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Star Wars: Infinities, The Empire Strikes Back issue 2, by Dave Land, Davide Fabbri, and Christian Dalla Vecchia, 2002 , Dark Horse Comics The Infinities concept is brilliant. The writer takes the events of one of the Star Wars movies, and changes one thing. Just one thing. Of course, that one thing can have a big impact! For example, in the Infinities series for A New Hope, the writer had Luke's torpedo misses, so the Death Star isn't destroyed, and the Rebel base is. Great stuff. So this is the second issue of the Infinities series for The Empire Strikes Back. So what gets changed? Luke dies from his injuries while fighting the wampas. And Han thinks Luke told him to go to Dagobah to train as a Jedi! In this issue, Han, Leia, and Chewie end up at Bespin, where Boba Fett shows up. Things happen, a fight breaks out, and Fett gets defeated and encased in carbonite! The Falcon's hyperdrive gets repaired and the heroes fly off to Dagobah, but Darth Vader shows up at Bespin, gets pissed off that Han isn't there, and blows the place up! Whoah, man! These books are great. Who cares if it isn't the Star Wars we all know and love? I've seen those movies dozens of times and know how they go, so I'm really enjoying seeing what different writers do with these stories. I am eagerly anticipating the next issue, to see what happens next! |
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Star Wars: Empire issue 3, by Scott Allie, Ryan Benjamin, and Curtis Arnold, 2002, Dark Horse Comics Empire is Dark Horse's new ongoing Star Wars series. Where the regular Star Wars monthly comic is set during the time of the new trilogy, Empire is set during the original trilogy. As the title indicates, it focuses on dealings within the Empire, which when you think about it is an obvious area for focus, as previous movies, novels, comics, and games have focused on the Rebel Alliance's struggle against the Empire, and not the Empire itself. The initial story in the Empire series revolves around some high-ranking Impreial officals who are staging a coup. The first two issues revolved around the setup, as these officials brought people into their cadre, got their troops stationed in strategic locations, and did stuff like that. There wasn't much action, really. Some of the characters were pretty good, though some were pretty generic and bland. Pretty average, really. In this issue, things really heat up, as the plotters put their plans into motion at the same time their cadre is unravelling. A number of the plotters get eliminated in this issue, though whether they were discovered by loyalists or turned on by their "partners" is yet to be revealed. I must admit that the pacing is pretty bad, though. Also, there wasn't quite enough buildup, and I have trouble seeing how one event leads to another. The end result is a number of disjointed sequences that seem to want to be related, but I can't figure out how they are. If you missed the first two issues and are interested in this series, don't try starting here. Either track down the initial issues or wait until issue 5, when a new storyline should start. |
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Star Wars: Empire issue 5 by Randy Stradley, Davide Fabbri, and Christian Dalla Vecchia, 2003, Dark Horse Comics Here we have the latest issue in the Star Wars: Empire series. The first four issues dealt with a political ploy to overthrow the Emperor. It didn't make a whole lot of sense, and I was thinking about dropping the series. This issue, though, is much better. It chronicles some of the adventures of Princess Leia just a while before the events in the first Star Wars movie (aka, Episode IV). We see her travelling around in her "consular ship on a diplomatic mission," visiting different worlds, trying to help the rebellion, and generally attracting trouble. My impression is that this two-issue series is supposed to give some insight into the personality of Princess Leia, and how she goes from a pacifistic Imperial senator to a true leader in the rebel alliance. She obviously is trying to help them out, but not in a military fashion. She is still trying to play politics and work through proper channels to help people and change things, though by the end of this issue it is clear that isn't working anymore! After the incompetence and general weirdness of the Imperial forces in the first story arc, it is good to see some Imperial soldiers who are both competent and evil, as that is the impression you got in the first movie. Except for the fact that Stormtroopers can't actually hit anything important with their blasters, of course. But the officers are people you can truly hate, and we've got that here in spades. If you had been ignoring the Empire series because the first issues kind of sucked, try it again with this issue. I think you'll be surprised. |
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Star Wars: Empire issue 7, by John Wagner, Cam Kennedy, and Chris Blythe, 2003, Dark Horse Comics Wow. Here I am writing about Empire again. After starting out rather poorly, I am very impressed with recent issues in this series. This issue is a one-shot, and is a great book to get if you like Boba Fett stories. Here we see the bounty hunter in action on a planet torn by civil war, as one brother leads the loyalist forces, and another leads the rebels. The loyalists call in Boba Fett to track down the rebel leader, but it doesn't work out quite as they expect. The pleasent surprise in this issue was Cam Kennedy's art. I don't think his style is the ultimate coolness or anything, but it is distinctive and enjoyable. In case you didn't know, Mr. Kennedy was the artist behind the Dark Empire books that dragged me back into comics, so I always enjoy his stuff, especially the way he draws Boba Fett. Good stuff. I also enjoyed the ending, which has that "poetic justice" thing I love so much. A very enjoyable comic that I highly recommend even if you aren't a big Star Wars fan. |
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Star Wars issues 40 & 41, by John Ostrander, Davide Fabbri, and Christian Dalla Vecchia, 2002, Dark Horse Comics A few months back I plugged some holes in my collection, including the second issue of this two-issue story arc in Dark Horse's monthly Star Wars series. This series was kind of a cap to some recent events in the series, where the Devaronian Vilmarh Grahrk tells his smuggler/pirate friends his take on what has recently happened in the series. His story is, naturally, a pack of lies, and his friends know this, but it is very funny, so they happily listen over the two issues as "Villie" spins things in order to make him look smart and hip. It's all very funny, and done in the same vein as the Tag and Bink are Dead/Live books that Dark Horse did last year. The art here is good. It's not great, but it is humorous in its own right, which fits the book very well. The coloring work is also very good. If you like your Star Wars stories to be humorous, these two issues will be good ones to pick up. |
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Star Wars: Republic issue 57, by Haden Blackman, Brian Ching, and Victor Llamas, 2003, Dark Horse Comics This was one of the more depressing comics I have read in a long time. It is also a great example of how the Star Wars comic books are telling better stories than the recent "prequel" movies are. The story involves a part of the clone war taking place on the planet Jabim. The older Jedi masters get killed, leaving their padawans (students) behind. In good samurai film fashion, they decide to head out and meet the enemy in a final suicidal battle to protect a transport ship or something. I'd tell you what happens, but if you've seen samurai films, then you know what happens. And if you haven't seen samurai films, you'll just have to read the book. One of the interesting things about this book is the fact that Brian Ching can draw beautiful women. Seriously, every human or semi-human woman here looks great, no matter what hair they have, or if they have horns in their face, or whatever. Good job, Brian! They should have let Brian do the cover, as his stuff looks much better than what you see to the left. Because this comic takes place within the larger storyline about the various battles against the separatists, it doesn't work that well as a stand-alone comic. Nothing really super here, just an interesting story that will appeal to people who enjoy tragedies and "fight to the end" stories. And it looks good, too. |
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Star Wars: Republic issues 60 and 61, by Haden Blackman and Tomas Giorello (issue 60) and John Ostrander and Brandon Badeaux (issue 61), Dark Horse Comics I am writing about these comics together for two reasons. First, They were both in my reserve slot the last time I visisted my local store. Second, they illustrate a point I want to make about what is going on with the Republic line of Star Wars comics. Republic is the monthly series dealing with events during the "Clone Wars" period, which is the period covered by the current prequel trilogy. This is different from the Empire monthly series, which covers the time period of the original trilogy of movies. While Empire has been (almost) consistently excellent work, Republic has been much more spotty. Take the two comics here, issues 60 and 61. Issue 60 is about a dark jedi, Asajj Ventress, who has captured Obi-wan Kenobi and a clone soldier and taken them to another planet for interrogation. The story shows how Obi-wan and the clone escape, as well as showing some of Asajj's past. The problem with this episode is that nobody cares about Asajj Ventress. Seriously. I could care less what her background is. Why? Because she isn't an interesting character. They try to paint her as a sort of sympathetic character who had a rough life, but her story is told so quickly that it is more of a break between fights than an actual story mechanism. Asajj is still a very two-dimensional character invented solely to be a dark jedi opposing the good jedi. In issue 61, however, we get a story about someone who actually matters, Bail Organa, the adopted father of Princess Leia, though that hasn't happened yet as of the time of this tale. In this book we get to see more of the political machinations going on in the Imperial Senate as Palpatine gets more and more power given to him to fight against the rebels. Mon Mothma also makes an appearance, which is nice as she figures largely in the leadership of the Rebellion in the original movie trilogy, and it is nice to see her back in the Imperial Senate. As opposed to Ms. Ventress, Bail Organa and Mon Mothma matter to the greater Star Wars continuity. Thus, I enjoy seeing some of the stuff that they go through and learning more about them. Also, we get to see more of Palpatine's maneuvering in the Senate, which is enjoyable to read, as we start to see a little more of the man's menace. So, as you can hopefully see, each issue of Republic is a gamble. Some issues are quite good, and some are not. There is enough good to warrant my continual purchasing of the series, but the editor needs to do a better job of making sure that the stories in the series concern matters that the fans actually care about. |
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Star Wars: Republic issue 75 by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, and Dan Parsons, Dark Horse Comics After a bad run a few months ago, the Republic series has gotten better. It has also gotten a lot grittier, as the Jedi continue to lose just as many battles in the Clone War as they win. This means that many Jedi die, at least averaging more than one per issue. Granted, this has to be the case, because we all know from the original Star Wars movies that the Empire hunted down and killed all the Jedi, except for Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi (assumedly, anyway). This brings up an interesting conondrum for the readers of Republic, because the authors and artists keep coming up with cool new Jedi characters, and then they die. Sometimes they live for a long time, like Ki-Ada Mundi or Aayla Secura. In fact, the characters invented for the comics are much cooler than the ones invented for the movies. Funny how that works. All I know is that I am not looking forward to when Aayla Secura bites that. Aayla is awesome. Anyway, in this issue more Jedi die! But you couldn't guess that, eh? We also get to see Quinlan Vos go deeper towards the Dark Side, maybe irrevocably this time. Then again, maybe not. While Republic isn't as consistent as the Empire series, it has gotten better recently, and it's better than a lot of the other mini-series that the publisher has been coming out with lately. I hope they've made their money in the run-up to the next money, because I'm getting worn out from all the different Star Wars comics. Enough is enough, guys. |
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Star Wars: Republic issue 79, by Welles Hartley and Doug Wheatley, 2005, Dark Horse Comics After over 10 years, the end is nigh. With the release of the final Star Wars movie earlier this year, Dark Horse is cancelling all of the current books in the line, and will kick off 2006 with two new series, with supposedly more to come over the next couple of years. So it isn't like Star Wars comics are going to disappear, but Republic will end with the next issue. As anyone who has been reading me for a while should know, I'm not exactly shedding any tears over this news. Republic lost its way a while back, and by now they are simply wrapping things up. This issue tells two tales, which should be completed in the final issue. Both revolve around Jedi who are tyring to escape from the Clone troopers who are trying to kill them. The first story, about Master Hudorra and a padawan he has picked up, is the more interesting one. The Jedi in the other story seems kind of stupid. At least the art is good, with heavy pencil shading coming through the coloring to create a nice effect. The image on page 3 of the clone troopers in the snow is particularly good. In the end, the series is wrapping up without much flash or fanfare. At least there will be more Star Wars books to come. |
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Star Wars: Republic issue 83, by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, and Dan Parsons, 2006, Dark Horse Comics And the end comes for Republic. After 7 years, the series is over. Granted, with last year's Episode III killing off most of the Jedi, it's just been mopping up and wrapping plot threads for this series. Still, they end it well. The last few issues have dealt with Jedi going underground, and now our favorite dark Jedi from the last few years, Quinlan Vos, gets his story finished out. I won't spoil it for you whether he lives or dies, but John Ostrander did a good job scripting this one out. I haven't always enjoyed Republic for the last few years, as it has been rather spotty at times, but at least it finishes out on a good note. Oh, and Vilmar Ghrakh, everyone's favorite Devaronian is here, too, and actually plays a significant role in things. The interplay between Vos and Ghrakh has always been a highlight of the series, and it was good to see it come them close things out together. Hopefully it's not the last we'll see of these two. |