Star Wars Comics

[Yora]

I've recently started to take a look at american comics, having really only read Sandman and Calvin & Hobbes before.

My brother had a couple of Star Wars comics 15 years ago, and I remember most of them not actually being that great. But I've read the Knights of the Old Republic series (which I love), and followed that up with Tales of the Jedi (which is nice to get all the lore from the original source, but not really that great as a comic). I really quite enjoy reading them, and I'm looking for more like them.

I remember my brother having Crimsom Empire and probably Twilight (which I think were quite bad), and Outlander, which I liked a lot better, though I don't like Ki Adi Mundi. And I also think By the Emperors Hand, of which I don't remember anything other than that I thought it was really cool. I am trying to hunt that one down again now.

And also Enemy of the Empire, which I think was also bad.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Redemption is the only good part of Tales of the Jedi. It also needs the rest of Tales of the Jedi to work, which is kind of annoying because Redemption pretends these characters have always had depth, but when you go back to read the events Redemption references the motivations make no sense at all.

I also quite liked a story called Nomad. It appears in Star Wars Tales: Volume 6. I bought that volume because it contains 2 stories that tie into the KotOR games but they aren't very good, Nomad is pretty much the best thing in the volume. 1-5 of Star Wars Tales are hit and miss non-canon stuff that I haven't read.

Knight Errant is by the same author as the excellent KotOR series. It started out okay and after the third story arc actually turn into a good comic and then got cancelled. Sadly I don't think there is any Star Wars comic that equals KotOR, a series that I think gets better every time you read it. Knight Errant's premise just doesn't allow for the characters that made KotOR good.

I didn't hate Legacy, but it has too much dreary filler (in one case a whole volume's worth) that mar its occasional awesome moments.

By the Emperor's Hand is quite good. I got it from a second hand bookshop along with Crimson Empire, which is a lot worse.

Dark Times did some cool things, but isn't exactly 'fun'. Amazing art at times, but KotOR always had dodgy art and was better despite that.

Invasion is bad. I have no idea what the writer thinks he was trying to do with that one.

Dawn of the Jedi I only read the first volume and didn't like it.

[russdm]

Tales of the Jedi works if you consider it a legend itself, since it does happen to be Tales of the Jedi. Redemption is good, but without Tales it has little real meaning.

I liked the Kotor stuff because it had a great premise. Not many of the star wars comics have that. I would suggest quickly struggling through Dark Empire to read Crimson Empire, because Crimson was better, more personable. I don't think that Dark did so well using the Emperor and that it makes him somewhat stupider than the movies to me.

I have liked Dawn of the Jedi, because I want to see what lead the Je'daii to become Jedi. So little is expressed, especially with Legacy being so nifty. I like some of legacy, but other parts weren't as good.

I enjoyed the story with Quinlan Vos and Master Tholme before and during the clone wars, but I really dislike the Anzati. There is almost nothing redeemable about them and I can't any kind of evolutionary benefit to what they do with the "soup" business.

I find the Dark Times interesting, but would prefer more interesting characters or more depth than what is current. I really don't think much of Agent of the Empire, but liked the second volume more because it required the main character to function without Han or chewie who showed up in the first one.

I think we need some comics featuring Jedi growing up from younglings to padawans to knights. Like take a few characters and just follow them along the way. But that is my thought.

Some comics are really good, while others are not great. It really depends on your tastes.

[TheThan]

I read the star wars legacy comics.

You should give them a try. Its nice to know something about starwars Canon, but if you don't then don't sweat it, you're only really missing out on a few call outs.

[Yora]

I read Crimson Empire, and I think it was not that great.

Dark Empire is something I promised myself to never read. Almost any time I read something about Star Wars that sounds really stupid, the source is Dark Empire.

[Closet_Skeleton]

When I finally read Dark Empire, I was impressed.

It isn't great, but it does work better in context.

[BWR]

KOTOR was definitely the best. Dark Times is second. I detest Legacy and recommend you avoid it like the plague. It's not just badly written, the entire premise is terrible, the characters make me want to hurt them and the designs of the ships is an atrocity (it's like the designers said !you know, the original SW designs are kindof silly; how can we make them worse?").

THe Clone Wars comics has some good stuff. There is a bunch of bad stuff too, but the good is worth the bad.

[Yora]

My personal cutoff point is the Corellia Trilogy. I'm not interested in anything that comes after that. Partly because that's how far the timeline wa developed when I was reading the novels, but also because I feel things are changing quite significantly in style. I've read Black Fleet Crisis and Hand of Thrawn, and they just didn't feel right to me anymore. I don't have any interest in the New Jedi and whatever comes after that.
I actually like the Old Republic Era the most, when it's pretty much an alternative setting with not a lot of direct links to the rest. But the X-Wing, Thrawn, and Jedi Knight period is also still quite nice.

My biggest complaint about Dark Empire is how it seems to completely ignore the limitations of the Force we've seen before.

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Palpatine hopping between clone bodies.
Force Storms that destroy fleets.
Luke turning to the Dark Side and being redeemed by a few kind words.

It had been established that renouncing the dark side is something almost unheard of and it was a miracle that Vader did it. It takes years for Mara Jade.
And the powers of the Force had been limited to hightened reflexes and limited telepathy and telekinesis. Not immortality and reincarnation, and destroying whole fleets with a thought.

And it negates almost all of the accomplishments of Return of the Jedi. Palpatine doesn't stay dead, the Death Star gets a replacement, and the Executor gets rebuild bigger and better.

It all sounds like fan fiction of the worst kind.

[Thrudd]

Star Wars: Republic comics that cover the period of the Clone Wars between Ep 2 to a little after Ep 3 aren't terrible. Some story lines are better than others. Star Wars: Obsession was a decent 5 issue mini series mainly following Obi Wan that happens just before Ep 3. A lot of these issue have some really nice artwork by Jan Duursema.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I disagree that we ever saw 'the limitations of the force' in the Original Trilogy. We saw the actions of a novice and two Jedi Masters concerned with stealth. Vader and Palpatine could basically do whatever they wanted, there's no reason to assume we ever saw the full extent of anyone's power.

Darth Vader can:

Choke someone on another Space ship to death through a view screen.

Neutralise a shot from a blaster with a swipe of his hand and shrug off glancing blows from a lightsaber.

Telekinetically move a swarm of objects without any hand gestures.

Claims the Death Star is insignificant compared to the Dark Side.

Palpatine doesn't even use any powers at all until he busts out Force Lightning, something far above what we've seen before. Before Revenge of the Sith plenty of people got the idea that he doesn't use a lightsaber because he's too powerful to need one.

The Sith are massively over-confident throughout the trilogy. We never really see them struggling to defeat enemies with their full power. Its not until the very end of RotJ that they even plan on killing Luke, and the moment Palpatine decides to just get rid of him then Luke is powerless.

Even Yoda says 'size matters not'. People often claim he doesn't mean he could literally move a Sandcrawler or even a moon, but there's no actual evidence for that.

Jedi on the other hand follow something similar to eastern philosophy. Eastern philosophies that claim to be able to grant supernatural powers also say you don't go around showing them off or misusing them.

Star Wars never pretended to be a low power setting, it just didn't have the budget to do anything extreme regularly.

[Yora]

It's just a change of tone. One I happen to consider as going too far.

[russdm]

Palpatine doesn't even use any powers at all until he busts out Force Lightning, something far above what we've seen before. Before Revenge of the Sith plenty of people got the idea that he doesn't use a lightsaber because he's too powerful to need one.

The Sith are massively over-confident throughout the trilogy. We never really see them struggling to defeat enemies with their full power. Its not until the very end of RotJ that they even plan on killing Luke, and the moment Palpatine decides to just get rid of him then Luke is powerless.

Given that we know now that Palpatine had one, it makes little sense for him not to have it in the RotJ bit. Maybe he lost his at some point?

I don't see the Sith as being massively overconfident anymore thanks to Lucas' poor handling of the Sith in the prequels. I see it more than Palpatine knew that Lucas was having him win without effort and so he simply believed that Lucas would let him win still.

Courtesy of the reboot, Palpatine gets forever shown to be incapable of doing anything. Thanks, Lucas for turning Palpatine from some worrisome threat into an ineffectual villain without your poor plotting.

[TheThan]

Dark Empire is something I promised myself to never read. Almost any time I read something about Star Wars that sounds really stupid, the source is Dark Empire.

I kinda feel the same way. When something mind numbingly stupid pops up, Dark Empire is usually to blame.

I detest Legacy and recommend you avoid it like the plague. It's not just badly written, the entire premise is terrible, the characters make me want to hurt them and the designs of the ships is an atrocity (it's like the designers said !you know, the original SW designs are kindof silly; how can we make them worse?").

I thought the story was decent. Although Cade is somewhat of an idiot. But he's also an emotional train wreck. The designs for most of the ship are really, really bad, I’ll give you that.

Given that we know now that Palpatine had one, it makes little sense for him not to have it in the RotJ bit. Maybe he lost his at some point?

It went out the window in the Sam L Windu battle. We never learn if he recovered it or built a new one though... at least not in the films.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I'd say that Palpatine has a disdain for lightsabers, but that characterisation comes from Dark Empire.

[Yora]

I now read the Lost Tribe of the Sith comic. While it doesn't look terrible at a first glance, it's really, really bad. This one doesn't have a single redeeming quality. The role of the Sith is irrelevant, the villain innefectual, and every single character unbelievably dumb. There isn't any point to anything in it.

This one feels like it was written during lunch break, and that includes all of the dialog. A weak draft of a first attempt at bad fan fiction.

[Gnomvid]

This thread got me thinking of the Comic adaptation of the Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire trilogy, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising and The Last Command back in 91 when these were released as comics I wasn't aware of the books and having been a avid Star Wars comic reader since the originals in the 80s I had these as well, now they are lost so I've just today ordered the compilation in hardcover from B&N hopefully it will be here in a week or so, I have all the original 80's ones so this will be a good addition, I'm not always too keen on the newer stuff mostly due to the artists drawing styles I guess.

[hamishspence]

It went out the window in the Sam L Windu battle. We never learn if he recovered it or built a new one though... at least not in the films.

He had two - one in the Windu battle and one in the Yoda battle. I would guess that after the Yoda battle he had it retrieved, since Yoda disarmed him and it would be somewhere on the floor of the room.

In TCW he dual-wields them.

[Velaryon]

I read Crimson Empire, and I think it was not that great.

Dark Empire is something I promised myself to never read. Almost any time I read something about Star Wars that sounds really stupid, the source is Dark Empire.

Except of course for the ones that come from the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

It all sounds like fan fiction of the worst kind.

I would say your impression of Dark Empire is pretty accurate.

[Mando Knight]

He had two - one in the Windu battle and one in the Yoda battle. I would guess that after the Yoda battle he had it retrieved, since Yoda disarmed him and it would be somewhere on the floor of the room.

In TCW he dual-wields them.

He probably keeps a lightsaber hidden in every office and throne room, just in case.

I mean, if I was a Sith Master plotting to take over the galaxy in the guise of a powerful politician, that what I'd do. You can't expect to carry them around with you, after all.

[Yora]

Except of course for the ones that come from the Jedi Academy Trilogy.

The Sun Crusher and that Wesley Crusher kid were stupid, but that's about all the big negative points I remember. Other than the series generally just not being great.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Except of course for the ones that come from the Jedi Academy Trilogy.



I would say your impression of Dark Empire is pretty accurate.

You know what else comes from Dark Empire?

Nar Shaddaa, most on of the most popular EU worlds.

Anakin Solo, at one point one of the more popular EU characters, but only among people who actually liked New Jedi Order which also gets a lot of flack for being full of stupid stuff.

[Velaryon]

The Sun Crusher and that Wesley Crusher kid were stupid, but that's about all the big negative points I remember. Other than the series generally just not being great.

By "that Wesley Crusher kid" do you mean Kyp Durron? I guess he was kind of obnoxious in a way, though I wouldn't list him among my biggest problems with the trilogy.

I agree the Sun Crusher was pretty stupid, but this is also the series that gave us "Tarkin's old girlfriend" Daala, talks about how competent and awesome she is, and then she proceeds to lose just about every battle. The only victories she can really claim are that she's harder to kill than a cockroach.