Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume

Back in February Brian and I visited family near Seattle, which is home to Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, grunge music, and the EMP Museum. We’d planned this trip long before the announcement of the opening of a new costume exhibit — Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen: Star Wars and the Power of Costume — and once we heard about it we grew even more excited to return to Brian’s home city.  We’d been to the EMP once before and visited this time specifically for the exhibit. It did not disappoint!

Brian and I really enjoyed Rebel, Jedi, Princess, Queen; I especially loved seeing Luke’s Return of the Jedi costume, various handmaiden dresses, and the evolution of Palpatine. I do wish the exhibit had more Original Trilogy costumes, though, and was disappointed that some of my favorite costumes (Luke’s Dagobah outfit, Leia’s Endor and Hoth gear) weren’t included. While the focus on the prequels is understandable, at times the exhibit seemed incomplete.

That said, the exhibit had a lot of insights about how the costumes were designed and constructed, and gave me an even greater appreciation for Trisha Biggar (how that woman wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar, I’ll never understand). I consider myself pretty well-informed about the making of the saga, and the signage included lots of trivia I’d never heard before. I definitely recommend attending if you’re in the Seattle area, especially if you’re a costumer.

The exhibit is open through October 4, 2015, and your ticket includes access to the rest of the EMP galleries, so be sure not to miss out on those. Entrance to the exhibit is done via timed tickets, so it is recommended that you purchase tickets in advance in order to secure your preferred viewing date and time. It took about an hour for Brian and I to stroll through the costume exhibit, and we probably could have spent a lot more time in there!

Review: Darth Vader #4

We’ve met Doctor Aphra, Triple-Zero, and BT and now they have their mission to further Darth Vader’s need for a secret personal force. In Darth Vader #4 by Kieron Gillen and Salvador Larroca, the “team” is off to Geonosis… a place that Vader knows well.

Interestingly enough, the star of the issue, in my eyes, is Triple Zero. While he’s obviously an inversion of Threepio, it works surprisingly well and doesn’t come off as an evil parody. He’s still got the fussiness of a protocol droid but Triple Zero is also definitely fine with both murder and torture. It’s a great way to take the premise and build off of it in a way that doesn’t feel boring.

On a similar vein of character moving past their concepts, Doctor Aphra continues to be a fantastic addition to the Star Wars universe. She’s a smart and capable woman of color who may babble when she’s nervous but doesn’t have any illusions about how this galaxy works. This is a galaxy that needs more realists and I definitely look forward to seeing how the working relationship between her and Vader evolves.

This is definitely a great book for some good old-fashioned Vader violence. Larroca draws a great Vader and he definitely has fun with all the action sequences. Edgar Delgado’s colors compliment his line work nicely. It’s also a testament to the work of both the artist and writer that the art of Vader still manages to be expressive and tell a story with his body language even though you can’t see his face.

Speaking of Vader, I haven’t discussed him much yet in a review of his starring book. This is definitely a great read for those who love the character. I find that Gillen’s allusions to Anakin are certainly obvious but they don’t feel out of place for the situation. It’s nice to see that despite Vader’s efforts, Anakin isn’t completely gone.

Oh. And that last page cliffhanger? I can’t wait until next month’s issue. It has the potential to be fantastic.

Darth Vader #4 gets another 4/5 from me this week.

Star Wars Goes Digital on April 10th

Star_Wars_logoIn news surprising to no one thanks to rumors over the past few days, Disney announced tonight via a commercial during this big deal college basketball game that the six films will be available in Digital HD starting on Friday, April 10th.

“Since the debut of the first film nearly 40 years ago, Star Wars has become a worldwide phenomenon with legions of fans from every generation,” said Alan Bergman, president, The Walt Disney Studios. “It’s only fitting that audiences enjoy this legendary saga and its many fascinating behind-the-scenes stories on a wide variety of platforms, and we’re very excited to finally bring all six films to Digital HD for the first time.”

The digital releases will also contain bonus material although that will apparently vary by retailer. You can read the full press release on the official site.

A New Approach to Recommending The EU

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.

Continue reading

Review: Princess Leia #2

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.

Continue reading

Journey to The Force Awakens: Aftermath Cover and Author revealed

AftermathWell, 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!

Separating the Art from the Artist: Why I’m Torn About Lords of the Sith

Lords of the SithI 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.

Continue reading

We have our first Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens image!

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.

shatteredempire1