, the Kezarat Convoy plotline is uncomfortably close to the Katana-fleet story from Zahn’s books for me, and while I’m sure it’s fun for plenty of folks who enjoyed it, all these High Republic story-nods we’ve been seeing have been somewhat… forced? I don’t know, they feel somehow out of place for me, like characters are only referencing them without any further historical context. I mean, it’s like somebody today whose only historical references are of the Regency era, and they’re incapable of talking about the Tudors or Victorians.

Doctor Aphra: The Spark Eternal continues to disappoint me. Aphra is possessed by the ancient Sith-wannabe Ascendant created thing called the Spark Eternal. I think it’s meant to be some kind of method for allowing the Ascendant folks to mimic Force powers, but they never quite got it off the ground before they were wiped out. A few thousand years later, the Spark has been able to achieve some kind of sentience, and is now a malevolent force. Meanwhile, Aphra is trapped inside her head with the creator of the Spark, and Sana Starros gathers a team of former Aphra supporting characters to help rescue her. It’s annoying, and not very interesting, though unfortunately it does prove to be somewhat important to the Hidden Empire crossover event that’s coming up next, so to some extent is required reading for that! 

Doctor Aphra, at one time, had so much promise as a character, but it feels so much like her stories are pulling against what Star Wars is. She’s a “rogue archaeologist” with a reprehensible personality, a morbid fascination with Darth Vader that is somewhat inexplicable given how he is supposed to be the Emperor’s deadly enforcer. She makes snarky quips like she’s Peter Parker, and on top of all of this, her book has fast become the title where Marvel seems intent on putting all their gay characters. Now, I have no interest in the sexual orientation of, well, anybody else, if I’m honest, but the way it is constantly drawn attention to in this book makes me vaguely uncomfortable. However, to make things worse, we also have a new character in the Aphra book now who is non-binary, which again, I don’t really care about gender identity, but because all of this is concentrated here, it begins to affect the storytelling. I can imagine if Marvel had spread all of these characters out more, they would potentially risk annoying a wider fanbase, and so it’s perhaps seen as “safe” to risk in just one book, but for me, it seems like it’s too much, and indeed, the Sana Starros storyline draws attention to it on multiple occasions.

None of this is meant as some kind of “anti-woke tirade”. I find Aphra (the book and the character) irritating because the storyline is just inane, not because she’s gay.

But anyway…

Bounty Hunters: Raid on the Vermillion was quite a difficult book to track down, and I ended up having to get it from America. Anyway. The book has seen a bit of a split since the early days, as T’onga’s crew carry on their bounty hunting while Valance has been repurposed and is back in Imperial service. T’onga leads her team on, well, a raid on the Vermillion, the Crimson Dawn fortress flagship, as she attempts to rescue Cadeliah and unite the warring crime syndicates on Corellia. For this, she enlists the help of Dengar, who is working for Crimson Dawn and attempts to double-cross everyone as he seeks to gain enough credits to escape the bounty hunting life and retire with Manaroo. I do like how this element of his character has been kept from the old EU. T’onga is surprised to discover that Cadeliah is not a prisoner of Crimson Dawn, but is actually being groomed by Qi’ra to take over as a criminal boss.

T’onga is forced to leave Cadeliah with Crimson Dawn, and so takes on a job to protect the Pykes as they celebrate on a nightclub space station that orbits dangerously close to a black hole. Obviously, panic ensues as fighting breaks out between the Pyke Syndicate and Kanjiklub, and while they are able to make it out alive, Tasu Leech is tempted to return to his old life in the fighting pits of Nar Kanji.

Again, there are some interesting callbacks to the new canon media such as the sequel trilogy (Kanjiklub) and others, and while I’ve said before this isn’t an attempt to give the sequels a pass, I do like to see how they are being further enmeshed into the overall Star Wars galaxy. Indeed, what I said before about the callbacks to the High Republic being bad, this is a better way to do it because it makes things like Kanjiklub feel less out of the blue, and more consistent.

There are some interesting threads here, and maybe I’ll have to revise my opinion of some of these books when I’ve read more, but for now, I think the Vader series is the forerunner, while Bounty Hunters and the ongoing series are somewhat fair to middling, and Aphra is certainly on the bottom.

Star Wars: Crimson Reign

Hey everybody,
Hot on the heels of my last Star Wars Comics catch-up post, I’ve now made my way through Crimson Reign, the second crossover event from the 2020 run. This takes place immediately following War of the Bounty Hunters, so all of those comics were issue 3 in their respective series, and Crimson Reign takes up the issue 4 slot. Unlike the previous event though, Crimson Reign is a more contained affair…

The main book follows Qi’ra and her plot to take over the galactic underworld. Her plot, such as it is, is to offer Crimson Dawn’s help to other major cartels in the underworld, which allows her to continue to subtly steer things to the point where the major criminal enterprises are at war. As part of this, the ongoing syndicate war that has been a plot point in the Bounty Hunters series becomes a major part of this, and Qi’ra takes possession of Cadeliah, the air to both the warring syndicates from that series. 

It’s a fairly interesting comic series, as it takes plot points from the old Betrayal arc from Star Wars Empire, where a group of Imperial officers is dissatisfied that the Empire is run by a Sith clique of two; here, Qi’ra shares that the Emperor is a Sith Lord who has no interest in the affairs of the galaxy, but only cares about his own personal power. As such, she proposes the criminals sow chaos so they can take back some of the power that the Emperor has concentrated within himself. It seems that Qi’ra may be attempting to continue Maul’s work and trying to topple his former master.

Along the way, we have plot threads involving Ochi of Bestoon again, the new assassin Deathstick, and the Knights of Ren put in an appearance when they attempt to rob Vader’s Castle on Mustafar. I actually don’t mind seeing the sequel tie-ins here, because while it’s definitely the wrong way to have gone about it, I think it’s good to now have that sort of background for those films. I am planning to write more about this in the new year though, so stay tuned for my Sequel Trilogy ramblings!

The individual series very much go their own way, though. The ongoing series has the Rebels finally defeat Commander Zahra, which I found interesting – I had expected her to be kept around for the duration of the run, not killed off after 20-some issues. Doctor Aphra is as annoying as ever, as the Crimson Reign tie-in sees her in pursuit of Ascendancy artifacts for Domina Tagge, which brings her into conflict with an old classmate from university. This is definitely one of the volumes that has dragged me out of the Star Wars feeling the most since I’ve been reading through the various Aphra series’.

The Vader storyline is perhaps the most interesting. Vader is tasked by the Emperor with rooting out the Crimson Dawn infiltrators throughout the Empire, so works once more with Ochi (who had joined Crimson Dawn, remember), as well as a reconstructed Valance. Vader continues to assemble his team, while Sabé makes her return, having herself joined Crimson Dawn as part of her plan to hunt Vader down. There are a lot of twists and turns, and at times it’s hard to keep up, but the Vader book ends with Sabé disclosing her knowledge that Vader is Anakin.

I think it’s an incredibly impactful panel, and in some ways has the same feel as Vader’s iconic line in Empire. I felt like the random Jedi trainee from the ongoing series knowing Vader’s identity was a bit cheap, but Sabé has been actively pursuing her investigation into Padmé’s death and so it feels like a much more satisfying payoff here. Honestly, the Greg Pak run on Vader has so many detractors online, but I absolutely love it!!

The ‘Qi’ra trilogy’ concludes with Hidden Empire, though I think each of the ongoing series has some of its own issues before that happens, and I’m not entirely sure the extent to which they all cross over again. There certainly isn’t a “Bounty Hunters: Hidden Empire” volume that I know of, for instance! So hopefully I can get to some wider-ranging storylines before everything converges again for Dark Droids later on!

Star Wars: Target Vader

Hey everybody,
I’ve recently been reading my way through the 2020 Marvel Star Wars comic series, and have a post all set to go live tomorrow that catches up with the first stage of the four individual runs, where they cross over in the War of the Bounty Hunters event. However, it struck me that the Bounty Hunters book in particular was quite difficult to follow when I first read it last year, and I had had someone on reddit recommend that I read the six-issue miniseries Target Vader, which goes some way to explain that book.

I know a lot of folks dislike the fact that you have to have read story A to understand story B, but I think that’s often how comics work, and certainly it’s been my experience with Star Wars books of any stripe. I do quite like it, though – for all that it frustrates me at times! When it’s done well, this kind of cross-pollination can really help to create the sense of a lived-in universe, which is what Star Wars is all about, after all! However, the issue these days with comic books doing that is how they don’t always stay in print – I’ve noticed this particularly with the 2015 books published by Marvel, some of the later graphic novels are near-impossible to find, because they just haven’t kept up with it. And the same is true for Target Vader, which seems to have had one print run, and then it’s done. Luckily, I was able to find the six issues on ebay for a not-too-criminal price, but as someone who prefers to have graphic novels, this was very disappointing!

The story follows two threads at first. Darth Vader is pursuing leads in an attempt to find the Hidden Hand mercenary group, who have been selling weapons to the Rebel Alliance. The Hidden Hand send a messenger to Beilert Valance to offer him a bounty, the target of which is Vader. The condition is that Valance must work with a team, which includes Dengar. Valance baits a trap for Vader, leading to a showdown on the planet Heva, where he and the team are able to destroy Vader’s star destroyer through the use of bot-drones. 

Vader is able to eliminate most of the other hunters on the team, and Dengar is revealed to be Vader’s informant. Vader interrogates Valance, and finds a map of Hidden Hand outposts, one of which is Valance’s home planet Chorin. We learn that Valance was once destined to work in the mines on Chorin, but instead enlisted in the Empire. However, once the Empire had mined Chorin for all its worth, they abandoned the planet and raiders destroyed what was left – these raiders then became the Hidden Hand. Vader offers Valance a chance at redemption, if he takes on a job. 

Valance tracks the Hidden Hand to an asteroid base, and there discovers the messenger who gave him the initial bounty on Vader is actually the mercenary leader. Vader, having followed Valance, takes the leader back to Palpatine for questioning. Valance catches up with Dengar and punches him for selling the team out to Vader, though we later learn that Valance had used his fee from the Empire to support the Rebels in getting the weapons they need.

Target Vader takes place in 1BBY, before season four of Rebels, before the events of the final episodes of Andor, before Rogue One, and before Thrawn: Treason. It’s a somewhat busy part of the timeline, but it’s important to note that the Rebels being supplied by the Hidden Hand are very much a rag-tag group, and not necessarily part of a wider Alliance; Mon Mothma has only given her speech a few months ago. The story was in many ways one of those throwaway things we often got in the Dark Horse days, where we had Vader doing Vader things, grafted onto a story that would perhaps try to set up some good stuff but ultimately it would fall flat. There are very few characters who seem capable of holding their own at this timeframe, but Valance definitely seems to be one. 

We don’t have the complete biography here, of course, but I think Target Vader is an interesting book for letting us know who he is, and giving a small glimpse as to his motivations. He’s a very complex guy, which is definitely something that I didn’t get from reading the Bounty Hunter series so far. As a former Imperial mud trooper, you can expect him to perhaps be less-than-friendly towards the Empire, and this perhaps is used to explain why he isn’t on the bridge of the Executor when Vader is trying to hunt down Han Solo during Empire Strikes Back. However, he works with the Empire as we see here, but he also works with the Rebels. It seems like his main motivation is towards his home planet, and who he sees as his people.

While the story definitely goes some way to explain why Valance and Dengar don’t get along, I’m not entirely sure I’d say it makes the Bounty Hunters series make more sense as it stands. I’ve only read the first three volumes in that series, though, so it’s always possible that I just haven’t got fully caught up with everything yet. At any rate, it’s an interesting enough story, I think I gave it 3 stars when I read it at the end of November, but it suffers first of all for the fact that we know Vader won’t be caught, but also the twists and turns that come in the latter half did get a bit much…

Star Wars: all the graphic novels

Last summer, I started to collect the Star Wars comics that take place between Episodes IV and V. By about this time last year, I had a small but exciting collection of about 10 books, but over the last twelve months I’ve been able to explode the collection to encompass everything!

Star Wars comics

There are four main series that take place between the two movies, which basically replace the Shadows of the Empire storyline from Legends. We have the main Star Wars ongoing series, a Darth Vader series, a Doctor Aphra series, and a Bounty Hunters series. Along the way, all four series cross over four four distinct events, starting with the War of the Bounty Hunters, which was notable for bringing Qi’ra and the Crimson Dawn back into the fold after their appearance in Solo.

Star Wars comics

There’s about 40 books here, and I’m planning to start reading them over the festive season!

Poe Dameron: The Awakening

Poe Dameron

We’ve made it! The final volume in the Poe Dameron series is here. While previous instalments of the book have been set before The Force Awakens, and have broadly been telling the story of the cold war between the Resistance and the First Order, obviously things have changed following the events of the film. The Awakening jumps forward to following the events of The Last Jedi, and we’ve essentially got Poe, Finn and Rey catching up after all of their adventures, while sat in the lounge area of the Millennium Falcon. 

The first issue is mainly the story of how Poe escaped from the crashed TIE fighter on Jakku, which has already been covered in other media and so we have some differences between the comic and, for example, the novelisation of Episode VII. For all that the whole New Canon and the Story Group stuff was supposedly set up to avoid this type of thing happening again, it seems that Star Wars sometimes just can’t help it when it comes to wanting to re-tell this sort of thing. At least you could kinda explain this away as Poe’s own re-telling of the story, which can perhaps be forgiven for embellishments, whereas maybe the novel is a bit more faithful to “what really happened”.

The next issue is sort of Rey’s flashback, as she catches the boys up with what happened to her at the hands of Kylo Ren. She does get it a bit wrong, as she tells them she was tortured aboard his ship when the events described were on Starkiller Base, but what can you expect when you have a dedicated Story Group attached to projects like this to ensure continuity remains true?

We then have more of a sort of lead-up to the finale, with the rest of Black Squadron sent off by General Leia to find allies to help their cause, while Poe heads off to directly engage the First Order fleet. A lot of this stuff feels very side-quest-y, with the pilots doing a lot of random things to earn the trust of the people Leia has sent them to as potential allies. The book essentially seems to exist to join the dots between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, along the way leading into things like Resistance Reborn in an attempt to explain how the Resistance goes from barely enough people to fill the Falcon, to that huge fleet above Exegol.

I was surprised by the time jump at first, and disappointed when the overall feel of the book was kinda filler. The sequel trilogy has a lot of problems, as we know, and I do want to rewatch the films at some point to try to dive into that some more. This comic series, however, is generally said to be a good addition to the canon, and I had read a lot of praise for it. Sadly, for me it all seemed to fall a little flat, especially when the likes of Lor San Tekka are just squandered in this. I don’t really know what I was expecting, of course, but I think it would have been nice if they’d found him a lot sooner, and he was able to work with the Resistance a bit first?

All that aside, and the issues inherent in what feels like having to suborn the series in its final arc to make the bridge between Episodes VIII and IX make sense, I think it was interesting to see what the comic series shows us of the galaxy during this timeframe. The story began in 32ABY, and this final arc takes place in 34ABY – in Legends terms, this is well after the New Jedi Order, which I suppose makes sense as Kylo Ren is older than the Solo kids were when the Yuuzhan Vong struck, and more like the Dark Nest time. There’s still quite a lot of ground to cover in terms of getting from the bonfires on Endor to the desert of Jakku, but it was really interesting to see how the galaxy was depicted, with this cold war between Leia’s faction of the Resistance and the First Order. I get the impression that the First Order is meant to be a neo-Empire, but they are presenting themselves as an alternative to the New Republic, for folks who maybe lived under the Empire’s rule and liked it? Leia is something of a political pariah, especially after the events of Bloodline, but she is not widely believed when she condemns the First Order as the new Bad. There is a genuine feeling that she is on her own, and maybe people think she’s over-reacting, or that she’s trying to remain relevant by causing this kind of scare tactic, making the First Order out to be the bogeyman and such.

All of which just infuriates me that we don’t get this backstory in the multi-million-dollar movie project, but instead in a series of comics released after the fact!

I suppose it’s possible that a lot of my disappointment with the comic series is wrapped up in my disappointment with the sequel trilogy, though. I have recently been trying my best to change my view on this, as the new material that we have for Star Wars is very firmly stitching the trilogy into the fabric of the narrative. While I think some of the stuff we’re seeing is doing maybe a better job than the films themselves, it does make me a bit cross that we’ve basically been having almost six years of stories coming out to try to course-correct after the fact…

Anyway, that’s the Poe Dameron series done! I’m hoping to get some more Star Wars comics read in the coming weeks, so will bring you all some more rambling thoughts on those as they happen!

Poe Dameron: Legend Found

Poe Dameron

Back in issue one of the Poe Dameron series, we have General Leia Organa tasking her star pilot Poe to find Lor San Tekka, as she is convinced he will be able to tell her where her brother Luke is. We’ve been back and forth with a variety of side quests up to now, but issue 20 launches the big one: the Resistance believes Lor San Tekka is being held on Cato Neimoidia, so the mission is finally launched!

Leia actually leads the mission herself, as the Neimoidians have turned their hand from intergalactic trade to security. Under the cover of arranging for a safe location to store some of her mother’s dresses, Leia leads her team into the vaults, and Poe is able to get inside and free Lor San Tekka. After a scuffle with Terex and a dogfight with Malarus, the Resistance is able to extract Tekka and return to D’Qar, whereupon it turns out he doesn’t actually know where Luke is, but has an idea so almost immediately sets off again for the stars! 

There is a definite feel of anti-climax to this story. A lot of the previous arcs have been side quests, to the point where it does feel like this mission to find Lor San Tekka is on the back burner. When we finally get there, it feels great – we’re going to visit a classic prequels location, and we’re interacting with the Neimoidians so we can finally get some sense of what’s going on in the galaxy and see how it has changed, etc. This was the definite highlight for me, and I think it was great to see how what are essentially former war criminals have adjusted to things. The fact that Leia has Padme’s wardrobe is an interesting plot point that feels glossed over – I’m not saying everything needs to be explained away, but as far as I know we haven’t seen Luke and Leia really explore their mother or her heritage, so I did feel a bit cheated on that front.

The biggest let-down with this arc, though, is how Lor San Tekka immediately heads back off into the stars in the final pages of the story. Yes, I get that we’re moving everything into place so that the story flows into the opening of The Force Awakens, but still, it feels like the climax of the search just isn’t there, somehow. There is a lot of drawn-out and egregious action here, such as the dogfight with Commander Malarus, and part of me wishes that we could have instead allowed the story to broaden out a bit. Maybe have an issue on D’Qar where Lor San Tekka explains why he might know where Luke is, and what having Luke on side would mean for the Resistance? This series came out in late 2017, so we’re in the run up to The Last Jedi, but Lor San Tekka is killed in the first five minutes of The Force Awakens, so would it really be spoiler territory? Hm.

I did enjoy the Cato Neimoidia stuff, but unfortunately I think this story ultimately fell a bit too flat for me. There’s only one more arc for the series, which has a bit of a time jump as it takes place after The Last Jedi, when Finn, Poe and Rey are catching up on the Falcon, so it feels a bit divorced from the main thrust of the series so far. But I’ll get to that next week…

Poe Dameron: Legend Lost

Poe Dameron

After the events of the previous arc, we’ve got a couple of stories of down-time before the next big hit. Legend Lost begins with the funeral of L’ulo L’ampar, after which Leia tasks Poe with some self-reflection as to why he is the leader of Black Squadron. Similarly, Agent Terex is held prisoner by the First Order after his string of failures and going rogue. Terex is eventually able to convince Phasma that he is actually loyal to their cause, but is fitted with a cybernetic implant to ensure his compliance before being assigned to Commander Malarus. Poe leads a mission to retrieve some rhydonium fuel, which the Resistance is in desperate need of, but Malarus has laid a trap for them and almost manages to capture Black Squadron. Almost.

The next arc, War Stories, features a couple of stories where Poe’s old navy comrade Suralinda leads a mission to expose the First Order for what they are, the conquering tyrants, by going back to her journalistic roots. There are a series of narrow escapes, but eventually everyone is reunited. 

I meant to get these mini reviews of the Poe Dameron series out weekly, but due to some issues with scheduling I missed getting this one out last week. Apologies about that! As I said at the top there, these stories are very much filler for the down-time between big event-style stories. We had a lot of build up with the first arc, which was also a pair of shorter stories, then The Gathering Storm saw everyone moving about and whatnot. Now the storyline is essentially breathing for a bit before the next arc, which essentially sees the culmination of the twenty-odd issues to date.

As it is, there’s nothing offensively bad about these stories. Indeed, it very much feels like this kind of cold war manoeuvring as Leia and the Resistance firstly try to gather resources to keep going, then launch a propaganda offensive that nearly ends in disaster. I think getting to read these issues in one hit has definitely helped, as if I was reading these things monthly as they came out, I would have been distinctly unimpressed.

Next up, though, it’s the big pay-off…

Poe Dameron: The Gathering Storm

Poe Dameron

The next book in the Poe Dameron series is a bit more conventional in terms of story. We have a new character introduced in Suralinda, a former member of the New Republic navy turned journalist. She’s trying to get the location of the Resistance base for a story, so tricks Poe into taking her to D’Qar but, once she gets there she realises what they’re fighting for, and instead joins up.

The main thrust of the story, though, involves Poe following up on a lead as to the location of Supreme Leader Snoke. C-3PO has a network of droid spies working for the Resistance, which I think is such a fantastic idea for how to involve Threepio in these stories. Normally he’s reduced to not-so-comic relief, but he actually has a real function in fighting the First Order this way.

Anyway, Poe and Threepio travel to Kaddak to meet with the droid, not knowing that Agent Terex has also arrived there. There is a whole side story in this book that gives us Terex’s history as a former stormtrooper who fought at Jakku but wanted to bring the Empire back. However, he realised that was impossible so instead formed a career as a crime lord on Kaddak, and after his failures against Poe in the previous issues, he’s seemingly getting back to what he was good at.

Things all go a bit wrong, naturally, and there’s a shoot-out between Poe and the First Order. Mister Bones makes a triumphant return from the Aftermath books, and while they are ultimately victorious, they lose L’ulo in the battle. Commander Malarus is dispatched to arrest Terex after he had not returned to the First Order at Phasma’s request.

It’s not a bad story, I must say. After the set-up in the first volume, we get a chance to let the story breathe a bit. Getting more of Terex’s backstory is interesting, and it shows a little of the chaos in the Galaxy post-Jakku. The big thing for me, though, is the sub-plot of Threepio’s spy network. So few stories, both in legends and canon, have given the poor guy anything meaningful to do. This, however, is really interesting, and as I said before, it’s nice to see him play his part.

Commander Malarus is quite the piece of work, though, and given how Terex has been proven to be less than effective against Poe, it’s clear that she’s meant to be the new baddie. She gives Poe more to worry about, while not having to involve Phasma or anything from the films.

Poe Dameron: Black Squadron

Better late than never, I’ve been meaning to start on this comic run since January…

The Poe Dameron series, by Charles Soule, is quite highly regarded as being a decent look into the character and provides some insight into the years leading up to The Force Awakens. The biggest problem with that film, for me, is just how lacking the story is without giving us any context for why the events are happening. In the novel Bloodline, and now here in this series, we’re starting to get some of that – this series came out in 2016, so obviously we’ve had more snippets since then, but still!

Poe Dameron

The first volume is split into two stories, both three issues each, and they serve very much as introductory adventures for the main cast, before we get more into the meat of things.

Poe has been tasked by General Leia with finding Lor San Tekka, the guy who gets killed by Kylo Ren in the opening minutes of The Force Awakens. Leia knows Tekka was travelling the galaxy with her brother, so it can be assumed he knows where Luke is. Poe travels to a planet known to have been visited by Tekka, but he is tracked there by Agent Terex, an officer in the First Order’s version of the ISB. Poe manages to escape with the knowledge that Tekka went from there to see Grakkus the Hutt.

The second story, Lockdown, sees Poe travel to the prison planet Megalox, where Grakkus is being held. However, Terex has got there first, so Grakkus offers them a choice – he’ll give his information to whoever can break him out of the prison. After hijinks, Poe and Black Squadron manage to break him out, so Poe is still on the trail.

I mean, these opening stories are fine, but they’re both pretty hectic so we’re kinda thrust into the action without much room to breathe. It’s standard though, and I wouldn’t say it sets my world on fire! We get a pretty by-the-numbers story that introduces Poe, his small team (including, of course, Snap Wexley!) and gives us a bog-standard adversary in Agent Terex, who is reporting back to Captain Phasma. Much is made of a sort of Cold War between the Resistance and the First Order, but we do get an interesting look at how things have gotten to this point.

In the Aftermath series, we’re told that the New Republic de-militarised pretty quickly after the decisive victory at Jakku, and that a breakaway part of the Imperial Remnant went off into hiding. Next we know, there’s a thing called the First Order, and Leia is leading a Resistance. I think the Poe Dameron series is the first thing, for me to know, that takes that through-line of history and shows that the Resistance was formed as a response to the military build-up of the First Order, and the New Republic’s refusal to respond. Bloodlines adds some more meat to these bones in that we learn the galaxy kinda turned its back on Leia when it became known she is Darth Vader’s daughter.

The fact that it has taken, what, five novels and this comic series to provide the background to the film is the mark of some pretty terrible script writing, if you ask me. But all that aside, I’m finding myself enjoying putting these pieces together now, and seeing things coalesce with the hints dropped in Mando 3, and so on, as well. If Disney had been able to wait before making their trilogy, and instead we had a build up like this, while it would perhaps have been infuriating at the time, it does at least feel like the story is going somewhere now.

It took us ten years, folks, but things may finally be making sense!