Category Archives: SWEU

Six Thoughts: Marvel gets Star Wars

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You wanted news? Well there you go. And now for a jumbled mess of assorted thoughts about said news…

  1. It is a bummer that Star Wars is leaving Dark Horse. As with any comic shop, there are high points and low points. Of late the Brian Wood comic was a definite miss for us, but the new Legacy series was a big favorite. Dark Horse has done a lot of good stuff with the license over the years and that shouldn’t be forgotten.
  2. It’s going to be a really big bummer if the latest Legacy series isn’t allowed to continue, but sadly I’m not holding my breath on that. (Edit: Big bummer confirmed, series to end at issue #18)
  3. I wrote a piece about Star Wars and following Marvel’s multiverse approach. Here’s the heavy-handed and very shameless plug to said piece.
  4. It should be pointed out that Marvel, from a creative standpoint, is absolutely flying high. It’s clear they understand their audience well and are keen to deliver both grand adventures and more character focused pieces (such as blog favorites Hawkeye and Captain Marvel).
  5. While writers like Kelly Sue DeConnick and Matt Fraction may be too busy with other projects to work on Star Wars, Marvel has shown the ability to attract great creative talent to work for them. If they can do this with Star Wars, we’ll all be better off.
  6. Marvel has done a solid job with LGBTQ and minority representation in their works. It might be a lot to ask them to do that with Star Wars, but here’s hoping.

In all, this is definitely a mixed bag of feelings. I completely get the disappointment and sadness that Star Wars is moving away from Dark Horse, who generally has treated the franchise very well. On the other hand, I’m very optimistic about Marvel taking over. In the last few years, Marvel has proven themselves to be a very capable and, sometimes, progressive shop that’s capable of attracting top-flight talent and putting out a wide variety of stories. I’d say I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with the license.

Excelsior, I suppose.

Review: Star Wars: Legacy #10

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Another month, another brand new issue of Star Wars: Legacy!  Issue #10 by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman hits comic store shelves today, drawing the second arc of the series to a close.

When last we left our heroes, the cavalry, led by Admiral Stalzi and Knight Val, had just arrived to at Dac to answer Jao’s distress call.  Even with Admiral Stalzi’s excellent plan to take advantage of the Mon Cal’s and the Quarren’s ability to breath underwater by flooding parts of the station, it’s hardly an easy battle.  The pirates aren’t about to go down without a fight and Jao is locked in a duel with Darth Luft.  Reinforcements are hardly going to make the fight to retake the station an easy one though.

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New Essential Characters Guide cancelled?

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Spotted by Knights Archive, it appears that the postponed updated Essential Character Guide has been cancelled according to edelweiss.

While no doubt this will kick up a new batch of Expanded Universe/Episode VII related conspiracy theories, it could be possible that this is merely postponed again until some point after Episode VII releases.

Via Club Jade

Giveaway: Win a copy of Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells

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Razor's EdgeOver on Twitter, we reached a completely arbitrary but awesome milestone last week: 1,138 followers. To celebrate, we’re giving away a book!

We’ve got a lovely promotional copy of Razor’s Edge by Martha Wells that’s been provided to us by the good folks at Random House and Del Rey that we’re going to give to one lucky person.

To win it, all you have to do is leave a comment in this post between now and 11:59PM EST Friday and we will randomly select one person to send it to. Unfortunately, you’re going to need to be in the continental US to be eligible to win, because we can’t afford shipping costs worldwide.

Thanks for following us on Twitter and supporting the blog and podcast, it really dose mean a lot to us!

Review: Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin

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If you’re looking for a Vader story that doesn’t go too deep and has a high body count, then this week’s Star Wars hardcover release will be right up your alley.  Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin, written by Tim Siedell with art by Stephen Thompson and Ivan Fernandez, is an enjoyable enough tale even if it’s not precisely groundbreaking.

A father is heartbroken over his son’s death at the hands of Darth Vader so he hires eight assassins to try and enact revenge for him.  All of them fail.  He pays a high price to hire the titular ninth assassin who follows Vader to a more distant planet to track a dark and powerful force that seems to be blocking their senses.  Darth Vader will have far more to deal with than he anticipated.

It’s a decent enough read if you’re looking for a Vader centric book.  That’s actually the strength of the book or at least one of them.  (The other strength would be the Emperor but that’s diving into spoiler territory.)  It’s absolutely a Vader story.  It only briefly dives deeper into his psyche with a handful of pages where he’s hallucinating but they’re very well done.  While the overall story isn’t terribly involved, it’s a neat look at the idea of choice.  Plus, of course, we get to see Vader kill people.  A lot of people.  It’s not rocks fall and everyone dies; it’s Vader happens and everyone dies.

The Ninth Assassin never really does anything beside stalk Vader.  Slightly off panel, we see him kill a heck of a lot of people but other than that, he’s just a masked character who ultimately fails at his task.  Other than that, readers get to learn nothing about him.

The artwork is serviceable and decent enough although not remarkable.  The best page is the one where they come out of hyperspace mostly for how the glow of hyperspace was drawn and colored.  The Ninth Assassin also has a neat looking character design.  My one main critique is that occasionally Vader’s proportions look a little bit off.

Overall, it’s a decent enough book but it’s not new or exciting.  The plotline where Vader tracks down the potential traitors is intriguing enough to catch your interest and keep you engage with the story.  If you want more Vader then pick up the book.  If you’re interested in seeing Vader as he’s still in the first few years of transitioning from being Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader than this is probably a book you should pick up.  However, if you’re looking for a book with tons of layers and lots of fully developed characters than this is probably one you should skip.  Again, I’m not saying that this is a poorly done book as it’s certainly enjoyable enough.  It’s just likely not everyone’s cup of tea.

I give Darth Vader and the Ninth Assassin a 3/5 and only casually recommend it.

One Woman’s Expanded Universe Wish List for 2014

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All I want for Christmas is… more Star Wars book announcements!  Now before you say anything, I know.  I know and I understand why they haven’t been able to give us any news about future books in the Expanded Universe.  It is not Del Rey’s fault that they cannot tell us more.  Several projects like the Paul Kemp duology and the Sword of the Jedi trilogy seem to be in book limbo so while we miiiiiiight see those in 2014, I’m not going to hold my breath for them even though I’d love to see them finally be published.  Instead, I’ll use that breath to give you my thoughts on eight different books that I’d like to see Del Rey possibly announce as new projects.  Yes, some of these are definitely pipe dreams.  But hey!  It’s always fun to speculate wildly and close your eyes and wish really hard.

So without further ado and in no particular order, eight ideas that could take place in the already established timeline:

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Review: The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual

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Death Star manualLet’s just get this out of the way. The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual by Ryder Windham, Chris Reif, and Chris Trevas continues right where the Millennium Falcon manual left off. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed that book, you’re going to enjoy this one just as much.

The text is a fun in-universe affair. It should be said that this book isn’t exactly the sort of oil-stained Haynes manual your father kept in the garage to do self-repairs on the old Datsun pickup truck that he just refuses to get rid of. This is less of a book of diagrams and more of a history text and reference book. You’re not going to find out how to repair a deactivated tractor beam (though there is a nifty labeled diagram), but you will learn a great deal about the key minds behind the Death Star and just what all those little details on the surface of the station are.

Some of the neater sections are memos and letters from characters in the Star Wars universe discussing the Death Star. In particular are the Personal Data Journal Entries from Grand Moff Tarkin that discuss various key elements of the battle station. You gain insight into his mindset and why he wanted specific things. More interesting, they detail why his specific needs for the Death Star wound up being its downfall.

There’s a host of new artwork within the pages of this reference book. Personally one of my favorite illustrations was the Death Star cross section early on in the book. It really gives scale on just how massive that superlaser was. Throughout there are a multitude of cutaways, diagrams, and new illustrations that shed a lot of light on just how the Death Star operated and functioned.

The end of the book looks briefly into the second Death Star. Once again, the art is incredible. I would gladly pay for a print of the comparison chart showing the size differences between a Star Destroyer, a Super Star Destroyer, the first Death Star, and the Second Death Star. For that matter, there’s a lot of art in this book I’d love to get as a print. The Death Star Cutaway in particular would look great in any geeky office or bedroom.

At 122 pages, there’s a whole lot to sink your teeth into. It’s the perfect size and the perfect material to make a great geeky coffee table reader. For a casual fan, there’s all sorts of neat trivia that will keep anyone’s attention. For a fleet junkie, the book is a huge wealth of knowledge that you’ll come back to scan again and again. The Haynes Death Star Owner’s Technical Manual is a fun and brilliant read. Go pick it up.