Star Wars, Geek Culture, and Power Converters
And now for something completely different… Darth Vader #3 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca is out today in comic stores and online. Gillen and Larroca take the story down to a smaller scale this week as Vader tracks down Aphra who has a very particular set of skills.
This review contains spoilers.
If you’re an Expanded Universe fan, chances are you’ve had to field the following question at least once: “Where should I start reading the Star Wars books?” Everyone has a different answer of course but the most common is usually “The Thrawn Trilogy. Duh.” As the first EU book, it’s accessible and doesn’t require more knowledge than the films and it’s simply a pretty darn good trilogy. The problem, however, is that I don’t think this works anymore.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve had two people ask me where they should start reading the books and I had to pause and reconsider the instinctive and age-old Thrawn Trilogy answer. We now live in a world where there is Star Wars canon and there is Legends with hundreds of books. For me, this changes that game completely.
Taking my probably belated realization into mind, I wanted to share with all of you my new method for deciding which EU books I should recommend to someone. It’s only been tested on two people so it’s hardly foolproof but it may be useful to some of you.
Princess Leia’s mission to track down all her remaining Alderaanian survivors continues as she lands on Naboo with her new accomplice and fellow Alderaanian Evaan. Mark Waid, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, and Jordie Bellaire knock it out of the park yet again with the second issue that’s in stores today!
This review contains mild spoilers.
Our Alderaanian heroines arrive on Naboo to find retrieve the Melodic order; a famous performance group from their homeworld. It will hardly be an easy task though to elude Imperial detection… even with the help of Leia’s old friend Lord Junn.
Well, the author is officially revealed, anyway.
A few days after Random House’s publicity site let slip that Chuck Wendig would be writing the first Story Group canon era novel set after Return of the Jedi, Jen Heddle made it official. While she can’t say much, Jen was able to tell us that this will be the first book in a trilogy. Also, this:
What I can reveal is that you will be introduced to a sweeping new cast of characters, along with a fan favorite from the films. And who knows what other familiar faces will pop up along the way? And once you’ve seen The Force Awakens in movie theaters, you may find that certain names and places in Aftermath have a relevance you never knew–so keep your eyes wide open!
Additionally as you can see on the right, the cover was released as well. I don’t know about you, but I absolutely dig that look.
Welcome to the Star Wars community, Chuck!
I don’t want to feel conflicted about this, but there’s no way around it.
It goes without saying that an LGBTQ+ character being introduced into the Star Wars story group era canon is unequivocally a good thing. Any step to diversify one of the most prolific and powerful pieces of entertainment in the world is welcome. Despite this obvious good news, I can’t help but be wary. Not because I don’t doubt there are good intentions by the story group and the folks at Del Rey, but because the author who is introducing this character has a pretty dubious history when it comes to speaking about diversity.
Not content with dropping the breaking news mic all week, the Star Wars folks have released the very first image from Marvel’s contribution to Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Check out the cover of Shattered Empire #1 by superstar artist Phil Noto below. The first issue will be out in September.
Pretty much the whole world has known for a while that Episode VIII’s director would be Rian Johnson, but Bob Iger and Disney made it official today.
Iger confirmed that Rian Johnson will write and direct Star Wars: Episode VIII. The film, which continues the saga after the events of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is set for release on May 26, 2017 — forty years and a day after the release of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977.
Of note is Star Wars returning to a traditional May release window. Looks like we’ll only be doing one holiday Star Wars episodic release. Believe it or not, though, this wasn’t the biggest announcement in this press release. We finally have the name of the first standalone film: Rogue One.
Rogue One is the title for the first film in a unique series of big-screen adventures that explores the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga. Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) and written by Oscar nominee Chris Weitz (Cinderella, About a Boy, Antz). The first actress cast is Felicity Jones, who garnered an Academy Award nomination and critical acclaim for her performance in The Theory of Everything.
Be still my heart! I mean, we don’t really know what the film is about, but it’s hard to see that title and not think Rogue Squadron and military science fiction. And, hey, there’s a lot of great written material to draw inspiration from.
It’s an explosive conclusion this week to the first arc of the new Star Wars comic. Star Wars #3 by Jason Aaron and John Cassaday is out now and so far, they’ve lived up to the promise of their first issue. Luke, Leia, and Han’s mission to destroy the weapons factory hasn’t gone as planned and now, it’ll be tough enough to escape from Vader and the Empire with their lives let alone finish their mission.
As with the previous issues, it’s obvious that this is a labor of love for both Aaron and Cassaday. It’s difficult to say which Aaron does a better job with: the characters or the plot. That’s impressive. His Leia and Han have the perfect level of post-Yavin bickering (aka: not too heavy on the flirting subtext) while Luke is trying to live up to his mental expectations for himself. Or at least what he thinks Obi-Wan and his father would expect of him.
The plot line for this first arc was a great choice. Attacking a weapons factory is a high stakes mission without being involving entire fleets and large armies. It’s the right level of important and tense for a story such as this and, without any spoilers, I found it to have a very satisfying conclusion.
Cassaday’s art with Laura Martin’s colors continue to be a great fit for the book. His panels where he’s having fun with facial expressions are definitely my favorites. The joy on Luke’s face as he flies the speeder, even in the heat of battle, is positively tangible.
As I said in my review of the first issue, the true test of this book will be how the second arc plays out. However, if the last two pages are any indicator, I think it has potential to be just as great.
Star Wars #3 gets a 4/5 from me for both this issue and for the first arc. Go pick up the first three issues if you haven’t yet!
The Star Wars fandom has a PhD in speculation and theories and we’ve certainly continued in that fine tradition with Rebels. One theory that’s come up a few times especially in the wake of the Season 1 finale is that it’d be interesting to see Barriss Offee resurface as an Inquisitor. Personally? I think that’s a bad idea.
I’ve said more than a few times that I strongly disagree with how Barriss was used in The Clone Wars Season Five finale. I don’t think it made sense for her character and didn’t have the intended impact since she’d rarely been in the show over the past few seasons. A different character could have better served the role of betraying Ahsoka. If you’re going to mess with a character to her very core than at least earn it through a well built arc.
However, this isn’t about The Clone Wars and what happened is canon. Although she fell to the dark side (I find this debatable) and blamed the Jedi for the war, we don’t actually know what happened to her. A good guess is that she was put in the Jedi’s prison basement which they (like the X-men and Avengers) totally have and after that, your guess is as good as mine. For all we know, Barriss was redeemed or maybe she was another casualty of Order 66. That said, I find it unlikely that she survived the Jedi Purge.
But for the sake of argument, let’s say she did survive.
Those of you thirsty for some information of the state of the Galaxy Far Far Away leading up to The Force Awakens are in luck. According to an exclusive report at Entertainment Weekly, there are at least twenty new Star Wars books and comics to be released later this year fleshing out the thirty-two years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, ranging all different publishers and target age demographics in a series called Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Content under that title will be released by various Disney imprints as well as at least seven outside companies and is confirmed to include adult novels, young adult novels, sticker books, and comics.
Details on most of the books involved are still under wraps and many of the books are still being worked on, but we do know some about of the upcoming material:
A few titles we can confirm are Del Rey’s Star Wars: Aftermath, which sounds like it may serve as an epilogue to the original trilogy – and perhaps a prologue to the new one. Meanwhile, Marvel Comics will put out one prequel called Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens and another preview story told from C-3PO’s perspective. For vehicle enthusiasts, Studio Fun International will print Star Wars: Ships of the Galaxy.
The report also let’s us know some of the authors involved for a series of young adult novels focusing on the characters of original trilogy, to be released by Disney-Lucasfilm Press:
Cecil Castellucci (author of Tin Star) will write Moving Target, an adventure following Princess Leia; Jason Fry, who earlier wrote Darth Maul: Shadow Conspiracy, will be the author of The Weapon of a Jedi, about Luke Skywalker; Claudia Gray, author of the Evernight series of fantasy books, will write a book titled Lost Stars; and Greg Rucka, a comic book scribe and writer of the Atticus Kodiak novels, will pen Smuggler’s Run, a Han Solo tale.
There will also be a new series of novels retelling the original trilogy from various perspectives, though there’s no word yet on whose points of view we’ll see.