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Secret Invasion: Meet The Skrulls

featuring Robbie Thompson and Stan Lee

(Art by Niko Henrichon, Jack Kirby and George Klein)

Two stories of the alien shapeshifters, neither of which directly tie-in to the Secret Invasion crossover event despite the title (but I think this book was published to coincide with the release of the lazy, undercooked Disney+ series).  In the main story we meet the Warner family who, although a real family, are also a sleeper cell of Skrull infiltrators living on Earth.  When they learn that other hidden Skrulls are being hunted down and exterminated, they find themselves in a race against time to complete their espionage mission before they're discovered.  The second story dates from Stan Lee's iconic run on Fantastic Four in the 60s and shows the first appearance of the shapeshifting aliens in Marvel Comics.

Although filled with obvious dialogue and shallow plotting, Lee's 1960s story of alien infiltrators is very clear in its Cold War influences (as much of the sci-fi of the era was) and whilst the story itself isn't great, I always like a retro tale whose metaphors tell a story of the times in which it was written.

The themes of the main story are very similar but are also clearly told through the lens of a post-9/11 world where Russian spies are less worrying than terrorist cells (although the Russian spies are absolutely still there, to be clear).  What makes it different and more impactful is that it tells the story from the inside.  The teenage Skrulls have been raised on Earth and, as a result, have a deeper connection to the planet and to the humans they have encountered.  Meanwhile, their parents struggle with the competing priorities of being dedicated Skrull agents and being part of a settled and loving family.  It's impressively complex and I feel that there's a real poignancy to the discoveries that both sides are manipulating the main characters to achieve their own ends.

Also, Iron Man's in it, if you really can't face the idea of a Marvel graphic novel without at least one Avenger.

4 out of 5

 

Shang-Chi: Spider-Island: Deadly Hands Of Kung Fu/Out Of The Past

featuring Antony Johnston and Mike Benson

(Art by Sebastian Fiumara, Leandro Fernandez, John Lucas, Tan Eng Huat and Craig Yeung)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 52.  In the first of the two stories featured here, Shang-Chi become embroiled in the events of the Spider-Island crossover, fighting alongside Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons.  The second story sees him travel to London seeking justice for a former lover murdered whilst operating undercover for MI:6.

I never had much interest in Shang-Chi as a character reading Marvel Comics for most of my life but that changed thanks to the charisma and fun brought to the character by Simu Liu in the MCU movie.  However, seeking out some of the Shang-Chi's comic book adventures has since reminded me of why I had so little interest in him before.  You see, the comics version of Shang-Chi is poe-faced and totally lacking in anything resembling a personality.  He's so dead-serious whilst spouting questionable kung fu wisdom that it is, paradoxically, very hard to take him seriously.

Despite that, there are things to enjoy here, particularly the two tones of the stories on offer.  The first is pure martial arts mysticism and leans nicely into Shang-Chi's links with the Iron Fist lore, whilst the second is something of a James Bond-esque spy thriller (albeit set in a weirdly Chinese version of London that I've certainly never seen).

3 out of 5

 

Spawn: Escalation

featuring Grant Morrison, Tom Orzechowski and Andrew Grossberg

(Art by Greg Capullo, Dan Panosian, Art Thibert, Mark Pennington and Todd McFarlane)

Book 4, featuring two stories of the Hellspawn vigilante.  In the first Spawn finds himself confronted by Anti-Spawn, an old enemy who has been imbued with Heavenly fire and sent to destroy him.  The second sees Spawn encountering the interdimensional magician Harry Houdini and attempting to avert a nuclear disaster.

This is very much a book of two halves, with one being infinitely better than the other.  See if you can guess if the better half was the one written by comics legend Grant Morrison or if it was the half written by two guys whose names I've literally never encountered before...

Whilst Morrison's contribution to this book is far from his best work, it's a perfectly satisfying example of a hero having to fight his equal/opposite.  I also particularly liked the fact that Spawn's habit of protecting the homeless and destitute comes back to save him at a critical moment.

The second half of the book, by Orzechowksi and Grossberg, is a rambling, nonsensical mess in which interdimensional scientists want to experiment by blowing up Spawn with a nuclear weapon, Houdini is an actual sorcerer and for some reason, despite it being written in the mid-90s, the Cold War is still a thing.  It's garbage, really, and the whole book is spoiled by it.

2 out of 5

 

Spider-Man Noir: The Complete Collection

featuring David Hine, Fabrice Sapolsky and  Roger Stern 

(Art by Carmine Di Giandomenico, Richard Isanove, Bob McLeod, Tim Eldred and Paco Diaz)

In the Great Depression crime and corruption are rampant in New York City until a chance encounter with a mystical spider-totem imbues young Peter Parker with remarkable powers.

I was a little wary of this book, wondering if Spider-Man Noir was just going to turn out to be a bit of a gimmick (like the Batman stories where he's a pirate and that ilk).  However, I was pleased to find that the writers have fully embraced the noir vibe, as well as not shying away from the dark aspects of crime in the 1930s.  There's real emotional weight to this book and we learn early on that this isn't the optimistic do-gooder Peter Parker we're used to.  This version of Spider-Man is a deeply troubled and somewhat jaded individual who is very much the product of a dark time in America's history.

The villains on offer here are done justice too, with particularly dark and grim versions of familiar characters enhancing the dark tone of the story.  For example we get a version of the Vulture who is a cannibal and literally ate Ben Parker alive, as well as an incarnation of Doctor Octopus who is using Nazi funding to conduct horrifying experiments on kidnapped black people.  What I found interesting was seeing these characters not as costumed supervillains but as truly wicked humans who are, frighteningly, somewhat believable.

The Spider-Verse crossovers which make up the last quarter of the book did let it down a little.  Not that there's anything exactly wrong with them, it's simply that they have more of the mainstream Spider-Man feel to them which spoils the dark tone of the book up to that point.  But perhaps you'll need a more light-hearted palette-cleanser after the horror and misery of the rest of the book and, if nothing else, it perhaps does noir Peter some good to encounter some of his more hopeful and upbeat variants.

4 out of 5

 

Spider-Man: Spider-Man/The Sinister Six/Happy Birthday

featuring Stan Lee and J. Michael Straczynski

(Art by Steve Ditko, John Romita Jr. and Scott Hanna)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 12.  Three stories including Spider-Man's first appearance, his first battle with the supervillain team-up of the Sinister Six and a retrospective story written for issue 500 of 'The Amazing Spider-Man'.

Spider-Man's origins are pretty well-known so there's not much to excite readers in the character's origin story here, unless you're the kind of person who looks forward to seeing Bruce Wayne's parents getting shot in whatever the next Batman movie is (honestly, the best thing 'Spider-Man: Homecoming' did was to not feature the whole radioactive spider scene).  I suppose it is interesting to see just how unpopular Peter was at school and be impressed that he didn't turn into a homicidal loner instead of a selfless hero.

I was a little disappointed by 'The Sinister Six' (still with Lee and Ditko before they fell out).  I've been reading stories with this iconic team of villains for as long as I've been reading comics but, honestly, their first appearance is pretty lacklustre.  I think it's the fact that they make a whole point of teaming-up because they can't beat Spider-Man alone, but then immediately decide to face him one at a time.  The shameless plugs for other comics via pointless cameos by other superheroes didn't help either.

'Happy Birthday' from Straczynski's brilliant run with the wall-crawler is far better, however.  When New York's heroes fight an interdimension horde of Nameless Ones, Spidey and Doctor Strange are scattered across time and space by Dormammu.  This leads Spider-Man to re-live pivotal moments of his timeline and have to reassess all of his past mistakes, whilst faced with the choice of interfering and preventing himself from ever being bitten by the spider.  Sure it's a bit corny and self-referential but it allows us to revisit some iconic comics moments, as well as giving Peter his mission-statement going forward.  I have to admit that the fact that this story is from when he and MJ were happily married helped me like it, because their relationship has always been something I've loved (damn you 'One More Day!').

3 out of 5

 

Spider-Man's Greatest Villains

featuring Stan Lee, David Michelinie,  Roger Stern , John Romita Sr. and Fabian Nicieza

(Art by Steve Ditko, Todd McFarlane, John Romita Jr., Pablo Marcos, John Romita Sr., Jim Mooney, Alex Saviuk, Keith Williams, Mike Esposito, Steven Butler and Bud Larosa)

Featuring stories from across three decades of Spidey's adventures, this book eight of the Wall Crawler's most iconic enemies; Mysterio, Venom, Vulture, Kingpin, Hobgoblin, Electro, Carnage and Doctor Octopus.

Spider-Man has one of the best rogues' galleries in comics, perhaps only rivalled by Batman, and its nice to have a book highlighting some of his most iconic and timeless enemies.  Unfortunately, the way this book is put together and the stories chosen are all a bit weird.  

The order of the stories presented is all over the place, going from a 90s story with Carnage to a 60s story with Doc Ock from one page to the next.  They seem to have simply tried to mix things up but it makes reading the book as a whole a jarring clash of styles and eras.  At least if the stories had been in chronological order there would have been a feeling of gradual change in style and tone across the decades instead of the jumble we get.

That confusing feeling is made worse by the specific stories chosen to illustrate these villains.  None of the stories here are in any way the most iconic confrontations between Spidey and the featured villain and most are second or third encounters between the characters, with only Mysterio's being his debut.  Worse still, some of the stories are taken from within larger multi-issue storylines, making their appearance here feel incomplete and adrift.

Generally speaking this book feels like a poorly edited, half-arsed attempt just to cash in on some famous characters without much thought given to the content or presentation.

2 out of 5

 

Spider-Man's Tangled Web Vol. 2

featuring Bruce Jones, Kaare Andrews and Darwyn Cooke

(Art by Lee Weeks, Josef Rubenstein, Jimmy Palmiotti, Kaare Andrews, Darwyn Cooke and Jay Bone)

Three Spider-Man-adjacent stories in which we see a cabbie burdened with the knowledge of the Web Slinger's secret identity, two young brothers arguing over whether heroes are real and a Valentine's tales focused around the offices of the Daily Bugle.

The first of these stories has the engaging premise of a man desperate to pay for healthcare and knowing that he could easily gain the money he needs by selling out the secrets of a genuine hero.  It's a nice exploration of the balance between desperation and integrity but the resolution of the story didn't really work for me as a payoff.

The second story, written and illustrated by Kaare Andrews, has some absolutely gorgeous artwork (particularly the depiction of Electro) but felt a bit too cliche and on-the-nose for my tastes.

The third story actually mostly made up for the failings of the previous two.  I love Darwyn Cooke's style (both in artwork and storytelling) and it was nice to see a story harkening back to the classic 60s era of Spider-Man where Peter had to balance the life of a costumed hero with the attentions of various young beauties.  It's a nice antidote to the grim realism which was the order of the day in all superhero comics of the early 2000s.  (I've nothing against grim realism, just not all day every day).

3 out of 5

 

Spider-Man's Tangled Web Vol. 3

featuring Zeb Wells, Ron Zimmerman, Brian Azzarello, Scott Levy, Paul Pope and Daniel Way

(Art by Duncan Fregredo, Sean Phillips, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Paul Pope and Leandro Fernandez)

Collecting five stories which feature Spider-Man's world but aren't necessarily about the Wall Crawler.  Here we see a teenager dealing with being the son of the C-list villain Leapfrog, a group of villains meet in a bar to recount their clashes with Spider-Man, Crusher Hogan plans a new wrestling gimmick to save the business he works for, a teenage girl discovers her father is a supervillain and Tombstone climbs the pecking order in a vicious prison.

This book overall feels a step-up from Vol. 2, with each of the stories feeling more poignant and well put-together.

The highlight here was definitely 'Double Shots' by Ron Zimmerman, wherein Kraven the Hunter (Junior), the Vulture and a third villain (who I won't spoil for you) meet in a bar frequented by B- and C-list villains.  It was interesting to see these supervillains in an oddly casual setting, even if it did remind me a little too much of HISHE's Villain Pub.  The reveal of the third villain and how he's on a totally different level of vendetta with Spider-Man, not to mention the shock on the faces of all the villains present, was very well done.

The downside to the book was 'Heartbreaker', featuring Tombstone.  The core story of a villain brought low by his physical health and having to claw his way back up the ladder of underworld respect was actually pretty good.  However, for some reason the writer (Daniel Way) decides to include a whole heap of potentially offensive language and imagery.  If you're black, gay or (weirdly) Australian be prepared to not be happy with how people like you are represented (I'm none of those things and I was still uncomfortable).

3 out of 5

 

Spider-Punk: Battle Of The Banned!

featuring Jed MacKay and Cody Ziglar

(Art by Sheldon Vella and Justin Mason)

Two stories featuring 'Spider-Verse' alumnus Hobie Brown AKA Spider-Punk.  The first sees Hobie and his army of anarchists confront and defeat fascist President Norman Osborn and the second has him and his Spider-Band (Captain Anarchy, Riotheart, Kamala Khan, Hulk and Daredevil Drummer) travelling across America in an attempt to root out the last remnants of Osborn's vicious dominion.

I like the concept behind this book, with an alternate world where the young superheroes are rebels against the cruel, corrupt and violent rule of the supervillains.  It was also a nice touch that Spider-Punk and his team are people of colour, traditionally treated as second-class citizens (or worse) throughout American history.  All of this was put across best in the first of the two stories here, which is short but succinct and does a great job of showcasing the youth rebellion that punk was (is?) the embodiment of.

The second, longer, story has some nice moments in it but leans a bit too heavily into its humour and not enough into that youth rebellion aspect than I would have preferred.  It's also a bit too episodic, lacking a sense of cohesion across its story.  Nice to see Kamala Khan being the heart of the group though, she's easily one of the best new(ish) characters that Marvel have created in recent years.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Countdown

featuring Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Mike Johnson, Tim Jones and Dick Wood

(Art by David Messina and Nevio Zeccara)

Two very different stories from opposite ends of Trek's comic book history.  The titular 'Countdown' acts as a bridge between the Next Generation movies and J. J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of the franchise, revealing the backstory of old Spock and the villain Nero.  'The Planet of No Return' was the very first Star Trek comic, published way back in 1967, and tells of a mission for Captain Kirk and company on a planet ruled by plant people.

I make no secret of the fact that I loathed Abrams' 'Star Trek', feeling it was noisy, unsubtle and totally lacking in a sense of wonder.  As a result, I was dubious about reading a story that tied-in to it.  However, 'Countdown' turned out to be really enjoyable.  It takes us back to the original Trek timeline and is set a few years after the events of 'Star Trek: Nemesis', focusing on Spock's efforts to save the galaxy from an exploding star by enlisting the help of a passionate mining captain called Nero.  It really felt like classic Trek and with appearances by Captain Data, Ambassador Picard, General Worf and freelance engineer Geordi La Forge, it felt like a proper continuation of the Next Generation storyline.  In fact, although 'Insurrection' was crap and 'Nemesis' was underwhelming, this book made me feel like I could happily have sat through some more adventures for that cast of characters (before Hollywood's reboot obsession erased them from the timeline - only to later grant my wish, sort-of, with 'Picard').

The other story on offer here, 'The Planet of No Return', is (literally) a very different story.  It was written in the mid-sixties, when comics weren't terribly sophisticated, by people who clearly hadn't seen much Star Trek and who had totally failed to understand it.  Sure, Kirk was always a bit misogynistic, but I don't think he ever referred to a female crew member as 'honey' whilst on a mission and I'm damn sure that Mr Spock would never resolve a problem with a hostile world by using 'laser beam destruct rays' to wipe out all life on the planet.

So, one great story which made me nostalgic for the good old days and one dreadful story that made me amend it to include 'but not that old'.

4 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Early Voyages - Part 1

featuring Ian Edginton, Dan Abnett and  Len Wein 

(Art by Patrick Zircher, Michael Collins, Javier Pulido, Greg Adams, Steve Moncuse and Alberto Giolitti)

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  The main story in this book follows the early voyages (obviously) of the Starship Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike.  As he builds his crew, including Number One and Spock, Pike has to face deadly and terrifying alien threats, not least a cunning and belligerent Klingon commander.  Then in the back-up story from 1971, Captain Kirk and his iteration of the Enterprise crew discover a planet entirely populated by figures from Earth's history.

In all honesty, I wasn't expecting much from the tales focusing on Captain Pike and his crew, feeling like they'd just be knock-offs of Kirk's adventures but with fewer familiar faces (and I still haven't seen 'Strange New Worlds', so I can't compare this book to the TV show).  I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that Edginton and Abnett do a pretty good job of making this new (old) crew engaging and giving them significant adventures to have.  And although this is set in the era of TOS, it's not bound by 1960s TV special effects budgets, so we get some pretty dramatic action for the Enterprise too.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the ship and this crew take on the iconic Klingons.

Unusually for books like this which have a modern(ish) story and then a throwback from the 60s or 70s, the back-up story doesn't significantly drag down the quality of the book overall.  Whilst there's nothing amazing about Len Wein's 'The Legacy of Lazarus', it is a perfectly serviceable adventure for Kirk and his crew, not feeling as detached from the feel of TOS as its preface would have you believe.

4 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City On The Edge Of Forever - The Original Teleplay

featuring Scott Tipton, David Tipton and Dick Wood

(Art by J. K. Woodward and Nevio Zeccara)

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, featuring two stories.  The main feature, as it were, is the title story in which Scott and David Tipton have adapted the original teleplay by Harlan Ellison, in which Captain Kirk and Spock travel back to Depression Era America to correct a disastrous disruption of the timeline.  The back-up story by Dick Wood, from 1968, sees Kirk and crew encountering a group of violent criminals on a doomed planet.

Harlan Ellison's original script was famously heavily edited by the production staff of TOS and the televised version of the story was therefore significantly different from how the writer intended, supposedly leading to a deal of acrimony on both sides.  This book has an introduction by Ellison in which he praises this adaptation, whilst simultaneously coming across as arrogant and diva-ish, which counterproductively left me ill-disposed to the story before I'd even read it.  In all honesty, it's been so long since I watched the TV version that I can't even remember how it differed from what we get here, so I can't offer any commentary on the changes, but it did leave me able to judge the story on its own merits.  And yes, it's really pretty good.  It tackles the perils of timetravel on both the cosmic and personal scales and shows some brilliant development of the relationship between Spock and Kirk, perhaps the most significant in all of Star Trek.

The back-up throwback story from the 60s is... a cheap sci-fi comic from the 60s.  What can you expect?  It would be blandly inoffensive for the most part if not for things like continuous references to the Enterprise's 'rockets' and, hilariously, the ship adopting an orbit of 5,000 feet above a mysterious planet.  Hopefully the planet doesn't have any topography bigger than a hill or the Enterprise is going to plough straight into it.  Honestly, the science of that is something a child could get to grips with, so here it just shows the lack of thought and effort put into the story.

Thankfully, the naff back-up story doesn't detract from the excellent main story too much.

4 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Marvel Comics - Part 1

featuring Marv Wolfman, Mike W. Barr,  Tom DeFalco , Dennis O'Neil and Len Wein

(Art by Dave Cockrum, Frank Miller, Mike Nasser, Klaus Janson, Steve Leialoha, Alberto Giolitti and George Wilson)

Volume 13 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  As well as a throwback story from 1971 featuring space pirates, this book collects the beginning of Marvel's run of Star Trek comics, starting with an adaptation of 'The Motion Picture'.

The part of this book that adapts the first big-screen Trek adventure, in which Kirk and the Enterprise investigate the mysterious V'ger entity, is actually pretty good.  I discovered when I read Gene Roddenberry's novelisation of the story that there are some genuinely interesting core concepts in 'The Motion Picture' but the movie itself was ruined by a combination of dodgy special effects, dated production design and bad acting (I love the classic Trek actors, but they definitely weren't at their best in that movie).  Without those factors, you can actually enjoy what is an intriguing adventure for the Enterprise crew.

The rest of the Marvel-published stories here are of a much lesser quality and, unfortunately, it's clear from the artwork that this wasn't a series Marvel were putting a lot of time and money into polishing.  Nevertheless, the stories on offer aren't awful and can be enjoyed in the spirit of the age they were published in (not to mention the fact that they were written and illustrated by some genuinely great comics talents).

The Gold Key-published story is every bit as silly as the premise of Treasure Island-meet-Star-Trek sounds and the space pirates even dress like the caricatures we're familiar with today (tricorn hats, cutlasses, bandanas, etcetera).  I could've just about eye-rolled my way to the end without too much annoyance if it weren't for the 'twist' discovery that the dilithium treasure has been hidden away by the castaway Ben... Cannon.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Mirrored

featuring Mike Johnson, F. Leonard Johnson and Dick Wood

(Art by Stephen Molnar, Tim Bradstreet, Grant Goleash, Erfan Fajar, Ifansyah Noor, Sakti Tuwono, Claudia Balboni, Erica Durante, Alberto Giolitti and Giovanni Ticci)

The Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection Volume 17.  Here we get several stories focusing on Enterprise crew members from the Kelvin Timeline, following on from the events of the 2009 'Star Trek' reboot.  Among those featured are Uhuru, the diminutive engineer Keenser, Doctor McCoy and the redshirt Hendroff.  Also featured is a story showing how the events of the movie play out in the Kelvin Timeline version of the Mirror Universe.  Also included is a throwback story from 1972 in which the Enterprise and a Klingon battlecruiser are thrown into a mysterious void to join other 'lost' ships.

The main body of stories here are a bit more interesting than some of the other ones from the post-movie comics that I've read.  Most of those others were simply rehashed versions of TV episodes from The Original Series, but here there's a bit more new stuff to get to grips with as we're shown the backstories of several characters unique to the Kelvin Timeline.  I also always enjoy a Mirror Universe story, where our beloved heroes are reimagined as ruthless villains, so the one on offer here was a welcome addition to the book.

Dick Wood's 1970s story isn't the worst of the Gold Key comics I've read (which is about as high praise as they're ever likely to get from me) and its nice to see the Klingons (actually looking and acting like their onscreen representations) forced into an alliance with Captain Kirk.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Nero

featuring Tim Jones, Mike Johnson and Dick Wood

(Art by David Messina and Alberto Giolitti)

Volume 6 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, featuring two stories.  The title story follows the villain of the 2009 Star Trek reboot through the twenty-five years that he is trapped in the past between the destruction of the USS Kelvin and the arrival of his hated enemy from the future, Spock.  The second story sees Captain Kirk and company trying to save two inhabited planets which are on a collision course.

Ask anyone on the street and they'll tell you how much I dislike J. J. Abrams 'Star Trek' reboot; it's noisy, stupid, unsubtle and totally lacking in any sense of wonder.  It also has a really rubbish villain in the form of Eric Bana's angry Romulan Nero.  The graphic novel 'Countdown' actually did a great of job of adding depth and a touch of tragedy to Nero, which is something this book tries to cash-in on.

Unfortunately, the Nero we get here is absolutely an unreasonable, unlikeable hypocrite who it's impossible to get behind as a protagonist.  The stories of unreformed villains can sometimes be great, but this definitely isn't one of those times and instead we're left for most of this book following the misadventures of a character we just don't care about.  On top of that is the fact that this is neither the beginning of Nero's story (seen in the aforementioned 'Countdown') and nor is it the conclusion of it (seen in the movie), so there's not even a particularly engaging narrative arc to cling to.

The back-up story from 1969 is another Gold Key story that fails to feel like proper Star Trek and instead just comes across as trashy pulp sci-fi.

2 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Spock - Reflections

featuring Scott Tipton, David Tipton and Dick Wood

(Art by David Messina, Elena Casagrande, Federica Manfredi, Arianna Florean and Alberto Giolitti)

The Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection Volume 4.  Two stories wherein Spock is the central character.  Set shortly after the events of 'Star Trek: Generations', 'Reflections' sees Spock recalling formative moments from his past as he embarks on a pilgrimage to honour his best friend, James Kirk.  The throwback story from the 1960s sees Spock being mentally controlled by incorporeal beings on a planet whose environment is ever-changing.

First of all I'll address the Gold Key Comics story from the 60s which, like most of the ones featured in the Graphic Novel Collection books, is utter garbage.  The writer clearly had little grasp of what made Trek what it is and the artist had even less of an idea (to be fair, Alberto Giolitti had never actually seen Star Trek when he illustrated these comics - but that doesn't make them any less off-brand).

Luckily, despite the low quality of the preposterously-named 'The Peril of Planet Quick Change', this book overall is largely redeemed by the main story; 'Spock: Reflections'.

I've noticed that the Tipton brothers, more than most of IDW's Trek writers, seem to have a genuine love of the source material that infuses their stories with genuine heart that is missing from others.  Here we get to explore how Spock, who has worked hard to free himself of his emotions, is affected by the discovery that Kirk was brought back from apparent death, only to die once more on Viridian 3 (in 'Generations').  Whilst the story claims to be a prelude to J. J. Abrams' awful reboot, in reality it's a love letter to Spock as he was portrayed across the decades by the great Leonard Nimoy (I'm sorry, by Zachary Quinto never even comes close).  As a lifelong fan of The Original Series and its movie continuations (even more so), this was just the right amount of nostalgia and pathos for me.

4 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy

featuring Mike Johnson, Ryan Parrott and Dick Wood

(Art by Derek Charm and Alberto Giolitti)

Volume 8 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  Set in the so-called Kelvin Timeline, the main story here begins with Uhura discovering a mysterious distress signal whilst at Starfleet Academy.  Several years later a team of cadets find themselves following up on Uhura's investigation, leading to a starship thought lost for a century.  In the back-up story, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise encounter an alien with the power to de-age them into children.

I'll admit I went into the main story of this book with a heavy helping of cynicism.  I've never liked J. J. Abrams' reboot of the Trek franchise and initially this seemed like it was using that, already somewhat shaky, starting point to launch an all-new cast of nobodies as if they were part of the larger franchise.  I'm also willing to admit that I was wrong to be so critical.  Whilst the reboot movie characters are mostly used as a framing device, the story of the new characters turned out to be genuinely engaging.  The team of cadets are diverse and interesting and I enjoyed seeing them have to overcome their inherent differences to become a team, before that team goes on to face a real challenge outside of their Academy activities.  Also, whilst I was never a particular fan of 'Enterprise', I did get a little nostalgia kick out of seeing an NX-class starship turn up.

As with almost every one of the throwback stories from Gold Key comics, the back-up story here is silly, poorly-written and doesn't feel like Star Trek much at all.  Thankfully it doesn't entirely ruin the enjoyment of the main story.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Classic UK Comics - Part 1

featuring (Writing and Art) Angus Allan, Tod Sullivan, Harry F. Lindfield, Ron Turner, Jim Baikie, Mike Noble, Harold Johns, Carlos Pino and Vincente Alcazar

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  Beginning publication in the UK before Star Trek (TOS) had even begun airing, this book collects numerous adventures for the Enterprise crew, including confrontations with the Klingons and the Romulans.

This book could easily have been an interesting if campy collection of adventures similar to the Gold Key stories collected in other books of the Graphic Novel Collection, that you could potentially enjoy if you switch off the part of your brain that looks for modern storytelling or accurate Trek lore.  That's a big 'if', but it's possible.  In fact little things like the fact that the first few stories feature 'Captain Kurt', clearly the product of a misheard transatlantic phone conversation (since the writers hadn't actually seen the show at that point), give it an 'aw, bless' rustic charm.  But remember that I started this paragraph by saying 'could have been'.

When originally published, many of these stories were double-page spreads in a magazine and this book has been put together to preserve that format.  Unfortunately, because this is a bound book this results in many of the panels in the middle of the pages being totally unreadable (unless you're willing to break the spine of the book every time you turn the page).  The result is that at least half of this book is largely incomprehensible and therefore totally impossible to enjoy even ironically.  Whilst I can see the argument for preserving the original format, honestly it wouldn't have been hard to use the most basic of editing software to redistribute the panels so that they were all legible.  As it is, I can't recommend strongly enough that you don't waste time or money on this book.

The real shame is that the artwork here is actually pretty good, and is leaps and bounds beyond what US comics were putting out at the same time, but it's impossible to properly enjoy.

1 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Edge Of The Galaxy

featuring Mike Johnson and Len Wein

(Art by Stephen Molnar, Joe Phillips, Joe Corroney and Alberto Giolitti)

The Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection Volume 12.  The main body of this book follows the adventures of the Enterprise crew in the Kelvin Timeline after the events of 2009's Star Trek reboot.  Meanwhile Len Wein's story from 1971 has the cast-off emotions of the Vulcan ancients being released and running amok.

I'm already not a big fan of the Kelvin Timeline crew (although Karl Urban was good as Bones) and I found something really lazy and cynical about retelling stories from The Original Series but with this version of the crew.  Sure, there are variations on how these stories originally played out in the 60s TV series but it just feels like the writer couldn't be bothered to create all-new stories.

What we do get isn't bad, but it's not particularly good either and, as mentioned, it certainly doesn't break new ground.

The throwback story from the 70s is a little more coherent than many of the Gold Key Trek stories (Len Wein was definitely a better fit than Dick Wood) but is still as cheesy as you'd expect from a story where ancient evils are unleashed by a crewman whose name is literally Pandora.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips - Volume 1

featuring (Writing and Art) Thomas Warkentin, Ron Harris, Sharman Divono,  Martin Pasko , Gerry Conway, Dick Kulpa, Alfredo Alcala and Larry Niven

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, this book collects the US newspaper strips which continued the stories of the Enterprise crew beyond the events of 1979's 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'.

The quality of the stories on offer here genuinely surprised me.  I was expecting some pretty trashy and off-brand tales but was pleasantly surprised to find that these stories are very much in-keeping with the storytelling of the first Star Trek movie.  But be aware, that being in-keeping with ST:TMP isn't the highest of praise and whilst these stories are better than I was expecting, they're still not amazing.  However, there's enough good stuff here to be worth a read and I'd particularly highlight the stories involving the Klingons as among the good.  The best story here is absolutely the arc in which the Enterprise and the USS Venture are both hijacked by aliens and their crews forced into slavery from which they have to escape.  As a life-long fan of the ships of Star Trek, it was nice to see the Enterprise refit sharing centre stage with the classic-look Constitution-class Venture.

There is, unfortunately, one element of this book which hugely detracted from my ability to enjoy it and it's linked to the nature of how these stories were originally published.  Because they originally came out in small daily strips, each day's strip had to briefly recap what happened in the previous entry.  What that means here, with them all collected together, is huge parts of this book simply rehash the events/dialogue directly preceding it, which rapidly gets annoying when you're trying to read the stories continuously.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Ghosts

featuring Zander Cannon and Len Wein

(Art by Javier Aranda, German Torres, Marc Rueda, Alberto Giolitti, Giovanni Ticci and George Wilson)

Volume 16 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  In the title story, Captain Picard and the Enterprise-D crew answer a distress call from a world petitioning to join the Federation.  Soon, however, they become embroiled in the political tensions between two warring nations, both of whom are hostile to the Enterprise's presence.  The throwback story from 1972 sees Captain Kirk replaced by a malicious double sent by the Klingons.

Zander Cannon's 'Ghosts' is a respectable attempt at a full-length TNG adventure, with each of the main crew members having a role to play, as well as a mixture of politics, science and a little bit of action.  Despite having a lot of the right ingredients, however, it just doesn't feel that engaging.  There's no subtlety to the fact that the Juulets are clearly double-dealing and the belligerent Dorosshians were so one-note that they rapidly became irritating rather than credible antagonists (every other word from them was "Bah!").  The story definitely feels like a good swing which is nevertheless a miss.

The throwback stories from Gold Key in these Collections have never been less than weird and off-brand but the one in this book is a particularly egregious example.  Not least because the artists had clearly never actually seen a Klingon or had one described to them (the TOS versions or the pasty-headed redesign).  One note of interest, however, is the scene where Kirk and his duplicate have to convince Spock which of them is real, which plays out very much like the similar scene in 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country' (novelised by J. M. Dillard).

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Hive

featuring Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, Travis Pickett and Dick Wood

(Art by Joe Corroney, Matt Fillbach, Shawn Fillbach and Alberto Giolitti)

The third volume of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection, featuring two stories.  The title story sees Locutus of Borg in the 29th Century hatching a plot to destroy the Borg Queen using Jean-Luc Picard, himself from 500 years in the past.  The second story, from 1969, sees Captain Kirk and the crew of the original Enterprise reaching a planet where automatons have taken over and all-but enslaved the population.

The throwback story from the 60s is one of the better ones I've read in the Graphic Novel Collection, with themes and the feel of a morality tale that actually feel in-keeping with the Star Trek brand.  That's not to say it's actually good, of course, but it's far from the worst.

The main story on the other hand is very good.  The Borg were always one of my favourite elements of Trek and by making both Picard and Seven-of-Nine main players in this story we get to see it through the eyes of characters who truly understand the horrors of the Collective.  There's also something of a 'Days of Future Past' (Chris Claremont) feel about this story as we're shown a future where the Borg are triumphant but a faint hope if offered to avert that timeline.

Seeing the TNG crew in a post-Nemesis story was a real treat and thanks to the involvement of long-term Trek VIP Brannon Braga, lots of lore from across the franchise is brought in, including references to 'Voyager', 'The Motion Picture' and many more (nice to see Riker in command of the Titan, for instance).  This story feels like proper Star Trek in a way that much of what came after the reboot didn't for me.  It's also interesting to note that a few of the beats in this story, not least the interaction between Jean-Luc and Seven, were ones that later turned up in 'Picard'.

4 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering

featuring Scott Tipton, David Tipton and Len Wein

(Art by David Messina, Gianluigi Gregorini and Alberto Giolitti)

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  In the main story in this book, a series of misadventures lead Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D to believe that they are being manipulated towards a particular place in the galaxy for mysterious reasons.  The back-up story from 1971 sees Captain Kirk and his crew forced to serve a self-proclaimed sorcerer called Chang.

The TNG story 'Intelligence Gathering' does a nice job of capturing the personalities of Picard's crew but has an episodic nature which detracts from the quality of the story overall.  It would've been much more enjoyable if the writers had committed to writing a single narrative instead of giving us a series of mini-stories which then link, not entirely convincingly, into a finale.  I also felt that the Romulans were rather poorly used here, feeling neither as complex or as dangerous as they did in the TV series.

Len Wein's story from 1971 has a nice nod the classic Trek lore by referencing the Eugenics Wars (of the distant future year 1997!) but aside from that is silly nonsense.  Which should've been obvious from the very early scene wherein the Enterprise is captured by a giant space genie.

3 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between

featuring David Tischman and Dick Wood

(Art by Casey Maloney and Alberto Giolitti)

Volume 5 of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  Here we get a series of vignettes telling tales set between the onscreen adventures of TNG and a throwback story in which Kirk and his crew investigate a planet surrounded by mysterious rings.

The vignette stories, from across the timeline of all seven season of The Next Generation, have spot-on depictions of the iconic Enterprise-D crew.  Apart from that, however, they're pretty random and disordered.  This makes for a distinctly unsatisfying reading experience and the hints of a unifying storyline never really come together.  They're not bad, they're just not as interesting as a properly-plotted single-story graphic novel could've been.  This was IDW's first run at TNG comics and, honestly, I'm not impressed.

The throwback story from 1969 is bland, inoffensive and totally forgettable.

2 out of 5

 

Star Trek: The Official Motion Picture Adaptation

featuring Mike Johnson, Tim Jones and Dick Wood

(Art by David Messina, Claudia Balboni, Gaetano Carlucci and Alberto Giolitti)

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  Not to be confused with the adaptation of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', the main story here is the comics adaptation of J. J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek reboot, in which a divergent timeline is created by the arrival in the past of a powerful Romulan ship from the future.  There's also a back-up story from 1970 in which Kirk and the Enterprise crew have to contend with 'space voodoo'.

I hated the 2009 Trek reboot.  Still do.  The movie was noisy, stupid and filled with bad caricatures of beloved characters (not to mention enough lens flares to render most humans blind).  It almost obnoxiously steered away from everything that made Trek what it was up to that point.  On top of that it played into all the worst tropes of reboots, with a young cast, trendy quips and transparent attempts to relaunch the franchise for people who didn't know the original versions.  I'm so glad that the so-called Kelvin Timeline only lasted three movies.

You can see then, that this adaptation of Abrams' garbage had an uphill struggle if it was going to win me over.  It absolutely didn't succeed, but it got much farther than I initially expected.  Without distracting elements like the just-lots-of-noise score, the irritating lens flares and the not-the-characters-you-know-and-love acting then there's much more of the actual story to be enjoyed here.  And the scenes with the Leonard Nimoy version of Spock, the best thing in the film for me, actually hit just as hard emotionally on the page as they did on screen.  I still can't say I liked it, but this is definitely better than the movie.

The throwback story from Gold Key comics is every bit as dumb and ridiculous as the aforementioned 'space voodoo' plot element would have you expect.  The papier-mache version of the Eiffel Tower being used as a 'voodoo doll' to destroy the real Eiffel Tower was particularly stupid.

2 out of 5

 

Star Trek: Vulcan's Vengeance

featuring Mike Johnson and Len Wein

(Art by Joe Phillips, Tim Bradstreet, Grant Goleash, Stephen Molnar, Claudia Balboni, Gaetano Carlucci, Alberto Giolitti and Giovanni Ticci)

Part of the Star Trek Graphic Novel Collection.  The main body of this book consists of IDW's Star Trek series which continues the adventures of the Kelvin Timeline crew following the events of the Star Trek reboot of 2009, featuring Romulans, long-lost starships and Tribbles.  The throwback story from the 70s has the Enterprise being seized by an immensely powerful alien being.

Although I'm not a far of the rebooted Trek timeline, this book actually started pretty strongly with the title story.  In it a rogue group of Vulcan dissidents seek to exact revenge for the Romulan Nero's destruction of Vulcan by attempting to destroy Romulus, with the Enterprise crew the only ones standing in their way.  It's actually a nice exploration of the galaxy-changing events of the movie and how this timeline is so very different than the original one.

Unfortunately, almost immediately the book returns to the format of the previous volume, 'The Edge of the Galaxy', in which the writer simply rehashes stories from The Original Series but with a few changes here and there to hide the fact that there's not really any original ideas.  Worst of all, one of the classic episodes butchered this way is the iconic 'The Trouble With Tribbles'.

The 70s back-up story is pretty bland and inoffensive but is definitely subject to unfavourable comparisons to similar tales in the TV series itself.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Dark Encounters

featuring Archie Goodwin, Mary Jo Duffy, Chris Claremont and Michael Golden

(Art by Carmine Infantino, Gene Day, Bob Wiacek, Mike Vosburg, Steve Leialoha, Michael Golden and Terry Austin)

The second in the series of books reprinting the original Marvel Star Wars comics.  Straight off I'll say that I'm not a big fan of Goodwin and most of the stories here are written by him.  However, his is one of the best on offer here, 'Dark Encounter', in which Darth Vader battles the cyborg bounty hunter Valance. 

Ultimately though I enjoyed the stories by the other writers more than the majority of Goodwin's.  Among the others are a very early tale of Obi-Wan in the days of the Old Republic and Luke battling both a winged Dark Jedi and the legacy left behind by Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. 

This brings me to one of the most interesting elements of this collection; how it reflects the fact that Episodes V and VI had yet to appear.  Anakin and Vader are described as two separate apprentices of Obi-Wan, Jabba the Hutt is a humanoid and, most amusingly, Luke is still madly in love with his sister (cue the incestuous kissing). 

Overall, this isn't the best of these collections by far ('Wookiee World' and 'Far, Far Away' are my favourites).

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Resurrection of Evil'.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Doomworld

featuring Roy Thomas, Don Glut, Archie Goodwin and Chris Claremont

(Art by Howard Chaykin, Steve Leialoha, Rick Hoberg, Bill Wray, Frank Springer, Tom Palmer, Alan Kupperberg, Carmine Infantino, Terry Austin, Walt Simonson, Bob Wiacek, Herb Trimpe, Allen Milgrom and Gene Day)

The first collection of Marvel Star Wars stories from the 70s, reprinted by Dark Horse.  This book begins with a six-part adaption of the original Star Wars film, 'Episode IV: A New Hope', by Roy Thomas. 

Among the other stories offered here are a great 'Magnificent Seven'/'Seven Samurai' story starring Han and Chewie (and featuring a man-sized green carnivorous rabbit called Jaxxon - I kid you not!) and a classic story of Luke's life on Tatooine, before he met R2-D2 and C-3PO, showing his friendship with Biggs and his piloting through Beggar's Canyon. 

I did feel that the book was let down by the rather tedious story arc which has the so-called star warriors trapped on a waterworld, facing pirates and sea serpents.  Approach this book with an open mind (it was the seventies, after all!) and you should enjoy it.

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Dark Encounters'.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Far, Far Away

featuring Jo Duffy and Archie Goodwin

(Art by Cynthia Martin, Bob Wiacek, Art Nichols, Al Williamson, Ron Frenz, Sam De Le Rosa, Sal Buscema, Steve Leialoha, Ken Steacy and Whilce Portacio)

The seventh and final book of the Marvel collections by Dark Horse.  This book tells the stories of the war between the Alliance of Free Planets (the Rebels, basically) and the cruel Nagai.  Later in the book, things become even more interesting as we discover that the Nagai's invasion is the result of them fleeing the far more cruel and brutal Tofs (oddly designed creatures they are too; think the Incredible Hulk in a dodgy pirate outfit!). 

As before, I was impressed by the depth and maturity of the issues dealt with here, especially the relationship between Dani and Den Siva, and don't understand why these stories are dismissed as crazy and kitch even on their own back cover. 

I don't usually like comic relief characters in Star Wars (C-3PO and Jar Jar Binks . . . *shudder*) but I was actually amused by the antics of the Hiromi, a race of cowardly would-be conquerors. 

Comic book officionados may be dismayed when I say that the only thing I didn't like about this book is 'Supply and Demand' by the Goodwin/Williamson team.  Despite the fact that they are touted as 'comic book legends', I've never much liked their Star Wars work and that holds true with this story, which you may otherwise know as 'The Vandelhelm Mission'.  The rest of the book, however, is by turns tragic, exciting, funny and insightful.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Fool's Bounty

featuring David Michelinie, Jo Duffy, Ron Frenz and Bob Layton

(Art by Gene Day, Tom Palmer, Kerry Gammill, Ron Frenz, Bob Layton, Luke McDonnell, Klaus Janson and Tom Mandrake)

The fifth book of Dark Horse's reprints of the Marvel Comics originals.  Like most geeks, I'm a bit of a stickler for continuity, so for a long time I religiously avoided the old Marvel Star Wars comics from the times of the films themselves.  Recently, however, they have been largely accepted into the official continuity and I decided to take the plunge.  I was far from disappointed. 

The stories here are a series of adventures featuring Luke, Leia, Lando, Chewie and the droids as they try to catch up to the carbon frozen Han Solo between Episodes V and VI.  One of the stories, 'Hoth Stuff' is way off continuity-wise, however, and should be viewed as a so-called 'Infinities' story. 

There were three things in particular that I really enjoyed about this book, the first of which is it's sheer size; a whopping 380 pages!  The second is that one of Leia's missions takes her to Mandalore, where she becomes allies with Fenn Shysa and Tobbi Dala, the only two Mandalorian warriors (other than Boba Fett) to survive the Clone Wars.  The third and final element I enjoyed was the surprisingly regular and adult references throughout the stories, particularly where the very horny Zeltrons come into it.

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Wookiee World'.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Resurrection Of Evil

featuring Archie Goodwin, Wally Lombego, Larry Hama, Mike W. Barr, David Michelinie and Chris Claremont

(Art by Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon, Carmine Infantino, Day, Stone, Thomas Palmer, Gene Day, Walter Simonson and Kupperberg)

The third book of the series isn't my favourite.  Much of the book is made up of short (often bizarre) adventures intended to be brief crowd pleasers (much like the 'Classic Star Wars' books).  However, I prefer a bit more depth to my stories, even short ones, and was therefore largely unimpressed by this book. 

It does, however, have two redeeming features.  The first of these is a full adaption of 'The Empire Strikes Back', inarguably the best of the Star Wars films.  The other is the 'Resurrection of Evil' storyline itself, in which the Empire has constructed a scaled-down but nonetheless powerful version of the Death Star, called the Tarkin.  Despite these two great stories, this book is unremarkable overall.

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Screams in the Void'.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Screams In The Void

featuring Chris Claremont, David Michelinie, Louise Jones, Michael Fleisher and  Walt Simonson 

(Art by Carmine Infantino, Walt Simonson, Tom Palmer, Giacioa, Al Milgrom, Joe Brozowski, Vince Colletta, Rudi Nebres and Ron Frenz)

The fourth book of Marvel reprints by Dark Horse.  Set between 'The Empire Strikes Back' and 'Return of the Jedi', the majority of the stories here are short adventures of varying quality, depth and credibility.  Most are a bit unremarkable and too familiar, but there are a few elements to this book that do make it stand out. 

The first stand out element is one discussed in the book's introduction; the establishment of Lando Calrissian as a major character.  This book reveals how he goes from being the self-centred money-grubbing pseudo-villain of Episode V to being the heroic Rebel leader who suddenly turns up in Episode VI.  It also shows how he earns the trust of those people who haven't yet forgotten what he did to Han. 

Another great element to this book is the storylines involving Shira Brie, which are particularly interesting since her later incarnation, Lumiya, is the main villain of the Legacy of the Force novels. 

Finally, this book contains a story which is very dear to me; 'Shadeshine' by Michelinie.  I've had the original version of this story since I was a tiny wee nipper and continue to get enjoyment out of it, featuring as it does a solo (pardon the pun) adventure for Han involving shootouts, treachery and beautiful love interest. 

So, a mixed bag, but which is worth picking up for those parts that are good.

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Fool's Bounty'.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: A Long Time Ago... - Wookiee World

featuring Jo Duffy, Linda Grant, Roy Richardson, Randy Stradley and Ann Nocenti

(Art by Ron Frenz, M. Hands, Bob McLeod, David Mazzucchelli, Tom Palmer, Bret Blevins, Tony Salmons, Jan Duursema, Tom Mandrake, Sal Buscema, Cynthia Martin and Steve Leialoha)

The sixth book of the series of Marvel collections (reprinted by Dark Horse) is set after the end of 'Return of the Jedi'.  Here we get fourteen tales of adventure as the Rebel heroes help to establish the new government that will replace the fallen Empire. 

Two stories stand out as being something special in this book.  The first is Stradley's 'The Alderaan Factor', which deals with Leia encountering a Stormtrooper who also comes from Alderaan.  What makes this story special is that it's Stradley's first foray into the Expanded Universe that he became so involved with at Dark Horse as an editor and writer ('Jedi Council: Acts of War', 'Crimson Empire' etc).  It's also the first appearance of Yinchorr and the Yinchorri, both of which play parts in Stradley's later Star Wars stories.  The other notable story is Nocenti's 'I'll See You In The Throne Room', in which Luke struggles with the dark side and his desire for revenge. 

There are two other very good reasons to get this book and the first is, as the title suggests, the inclusion of Wookiees and their homeworld (the improbably named Kashyyyk).  The other great element is the two Dark Jedi featured here.  Flint is a misguided youth with more power than sense, but Lumiya is a potent cyborg dark sider trained by both Darth Vader and the Emperor.  Lumiya returns as the latest Sith Lord in the Legacy of the Force novel series, so read her backstory here first.

Followed by 'A Long Time Ago...: Far, Far Away'.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures: Defend The Republic!

featuring Delilah S. Dawson, Cavan Scott, Nick Brokenshire and George Mann

(Art by Derek Charm, Mauricet, Nick Brokenshire and Valentina Pinto)

Five stories focusing on the era of the Prequels and aimed at younger readers.  This book features iconic Star Wars characters such as Queen Amidala, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Rex, Yoda, Barriss Offee and (ugh) Jar Jar Binks.

Very often stories aimed at younger readers can actually have a surprising amount of depth and subtlety to them or can be enough fun that they transcend their intended audience and hold appeal for everyone.  This is not one of those times.  The stories on offer here are short, pointless and puerile, leaning more into goofy humour than action-adventure.

The one exception is 'Roger Roger' by Cavan Scott, which sees Obi-Wan and Rex befriending a malfunctioning Battle Droid, who becomes a surprisingly compelling character in a very short space of time.  The artwork, by Mauricet, is also far better than anything else on offer in this book.  In fact, this single story is the only reason I've rated this book as a two out-of-five instead of a one.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures: Driving Force

featuring Ian Flynn, Delilah S. Dawson, Cavan Scott, Shaun Harris and Adam Christopher

(Art by Megan Levens, Margaux Saltel, Derek Charm and Manuel Bracchi)

Four stories starring Poe Dameron, Princess Leia, Rey, Maz Kanata and Tallie Lintra.

I've been increasingly exasperated with and hostile towards these Adventures anthologies and this book seems sent to specifically irritate me.  I really dislike (evil) Disney's Sequel trilogy and I positively loathe 'The Last Jedi', so here we have a book where three of the four stories take place among the sequel trilogy and which all have strong links to 'The Last jedi' in particular.

I have zero interest in stories set amid the Sequels, so three of these stories were immediately boring to me and the one story not set in that timeframe (Dawson's 'The Right Wrong Turn') stars Princess Leia and the absolute worst character from 'The Last Jedi', Amilyn Holdo, in a stupid adventure into Coruscant's depths which is insulting to everyone's intelligence in every way except to highlight why Holdo is a lunatic who should never, say, be left in charge of a fleet.

I found something, albeit often a minor thing, to like in all of the previous Adventures anthologies but this one was just drivel (if you're one of those weirdos who like 'The Last Jedi' like my friend Nick, then maybe you'll love this garbage...).

1 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures: Fight The Empire!

featuring Cavan Scott, Pierrick Colinet, Elsa Charretier, Ian Flynn, Shane McCarthy, Jon Waterhouse and Arie Caplan

(Art by Derek Charm, Elsa Charretier, Tony Fleecs, Nicoletta Baldari and Drew Moss)

Six stories, all set amidst the Galactic Civil War, and featuring iconic Star Wars characters like Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Jabba the Hutt.

As with the other Star Wars Adventures books I've read, the stories here are neither sophisticated or particularly interesting.  They're simplistic and filled with humour that would probably make anyone whose age is in double-digits roll their eyes.

There are a few elements to these stories which are intriguing, like Leia encountering Stormtrooper deserters or Sebulba becoming a space-racer, but none of those ideas is ever really given space to develop.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures: Mechanical Mayhem

featuring John Barber, Elsa Charretier, Pierrick Colinet, Nick Brokenshire and Scott Peterson

(Art by Chad Thomas, Elsa Charretier, Nick Brokenshire and Mauricet)

Five stories starring characters such as Artoo and Threepio, Anakin and Padme, IG-88, Mace Windu and Max Rebo.

As with most all of the other 'Star Wars Adventures' books I've read, there's nothing too remarkable about the stories on offer here, being fairly shallow and bland, aimed at a younger reading audience.  Honestly, I should've learned by now to stop reading these IDW-published comic anthologies, but I keep hoping for a really good one which will transcend its intended age market.  This isn't it, unfortunately.

This book is slightly better than the others of the series, however, with a little more depth and subtlety than the other books showed.  Also, there was one story here which had such an original premise that it elevated the book as a whole; John Barber's 'Trouble Again' (a nice nod to the theme song of the 80s Droids cartoon).  In it we see Artoo and Threepio aboard the Tantive IV between Episodes III and IV, but what really struck me as a clever new angle was that since Threepio has his memory wiped in Episode III, he and Artoo have to rebuild their friendship from scratch.  It's made all the more interesting by the fact that Artoo still knows that they're old friends.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures Omnibus: Volume 1

featuring Landry Q. Walker, Cavan Scott, Elsa Charretier, Pierrick Colinet, Alan Tudyk, Shannon Eric Denton, Ben Acker, Ben Blacker, Delilah S. Dawson, Sholly Fisch, Shaun Manning, Paul Crilley and Otis Frampton

(Art by Derek Charm, Jon Sommariva, Sean Parsons, Elsa Charretier, Eric Jones, Arianna Florean, Annie Wu, Sean Galloway, Jamal Peppers, Cassey Kuo, Gary Martin, Chad Thomas, Philip Murphy, Otis Frampton and Mauricet)

Seventeen stories, aimed at younger readers, from across the Star Wars mythos, featuring characters such as Han, Luke and Leia as well as Rey, Poe and Finn, plus the characters of 'Rebels', 'Rogue One' and more.

What I've read of the Star Wars Adventures line so far has been pretty underwhelming for three main reasons and this collection has all of those problems in abundance.  The first problem is the irritating framing story used a lot of the time in which Emil Graf tells stories to his droids whilst wandering around Wild Space in his ship.  This wouldn't be so bad if these bookends had some narrative of their own, but they are just pointless and irritating excuses to tell stories which could just have easily been told without them (which is exactly the case in several of the stories here anyway).  The second problem is the age group these stories are aimed at.  Many comics can appeal to younger readers without ever dumbing-down for them but that's absolutely not the case here and it means that this book is extremely hard to like if you're over, say, ten.  The final pitfall, linked to the last one, is the artwork on offer.  I'm no stranger to more simplistic or naieve styles of comic book art, but the low quality mostly on offer here is almost insulting and actively detracts from the stories themselves.

Despite all of that, there are a few stories on offer here that significantly make up for the shortcomings of all the others.  The first is 'The Trouble at Tibrin' starring Luke and Leia, then there's the 'Rebels' spin-off 'Endangered' (although this one does suffer from terrible artwork), plus 'Powered Down' in which Han and Chewie face off against 4-LOM and Zuckuss, and finally 'The Lost Eggs of Livorno' starring Jaxxon (if you don't know Jaxxon and his history in the fandom, then I pity you).  These handful of stories are definitely worth a read, but they're sadly not worth reading the rest of the book for (or the money that I spent on it, either).

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars Adventures: The Light And The Dark

featuring Michael Moreci, Katie Cook, Nick Brokenshire, Sam Maggs, Shane McCarthy, Jordan Clark, Casey Gilly and Daniel Jose Older

(Art by Ilias Kyriazis, Megan Levens, Cara McGee, Nick Brokenshire, Davide Tinto, Yael Nathan and Butch Mapa)

The first book of the relaunched 'Adventures' series, featuring nine stories starring the likes of Finn, Poe and Rey, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padme, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Darth Maul, Val and Beckett, Grand Moff Tarkin and Marchion Ro.

I have to say that the stories on offer here are a big leap up in terms of quality from the ones in the previous Adventures anthologies, seeming less like mindless childish filler and more like proper mini-adventures for famous characters.  Even the art seems significantly improved, as if someone at IDW Publishing actually took the time to correct the faults in the first run of the series.

There were three stand-out stories for me here.  The first is 'Life Day' by Michael Moreci, just a fun little adventure which sees Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan (my favourite Star Wars character) helping the Wookiees to fight off Trandoshans.  The second is Shane McCarthy's 'The Hostage' in which we see Maul and Savage Opress working to build their criminal empire through cunning rather than force.  And the final highlight was 'Credits' by Jordan Clark, which stars Beckett's crew, one of the best things about the mess that was 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'.

I'm always less interested in stories that tie-in to (evil) Disney's trainwreck Sequel Trilogy but even those ones here weren't too irritating.

Overall a big improvement for the series, which is a shame because IDW lost the licence shortly after this.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Age Of Rebellion

featuring Greg Pak, Simon Spurrier, Marc Guggenheim and Jon Adams

(Art by Chris Sprouse, Karl Story, Will Sliney, Marc Deering, Marc Laming, Matteo Buffagni, Emilio Laiso, Roland Boschi, Marco Turini, Scott Koblish, Stefano Landini, Ramon Bachs, Caspar Wijngaard, Andrea Broccardo and Jon Adams)

Collecting the Age of Rebellion 'Heroes', 'Villains' and the Special, this book features eleven stories from the war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance.  Each story focuses on a famous character from the era of the Original Trilogy; Princess Leia, Grand Moff Tarkin, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, Jabba the Hutt, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, IG-88, Yoda and Rebel pilots Biggs Darklighter and Jek Porkins.

These stories are all relatively short and, by their nature, can't feature any really major character moments for any of the protagonists but nevertheless they're pretty enjoyable to read.  They add just a little bit of extra depth to the characters they feature and it's always nice to see familiar old faces in action again.  For me the highlights here were the two tales of bounty hunters, Boba Fett and IG-88, who have always been favourites of mine.

A solid and enjoyable anthology of comic book stories, but you won't be missing out on anything major to Star Wars if you skipped it.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Age Of Republic

featuring Jody Houser, Ethan Sacks and Marc Guggenheim

(Art by Cory Smith, Wilton Santos, Walden Wong , Marc Deering, Luke Ross, Paolo Villanelli, Carlos Gomez and Caspar Wijngaard)

An omnibus edition collecting the various one-shots of 'Heroes' and 'Villains' as well as the Special.  Beginning before Episode I and running right up into the Clone Wars, these eleven stories each focus on one of the major characters of the Prequel Era; Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, Obi-Wan, Jango Fett, Anakin, Count Dooku, Padme, General Grievous, Mace Windu, Ventress and Captain Rex.

Whilst this anthology covers the whole spread of the Prequel Era, you need to remember that each character only gets what amounts to a single-issue length story (less in the cases of Windu, Ventress and Rex), so don't expect any particularly deep or complex tales.  That said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with what we do get and each of these stories is a perfectly enjoyable Star Wars adventure.

I don't know if it says more about me than it does about the book, but I found the highlights to be the stories that focus on the villains (or, at least, antagonists), with Luke Ross' art serving the tone of these darker tales perfectly.  I particularly enjoyed seeing Count Dooku going about his pre-Episode II machinations and having to deal with Jedi interference, as well as watching General Grievous confront his own inadequacies in an abandoned Jedi Temple.

Overall, not a mind-blowing experience but nevertheless, to quote Senator Palpatine, a welcome one.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Boba Fett - Man With A Mission

featuring John Wagner, Ron Marz,  Thomas Andrews  and John Ostrander

(Art by Cam Kennedy, Adrianna Melo and Francisco Ruiz Velasco)

Four stories featuring the second coolest villain of the Star Wars saga (the first being Darth Vader, of course).  In the first story Fett is hired to hunt down the leader of a Rebel cell on a planet wracked by the Galactic Civil War.  Next Fett infiltrates the wreck of an Imperial warship to retrieve a precious hologram.  The third story sees Fett being hired by an ambitious Imperial officer.  Finally, in 'Agent of Doom' the last member of a dying species hires Fett to take revenge on the deranged Imperial officers who drove them to the brink of extinction. 

Contained in these four stories there is no great revelation about Fett's character and no events which will change the Star Wars galaxy.  However, what these stories do have is Boba Fett kicking ass!  So, whilst not the deepest of graphic novels, this book is fun to read and is substantially buoyed-up by the cool factor of its protagonist. 

One complaint I will make is the way Fett's speech is written in 'Agent of Doom'.  For some reason he seems to have temporarily lost the ability to talk in complete sentences.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars - On The Fields Of Battle

featuring John Ostrander and Randy Stradley

(Art by Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons and Brandon Badeaux)

Book six.  Four more stories of the Clone Wars, set 21 BBY.  One features Mace Windu and a team of Jedi taking on a bounty hunting guild and is worth reading for the way the Jedi infiltrate the guild headquarters.  Stradley's addition is a slightly disappointing interlude thats only notable feature is to link one of the planets from his (and Mike Richardson's) 'Crimson Empire' to the Clone Wars. 

The last two stories are the best.  One tells of how Aayla Secura (who Lucasfilm seem to be trying to use as sex appeal - she's always half-naked) encounters Quinlan Vos, who's fallen to the dark side.  This story is made even better by the fact it features the Noghri and is told from the perspective of Clone Commander Bly (who, incidentally, kills Aayla in Episode III!).  The final story, 'The Dreadnaughts Of Rendili' has two plots.  The first features the stand-off and battle above Rendili and the second has Obi-Wan bringing Quinlan back into the fold of the Jedi Order.  I was hoping for a bit more of the Battle of Rendili but my disappointment was more than offset by Anakin's subsequent lightsaber duel with Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress on Coruscant.  There's also a brief appearance by General Grievous.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars - The Best Blades

featuring John Ostrander, Haden Blackman and Jeremy Barlow

(Art by Brandon Badeaux, Armando Durruthy, Tomas Giorello, HOON, Ramiro Montanez and Stacy Michalcewicz)

Book five.  Four stories of the Clone Wars, set 21 BBY.  The first is a bit dull because it deals with the politics of the war in the Senate, although it was nice to see former-Chancellor Valorum's fate. 

Ostrander's 'Bloodlines' is very cleverly written and plays with time in an interesting way, starting at the end and then telling the backstory.  There's also the continuation of the story of 'Last Stand On Jabiim' as Obi-Wan and Anakin are reunited. 

The best offering here though is 'The Best Blades' itself, a story about how Yoda himself is drawn into the murky combat and politics on the world of Thustra.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 2

featuring Haden Blackman, Welles Hartley and the Fillbach Brothers

(Art by the Fillbach Brothers)

22 BBY.  Three stories told in the wonderfully dynamic visual style of the Clone Wars cartoon series. 

Blackman's, 'Skywalkers' is the best offering, showing exactly what Obi-Wan was thinking of in 'A New Hope' when he tells Luke "He was the best star-pilot in the galaxy, and a cunning warrior". 

The book is let down by the third story, 'Run Mace Run' which basically just features Mace Windu . . . er . . . running.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 3

featuring Haden Blackman, Ryan Kaufman, the Fillbach Brothers and Tim Mucci

(art by the Fillbach Brothers)

22 BBY.  Another collection of short stories, four this time, depicted in the style of the Clone Wars cartoon series.  There's an amusing Western-style story featuring Yoda here, but it is far outshone by 'Rogue Gallery' in which villains Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress and bounty hunter Durge find themselves confronting their most deadly foe ever; General Grievous, who kicks butt here, but was disappointly feeble in Episode III. 

I was overjoyed when I realised there was a story here featuring the Republic's Clone Commandos but was severely let down by two things; 1) they look rubbish in this visual style and 2) they get a whupping!

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 4

featuring the Fillbach Brothers, Justin Lambros, Ryan Kaufman and Haden Blackman

(Art by The Fillbach Brothers and Rick Lacy)

The fourth book in this series based on the Clone Wars cartoon consists of four stories set just before and during 'Revenge Of The Sith'.  The first story, 'Another Fine Mess' features R2-D2 and C-3PO foiling an assassination attempt on Senator Amidala.  I stopped finding the slapstick antics of the two camp droids amusing when I was about ten and nothing has changed since then.  This story lets the book down, to my mind. 

'The Brink' has Anakin coming to the rescue of a feisty female Jedi Knight called Serra Keto.  This story poignant because in it Anakin pretty much flirts with Serra but in the computer game of Episode III he kills her in the Jedi Temple. 

The third story, Kaufman's 'Orders' is the real gem of this book.  Lacy's cartoony Clone Commandos look much better than the Fillbach Brothers' version in the previous volume (from which the character Sarge is carried over).  We get a bit of an idea of why the clones so happily 'Execute Order 66' (the Jedi killed here, Traavis, is named after Kaufman's friend and fellow Star Wars writer Karen Traviss). 

Finally, 'Descent' tells of Tarfful and Chewbacca defending a Wookiee village against a squad of Clone Troopers.  Frankly, any story with Wookiees in gets my seal of approval.  Overall, not the best book of the series, but still great fun to read.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 5

featuring the Fillbach Brothers, Justin Lambros, Chris Avellone and Matt Jacobs

(Art by the Fillbach Brothers and Stewart McKenney)

19 BBY.  Four more adventures set just before and during Episode III.  The first, featuring Aayla Secura, is fairly standard by brings two things that are worthwhile.  The first is a Battle Droid with some character, continuing the humanisation of the soldiers of the war that has already been done with the clones.  The second is the fact that the story is set on Endor and I'm a little ashamed to admit that I was happy to see the Ewoks again. 

The next story deals with a rescue mission undertaken by Bail Organa and the famous starship Tantive IV (the first one you see in 'A New Hope' and rumoured to be the focus of the forthcoming Star Wars TV show).  The fourth story has a Clone and a Separatist mirroring one another's actions as each tries to save a planet.  The good thing about this one was the fact that it is the clone who proves the callous killer and the Sep who is the hero.  Finally, we get something that I want more and more of; a story of Order 66. 

Taking everything into account this is a good collection, but not a great one.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 6

featuring the Fillbach Brothers, Mike Kennedy and Haden Blackman

(Art by the Fillbach Brothers, Stewart McKenney and Rick Lacy)

I was quite disappointed by this collection.  I had been hoping for more Order 66 stories like we had in the last volume, but sadly that wasn't the case.  The first story features Saesee Tiin  stealing a Confederacy starfighter and is pretty unremarkable.  Next is a story featuring the ever-cool Clone Commandos, but once again I was disappointed as it lacked the poignance of the previous offerings. 

The third story was the best and features Ki-Adi-Mundi and several young Jedi fighting on Mygeeto.  What I liked about this story was that it recaptures the wonderful over-the-top dynamic nature of the TV series, represented here by a Jedi holding up a Star Destroyer with one hand (and the Force, of course). 

The final story has Kit Fisto and Plo Koon investigating a prison break.  The art here, by Rick Lacy, is a radical and interesting departure from that seen previously, but ultimately wasn't to my tastes.  Also, the depiction of Plo Koon as violent and callous seemed off to me.  It does have the redeeming feature of including the double-hard bounty hunter Durge.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 7

featuring the Fillbach brothers, Ryan Kaufman, Chris Avellone and Jeremy Barlow

(Art by the Fillbach brothers, Stewart McKenny and Ethen Beavers)

This series is really starting to lose it's appeal for me.  The novelty of its unusual art style and kinetic scripting has definitely worn off, leaving these four vignettes of Clone Wars action to stand entirely on their stories. 

That's a problem for 'Creature Comforts', which is nothing but Anakin and Obi-Wan hopping from the jaws of one wild beast to another.  'Spy Girls' is much better and features Padme and Sheltay Retrac (Bail Organa's aide) making like a couple of female James Bonds.  The only thing really remarkable about the third story, 'Impregnable' is the fact it stars the underused Jedi Bultar Swan. 

The final story of the anthology, 'This Precious Shining' is the most disappointing because it had the most promise.  It's the story of three Separatist soldiers who decide to disguise themselves as Clone Troopers to rob a Republic bank.  I loved this concept, but due to the nature of this book, that concept could not be developed in any great detail and the story is left wanting.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 8

featuring the Fillbach Brothers, Chris Avellone, Jason Hall and Jeremy Barlow

(Art by the Fillbach Brothers and Ethen Beavers)

Where once these little Clone Wars vignettes were very appealing to me, I now find them a little tedious.  I would much rather that these books featured a single story told in the style of the cartoon, than have four stories which never get chance to develop their potential. 

The first story here is a pretty boring affair featuring the smug and self-righteous Jedi Master Luminara Unduli.  The second story has a better concept (and starring character), featuring Dark Jedi/bounty hunter Aurra Sing returning to Nar Shaddaa to undertake a hunt.  However, as I say above, due to the short length of the story, the potential here is never fully exploited. 

Jason Hall's 'One of a kind' was my favourite story in this book, having a certain amount of emotional depth as well as the obligatory action.  It features Obi-Wan battling the bounty hunter Vianna D'pow on Kamino in scenes pleasantly reminiscant of the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett fight in Episode II.  The fourth and final story here features a Battle Droid which decides to break it's programming and live in peace.  Again, this idea never gets chance to fully develop, but the story has a poignant ending in which the droid just sits down under a tree and quietly lets its batteries run down.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 9

featuring the Fillbach Brothers

(Art by the Fillbach Brothers)

As you can see above, the Fillbach Brothers fully take the helm for the penultimate book of the series.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the stories aren't all the low-script high-action pap which the brothers have contributed to the other books of the series.  The first story, however, is.  It features Dexter Jettster (the fat four-armed alien from Episode II) having a series of slapstick encounters on the planet Dractu. 

The second story is the best one here, featuring a Clone Trooper who is rescued from a drifting starfighter to find that, in his absence, the war has ended and Order 66 has been issued.  This already intriguing idea is made better by the fact that the ship which rescues him is packed with fugitive Jedi children.  The third story has Jedi Quinlan Vos battling a gang of thugs in Coruscant's sewers.  The fourth and final story of the book features Mace Windu battling a city full of zombies.  I kid you not. 

Overall, a slightly better offering than the last few of these books, but only by the smallest margin.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures - Volume 10

featuring Chris Avellone, the Fillbach Brothers and Jason Hall

(Art by Stewart McKenny, the Fillbach Brothers and Ethen Beavers)

The last in the current run of Clone Wars Adventures, and not before time if you ask me.  The stories in these books have long since stopped being a novelty, becoming repetetive and boring. 

The first of the four stories here is about a group of young Jedi living as farmers on Dantooine, the second features Anakin and Obi-Wan in their usual high-speed low-wit antics, the third is about a young Jedi Knight undertaking a secret mission and the last story is about a lone Clone Trooper and his psuedo-comical dealings with mischievous natives.  Only the third story, Jason Hall's 'Chain Of Command' stood out for me here and that was largely because it introduces an interesting new Jedi, Anise I'zak, who's headstrong and outspoken. 

Overall this book is a disappointing end to a series which was just dragged out too long.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 1: The Defense Of Kamino And Other Tales

featuring John Ostrander, Haden Blackman and Scott Allie

(Art by Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons, Stephen Thompson, Ray Kryssing and Tomas Giorello)

Set in the immediate aftermath of Episode II.  Quinlan Vos, working in the criminal underworld, discovers that the Confederacy has discovered the location of Kamino.  The Jedi then rally their forces, including Obi-Wan and Anakin, to protect the clone production facilities.  Master Mace Windu then undertakes a mission to meet with dissident Jedi in the hopes of returning them to the Jedi Order.

It's hard all these years (and countless Clone Wars TV episodes, novels and comics) later to really remember just how exciting these stories were when they first came out.  The very first time the Clone Wars was explored!  It was genuinely uncharted territory back then.  It's therefore hard to know how someone who's already experienced all these years of Clone Wars media would find these stories now.  All I can say in revisting them is that I still think they're brilliant.

The opening story, with Quinlan, is very much a slow burn to begin this book and lacks the bombast you'd expect of the first ever Clone Wars comic.  However, to anyone who've read Quinlan and Aayla's adventures between Episodes I and II, then it nicely reaffirms their respective places now the rest of the saga has changed around them.  The middle section of this book is by far the best, as we get the Battle of Kamino told from three perspectives; featuring Jedi starfighters dogfighting, a Separatist Commander proving that their are heroes on both sides of the conflict and, my personal favourite, the introduction of the badass ARC Troopers.  Finally, there is a less epic but still engaging story in which Mace Windu confronts Jedi who have abandoned the order for various reasons since the beginning of the war.  The moral and ethical debates the Jedi have about the war are pretty engaging but the tension jumps up a notch when Asajj Ventress appears to complicate Mace's negotiations.

This remains exactly the sort of Star Wars book I want to read and it's nice to note that things like Ventress and the ARC Troopers are so ingrained in Star Wars lore now that even casual fans would enjoy seeing them in action here.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 2: Victories And Sacrifices

featuring Haden Blackman and John Ostrander

(Art by Tomas Giorello, Curtis Arnold, Brian Ching, Joe Weems, Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons)

22 BBY.  Three stories set in the months following Episode II.  Obi-Wan and Anakin lead a mission to a moon of Naboo where they encounter two deadly new foes; the bounty hunter Durge and the Sith assassin Asajj Ventress.  Obi-Wan then allies with a team of unconventional Jedi to recover the cure to a deadly plague.  Finally, Jedi Masters Shaak Ti and Quinlan Vos have to lead Republic forces against a Separatist uprising on Brentaal IV.

I originally read this book as individual comics back when they were released, when the Clone Wars was a brand new and unexplored era for Star Wars storytelling.  These stories absolutely delivered what I wanted to see too, with Jedi going into full-scale battles against dangerous new enemies.  It was therefore nice to revisit this book and find that it still captures that spirit two decades later.

I particularly enjoyed seeing Obi-Wan meet and work with a group of loner Jedi outcasts who don't usually team-up but who each recognise the threat that the Separatists' new chemical weapon represents.  It means we get introduced to interesting new Jedi archetypes outside of those we've seen in the Prequel films but whose fates are genuinely undecided, adding a true element of danger to the story.

Ultimately, the best element of this book is three characters who appear in the first story.  There's Alpha, the sassy and irreverent ARC Trooper, who's not afraid to tell the Jedi when they're being stupid (Obi-Wan: "I think he cracked my skull" Alpha: "Wear a helmet next time").  Then, the two villains of the piece are just brilliant; with Durge being gleefully vicious and Ventress proving a match for the Jedi in every way.  Both of these characters (Ventress in particular) would go on to have much bigger roles in the Star Wars mythos, but here's where it all started.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 9: Endgame

featuring John Ostrander and  Welles Hartley 

(Art by Jan Duursema, Dan Parsons and Douglas Wheatley)

19 BBY.  The final book of the Clone Wars series.  As the war reaches its end the Jedi find themselves betrayed by their own troops and either killed or driven into hiding.  This book explores how some of the Jedi, including Quinlan Vos, manage to escape the fall of the Jedi Order.

I think it was in Matthew Stover's Episode III novelisation where it was said that Order 66 is not the end of the Clone Wars but it is its climax.  That's an idea that explored in detail here as the Jedi face the emotional and practical fallout of having been betrayed by trusted allies and having lost the war they fought so hard in.  As well as that theme, this book is literally the climax of Quinlan Vos' story arc told across years of the 'Republic' comics line, proving a satisfying endpoint for the character that's been through so much (I can't say I particularly like Quin as a character, but I can't deny the effectiveness of this story).

On top of Quinlan's story, we're also introduced to several new Jedi who face the trials of Order 66.  I particularly liked Dass Jennir and have similarly enjoyed his further exploits as told in the 'Dark Times' series.  Finally, we get the 'Purge' one-shot in which a group of fugitive Jedi (mostly familiar faces - including the deep-cut appearance of Sia-Lan Wezz) attempt to lure Darth Vader into a trap and destroy him.  It's a brilliant exploration of how lost the Jedi have become as well as a nice chance to see Vader at his fiercest.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Darth Vader - Unbound Force

featuring Greg Pak and Kieron Gillen

(Art by Adam Gorham, Raffaele Ienco and Salvador Larroca)

Book 7.  The main story here has Vader struggling with uncontrolled outbursts of the Force, causing him to seek the aid of Doctor Aphra.  We're also given a reprint of Aphra's first appearance, and first encounter with Vader, in which they discover the murderous droids 0-0-0 and BT-1.

I genuinely don't understand what Greg Pak is trying to do with Vader's character in his run with the Sith Lord's story, post-ESB.  We've already been given a Vader who's still crying over things that happened to him as a child, then we got a Vader who's okay with having comedy sidekicks, then a Vader's who goes all gooey over someone who looks like his ex-wife and now we get a Vader who has lost all self-control and just smashes everything around him.  Did Pak forget that he's writing Star Wars here and not the Incredible Hulk?

There is quite simply nothing interesting or engaging done with the character in Pak's story and that's a huge disappointment.

As for the bonus reprint of Gillen's run on Vader from 2015, it's not a bad story but it doesn't feel like the sort of 'classic' that deserves a reprise just yet.  As such, it's presence here feels entirely superfluous and a little bit too much like padding.

1 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Doctor Aphra Omnibus Vol. 1

featuring Kieron Gillen, Jason Aaron and Simon Spurrier

(Art by Salvador Larroca, Mike Deodato Jr., Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Kev Walker, Marc Deering, Marco Checchetto, Andrea Broccardo, Marc Laming, Will Sliney, Caspar Wijngaard, Emilio Laiso, Wilton Santos, Cris Bolson, Walden Wong, Don Ho, Scott Hanna and Elsa Charretier)

A huge collection of fifty-four issues featuring the immoral archaeologist Doctor Aphra, covering the years between Episodes IV and V.  Here we see Aphra working as an agent of Darth Vader before striking out on her own with the Wookiee bounty hunter Black Krrsantan and the psychotic droids BT-1 and 0-0-0.  With backstabbing and betrayal for profit her stock-in-trade, Aphra is challenged by personal connections; with her estranged father, with her enemy/lover Tolvan and with the young girl Vulaada who she takes under her wing.

Through her initial appearances in the pages of Darth Vader's series I was in two minds about Doctor Aphra.  I liked the concept of an Indiana Jones character in Star Wars but even more unscrupulous ("It belongs in an armoury!") but the tone of her stories felt a little bit like the writers were patting themselves on the back about how clever they'd been.  I also wasn't impressed by how she fitted in to the crossover stories 'Vader Down' and 'The Screaming Citadel', feeling that she just didn't play well against the main characters of the Star Wars saga.

So, the first third or so of this book was a bit underwhelming.  Not bad, but not great either.  However, things improved immeasurably once I got onto the stories from Aphra's own solo series.  I enjoyed the rogues gallery of allies and enemies she makes along the way, with Beetee and Triple-Zero managing to be both hilarious and genuinely terrifying.  I also particularly enjoyed Aphra's unconventional romance with Captain Tolvan (not 'unconventional' because they're gay, you understand, but rather because they take love/hate thing to a whole new level).  It's through Tolvan, Aphra's father and Vulaada that we actually get to see the title character face consequences for her actions that quick thinking and self-interest can't get her out of.  It's not about redemption per se, but rather just about the emotional connections we all make, whether we want to or not.

There is one major downside to the latter two thirds of the book, which were otherwise really good, and it's how Vader is handled.  Throughout most of it he's a terrifying presence always lurking just behind Aphra but when they actually come together again he suddenly becomes indifferent and even tolerant towards her.  Then when she unleashes her plot to get out from under his thumb I felt that the writer (Spurrier) did Vader an injustice in the interest of making Aphra seem cleverer.  Frankly, she puts one over on the Dark Lord of the Sith too easily to be credible.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Empire - Allies And Adversaries

featuring Ron Marz and Jeremy Barlow

(Art by Nicola Scott,  Brandon Badeaux , Jeff Johnson, Joe Corroney and Adriana Melo)

Presented here, in the fifth book of the Empire series, are three stories set about six months after 'A New Hope'.  The first features BoShek, the smuggler in that movie who points Obi-Wan in Chewbacca's direction in the cantina.  BoShek finds himself helping a beautiful and charismatic woman escape her enemies, only to discover that she isn't what she seems to be.  This is a nice little story about an underused character which packs a good twist at the end. 

The second story is about Han and Chewie reentering the treacherous criminal underworld to secure supplies for the Rebels.  This story is an antidote to the previous volume in which we see Leia getting amourous with an old flame.  It's good to see that the man who uttered the immortal line "I know" when Leia says she loves him, isn't the lovesick puppy that some of these comics have portrayed him as. 

The final story is by far the best.  Luke and Red Squadron (the precursor to Rogue Squadron) find themselves confronting Imperial forces on a jungle world.  Out of the jungle comes Able, a Clone Trooper trapped there since the Clone Wars.  I don't know what I loved more; seeing a Clone Trooper battle Stormtroopers or the irony that Able becomes a Rebel when it was his brothers that helped raise the Empire in the first place.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Empire - The Heart Of The Rebellion

featuring Welles Hartley, Ron Marz, Randy Stradley and Judd Winick

(Art by Paul Chadwick, Davide Fabbri, Christian Dalla Vecchia, Tomas Giorello and Adriana Melo)

Four tales telling stories of Princess Leia.  The first is the best, showing Leia before 'A New Hope' as she becomes a leader of the Rebellion (and meets a certain heavy-breathing dark sider!). 

I also liked the fourth story, a Valentine special which plays to the hopeless romantic in me.  Set just before 'The Empire Strikes Back' it features Han and Leia as they become trapped in a Hoth snowstorm and are forced to consider their feelings for one another.  It's got some great dialogue too . . . Leia: "Could you possibly be any more repugnant?!"  Han: "Another hour with you sister, and I'm sure I'll be setting records!" 

Generally speaking I've never liked Leia much (well, except for when she was in that gold bikini...), which detracted from this book for me.  I somewhat suspect that the female Star Wars fans will prefer this one.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Empire - The Imperial Perspective

featuring Paul Alden, Jeremy Barlow, Welles Hartley and Ron Marz

(Art by Patrick Blaine, Brian Ching, Davide Fabbri, Christain Dalla Vecchia and Raul Trevino)

0 ABY.  Four stories told, as you can probably guess, from the perspective of the Empire.  I really enjoyed 'To The Last Man', which is basically 'Zulu' but with Stormtroopers instead of Michael Caine! 

However, unsurprisingly, this book's best features are the two tales of Darth Vader.  In one he is lost in the wilderness with only his rage to sustain him and in the other he is faced by the consequences of a past atrocity. 

An interesting collection of stories, but nothing that'll change the Star Wars galaxy forever.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Empire - The Wrong Side Of The War

featuring Welles Hartley and John Jackson Miller

(Art by Davide Fabbri, Brian Chin and Christian Dalla Vecchia)

0 ABY.  The seventh and final book in the Empire series contains two stories about individuals questioning their loyalty to the Empire.  In the first, by Miller, none other than Darth Vader has to root out a traitor aboard his own Star Destroyer.  I liked this story because it showed a more calculating side to Vader's ruthlessness. 

The second story, by Hartley and which gives this book its name, takes up the majority of the book and provides a great conclusion to the Empire stories.  In it a team of Rebel have to infiltrate an Imperial base to rescue one of their own (captured in 'Star Wars: Empire - In The Shadows Of Their Fathers').  Among the Rebels are familiar faces from elsewhere in the series including Basso, Able, Narra, Deena Shan and someone named Luke Skywalker.  However, what made this story stand out for me is the fact that it continues the story of Janek Sunber, who proved to be a heroic Imperial in 'Star Wars: Empire - The Imperial Perspective'.  The plot thickens further when it turns out that Janek and Luke are old friends (Sunber turns out to be the 'Tank' mentioned in the Episode IV line "That's what you said when Biggs and Tank left"). 

By bringing together so many characters from other stories in the series, 'The Wrong Side Of The War' makes a great bookend.  As you can imagine, themes of trust, loyalty and duty are prevalent throughout the book.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Forces Of Destiny

featuring Elsa Charretier, Pierrick Colinet, Jody Houser, Devin Grayson, Beth Revis amd Delilah S. Dawson

(Art by Elsa Charretier, Arianna Florean, Eva Widermann, Valentina Pinto and Nicoletta Baldari)

A tie-in to the series of animated shorts of the same name intended to celebrate the female heroes of the Star Wars saga.  Here we get five stories starring Princess Leia, Rey, Hera Syndulla, Ahsoka & Padme and Rose & Paige Tico.

I make no secret of how much I loathe the Sequel trilogy and how much I resent (evil) Disney rebooting the Star Wars canon, so it will come as absolutely no surprise then that I had absolutely no interest in the stories featuring Rey, Rose and Paige.  The one with Rey is just a brief aside within the events of 'The Force Awakens', and the one about Rose and Paige falls down by starring characters no-one actually cared about in the first place (but no, that doesn't mean all the bullying the fanbase levelled at Kelly Marie Tran was okay in the slightest - shame on anyone involved).

Far more enjoyable were the stories starring Leia, Hera, Ahsoka and Padme, with Leia's story being my personal favourite.  In it she has to overcome her own shortcomings to help establish Echo Base on Hoth and its a rare insight into her struggles with being a leader.  However, despite being more enjoyable, there's nothing truly outstanding about any of these stories and they're just disposable mini-adventures.

All that aside, women are great and I really enjoyed the idea of a Star Wars graphic novel dedicated to celebrating that fact.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View

featuring Ben Acker, Renee Ahdieh, Tom Angleberger, Ben Blacker, Jeffrey Brown, Pierce Brown, Meg Cabot, Rae Carson, Adam Christopher, Zoraida Cordova, Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Paul Dini, Ian Doescher, Ashley Eckstein, Matt Fraction, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Kieron Gillen, Christie Golden, Claudia Gray, Pablo Hidalgo, E. K. Johnston, Paul S. Kemp, Mur Lafferty, Ken Liu, Griffin McElroy, John Jackson Miller, Nnedi Okorafor, Daniel Jose Older, Mallory Ortberg, Beth Revis, Madeleine Roux, Greg Rucka, Gary D. Schmidt, Cavan Scott, Charles Soule, Sabaa Tahir, Elizabeth Wein, Glen Weldon, Chuck Wendig, Wil Wheaton and Gary Whitta.

Published in aid of charity and to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the release of 'A New Hope', this anthology features forty stories retelling key events from Episode IV from a point of view outside of the main characters.

As you can imagine for an anthology with forty different stories, there is a huge variation in quality and content here.  On the one hand we get some great character pieces such as Gary Whitta's 'Raymus' or Pablo Hidalgo's 'Verge of Greatness' but on the other we have the contributions of Tom Angleberger and Jeffrey Brown which constitute little more than a punchline.  Then there's the off-the-deep-end one which features Palpatine's reaction to Obi-Wan death as told told through Shakespearean verse.

Now that (evil) Disney's rebooted canon has had a few years to bed-in authors also now have the opportunity to actually weave in a bit of the larger continuity and here Kieron Gillen takes the opportunity to tell a story of Doctor Aphra from his comics series and E. K. Johnston gives us a follow-up to her novel 'Ahsoka' (written with help from the real-world voice of Ahsoka, Ashley Eckstein).  Both of these stories hit the right notes and fondly reminded me of a time when the Star Wars canon was vast and fascinatingly interwoven.

Now, a fair chunk of this book features stories set in an around Mos Eisley and therefore any old EU hand like myself will naturally compare them to the now quite old anthology 'Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina'.  Personally, I found this section of 'From A Certain Point Of View' to be pretty tedious as it retreads a lot of ground covered way back in the 90s regarding characters who were never worth much more than a single short story anyway.  Also, where 'Tales...' had its authors write overlapping and interweaving stories, no such effort is made here and some of the stories pretty much contradict each other immediately.  Now, the publishers have defended this as being interlinked with the theme of the whole anthology, but that just seems like an excuse for lazy editing.

So, whilst there are some genuinely good stories here, there's enough bad or boring stuff holding the book back that it comes out overall as just 'okay'.

One final note is to say that I was surprised by just how dark the twist is in the story written by Star Trek alumni Wil 'Shut up Wesley' Wheaton.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet

featuring Robbie Thompson and Gerry Duggan.

(Art by Leonard Kirk, Daniele Orlandini, Cory Hamscher, Edgar Salazar, Marc Laming and Will Sliney)

Two stories tying-in to 'Solo: A Star Wars Story'.  The first, titular, story follows Han as he enrolls in Imperial service and has to deal with the conflicts caused by his lack of respect for authority, his desire to return to Corellia as soon as he can and loyalty to his new teammates.  The second story has Beckett, Rio and Val running into trouble whilst taking on a job to clear their debts with Crimson Dawn.

I wasn't a fan of the 'Solo' movie and, as a long-time lover of the Expanded Universe (or 'Legends', if you must), I didn't enjoy the changes made to Han's backstory either.  However, Han's time in Imperial service has only been lightly explored in the past, so I was willing to give this story a try.  It turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable, with the irreverent and independent Han having to learn the hard way that his selfish actions can have nasty consequences for those around him.  (And if you're an EU purist like me, the only thing here that can't be reconciled with the old canon is how/why Han joins up in the first place).  In fact, there's also a nice callback to the old EU comics of the 70s and 80s (when Marvel had the licence the first time).

The story of Beckett and his crew was lightweight fare, but enjoyable nonetheless.  They were one element of the 'Solo' movie I did really like and the fact Val and Rio were written-out so quickly was one of the film's many failings.  So it's nice to spend a bit more time with them here.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca - The Crystal Run: Part One

featuring Marc Guggenheim, Cavan Scott, Justina Ireland, Steve Orlando and Jody Houser

(Art by David Messina, Ivan Fiorelli, Georges Jeanty, Victor Olazaba, Paul Fry and Kei Zama)

Two stories, spanning centuries of the Star Wars saga.  The main story here sees Han and Chewie hired by Jabba to pull a heist which, inevitably goes awry.  The back-up story, set in the era of the (*holds back vomit*) Sequel Trilogy focuses on the Wookiee celebration of Life Day and features flashbacks to the High Republic, the Dark Times and the Rebellion.

Han Solo is a character that all too many writers have struggled to get right over the years, too often portraying him as an arrogant buffoon whose plans always go wrong.  Here, however, we're given a much more engaging version of Han who, despite the odd misstep, is cunning and talented enough to survive a career amid the underworld of the Star Wars galaxy.  Honestly, having Han and Chewie star in a heist caper is such a no-brainer than I don't know why so few writers have managed to pull it off (Tim Zahn did it best with the novel 'Scoundrels' though).  Marc Guggenheim does a great job here, though, and this is probably my favourite appearance of Han in any of (evil) Disney's new canon.

The Life Day story is fine, as far as it goes.  It doesn't really add much to the Star Wars mythos but it's not in any way offensive either (I'm looking at you 'The Last Jedi'...).  It has to be said that I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the High Republic flashback, which sees Jedi Master Nib Assek and Padawan Burryaga facing Drengir on Kashyyyk, not to mention featuring Chewie's father Attichitcuk.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Heroes For A New Hope

featuring Mark Waid, Charles Soule and Gerry Duggan.

(Art by Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Alex Maleev and Phil Noto)

Since recovering the Star Wars licence Marvel have been singularly unimaginative in naming their miniseries and therefore here we're presented with an omnibus containing 'Princess Leia', 'Lando' and 'Chewbacca' (the latter not to be confused with the Dark Horse miniseries by Darko Macan), all of which are set in the tedious and overused 'just after the Death Star is destroyed...' period.

As you can probably tell, I wasn't too enamoured of the concepts behind this book going into it and the first story, Waid's 'Princess Leia' didn't do much to assuage my doubts.  In fact, what this story does is highlight the fact that Princess Leia actually isn't that great a character in her Rebellion days and only really works when used in conjunction with the likes of Han or Luke.  Here her diplomacy and selflessness feels painfully forced and at the same time, focusing on her efforts to reunite Alderaan survivors, this story also takes her away from the Rebellion itself, meaning that she doesn't even get to show her role as a leader among the Rebels.  It's not all bad; I liked the fact that we see a fleet of Alderaanians come together independent of the Rebels or Empire and I also very much enjoyed seeing Leia go to Naboo, where a mural of former Queen Amidala causes her to, very briefly, have a Force vision.

Soule's 'Lando' is a far better story all round, as we see the gambler and conman bite off more than he can chew when his gang of thieves inadvertantly steal Emperor Palpatine's personal yacht.  This could easily have been a generic scoundrel story but the difference is made by two things; the first of which is seeing the effects being close to Sith artifacts has on the thieves.  The second, more obvious, difference is Calrissian himself.  I loved the fact that his belief that blasters are a last resort for when you've run out of smooth-talking is a wonderful counterpoint to the more common Han Solo scoundrel story where Han's policy is to shoot first (unless George Lucas interferes).

Finally, we get Duggan's 'Chewbacca', wherein the titular Wookiee crashlands on a planet where a feisty teenage girl recruits his help in saving her people from a ruthless tyrant.  This isn't a bad story, but there's not really much that's new or meaty to give it any real substance.  Nice to be reminded how much of a badass Chewie is in his own right though.

Overall this omnibus is a mixed bag which collectively balances out at 'okay'.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Hope Dies

featuring Kieron Gillen and Cullen Bunn

(Art by Salvador Larroca, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Cam Smith, Ario Anindito, Roland Boschi and Marc Laming)

Book 9 of Marvel's series, set 1 ABY.  The Rebellion is celebrating the launch of its new fleet when they are betrayed by one of their allies and caught in a trap that sees them facing the might of the Empire and the wrath of Darth Vader.

I'm not a huge fan of the post-Episode IV time period for storytelling and all too often the things that go on there are fairly irrelevant to the Star Wars saga as a whole.  In the main story here, however, Gillen delivers us a major battle of the war and manages to capture that feeling of nearly-overwhelmed desperation on the part of the Rebels that gave such emotional resonance to 'The Empire Strikes Back' and, more recently, 'Rogue One'.  And on the subject of that latter film, here we get to see the ultimate fate of some of the supporting characters introduced there.

The thing that did spoil this otherwise thoroughly enjoyable story, however, was the fact that I'd kind of read it before.  Back when Dark Horse had the licence they also told a story in which the Rebel fleet was betrayed and then ambushed by Vader, having to flee with terrible losses.  It still works here, but if you have read the 'Rebellion' series then be prepared to re-tread some familiar ground.

The other story here, by Bunn and from the fourth annual of the series, is one of the irrelevant and inconsequential ones that I mentioned not liking above.  However, it does have two redeeming features.  The first is seeing Luke and Vader separately react to getting their hands on some hate-imbued Sith lightsabers and the second is not only seeing Luke have a crack at podracing, but having Vader watching and listening to the announcer say that humans can't do it.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories - Rebels And Resistance

featuring Amanda Deibert, Cecil Castellucci and Michael Moreci

(Art by Lucas Marangon, Megan Huang and Andy Duggan)

Four stories from across the Star Wars timeline.  Obi-Wan and Anakin confront General Grievous to rescue captured Senators, Luke and Leia try to establish a Rebel outpost on an inhospitable world, Poe and Finn seek supplies for the Resistance and Rey and Chewie travel to Kashyyyk for Life Day.

Things got off to a really good start here with a solid Clone Wars adventure featuring art by the long-time Star Wars contributor Lucas Marangon (presumably back now that Dark Horse has reclaimed some of the Star Wars licencing from IDW).

Unfortunately this book suffers from rapidly diminishing returns.  The Luke and Leia story is pretty bland overall and then the Poe and Finn story is so actively childish as to be a bit insulting.  Now, I'm not a fan of any of the Sequel Era stories in general and what we get here certainly didn't win me over.  The Rey and Chewie story is slightly better, but still little more than fluff.

Overall, one good story and three naff ones.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Hyperspace Stories - Scum And Villainy

featuring Amanda Deibert, Cecil Castellucci and Michael Moreci

(Art by Riccardo Faccini, Eduardo Mello, Andrea Mutti, Gigi Baldassini and Andy Duggan)

Four stories, ranging from the Clone Wars to the (ugh) Sequel Trilogy era and starring villainous characters such as Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku, Greedo, Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett, Bossk, General Hux and Kylo Ren.

Similarly to its predecessor, 'Rebels and Resistance', this anthology starts with its best story and then goes downhill from there.  That first story has Ventress undertaking a mission for Count Dooku and shows the resentment and distain that they feel for each other respectively.  It's interestingly juxtaposed by a brief appearance by Obi-Wan and (newly Knighted) Anakin, in which Asajj overhears the much more supportive way that Jedi deal with failings in their apprentices.

The other three stories here are pretty unremarkable and don't add much to the characters they star.  There are some good moments in amongst them, such as seeing Fett and Bossk go toe to toe or seeing Kylo Ren putting his distinctive lightsaber to use (and you've no idea how rare it is for me to actually enjoy anything linked to the awful Sequel Trilogy), but they're all overbalanced by much more stuff that ranges from bland to bad (did any of us really want to see more or Rotta the Hutt or see Boba Fett getting sentimental and helping orphaned children look for their lost dolls?).

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars Insider: The Fiction Collection - Volume 1

featuring Ryder Windham, Christie Golden, Timothy Zahn, Michael Reaves, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff, Matthew Stover, David J. Williams, Mark S. Williams, Jason Fry, Jeff Grubb, Karen Miller, Ari Marmell, John Ostrander, Alexander Freed and John Jackson Miller

A fully-illustrated collection of short stories originally printed in 'Star Wars Insider' magazine.  A mixture of old canon (Legends) and new canon (evil Disney), the stories range from the Dawn of the Jedi era all the way through to the Legacy era and feature characters such as Darth Vader, Vestara Khai, Lando Calrissian, Dash Rendar, Han Solo, Jaina Solo-Fel, Cad Bane and the pilots of Blade Squadron.

I'll be totally honest and say that I probably over-rate this book if taken on the quality of the stories featured alone, but for me it was so nice to reacquaint myself with familiar characters and situations from the now-defunct EU canon that I enjoyed it immensely as a result.  Karen Miller's 'Roll of the Dice', for example, is a fairly unremarkable story, but the sheer fact that it stars Wedge Antilles and his spy-trained daughter Myri gave it enormous nostalgia power from its associations with the X-Wing novels.

Of course don't be deceived into thinking that it's not worth reading this if you don't have nostalgia for the EU canon because there are a number of stories which are part of the current canon, including an enjoyable X-Wing-esque set of four stories which follow the B-Wing pilots of Blade Squadron from the Battle of Endor through to the Battle of Jakku.

Regardless of which canon you prefer (or if you couldn't care less and just like Star Wars), there are some really good short stories here, many of which either show us previously unknown adventures of familiar faces or expand upon the settings of longer novels, or both.  For me the highlight was Matthew Stover's 'The Tenebrous Way', a tie-in to James Luceno's brilliant novel 'Darth Plagueis', which follows the thoughts and plots of Darth Tenebrous as he is murdered by his apprentice (Plagueis).

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Insider: The Fiction Collection - Volume 2

featuring John Jackson Miller, Paul S. Kemp, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Timothy Zahn, Christie Golden, Jennifer Heddle, Joe Schreiber, Edward M. Erdelac, James S. A. Corey, Michael Kogge, Janine K. Spendlove, Sylvain Neuvel, Delilah S. Dawson, Jason M. Hough and Mur Lafferty

A collection of twenty short stories originally published in Star Wars Insider magazine, featuring tales from the old Expanded Universe (Legends) and from the new canon (evil Disney).  Ranging from the days of the Old Republic up to the Legacy era, these stories star characters such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Malgus, Hondo Ohnaka, Jaina Solo, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian and Asajj Ventress.

As with the previous volume, I was immensely pleased that this book allowed me to once again dive into the now-defunct EU canon that I loved for twenty-odd years, with tales tying-in to novels like 'Kenobi', 'Scoundrels', 'Maul: Lockdown' and 'Honor Among Thieves'.  The new canon stories, on the other hand, felt oddly shallow and detached.  Honestly, they actually felt more like the stories which used to be published in the 'Star Wars Adventure Journal', with major Star Wars characters being featured as cameos, if at all.  The exception is certainly Michael Kogge's Lando story which not only does that character justice but which also fits nicely into the events of the Rebels TV series.

All that said, this book as a whole definitely feels like the B-list stories, with the first volume feeling like it had the pick of the best stories overall.  There's still plenty to enjoy here but it's just not quite as good as its predecessor.  However, I certainly hope they keep producing these anthologies because I know there's plenty more great Insider fiction yet to be collected.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars Insider: The High Republic - Starlight Stories

featuring Charles Soule, Cavan Scott and Justina Ireland

A collection of five stories set in the High Republic Era and centred around Starlight Beacon, the hub of Republic and Jedi activity in the Outer Rim.

This book was a pretty big disappointment for me.  I liked what had been done with the two Star Wars Insider Fiction Collections, collecting around twenty stories each from across the Star Wars saga, both EU ('Legends') and new Canon.  This book, however, is much shorter with only five actual stories and the rest of the book being taken up by behind-the-scenes articles and author interviews.  If I wanted that sort of content I'd buy the Star Wars Insider magazine instead of these collections of what are supposed to be stories.  For the cover price (£15 here in the UK) I'd expect more than the forty to fifty pages of actual storytelling that we get here.

But it's not just that there's barely any fiction here to read, it's specifically the stories themselves that are a problem.  Don't get me wrong, they're well-written and I liked the idea of telling tales of technicians, security officers and administrators who are just trying to do their jobs amid the chaos of the Jedi and Republic's war against the Nihil, but they're much too limited in scope.  Here there was the opportunity to tell stories from across the galaxy in the High Republic Era but all of these stories are focused on Starlight Beacon, which is a location with almost no character whatsoever.  It makes these stories pretty forgettable overall.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Vol. 2

featuring John Ostrander, Pat Mills,  Doug Petrie , Tim Truman, Scott Beatty, Bob Harris and Dean Motter

(Art by Jan Duursema, Ramon Bachs, Randy Green, Davide Fabbri, Sanford Greene, Jerome Opena and Isaac Buckminster Owens)

Part of Marvel's reprints of comics released when Dark Horse had the Star Wars licence, these nine stories take place between Episodes I and II of the Prequels.  Here we get four stories of the amnesiac Jedi Quinlan Vos and his struggles with the dark side, two tales of Mace Windu, two stories featuring the Jedi-killing bounty hunter Aurra Sing and the tale of a young Jedi coming to the aid of a Princess in need.

It has to be said that Dark Horse did far more interesting things with the Star Wars licence than Marvel have done so far and here we get a whole range of stories featuring Jedi, smugglers, bounty hunters, Dark Jedi and the (pre-'The Clone Wars' re-imagining) Nightsisters of Dathomir.  There's loads of cool and exciting stuff here as well as some interesting exploration of the lines between the light and dark sides of the Force.  I particularly liked the dynamic between Ki-Adi-Mundi, his vengeful Tusken Raider Padawan A'Sharad Hett and the weirdo Jedi known as The Dark Woman.

For me this book's biggest downside is Quinlan Vos.  He rapidly became a fan-favourite thanks to these comics, which led to him showing up in The Clone Wars TV series with a bizarrely altered dude-bro personality.  (It's worth noting too that this book features the original introduction of Aayla Secura, who George Lucas liked so much he put her into 'Attack of the Clones' and 'Revenge of the Sith').  Here, however, Quinlan's original personality was 'moody Jedi edgelord' and, honestly, I rapidly got pretty sick of images of him brooding.  As I say, lots of fans loved the darkly brooding Quinlan, but it never really landed with me, so detracts from my overall enjoyment of the book a bit.

Still, some of the most enjoyable Star Wars comic arcs ever written from a much-missed era of Star Wars publishing.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Menace Revealed Vol. 3

featuring John Ostrander, Ryder Windham and Ron Marz

(Art by Davide Fabbri, Jan Duursema, Pop Mhan, Tom Fowler, Ted Naifeh, Christian Dalla Vecchia, Ray Kryssing and Norman Lee)

Set between the events of Episodes I and II, here we get five main storylines.  A group of Jedi and war veterans recount the events of the Stark Hyperspace War, the Devaronian rogue Villie generates a colourful retelling of the Yinchorri Uprising, Quinlan Vos and Aayla Secura face Morgukai warriors and take their next steps on their Jedi paths, Anakin has to confront his past as a slave and the bounty hunters Jango Fett and Zam Wesell find themselves caught up in a plot to destroy Coruscant itself.

The Dark Horse Comics stories of the early 2000s were one of my favourite eras of Star Wars storytelling and this book contains some great examples of it.  The Stark Hyperspace War remains a firm favourite of mine, showing familiar Jedi like Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Quinlan and Plo Koon in all-out battle long before the Clone Wars came along.  The 'Rite of Passage' story arc was also probably my favourite of the Quinlan Vos-focused stories from this era and is an excellent exploration of the Master/Apprentice dynamics between him, Tholme and Aayla.  The back-to-back stories of Jango and Zam are also great, showing an interesting mix of rivalry and flirtatiousness which adds an interesting backstory to their brief (and deadly) interactions in 'Attack of the Clones'.

The low point of the book for me was Ryder Windham's adaptation of 'Jedi Quest: Path To Truth', a YA book by Jude Watson.  It's a perfectly serviceable adaptation, but I just felt it lacked the cohesion and depth that the original book managed to have.  Still, nice to see the story of Anakin building his iconic lightsaber (not to mention fighting a vision of Darth Maul).

The somewhat unexpected high point was 'The Devaronian Version', where we see Vilmarh Grahrk retelling the events of 'Jedi Council: Acts of War' but with him as the mastermind behind events.  Villie can sometimes be an irritating character and his speech patters definitely grated on me here, but I genuinely did enjoy him telling a huge pack of lies whilst we also got to see the truth behind them.  The best example of this is where he claims to have been begged for help by the mysterious 'Bobo', but we see the reality of him being cornered by Darth Maul and intimidated into doing the bidding of Darth Sidious.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic Vol. 2

featuring Haden Blackman, Michael A. Stackpole, Mike Baron, Darko Macan, Jan Strnad, Scott Tolson, Brett Matthews, Ryder Windham and Rob Williams

(Art by Tomas Giorello, John Nadeau, Allen Nunis, Edvin Biukovic, Gary Erskine, Adrian Sibar, Michel Lacombe, Andy Mushynsky, Jordi Ensign, Monty Sheldon, Serge Lapointe and Andrew Pepoy)

This book collects the first adventures of Rogue Squadron following the events of 'Return of the Jedi'.  Here we see the remnant of the squadron dealing with Imperial hold-outs before Wedge is forced to recruit a whole new batch of pilots to create a new incarnation of the legendary X-Wing squadron.  Facing Imperial fanatics, corrupt governors, Death Star deniers, special forces and dynastic struggles, this sees the all-new Rogues put to the test.  Collected here are the stories 'Rogue Leader', 'The Rebel Opposition', 'The Phantom Affair', 'Battleground: Tatooine' and 'The Warrior Princess', as well as a handful of shorter stories.

Some of these stories were my very first forays into the Star Wars Expanded Universe back in the 90s and I therefore have a great deal of fond nostalgia for them.  On top of that, the X-Wing pilots of Rogue Squadron in comics, novels and computer games have long been one of my favourite elements of Star Wars in general, with this particular iteration of the squadron being a firm favourite (big fan of Dllr Nep).

The final story here, 'The Warrior Princess' is definitely worth singling-out as a highlight as it features a Star Wars take on the fall of the Romanov dynasty and the legend of the lost Princess Anastasia (which Rogue turns out to be the lost princess was a particularly brilliant twist).  As well as having some great emotional moments, it also showcases the diplomatic missions undertaken by the Rebellion/New Republic in the wake of Endor.

All that said, it has to be admitted that many of the stories here were the writers (Mike Stackpole in particular) initially getting to grips with the concepts and characters and therefore don't read quite as well as some of the later X-Wing comics.  On top of that, some of the supplemental stories are just short fluff pieces picked from anthology comics or, in one notable case, from a comic originally released in boxes of cereal.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Newspaper Strips Vol. 1

featuring Russ Manning, Russ Helm, Don Christensen and Archie Goodwin

(Art by Russ Manning, Alfredo Alcala, Al Williamson, Rick Hoberg, Mike Royer and Dave Stevens)

Collecting the Star Wars daily and weekly newspaper strips which began publication in 1979, this book includes several stories that have never previously been collected, including the comics adaptation of Brian Daley's 'Han Solo at Star's End'.

First off, you need to know that the stories collected here are not only heavily affected by how they were published (in short sections) but also when they were published (back before comic book storytelling was particularly complex but also before the Star Wars mythos had properly bedded-in).  This means that the stories here don't have a smoothly-flowing narrative, feature very clunky dialogue and include elements which feel a little out of place in Star Wars.  Some of the previous uncollected stories also retain their original formatting, so be prepared to flip the page 90 degrees pretty regularly.  All this adds together to mean that these stories are really aimed at Star Wars completists (like me!), rather than casual fans.

However, there is plenty here to keep fans like me happy.  Be it the introduction of the character of Blackhole or the first comic book appearance of Boba Fett, there's some impressive stuff that really went on to be an important part of the mythos.  Also, it has to be said, that whilst the visuals of the 'Han Solo at Star's End' adaptation don't gel well with other sources, the story itself is a very good adaptation of Brian Daley's iconic (and early) Star Wars prequel novel.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars Legends: Forever Crimson

featuring Archie Goodwin and Matthew Rosenberg

(Art by Walter Simonson, Bob Wiacek, Carmine Infantino, Al Williamson, Tom Palmer, Rick Bryant, Dave Simons, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Broccardo, Cam Smith, Kerry Gammill, Ze Carlos, Jan Duursema, Stefano Landini, Luke Ross and Leonard Kirk)

This book collects four issues of the original 70s/80s run of Marvel Star Wars comics plus the special revival issue #108 published in 2019.  Here we get the story of the droid-hating bounty hunter Valance and how an encounter with Luke Skywalker awakens his compassion and leads him into a confrontation with Darth Vader.  Then, after the events of 'The Empire Strikes Back', the vengeful Domina Tagge plots to unleash a terrible plague upon the galaxy in order to destroy both the Empire and the Rebellion.  Finally, after the rise of the New Republic Domina Tagge's scheming inadvertantly brings about the resurrection of the long-missing Valance.

The quality of the old Marvel Star Wars comics varied greatly and they suffered from some pretty major flaws.  Despite all of that I loved them and really enjoyed the 'A Long Time Ago...' books which collected them.  So, whilst it's a shame that the Star Wars licence got taken away from Dark Horse, I like that Marvel reclaiming the licence led to this book, which is something of a love letter to those classic comic books of the 70s and 80s.  It's particularly pleasing to see the creation of a single revival issue following on from 1986's #107 (and featuring Jaxxon!), the only new entry into the Expanded Universe (AKA Legends) canon since (evil) Disney bought Star Wars.

For fans of Marvel's current crop of Star Wars series, this would be the perfect place to find out where characters like Valance, featured in 'Bounty Hunters', and Domina Tagge, featured in 'Doctor Aphra', first tangled with the heroes of the Galaxy Far, Far Away.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Omnibus: Droids And Ewoks

featuring David Manak and George Carragone.

(Art by Warren Kremer, Ernie Colon, Guy Dorian, John Romita, Mary Wilshire, Jon D'Agostino, Carlos Garzon, Jaqueline Roettcher, Marie Severin, Joe Sinnott and Al Williamson)

This omnibus encompasses the entire runs of the 'Droids' and 'Ewoks' comics which tied into their 1980s cartoon shows.  The first half of the book follows the adventures of Artoo and Threepio between Episodes III and IV, set around 15 BBY, as they travel from world to world, acquiring a host of new and interesting masters on the way.  The second half of the book, set around 3 ABY, focuses on the Forest Moon of Endor and the magical adventures of a group of Ewoks led by Wicket W. Warrick.  To top it all off, there's a time-warp crossover story in which the droids travel into the future and meet the Ewoks.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed these stories.  Sure, they're not 'Watchmen', but not every comic has to be; sometimes its nice just to read simple adventures featuring familiar characters.  And I have to say that Marvel's droids stories from way back when are every bit the equal of their more modern counterparts by Dark Horse.

Of course, if you're looking for the more gritty and dark side of the Galaxy Far, Far Away, then you'd best look elsewhere.  Also suspension of disbelief is necessary because these stories come from a time when continuity wasn't important and therefore they think nothing of having the droids timetravel to the future.  You'd think the Ewoks in 'Return of the Jedi' might have mentioned it (but I guess Obi-Wan never mentions that he's met the droids before either).  Moreover, the Ewoks stories feature a lot of magic and fantastical creatures that can sometimes be hard to accept (there's a sentient mountain which cries, for instance).

Overall this book is a bit of harmless fun and nostaglia.  If you're not in touch with your inner child then these aren't the droids (and Ewoks) you're looking for.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars Omnibus: Wild Space Volume 1

featuring Roy Thomas, Archie Goodwin, Chris Claremont, Alan Moore, Len Wein, John Stephenson, Ryder Windham, Mike W. Barr, John Wagner, John Whitman and Robert Rath

(Art by Howard Chaykin, Tony DeZuniga, Walt Simonson, Klaus Janson, Dave Cockrum, John Tartaglione, Carmine Infantino, Pablo Marcos, Gene Day, Steve Mitchell, John Stokes, Alan Davis, Glen Johnson, Jim Nelson, Patrick Zircher, Cesar Macsombol, Gary Erskine, Ken Steacy, Glen Mullaly, Bill Hughes and Ron Randall)

A mixed bag of all the Star Wars stories that Dark Horse couldn't fit under the titles of one of their other Omnibus editions, including UK-exclusives from the 70s and 80s, formerly 3D comics, excerpts from the Star Wars Kids magazine and stories which were originally free gifts with toys and cereals.

As you can imagine with such a mixture, the quality of what's on offer here varies greatly but I will say that, as a fan of the original Marvel-era Star Wars comics, it's worth buying this book for the first half in which we get a whole host of new stories by the likes of Thomas, Goodwin and Claremont which were originally only published by Marvel in the UK (in the good old days when the UK still got cool Star Wars stuff first instead of having to wait a month after the Americans get it - if we get it at all).  Perhaps the best moment of these early stories is in Goodwin's 'The Day After the Death Star' in which, during the after-party of the ceremony at the end of 'A New Hope', Han and Luke hike Leia up onto a table so that she can give Chewie his medal too.

In this book we also get a series of stories written by comics legend Alan Moore.  These stories, predictably, take the Star Wars galaxy in a darker and more twisted direction, featuring ancient nihilistic priests, demons and inter-dimensional god-like beings.  One of the great things about shared universes is that it gets to showcase different writers' take on the same source material and Moore's offerings here are perhaps the pinnacle of that concept.

Wrapping up the book are a few short but enjoyable tie-ins to the likes of Droids and Shadows of the Empire.

Overall this will be a bit too fractured and random for a great many readers, but to long-time Expanded Universe fans, particularly those who want to know where a great number of Abel G. Peña's references come from, this is all-but essential reading.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Purge

featuring John Ostrander, Haden Blackman and Alexander Freed

(Art by Douglas Wheatley, Jim Hall, Alex Lei, Mark McKenna, Chris Scalf, Marco Castiello and Andrea Chella)

19 BBY.  Set in the immediate aftermath of Episode III, these four stories follow Darth Vader's efforts to wipe out the remnants of the Jedi Order.

The first story is by far the best here as a group of Jedi from across the Star Wars Expanded Universe (I was particularly pleased to see Sia-Lan Wezz from the 'Invasion of Naboo' RPG) gather in order to lure Vader into a trap.  As well as some interesting moral debates among the Jedi, I really enjoyed seeing the depth of Vader's hatred for his former compatriots.

The second story follows Sha Koon, niece of Master Plo Koon as she also attempts to lure Vader into a trap in the depths of Coruscant.  Meanwhile the third story follows Vader as he confronts the two Jedi who are behind an uprising on an Imperial factory world.

The fourth and final story is unique in that it focuses not so much Vader's mission to kill the Jedi but more on his efforts to destroy their legend and turn the general populace against them.  It's one of the few Star Wars stories which tackles the question of why, after only two decades, the galaxy has all but forgotten the Jedi by the time of the Rebellion.

Overall the Jedi Purge is one of the most interesting, albeit tragic, plotlines in the Star Wars mythos and this book is an excellent exploration of that theme.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Rebels

featuring Martin Fisher, Jeremy Barlow and Alec Worley

(Art by Bob Molesworth, Ingo Romling, Eva Widermann, Ruairi Coleman and Cosmo White)

A collection of forty-one short stories from the Rebels Magazine and the Rebels Animation Magazine.  This book charts the adventures of the crew of the Ghost as they fight the Empire, as well as telling the stories of their various allies like Ketsu Onyo, Cikatro Vizago, Fenn Rau, Ahsoka Tano, Wedge Antilles, Saw Gerrera and Lando Calrissian.

I've always been surprised by how few tie-in stories there have been for the Rebels TV series, especially since I consider it one of the best things (evil) Disney has done with the licence to Star Wars since they acquired it.  However, it's usually overlooked in favour of The Clone Wars (which is great at times but has waaaay too many filler or mediocre episodes) and therefore hasn't had a huge impact on Star Wars publishing.  It's nice then to have this book, which does an excellent job of capturing the themes and tone of the TV series.  Primarily, it nicely captures the theme of the importance of family, as well as the tonal balance of light-hearted banter and knowledge that there will be more defeats and losses before the end of the conflict comes.  They were impressively complex things for the TV series to convey and it's nice to see them carried over into this book.

On top of the themes and tone, I was also pleased to see that the stories here don't all just centre on the core Ghost crew and instead branch out into telling other stories of the Rebellion in its early days, most notably with a mission for now-iconic Saw Gerrera and the shady adventures of Lando.  There are also plenty of iconic villains on offer too including Agent Kallus and the Inquisitors, not to mention brief appearances by Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader.

There are two major downsides to the book, however.  The first is simply that the art style is clearly geared towards younger reader and may lead older readers to dismiss the book as being for children (ironically similar to what happened with the TV series, actually).  The second, much worse, detriment to this book is the fact that each of the stories is so short, most only being a dozen pages at best.  The writers counteract this slightly by creating original characters who turn up in later stories, offering a tiny bit of cohesion to the book overall, but it's not enough to stop this feeling like a massive collection of short vignettes which have no overall story.

I enjoyed the book overall, but the fact that it's so fractured in its storytelling robbed it of the satisfying reading experience that an actual Rebels graphic novel might have had.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Rogues And Rebels

featuring Greg Pak, Charles Soule,  Ethan Sacks  and Simon Spurrier

(Art by Phil Noto, Luke Ross, Roland Boschi, Paolo Villanelli and Caspar Wijngaard)

Book 13.  Five stories, the primary of which sees Han captive to a crimelord, Luke having lost his lightsaber and Chewie and Threepio confronting Darth Vader himself.  The other four showcase Rebels Shara Bey and Kes Dameron, Vader, bounty hunter Beilert Valance and Doctor Aphra.

This book is the final volume of the 'Between Episodes IV and V' run of Star Wars comics and very much represents the series ending not with a bang but with a whimper.  The main story is the conclusion of the tale begun in Book 12, Pak's 'Rebels And Rogues', and is not only as silly, pointless and uninteresting as the first half was, but also gives this book the worst follow-up title in Star Wars.  Really, no-one burnt out any brain cells switching the words 'Rebels' and 'Rogues' did they?

The other four stories on offer are much more interesting but they're extremely short, representing mere teasers for the four ongoing series being launched or relaunched in the post-Empire Strikes Back timeframe (Star Wars, Darth Vader, Bounty Hunters and Doctor Aphra).  However, the storytelling on offer in these shorts is good enough to elevate the book as a whole from being rubbish to merely being okay.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Scoundrels, Rebels And The Empire

featuring Marc Guggenheim, Alyssa Wong, Stephanie Phillips, Jody Houser, Alex Segura and Daniel Jose Older

(Art by Alessandro Miracolo, Lee Garbett, Java Tartaglia, Paulina Ganucheau, Kyle Hotz, Rachelle Rosenberg, Caspar Wijngaard, Alvaro Lopez, Jethro Morales, Matt Horak, Brent Peeples, Rafael Pimentel and Paul Fry)

An anthology of six stories tying-in to 'Return of the Jedi' and released to celebrate that movie's 40th anniversary.  Here we get tales which focus on Jabba's previous translator droid, the Ewoks, Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca, an Imperial technician on Endor, Mon Mothma and Max Rebo.

Overall, these stories are pretty inconsequential asides to the core of RotJ, giving a little bit of background colour but without introducing anything that's going to be a big deal in the Star Wars universe going forward.

That said, two of the stories here did stand out for me personally.  One of them was 'The Kill Shot' by Alex Segura in which Admiral Ackbar learns that Mon Mothma has been targeted by an assassin.  What made this story particularly enjoyable was the inclusion of Kes Dameron and Shara Bey (Poe's parents, if you weren't familiar), whose adventures in the Rebellion era continue to be engaging to me.

The other story that stood out for me was Alyssa Wong's 'Ewoks!'.  I make no secret of the fact that, despite being a cynical man in his forties, I love the Ewoks.  Here, in a story told entirely without dialogue, Wong has the titular fuzzballs telling campfire stories, allowing for a certain amount of referencing of all the Ewoks media, including the TV movies and the 80s cartoons.  It's not the best bit of Ewoks nostalgia out there (which would be Zack Giallongo's 'Ewoks: Shadows of Endor') but it comes close.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Shattered Empire
featuring Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Roy Thomas

(Art by Marco Checchetto, Angel Unzueta, Emilio Laiso, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson and Howard Chaykin)

Three stories.  The main story, set during and shortly after 'Return of the Jedi' has Rebel soldiers Shara Bey and Kes Dameron (Poe Dameron's parents) fighting alongside the heroes of the Rebellion against the remnants of the Empire.  The two back-up stories feature Princess Leia on a mission immediately after the Battle of Yavin, and the first part of the original Marvel adaptation of 'A New Hope'.

The main 'Shattered Empire' story, by Greg Rucka, is a pretty solid one, showing us what it's like for the Rebels after the death of the Emperor but before the Empire has given up the fight.  The artwork is really good and there's some great moments depicted, such as seeing three Naboo N-1 Starfighters take on an Imperial Star Destroyer.

The downside to this main story is that it's much too short and the way it's structured, almost as four separate adventures, makes it feel a bit fractured too (ironic, considering the title).  I would have happily have read a much longer book about Shara and Kes in the wake of the Battle of Endor, conflicted by their desire for peace and their desire to keep serving the Rebellion.

What drags the whole book down, however, are the two back-up stories.  They each constitute only the first issue of their respective series and are literally only here as adverts for Marvel's other graphic novels; an advertising tactic that is made especially insulting by the fact that the books they're advertising have both of these issues included anyway.  It's really just a symptom of just how clumsily Marvel have handled the Star Wars licence since recovering it from Dark Horse and it annoys me beyond what it perhaps should.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Stories Of Jedi And Sith

featuring   Michael Kogge  , Alex Segura, Sarwat Chadda, Karen Strong,  Delilah S. Dawson , Michael Moreci, Vera Strange, Sam Maggs, Tessa Gratton and Roseanne A. Brown

A follow-up to 'The Clone Wars: Stories of Light and Dark', this book features ten stories from across the new Star Wars canon, from the High Republic to the time between Episodes VIII and IX.  Among the characters featured are Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Barriss Offee, Ventress, Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine and Rey.

The most important difference between this and the Clone Wars anthology which preceded it is that, where that book was based around retellings of episodes from the TV series, this one consists of entirely new tales.  For me, this is much more what I'd want from a Star Wars anthology and I was glad of the change.

However, 'Stories of Light and Dark' had the established and (mostly) beloved story telling of the TV show to act as a framework, whereas here the stories have to stand on their own merit.  This means that, like with most anthologies of new stories, this is something of a mixed bag in terms of quality.  I was certainly enjoying the first half of the book very much, with tales of Yoda in the High Republic, Qui-Gon pre-Episode I, Obi-Wan, Anakin, Barriss and Ventress amid the Clone Wars being just my cup of tea.  I think the high point of the book for me was 'The Ghosts of Maul' by Michael Moreci, in which we see Maul trying to find his way as a Sith alone in a galaxy ruled by the Emperor.

After Maul's story, the quality went downhill in my opinion.  Vader's story sees him being soundly outwitted by a Wookiee child and Luke's story was just crammed full of weird gay subtext, with Luke and a Rebel commando spending most of it noticing how nice each other's eyes are and speculating how nice each other's hair might smell.  I'm all for Star Wars being LGBTQ+ inclusive, but this was not the way to go about it.  The story comparing Yoda and Palpatine's perspectives on 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'Return of the Jedi' was fine, but doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know.  The final story, featuring Rey after 'The Last Jedi' was my least favourite of the whole book.  Even if you don't consider the fact that I dislike the entire Sequel Trilogy (and hate 'The Last Jedi' in particular with a passion), the style of storytelling in this last story is so childish and unsophisticated as to almost be insulting.  The hostile aliens steal BB-8 because they like round things, the planet they're on has unexplained deadly pink fog and the whole thing is framed as a way of teaching Rey and Poe how to be friends after all.  *Retching noises*.  It's just not very good all round.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 1

featuring Ron Marz, Jim Woodring, Peter David, Timothy Zahn, Tony Isabella, Dan Jolley, Dave Cooper, Ryder Windham, John Ostrander,  Rich Handley , Darko Macan, Rich Hedden, Lovern Kindzierski, Kevin Rubio, Mark Evanier, Sergio Aragones and Kilian Plunkett

(Art by Claudio Castellini, Robert Teranishi, Martin Egeland, Howard M. Shum, Igor Kordey, John Nadeau, Jordi Ensign, Sean Phillips, Dave Cooper, Tom Fowler, Jan Duursema, Rick Magyar, Chris Brunner, Rick Leonardi, Mark Lipka, Lucas Marangon, Sergio Aragones and Kilian Plunkett)

Fifteen stories from the Galaxy Far, Far Away, mixing the serious and the comical.  Among the characters featured in these short adventures are Darth Vader, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Mara Jade, Han Solo, Jar Jar Binks and Lando Calrissian.

To get the bad news out of the way first, the 'comedy' stories here are absolute garbage.  They're not funny, not clever and, mostly, not well illustrated, making them feel like a waste of space that could've been taken up by better serious Star Wars stories.  The one possible exception is Kevin Rubio's 'A Death Star is Born', which does make some amusing observations (such as Palpatine requesting safety rails around the reactor cores in case he falls down one).

The good news is that there are some genuine gems of Star Wars storytelling here by some of the franchise's best creators.  Those highlights include; a story in which Vader confronts the fugitive Jedi known as the Dark Woman, Tim Zahn recounting a tale of Mara Jade from after the death of the Emperor, John Ostrander and Jan Duursema giving us a standalone adventure for their villainous rogue Devaronian Villie and a brilliant little story written and illustrated by Killian Plunkett which features Spiker and Gizman from 'Shadows of the Empire' facing a malfunctioning Dark Trooper from the 90s FPS game 'Dark Forces'.

Thankfully, overall, this is a book where the good outweighs the bad by a fair margin.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 2

featuring Dean Motter, Craig Thompson, Terry Moore, Tony Millionaire, Ian Edginton, Tom Fassbender, Jim Pascoe, Mark Schultz, Mark Evanier, Sean Konot, Scott Morse, Ryder Windham, Haden Blackman, Phil Amara, Randy Stradley, Beau Smith, Kevin Rubio, Ryan Kinnaird, Andi Watson, Henry Gilroy and John Ostrander

(Art by Jesus Saiz, Fernando Blanco, Craig Thompson, Cliff Richards, P. Craig Russell, Tony Millionaire, Carlos Meglia, Eric Powell, Drew Geraci, Keith Barnett, Mark Martin, Rick Neilsen, Kellie Strom, Sergio Aragones, Scott Morse, Kilian Plunkett, Jan Duursema, Ray Kryssing, Francisco Hererra, Howard M. Shum, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Mike Deodato Jr., Neil Nelson, Lucas Marangon, Ryan Kinnaird, Andi Watson, Dario Brizuela, Glen Murakami and Francis Portela)

Twenty one tales from across the Star Wars universe.  Among the tales on offer we see Lando leading a team of rogueish commandos, how Yaddle became a Jedi Master, Boba Fett on the hunt and Han, Luke and Leia facing off against pirates.

All of these 'Tales' anthologies contain stories of greatly varying quality as a simple result of their nature but I have to say that this is the one where the stories contained are weighted more towards the bad than the good.  There's a few too many unfunny 'comical' stories here and even several of the serious ones are either not as engaging or, at worse, are basically pointless.

That's not to say everything here is bad.  I particularly liked the Dirty Dozen feel of 'Lando's Commandos: On Eagle's Wings' (although I was less a fan of Carlos Meglia's artwork for it) and the Ryder Windham story which sees Vader in 'The Empire Strikes Back' picking up Threepio's decapitated head and having vivid flashbacks to building the droid when he was a child.  Also worthy of a mention are the Boba Fett story where we learn a shocking detail of the hunter's personal life, another deal-gone-awry story for the Devaronian scoundrel Villie and a story which ties-in to the iconic computer game 'Star Wars: Starfighter'.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 3

featuring Ron Marz, Dave McCaig, Jay Stephens, Garth Ennis, Mike Kennedy, Christian Read, Jason Hall, Brett Matthews, Kia Asamiya and Scott Allie

(Art by Rick Leonardi, Terry Austin, Dave McCaig, Jay Stephens, John McCrea, Jimmy Palmiotti, Francisco Ruiz Velasco, Chris Slane, Christina Chen, Vatche Mavlian,  Kia Asamiya , Amanda Connor, Chris Brunner, Paul Lee and Brian Horton)

Twelve stories from across the Star Wars mythos with varying levels of canonicity.  Here we get stories featuring Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Boba Fett, Han and Chewie, Artoo and Threepio, Rogue Squadron, Obi-Wan and Anakin and Princess Leia (among others).

Whilst I always liked the range of stories the Tales series allowed writers to tell, I was also always disappointed when those writers chose to tell silly 'comedy' stories and there's a few of those here unfortunately.  Perhaps its just me and you may well find yourself enjoying seeing a toddler version of Darth Maul getting up to mischief in his hunt for a lollipop.

There are some really good stories here too though.  The highlights include one, by Marz, in which Darth Vader fights Darth Maul, who has been resurrected by a group of Sith sorcerers.  Another highlight is the story in which Maul first has the idea of his double-bladed lightsaber whilst hunting down a reclusive Jedi Master.  To my surprise I also enjoyed the story titled 'The Princess Leia Diaries', which tells of Leia's youth and her first steps onto the road to rebellion.

The hidden gem of this book, however, is 'The Rebel Four' in which the Fantasic Four are given a Star Wars makeover.  Here Doctor Doom is re-cast as Darth Vader and he kills the titular Rebel Four by, variously, stretching one to pieces, burning one to a crisp, crushing one with rocks and blasting one into nothingness.  I really liked that Jay Stephens did an excellent job of capturing the visual style and scripting of the 1970s FF comics.

Overall a good collection with just a few stories letting it down.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 4

featuring Scott Beatty, Fabian Nicieza, Jim Krueger, Haden Blackman, Bob Harris, Jason Hall, Christian Read, Stan Sakai, Milton Freewater Jr., Adam Gallardo, the Fillbach Brothers, Chris Eliopoulos, Nathan Walker, Jim Beard, Jay Laird, Scott Lobdell, Brian Augustyn, Tod C. Parkhill, Mike Denning, Gilbert Austin, Jonathan Adams and Paul Lee.

(Art by Sanford Greene, Kris Kaufman, Timothy Il, Kagan McLeod, Michael Zulli, Jerome Opena, Clayton Henry, Jimmy Palmiotti, Ramon Bachs, Raul Fernandez, Stan Sakai, Adriana Melo, Fabio Laguna, Homs, the Fillbach Brothers, Jon Sommariva, Pierre-Andre Dery, Sunny Lee, Randy Emberlin, Kilian Plunkett, Todd Nauck, Jamie Mendoza, Sean Murphy, Paco Medina, Joe Sanchez, John McCrea, Joey Mason, Howard Shum, Lucas Marangon, Gilbert Austin, Jonathan Adams, Paul Lee and Brian Horton)

Twenty five stories from across the Star Wars saga, ranging from tales of the Clone Wars to the story of a grizzled old former Stormtrooper suffering from PTSD from fighting Ewoks.

As with the other Tales anthologies, there's a few crap stories here and, for the most part, they're the 'comedy' ones.  However, there was one of these less-serious stories that I did really enjoy and it's a parody of People's Court or Judge Judy, in which Han Solo, accused of killing Greedo in cold blood, uses badly-doctored footage in an attempt to prove that Greedo shot first.

The first quarter of this particular book is taken up with various stories of Mace Windu's Jedi adventures.  I really enjoyed seeing several different writer/artist teams tackle Windu and I actually could happily have read an anthology just based around that one character.  Unfortunately, due to the nature of this series, none of the stories gets enough time and space to develop into anything truly special.  Similarly, there are a number of Princess Leia stories here but they too never quite get chance to develop fully; although it's worth seeing the story of her first ever meeting with the Emperor.

Amid the bad comedy and the too-short-for-their-own-good stories, there are a few true Star Wars gems too.  The Stormtrooper story mention above is one such, showing the less child-friendly side of the Ewoks.  There's also a very interesting one in which Luke, as a ten year old, gets lost in a sandstorm and has a vision of being helped by a nine year old boy named Annie.  However, my personal favourite is 'Heart of Darkness' by Paul Lee, which features the Jedi Minch, a member of Yoda's species, confronting a Dark Jedi Master on Dagobah.

Overall, another mixed bag but with enough really good stuff to make it worth your time and money.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 5

featuring Steve Niles, Adam Gallardo, Joe Casey, Rob Williams, Mike Denning, Jason Hall, Henry Gilroy, Andy Diggle, Peter Alilunas, W. Haden Blackman, Jim Pascoe, Ken Lizzi, Jeremy Barlow, Scott Kurtz, Andrew Robinson, Jim Royal, Tony Millionaire, Jason, Bob Fingerman, Rick Geary, Jim Campbell, Peter Bagge, Chris Eliopoulos, James Kochalka and Gilbert Hernandez

(Art by Davide Fabbri, Christian Dalla Vecchia, Greg Titus, Julian Washburn, Francisco Paronzini, Cary Nord, David Nakayama, Greg Adams, Ben Templesmith, Todd Demong, Henry Flint, Stewart McKenny, John Wycough, Will Conrad, Dub, Niko Henrichon, Pierre-Andre Dery, Ramon Bachs, Kris Justice, Lucas Marangon, Greg Tocchini, Eddie Wagner, Scott Kurtz, Nuria Peris, Sean Murphy, Tony Millionaire, Jason, Bob Fingerman, Rick Geary, Jim Campbell, Peter Bagge, Chris Eliopoulos, James Kochalka and Gilbert Hernandez)

Twenty eight stories from across the Star Wars galaxy and mythos, including adventures for our favourite Rebels Han, Luke and Leia, tales of the greatest of bounty hunters Boba Fett and a few of the never-ending war between the Jedi and their Sith counterparts.  Also, sadly, several focusing on Jar Jar Binks.

Perhaps more than any other anthology of the Tales series, this book swings between the extremes of awesome and awful.  There are some real gems of the Star Wars saga to be found here with Jason Hall's atmospheric 'Dark Journey', about a Jedi with a dark secret, and Haden Blackman's 'Revenants', in which Han and Fett square off during the Yuuzhan Vong War, being among the finest.

However, in an ironic nod to the Force, all of the good is balanced by the bad.  There is some real trash here which aims for 'amusing' or even 'humorous' but which comes out simply as 'how did this dross ever get published?'.  The worst offenders are, predictably, the stories starring Jar Jar Binks.  It's odd that the writers clearly reference the fact that Binks is a terrible character who almost everyone hates and yet nevertheless go on to tell stories in which the character does everything that makes people hate him.  It's like a form of masochism on the part of the writers.

Of the non-canon/non-serious stories on offer, there were two that I did enjoy.  Scot Kurtz's 'Rebel Club' is a nice homage to 'The Breakfast Club' but with Star Wars trappings (Han Solo and John Bender are kindred spirits).  The other story worth noting is Blackman's 'Into the Great Unknown' which features an unlikely but enjoyable crossover between Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Some great stories dragged down into mediocrity by some really awful ones.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales - Volume 6

featuring Joshua Ortega, Chris Avellone, Rob Williams, Ian Edginton, Kevin Rubio, Shane McCarthy, Thomas Andrews, Lucas Marangon and Nathan P. Butler

(Art by Dustin Weaver, Cully Hamner,  Brandon Badeaux , Steve Pugh, Roger Langridge, Michael Lacome, Serge LaPointe, Lucas Marangon and James Raiz)

The previous five collected volumes of 'Star Wars: Tales' were what's known to us fans (geeks) as 'Infinities', meaning that they are not considered part of the official continuity.  That's all different here, with only one of the ten stories falling into that catagory ('Fett Club' which is mildly amusing but detracts from the book as a whole). 

The entire Star Wars saga is covered here, beginning with two stories that link into the events of the 'Knights of the Old Republic' computer games.  The first of these, 'Shadows And Light', tells about the Great Hunt for the terentatek monsters and is my favourite story of the book.  Other stories highlight such characters as Darth Maul, a Clone Commando, Wedge Antilles and an Imperial pilot.  The longest and most intelligent story is the four part 'Nomad' which tells the story of a suspect Jedi and an amnesiac dark sider and is all about perception. 

A final mention goes to 'Equals And Oposites' (written by fan-turned-Star Wars VIP, Nathan Butler) which features the hero of the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight games, Kyle Katarn as he fights the menace of the Yuuzhan Vong. 

This is a great anthology and it's just a shame that after 'Tales' became in-continuity, the series was ended so there won't be any more like this.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales From Jabba's Palace

featuring Kevin J. Anderson, Barbara Hambly, Esther M. Friesner, Kathy Tyers, Marina Fitch, Mark Budz, Timothy Zahn, William F. Wu, Kenneth C. Flint, Deborah Wheeler, John Gregory Betancourt, M. Shayne Bell, George Alec Effinger, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-Stevens, Dave Wolverton, Daryl F. Mallett, Jennifer Roberson, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, J. D. Montgomery and A. C. Crispin

Whereas 'Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina' had stories which merely shared a single common event (Luke and Obi-Wan entering the cantina), this anthology's stories slowly develop an overall story, each answering questions or revealing clues featured in the others.  The main threads of this story follow a plot to assassinate Jabba, a murder in the palace and, of course, the arrival of a certain group of Rebels. 

The two best reasons to buy this anthology are the story of Mara Jade's infiltration of the palace, written by her creator Tim Zahn, and also the story of how Boba Fett survives being slowly digested by the Sarlacc.  Another good addition is a 'what ever happened to...' epilogue in which the later lives of the main protagonists are summed up (Gartogg's is hilarious).

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales From The Empire

featuring Timothy Zahn, Kathy Tyers, Patricia A. Jackson, Michael A. Stackpole, Laurie Burns, Charlene Newcomb, Tony Russo, Angela Phillips and Erin Endom

A series of short stories taken from the 'Star Wars Adventure Journal'.  They are a mixture of styles and quality and lack the common themes of the other 'Tales from...' books. 

Jackson's story of a troubled Dark Jedi and Burns' tale set during the evacuation of Coruscant (set shortly before the 'Dark Empire' comic series) are the best of the lesser known writers.  However, the separate stories by Zahn and Stackpole are brilliant, giving us a 'before they were famous' view of Talon Karrde, Mara Jade and Corran Horn. 

The icing on the cake is the all-new novella by Zahn and Stackpole, 'Side Trip', in which a group of Rebels and CorSec officers are dragged into a plot against Black Sun hatched by Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales From The Mos Eisley Cantina

featuring Kathy Tyers, Tom Veitch, Martha Veitch, Timothy Zahn, A. C. Crispin, Dave Wolverton, David Bischoff, Barbara Hambly, Daniel Keys Moran, Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta, Doug Beason, Jennifer Roberson, Jerry Oltion, Kenneth C. Flint, M. Shayne Bell, Judith Reeves-Stevens and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

The first Star Wars anthology, this book has several stories linked together by the moment in 'A New Hope' when Luke and Obi-Wan meet Han and Chewbacca in the Mos Eisely cantina. 

The tales vary greatly in quality and in their importance to the Star Wars universe, but the best are Zahn's story of two Mistryl warrior women, Tom and Martha's story of Greedo, which features background characters from Tom's 'Dark Empire' comics, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens' tale of epic romance beginning in the cantina and ending in the battle above Endor.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales From The New Republic

featuring Timothy Zahn, Michael A. Stackpole, Kathy Burdette, Chris Cassidy, Tish Pahl, Patricia A. Jackson, Laurie Burns, Paul Danner and Jean Rabe

The sister book to 'Tales from the Empire', this book seems a little lacklustre compared to its predecessor. 

The Zahn and Stackpole novella, 'Interlude at Darkknell' is an interesting story about Garm Bel Iblis, Moranda Savich, Hal Horn and Ysanne Isard, but doesn't have a patch on 'Side Trip'.  Zahn's other addition to the anthology is of better standard, centring on Mara Jade and acting as a prelude to his Hand of Thrawn duology. 

Jackson brings another worthwhile story about the Dark Jedi Adalric Brandl and the best of the rest is two stories by Chris Cassidy and Tish Pahl, the second of which involves a guilt-wracked Kyp Durron.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: Tales Of The Bounty Hunters

featuring Kevin J. Anderson, Dave Wolverton, Kathy Tyers, M. Shayne Bell and Daniel Keys Moran

The best Star Wars anthology and one of the best books of the franchise all together.  Each of the stories here is of novella length and tells in depth the origins of the hunters (the six seen in 'The Empire Strikes Back'), how they fit into the films and what they went on to do afterward. 

The best offering is IG-88's tale by Anderson which is a delight to read and will leave you awestruck to see just how far the droid's ambitions take him (that's no moon, that's an assassin droid - that was a plot clue by the way!).  Boba Fett's tale is also of considerable worth as we get a glimpse of the character's strict code of ethics when Jabba the Hutt offers him Princess Leia - in that bikini - as a sex toy. 

Dengar's tale by Wolverton involves the best character development as Dengar is diverted from his hate-driven killing spree by the woman he falls in love with.  The other two stories aren't quite so good, but are still very much worth reading. 

My final recommendation of this book is the character whose presence is felt throughout the stories, giving them a touch of menace; Darth Vader.

5 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Grievous Attacks!

featuring Veronica Wasserman, Tracey West and Rob Valois

An anthology of Young Adult novelisations of episode from the first season of the 'The Clone Wars' TV series (22 BBY).  In 'Rookies' we see a group of rookie Clone Troopers facing combat for the first time, 'Downfall of a Droid' sees Anakin set out to recover the missing R2-D2 and 'Lair of Grievous' has two Jedi confronting the cyborg General in his own fortress.

This biggest problem with this book is simply that the first season of 'The Clone Wars' wasn't actually that good.  Don't get me wrong, I did come to love the series, but to begin with it was shallow, obvious and featured dialogue so dreadful that even George Lucas might shudder.  When you then transfer those elements into very short adaptions aimed at younger readers, it becomes even more artless.

Of the three writers on show here; Valois shows the most flair at working with the material, Wasserman's is the most straightforward and uninspired and West has a really weird grasp of the source material, particularly in turns of phrase like 'mech droid' which she uses over and over again but which I'm sure has never ever been used to refer to Artoo before.  Why not just say 'droid'?  Did she have a word count to fill?

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - In Service Of The Republic

featuring Henry Gilroy and Steven Melching

(Art by Scott Hepburn, Dan Parsons and Ramon K. Perez)

22 BBY.  Here we get two stories, one long and one short, set amid the titular Clone Wars.

The first story has Jedi Masters Plo Koon and Kit Fisto matching wits with Dark Jedi assassin Asajj Ventress amid the Battle of Khorm.  I enjoyed reading a story of the Clone Wars that didn't feel the urge to include Obi-Wan, Anakin or Ahsoka and which therefore actually makes the conflict feel more widespread.  In this story we're also introduced to a great new group of somewhat cynical Clone Troopers and get to see the early career of Captain Ozzel (the Admiral who Darth Vader chokes to death in 'The Empire Strikes Back').

The second story is very short and kinetic, having previously been released as a freebie on its own.  It's nothing special, but it does once again show us the wider conflict, focusing on Master Kit Fisto and the little-used planet of Rishi.  It's no fault of the writer here (because they were created years before), but the natives of Rishi look very silly to me; anthropomorphic talking owls.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Stories Of Light And Dark

featuring Jason Fry, Lou Anders, Preeti Chhibber, Anne Ursu, Yoon Ha Lee, Tom Angleberger, Zoraida Cordova, Rebecca Roanhorse, Sarah Beth Durst, Greg van Eekhout and E. Anne Convery

A collection of eleven short stories, aimed at the YA audience, retelling stories from The Clone Wars TV series from the perspectives of specific characters within them.  Among the featured characters are Yoda, Dooku, Anakin, Padme, Rex, Cad Bane, Ventress, Maul and Obi-Wan.

My biggest criticisms of this book are of which stories have been chosen to retell and of how some of those retellings unfold.  In a couple of instances here the episodes which the story retells are absolutely not the most interesting ones that could've been chosen.  A good example would be Yoda's story which retells the very first episode of the TV series but, honestly, there are Yoda stories (there's a pun for 90s Star Wars fans) from later in the series which would've been far more interesting.  Honestly, a retelling of his exploration of the Force with R2-D2 from Season Six would've been genuinely fascinating.  Similarly, picking 'Hostage Crisis' for Anakin felt like a missed opportunity.  Those two are also among the stories here which fall under my second criticism, which is how the stories are told.  In those, and a few other cases, the events of the story unfold more or less exactly as they appeared onscreen.  That's fine, but it feels like a missed opportunity to show us new 'offscreen' moments that didn't feature in the episode, thereby giving the story something new whilst simultaneously enriching the original episode.  Creating interesting stories in the gaps of what's shown onscreen has been the forte of Star Wars writing since the 90s.

All that said, whilst representing some missed opportunities, these stories are enjoyable to read and, rare for any anthology, there's none that I'd call outright bad.  There are, in fact, several that buck the trends of my aforementioned criticisms, being both perfect stories for the featured character and an interesting expansion of what the story originally was.  The prime example of this is Greg van Eekhout's 'Kenobi's Shadow' which focuses on Obi-Wan's return to Mandalore, confrontation with Maul and reaction to the murder of Satine.  It is a deeply emotional story for Obi-Wan on many levels and the author shows us the Jedi Master's inner turmoil in a way that the animated TV series couldn't.

The final story of the anthology is very different to the others, only obliquely retelling an episode, and instead telling the brand new story of a witch of Dathomir.  What I found so engaging about it is that it reintroduces the old EU/Legends concept that the Nightsisters weren't the only clan of Force-using witches on Dathomir and even some of the old canon clans from Dave Wolverton's 'The Courtship of Princess Leia' get references (Singing Mountain Clan, for example).  It adds back in the complexity of Dathomirian society that the new canon Nightsisters had somewhat erased.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back - From A Certain Point Of View

featuring Tom Angleberger, Sarwat Chadda, S. A. Chakraborty, Mike Chen,  Adam Christopher , Katie Cook, Zoraida Cordova,  Delilah S. Dawson , Tracy Deonn, Seth Dickinson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Christie Golden, Hank Green, Rob Hart, Lydia Kang,  Michael Kogge , R. F. Kuang, C. B. Lee, Mackenzi Lee, John Jackson Miller, Michael Moreci, Daniel Jose Older, Mark Oshiro, Amy Ratcliffe, Beth Revis, Lilliam Rivera, Cavan Scott, Emily Skrutskie, Karen Strong, Anne Toole, Catherynne M. Valente, Austin Walker, Martha Wells, Django Wexler, Kiersten White,  Gary Whitta , Brittany N. Williams, Charles Yu and Jim Zub

Following on from the first 'From A Certain Point Of View' anthology, this book was released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of 'The Empire Strikes Back' and features forty stories highlighting background characters and elements from Episode V.  Included are tales of the Rebels of Echo Base, Vader's cadre of ruthless bounty hunters, ambitious Imperial officers and the inhabitants of Cloud City, amongst others.

Anthologies like this are, by their very nature, a mixed bag when it comes to the quality of the stories and writers involved and that's certainly true of this book.  However, I would say that overall the quality of this book is higher than that of the one focused on 'A New Hope', which seems fitting since ESB is definitely the superior movie.  (Fight me, if you must).  Despite that there are more than a few stories here that land with a dull thud, particularly where they feature new characters that no-one cares about doing things that make no impact on the story of Episode V whatsoever.  A couple are also really horrendously edited so that I had to read some sentences two or three times before I figured out which order the words were supposed to go in.

There are also some stories here, primarily but not exclusively by experienced Star Wars authors, which are really good.  'Ion Control' by Emily Skrutskie was perhaps the best story by an author who was otherwise unknown to me, being a great story of one of the Rebels who orbit the heroes of the Saga but who isn't a main character in her own right otherwise.  Among the experienced Star Wars writers, it was particularly nice to see John Jackson Miller get to continue the story of some of the characters he featured in the first ever novel of (evil) Disney's new canon; 'A New Dawn'.

For all the general ups and downs in quality, there is one story here that deserves to be singled out as raising the quality of the whole book by its presence.  Whilst, as an old EU (Legends) fan, it was nice to see a general willingness to reference older stories that the new canon had, until recently, seemed embarrassed to admit existed (I was particularly pleased to see Kem Monnon feature - if you know, you know), there was one story which excelled in telling its own tale whilst honouring what has come before, something that the first '...Certain Point of View' anthology often failed at.  That story is Jason Fry's 'Rendezvous Point', starring Wedge Antilles, which is perfectly written in the style-of and is a loving homage to the X-Wing series of novels by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston.  It was so good that it left me wishing that I was actually reading a full-length X-Wing novel by Fry.  (Please, Lucasfilm Publishing, please).

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures - Volume 2

featuring  Daniel Jose Older , Charles Soule, Claudia Gray,  Justina Ireland  and Cavan Scott

(Art by Nick Brockenshire, Harvey Tolibao, Pow Rodrix, Toni Bruno, Sam Beck, Jason Loo, Yael Nathan, Jesse Lonergan and Stefano Simeone)

A collection of adventures from across the High Republic featuring Jedi tackling the Nihil, the Drengir and the Hutts, among other challenges.

The bulk of this book is made up of stories, by Older, continuing the adventures of the young Padawans introduced in Volume 1 of this series, beginning with the attack on the Republic Fair (231 BBY), continuing through a confrontation with the Hutts and the Drengir and ending with a Nihil attack against Takodana (Maz Kanata's home from 'The Force Awakens', if it sounds familiar)

We then get a series of shorter tales which range from an adventure with Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm from before the High Republic series began to Vernestra Rwoh's first meeting with her Master, Stellan Gios.  Whilst less engaging than the main storyline, it was nice to see some vignettes of characters from across the High Republic story era.

It may be that this far in (for me; two novels and five graphic novels) that I've finally started to get to grips with the main players of the High Republic, but overall this book felt more settled and less unfamiliar than some of the other High Republic stories have.  The appearances of characters from other mediums felt more natural and less forced, meaning that seeing the likes of Bell Zettifar or Ram Jomaram didn't feel as incongruous as they could have.  Strangely, this book was the first time that I felt as if the High Republic had a cohesive narrative, which was particularly weird in an anthology with tales from various timeframes.

It's far from perfect or mind-blowing, but this was a very solid and enjoyable addition to the High Republic era.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars: The High Republic - Jedi's End

featuring Cavan Scott and Charles Soule

(Art by Georges Jeanty, Ario Anindito, Karl Story, Victor Olazaba, Mark Morales and Guillermo Sanna)

Book 3.  Two stories; one wrapping up the initial run of the High Republic comics and one finally revealing the story of Marchion Ro's origins and his Jedi-killing Nameless.

Scott's story continues the tale of Keeve Trennis as she finds herself caught between her mentor Sskeer, who is suffering from an illness that causes him to lapse into bouts of anger, and Marshal Avar Kriss, who is skirting perilously close to the dark side herself.  This story had the benefit of having a solid antagonist in Lourna Dee, the only Nihil character to have been given anything approaching a personality up to this point in the High Republic publishing explosion.  This story also benefits from being intricately wrapped around the devastating defeat suffered by the Jedi at the end of this first Phase of High Republic stories.

Soule's 'Eye of the Storm' acts as an epilogue to Phase 1, giving us the essential backstory of the primary villain Marchion Ro and his quest to humble both the Jedi and the Republic.  Part of me was tempted to mark this book down on the basis that it is absolutely insane that the main villain of the series (comprising at least three novels, three YA novels, three younger reader novels and eight graphic novels) is only given characterisation and motivation in this brief epilogue.  But it's not this book's fault that the HR series as a whole hasn't been very coherently put together and, in fact, Soule does an excellent job of filling in the blanks that have been missing all this time.  If you've only read, say, the novels, you're definitely going to want to read this comic too, if only to actually understand why Marchion Ro is treated like an important character in them.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Vol. 2

featuring Kieron Gillen, Jason Aaron and Chris Eliopoulos

(Art by Angel Unzueta, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan, Mike Mayhew, Jorge Molina, Scott Hanna and Chris Eliopoulos)

The second omnibus of Marvel's ongoing series (not to be confused with the Dark Horse series of the same name by   Brian Wood  ) set between Episodes IV and V.  Here, among other things, a Rebel spy comes face to face with the true evil of the Empire, Princess Leia has to deal with a prison break and the heroes of the Rebellion steal a Star Destroyer.

Gillen's story was probably my favourite part of this book, featuring a Rebel spy who discovers a sense of how futile the war against the Empire is when his plans are sent awry by the intervention of Emperor Palpatine himself.  This story also has a nice payoff in the later part of the book, written by Aaron.

Aaron writes the majority of the rest of the book and it can be broken down into three main story arcs; the jailbreak, the Obi-Wan flashback and the capture of the Harbinger.  The first of these was elevated above the mundane by having it focus on three badass but very different women who put aside their difference to win; Leia, Sana Starros and Doctor Aphra.  I was very conflicted about the Obi-Wan section of the book, on the one hand I'm always keen to see more Jedi action (Obi-Wan in particular) but on the other it felt pretty contrived and out of place in this series.  If you want to tell an 'Obi-Wan on Tatooine' story, why not just give it its own series, rather than plonking it down in the middle of this series about the Rebellion.  Of course, if you the reader want a much better 'Obi-Wan on Tatooine' story, go and read John Jackson Miller's 'Kenobi'.  The Harbinger story arc had its ups and downs with some really great moments, like Sana pointing out what's obviously really going on behind Han and Leia's bickering, but also a really stupid and, ultimately, unfulfilling premise; seriously, if it was that easy to disable and hijack a Star destroyer, why aren't the Rebels doing it every other week?  I did like SCAR Squad though; a diverse commando unit of Stormtroopers who reminded me fondly of the Clone Commandos.

The book finishes off with Eliopoulos' short story about Artoo bumping into things.  It is not good at all and ruins the tone of the book as a whole.  I know that it was included as a bonus story and a tribute to the late, great Kenny Baker, but I would rather not have had it here.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars Vol. 3

featuring Jason Aaron, Kelly Thompson, Dash Aaron and Jason Latour

(Art by Salvador Larroca, Emilio Laiso, Andrea Sorrentino and Michael Walsh)

A series of adventures from Marvel's ongoing series, set between Episodes IV and V.  Here we see the heroes of the Rebellion rescue C-3PO from the clutches of SCAR Squadron, learn of an adventure undertaken by Master Yoda decades before the Galactic Civil War and follow scoundrels Lando Calrissian and Sana Starros as they swindle pirates, Hutts and the Empire.

I've never been a big fan of Han, Luke and Leia stories set in this time period (for the dual reasons that there's already too many and that the characters can't develop at all), so it was nice to see this book feature the adventures of some characters beyond the core ones.  Whilst there are stories focusing on the Rebel heroes, for me the highlights were all the ones that didn't.

Among these other characters are Yoda, SCAR Squadron and the very suitable duo of Lando and Sana.  All of these tales were pretty enjoyable, although much as in the last volume, the framing of the Yoda story is horribly contrived (Luke stops piloting his X-Wing mid-mission to read a book).

As for the adventures that do star Han, Luke and Leia; they're fine but don't really cover too much new ground.

4 out of 5

 

Star Wars Volume 4: A Shattered Hope

featuring Brian Wood and Zack Whedon

(Art by Facundo Percio, Dan Parsons, Carlos D'Anda, Davide Fabbri and Christian Dalla Vecchia)

The final book of the series features three stories, two by Wood and one by Whedon, featuring the famous faces of 'A New Hope'. 

In the first, set immediately after Wood's 'Star Wars Volume 2: From the Ruins of Alderaan', Darth Vader's wrath leads him on the trail of the traitorous Colonel Bircher, with a novitiate Ensign witness to the Sith Lord's ire.  The second of Wood's stories here picks up after the end of 'Star Wars Volume 3: Rebel Girl' and shows how Leia, reeling from her setbacks in that previous book, seeks to find hope by rescuing an old friend.

Of these two stories, the first is by far the best, showcasing Vader at his most driven and ruthless, as well as showing the beginnings of defiance against the Emperor in him.  The second story reads more or less as just another 'just after the Battle of Yavin...' adventure of the week and, in fact, includes a terrible characterisation of the bounty hunter IG-88; whose presence should make the story much cooler but fails here due to mishandling by the writer.

The third story, by Whedon, is a short adventure for Han and Chewie in the days before they joined the Rebellion.  There's nothing particularly wrong with it, but by the same token, there's nothing particularly interesting about it either.  Unless, of course, you count Davide Fabbri's artwork, which is always a welcome addition to any Star Wars story.

2 out of 5

 

Star Wars: War Of The Bounty Hunters Companion

featuring Justina Ireland, Daniel Jose Older, Alyssa Wong and Rodney Barnes

(Art by Ibraim Roberson, Edgar Delgado, Luca Pizzari, Kei Zama, David Baldeon and Guiu Vilanova)

Four stories tying-in to the War of the Bounty Hunters event, set between Episodes V and VI.  Jabba the Hutt employs his former favourite bounty hunter Deva Lompop to track down Boba Fett, Zuckuss laments the loss of his friend and partner 4-LOM, Boushh is hired by Crimson Dawn to strike the Tagge Company and IG-88 must be rebuilt following a disastrous encounter with Darth Vader.

Well, it has to be said that here you get exactly what was advertised by the title of this book; a series of stories which act as companion pieces to the main 'War of the Bounty Hunters' story (by Charles Soule).  This means that for this book to make any sense whatsoever, you definitely have to have read that one first.  If you have done so, then this book provides a few details filling in around the main plot, but not much more than that.

What I did enjoy here was seeing all of the featured bounty hunters actually being good at what they do.  There's been a weird trend in Star Wars stories (even before evil Disney rebooted the canon) to make these B-list antagonists basically incompetent buffoons for our heroes to repeatedly get one over on.  Here, however, we genuinely get a sense that these are dangerous and talented mercenaries, giving them back the sense of badassery which they exhibited when they first appeared in 'The Empire Strikes Back' (well, except for Boushh).  It's nice to see some of my favourite characters finally being done justice.

3 out of 5

 

Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron - Battleground: Tatooine

featuring Michael A. Stackpole, Jan Strnad and Ryder Windham

(Art by John Nadeau, Jordi Ensign and Monty Sheldon)

Two stories, with one taking up most of the book.  Like every other character in the Star Wars universe, the Rogues find themselves on Tatooine.  There they have to secure a large cache of Imperial weapons before the Empire reclaims it itself.  This is a good little story that's very well written and is a perfect tie-in to Stackpole's 'The Bacta War'. 

The other story was one that was originally released as a free gift in cereal boxes.  So, as you can expect, it's nothing terribly ground shaking.

4 out of 5

 

Star-Lord: The Hollow Crown/Annihilation: Conquest

featuring Steve Englehart, Chris Claremont and Keith Giffen

(Art by Steve Gan, John Byrne, Michael Golden, Terry Austin, Timothy Green II and Victor Olazaba)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 64.  This book gives us Peter Quill AKA Star-Lord's first appearance from 1976, through his time as a swashbuckling space adventurer and then up to his return to the fore of the Marvel Universe in the aftermath of the Annihilation crossover.

Star-Lord is now best-known as a wise-cracking rogue of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but that's a very far cry from how the character got his start in the comics.  The 70s stories on offer here vary the character between an unlikeable introvert and a Flash Gordon-type with a god complex and are, quite frankly, just terrible.  They're worst kind of pulp 70s sci-fi comics, being camp and ridiculous but at the same time taking themselves far too seriously.

The more modern story by Keith Giffen has more to enjoy and even has Peter taking a somewhat disapproving and meta look back at his previous adventures.  We also get to see him forced into leading a team of misfits which, including Rocket Raccoon, Groot and Mantis, show the beginnings of what would become the new version of the Guardians of the Galaxy.  It's interesting to see, but I have to say that not having that iconic team fully-fleshed out yet works to this book's disadvantage (and it's also very unsettling to see Groot talking in complete and eloquent sentences).

This book is a curious look back at Star-Lord's history in the comics but, honestly, I wouldn't really recommend it as a reading experience.

2 out of 5

 

Storm: Lifedeath I & II/X-Men - Worlds Apart

featuring Chris Claremont, Barry Windsor-Smith and Christopher Yost

(Art by Barry Windsor-Smith, Terry Austin, Diogenes Neves and Edgar Tadeo)

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 60.  The first two stories here, from the 80s, see Storm having to deal with the aftermath of having lost her powers at the hands of government agents, trying to come to terms with who she is if not a mutant.  We then get a story in which Ororo is torn between her life among the X-Men and her life as wife and queen to King T'Challa of Wakanda.  The rift between the two sides of her life is torn wider by the influence of the evil Shadow King.

Storm's whole role and identity within the X-Men franchise is as a supremely powerful woman.  It's interesting then to see these very different stories all dealing with the core struggle of her being made (seemingly, at least) powerless.  

'Lifedeath' and 'Lifedeath II' both have her confronting her literal loss of her powers and struggling to find her identity without them.  It's classic 80s deconstruction and it's done very well (although I will admit to not personally loving Barry Windsor-Smith's artwork here).

'Worlds Apart' deals with a different kind of powerloss, as Ororo is all-but kicked out of the X-Men by Cyclops for her loyalty to Wakanda and is then treated as a traitorous outsider in Wakanda for being a mutant.  Outmatched and outmanoeuvred by the malicious psychic entity known as the Shadow King, there is a real sense of catharsis and triumph when Storm finally reconciles her divided loyalties and overcomes her uncertainties.  And in the era when Scott Summers was becoming increasingly dickish, it's nice to see him struck by a bolt of lightning.  You deserve that Scott.

4 out of 5

 

Superman: Action Comics - Volume 2: Bulletproof

featuring Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch and Max Landis

(Art by Rags Morales, Brad Walker, Cully Hamner, Gene Ha, Ben Oliver, Cafu, Ryan Sook, Rick Bryant, Andrew Hennessy and Bob McLeod)

A New 52 book.  Calvin Ellis, President of the USA and the Superman of Earth-23, discovers the existence of parallel worlds and is forced into an alliance with Lex Luthor to defeat an abomination alternate Superman.  Elsewhere, Clark Kent is apparently killed in an explosion, leading that world's Superman to reassess his life without the 'retired' secret identity.

This is the second lot of Grant Morrison's New 52 writing I've read and it reinforces my opinion of the first piece ('Batman Incorporated Volume 1') that Morrison did not get the memo about the New 52.  The reboot was designed to streamline and modernise the DC continuity but here we get multiverse elements increasing complications to Superman's story and lore, not the least of which is that another superhuman child arising in Kansas at exactly the same time as Clark.  I can't say I like the New 52 in concept or delivery, but I do wish Morrison would've actually bought in to the premise instead of delivering this confusing jumble of information.

The other stories on offer here are fine, but are largely just asides to Superman's story, rather than anything significant for the character.  That said, I did like Sholly Fisch's New 52 take on Kryptonite Man (now, probably sensibly, just called K-Man).

2 out of 5

 

Superman: Action Comics - Volume 3: At The End Of Days

featuring Grant Morrison and Sholly Fisch

(Art by Rags Morales, Brad Walker, Travel Foreman, Chris Sprouse, Andrew Hennessy, Mark Propst, Karl Story and Cam Smith)

An attack from an undead Kryptonian leads Superman into the Phantom Zone, where he is reunited with his childhood companion, Krypto.  Strange events then begin unfolding across Superman's timeline, converging on a moment in which he must fight a league of hated enemies in order to defeat the mind-boggling powers of the 5th Dimensional being known as Vyndktvx.

This will probably be a hard book to get to grips with for anyone who is unfamiliar with either pre-New 52 (and often pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths) Superman lore and Grant Morrison's back-catalogue.  However, as someone familiar with both, I actually enjoyed this book a surprising amount.  It's weird and fragmented and occasionally verges on nonsensical but, for me, it actually captured the feel of Morrison's work on 'Doom Patrol' back in the 90s, which I feel is some of his best work.  I also found this to be a surprisingly good way of introducing the very silly character of Mr Mxyzptlk into the modern continuity, again much like Morrison did in Batman with Bat-Mite and the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh.

Also, where in the previous book of this series the additional stories (mostly, as here, by Sholly Fisch) seemed to just be random shorts, here they all feed back into the plot and themes of Morrison's main story.  This means that this book feels a whole lot more cohesive overall and, as such, is a more enjoyable reading experience.

Whilst I'm not entirely comfortable with seeing a version of Doomsday with a full head of hair, it's more than made up for by the heartwarming role Krypto the Superdog has to play here.

4 out of 5

 

Superman: Action Comics - Volume 4: Hybrid

featuring Andy Diggle, Scott Lobdell, Tony S. Daniel, Mike Johnson and Frank Hannah

(Art by Tony S. Daniel, Tyler Kirkham, Tom Derenick, Philip Tan, Robson Rocha, Batt, Norm Rapmund, Jesus Merino, Jonathan Glapion and Julio Ferreira)

Lex Luthor unleashes a mutagenic virus against Superman, the Sirens interrupt a date between Superman and Wonder Woman, Superman has to fight an intergalactic terror on the moon and the Pyscho Pirate attempts to consume Superman's mind.

This is a pretty much random collection of Superman stories, which wouldn't be so bad if they felt complete and self-contained, but they don't.  Instead it feels like we're just getting the beginning, middle or end of stories which start or continue elsewhere.  As a result this book not only lacks cohesion, but also lacks a sense of narrative satisfaction.

Also, and I acknowledge that it's not the fault of any of the creators here, I really hate the villain name 'Psycho Pirate'.

2 out of 5

 

Superman: Birthright - Part 1

featuring Mark Waid and Otto Binder

(Art by Leinil Francis Yu, Greg Alanguilan, Wayne Boring and Stan Kaye)

Part of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection.  In the title story we get to see how Clark Kent made the choice to create a public persona in order to use his superpowers to help people.  As Superman goes into action in Metropolis for the first time he meets lifelong friends and his most determined enemy.  Also included is 'The Shrinking Superman' from 1958 in which the Man of Tomorrow is confronted by an impostor from the shrunken Kryptonian city of Kandor.

I've never been a huge Superman fan, but Mark Waid's main story here is a solid and enjoyable retelling of how the character started his career as a superhero, sort of a 'Superman: Year One' type of thing (Hmm.  I'll have to check to see if there is an actual 'Superman: Year One' out there...).  Suitably, there's a real tone of hope to this story and whilst there are occasional dark undertones, it feels upbeat and positive in a way that the 'introduction' of Superman should.  Although the introduction in the book singles out 'Man of Steel' as being the movie equivalent, I don't think Zack Snyder's colourless, dour interpretation is anywhere near as good as this.  Instead, this story put me in mind of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies that I adored as a kid (and have a great deal of nostalgia for as an adult).

Nostalgia also worked to the benefit of the back-up story in this book too.  Often in these Graphic Novel Collection books the throwback story marks an interesting point in comics history but serves as a reminder of how far comic book writing has come on in the intervening years.  Here, however, I totally managed to embrace the campy storytelling of 'The Shrinking Superman' because it fondly reminded me of an old Superman annual that I read over and over as a kid.  Sure it's not a sophisticated story but you've got to love the ironic humour of the scene where the impostor Superman tries to disguise himself by putting on a suit and glasses, convinced that the real Superman couldn't possibly recognise him now.

4 out of 5

 

Superman: Birthright - Part 2

featuring Mark Waid and Jerry Siegel

(Art by Leinil Francis Yu, Greg Alanguilan and Al Plastino)

Part of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection.  The title story picks up where Part 1 left off, with Lex Luthor launching a campaign to discredit Superman and paint him as a the vanguard of a Kryptonian invasion force.  The second story on offer here, 'How Luthor Met Superboy' from 1960, reveals how the characters knew each other in Smallville and where Luthor's undying emnity for Superboy/Superman originated.

The conclusion to Waid's 'Birthright' is very enjoyable, as we see Superman struggle with holding to his intention to be a hero despite the distrust of the people he's trying to save.  Its also interesting to see the childhood (well, teenage) history that Clark shares with Lex, as well as how Lex has consciously blotted it from his mind.  In fact, this book is as much an exploration of Lex's insane world view as it is of Superman's origins.  The relationship between the two characters here is a perfect reflection of how intrinsically linked they are, with Waid giving the same dichotomy as Batman and the Joker.

The second story, the throwback one, is a lot less enjoyable.  It's a style of comic book storytelling that was already dated in 1960, let alone sixty years later.  That said, it was interesting to discover that the childhood friendship gone wrong that Waid used in 'Birthright' was actually an idea reimagined from this much earlier version.

3 out of 5

 

Superman: Escape From Bizarro World

featuring Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Otto Binder, E. Nelson Bridwell and John Byrne

(Art by Eric Powell, Wayne Boring, Stan Kaye, Curt Swan, Dave Hunt, John Byrne and Dick Giordano)

Four stories featuring Bizarro, the imperfect duplicate of Superman who creates Bizarro World where everything is required to be the opposite of Earth.  In the title story, Bizarro kidnaps Jonathan Kent and takes him to Bizarro world, forcing Superman to attempt a rescue from the topsy turvy cube-shaped planet.  Then we get to meet Bizarro's perfectly normal son, Bizarro Superbaby, before getting a story in which Bizarro Amazo travels to Earth to grant powers to ordinary humans.  Finally, we get the post-Crisis reimagining of Bizarro as a Frankenstein('s Monster)-esque creation at the hands of Lex Luthor.

Bizarro is a goofy joke character that somehow has stood the test of time and here it's made clear that the reason the character is still around is that, despite his silly nature, there's something of a melancholy loneliness to the character.  This undertone of tragedy is what makes the otherwise stupid character somewhat engaging and John and Donner focus in on that in their story here.

Each of the ensuing stories continues the themes that Bizarro isn't a villain, he's just different and that's this book's strong point.  Obviously this book's weak point is that Bizarro is a goofy joke character and his Bizarro-speak rapidly becomes grating.

This book isn't great but, honestly, it was much better than I was expecting.

3 out of 5

 

Superman: Last Son Of Krypton

featuring Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Jerry Siegel

(Art by Adam Kubert, Renato Guedes, Jose Wilson Magalhaes and Joe Shuster)

Part of the DC Graphic Novel Collection, containing three stories.  The title story sees a Kryptonian child arrive on Earth and, when the US Government attempts to take control of the boy, Superman chooses to adopt him as he himself was adopted by the Kents.  However, the arrival of young Christopher Kent heralds the return of one of Superman's most iconic enemies; General Zod.  In the second story we get a glimpse of family life with the entire Kent clan as they take an outing to an alien world.  The third story is a reprint of Superman #1 from 1939 and retells Superman's origins, as well as revealing how Clark Kent got his job at the Daily Star (that's just what the Planet was called then, Clark wasn't working for the low-brow trashy British tabloid of the same name).

The emotional core of 'Last Son of Krypton' is a strong one, with Clark and Lois unable to have children of their own but being given the chance to adopt one in need, much as Jonathan and Martha Kent did for Clark.  If anything, it's a bit of a shame that this new family dynamic doesn't get the chance to develop for very long before Zod shows up to ruin things.

I found it intriguing that not only did Richard Donner, director of the iconic Christopher Reeve Superman movie, co-write this story but that it seems to be Zod's first post-Crisis appearance.  Honestly, if such an iconic villain didn't get dragged out of the woodwork before 2006, I'm genuinely impressed with DC's restraint (usually after each of their continuity reboots, the first thing they do is have the heroes encounter their most iconic villains again for the 'first' time).

'The Best Day' by Busiek and Nicieza does give us a little more time with Christopher Kent as part of the family, but sadly it's just a bit of a fluff piece.  Nice to see Kara included in the family time though.  (Was Conner dead at this point?  I lose track.)

The throwback story from 1939 is a nice way of seeing how the character got started but also goes to show just how crappy superhero comics were in those days.

3 out of 5

 

Superman: Man Of Steel

featuring John Byrne and Jerry Siegel

(Art by John Byrne, Dick Giordano and Joe Shuster)

Part of the DC Graphic Novel Collection.  The main story here is a retelling of Superman's origin and early days, whilst the back-up story is the character's first-ever appearance in the pages of the iconic 'Action Comics #1'.

I'm not a fan of reboots and I rarely enjoy updated retellings of stories we all know by heart (God knows nobody wants to see Bruce Wayne's parents shot in that alley again), so I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed the 'Man of Steel' story which makes up the majority of this book.  Intended as a relaunch of the character in the wake of Marv Wolfman's 'Crisis on Infinite Earths', in which the DC multiverse was collapsed into a single (sort-of) coherent universe, this story reboots and updates key elements of Superman's mythology for the modern day (back when 'the modern day' was 1986).  

The story powers through key moments in Superman's history in order to catch up to the point that the hero's ongoing adventures could resume, showing us him choosing to become Superman, meeting Lois Lane for the first time, his first run-in with Lex Luthor and the discovery of his Kryptonian heritage.  For me there were two highlights to this; one of which was getting a new and, ironically, less-bizarre origin for Bizarro Superman, now a failed experiment by Luthor to duplicate Superman himself.  The other element I loved was the new version of Superman's first meeting with Batman and how it's wildly different to their instant-buddies relationship of the 50s and 60s.  Perhaps what I loved most about it was seeing Batman almost immediately outwit Superman, proving why the all-powerful Kryptonian would ever want/need to ally with Batman in the first place.

Pretty much every fan of superhero comics should read Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's first-ever Superman story, because it almost single-handedly created the genre.  It's also interesting to see Superman not-entirely developed too; unable to fly but instead able to leap really far, for example.  Personally, my favourite element is seeing just how fierce and independent Lois is back then, part of her character which got lost in the subsequent decades of her thirsting for Superman (but which was later reclaimed, thankfully).  Despite all that, the storytelling on offer in this second story is pretty much as shallow and obvious as you could expect from a 1938 comic book.

4 out of 5

 

Superman Returns: The Movie And Other Tales Of The Man Of Steel

featuring Martin Pasko, E. Nelson Bridwell, Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar, Geoff Johns, Joe Kelly and Jami Bernard

(Art by Matt Haley, Mike Collins, Ron Randall, Carmine Infantino, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Yanick Paquette, Dexter Vines, Rich Faber, Jim Royal, Brent Anderson, Ray Snyder, Pascual Ferry, Kano, Dave Bullock, Duncan Rouleau, Renato Guedes,, Marlo Alquiza, Keith Champagne, Jorge Correa, Jaime Mendoza and Cam Smith)

Six stories, beginning with the adaptation of the movie 'Superman Returns' in which the Man of Steel attempts to pick up the threads of his old life after being absent from Earth for five years.  The other stories retell Superman's origins, have him match wits with Lex Luthor and spend New Year's Eve answering calls for help around the world.

The movie 'Superman Returns' isn't awful, being a quaint and somewhat unambitious homage to the classic Christopher Reeve movies and intended to relaunch the onscreen franchise.  Honestly, Brandon Routh was a pretty good Superman and I'm glad the 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' TV series gave him a second chance (the less we say about Kevin Spacey, the better, however).  The adaptation offered here is brief and by the numbers; hitting most of the major plot points without capturing any of the movie's charm.  Also, the plot point it doesn't really bother with was probably the most interesting aspect of the whole film; is that Superman's kid?

The other stories on offer here are perfectly fine but largely unremarkable.  Well, unremarkable except for the fact that one of them is written by Mark Millar but ISN'T a dedicated character-assassination of a beloved superhero.  Also, the other story that I feel I have to remark on is the one where Supes travels the world to experience New Year's in every time zone.  I like the concept but writer Joe Kelly's grasp of geography and/or how time zones work is so awful as to drag you right out of the story.  I mean, it's a running joke among the rest of the world that Americans couldn't find Australia on a map if they tried, but I'd expect better from a professional writer.

2 out of 5

 

Superman: Secret Origin

featuring Geoff Johns and Jerry Coleman

(Art by Gary Frank, Jon Sibal and Al Plastino)

Part of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection.  The title story recounts the struggles of Clark Kent's teenage years, as he first adopts the mantle of Superboy, before following the adult Clark into his new job at the Daily Planet and his debut as Superman.  The second story, from 1958, is a tale of Clark's days at the University of Metropolis as he tries to keep his dual identity secret from a brilliant science professor.

The main story here, 'Secret Origin', is a complete misnomer.  There is almost nothing in this retelling of Superman's early days that hasn't been covered elsewhere.  I recently read Mark Waid's 'Birthright', which this book directly contradicts at times, and that's a much more adult and insightful take on Superman's origins.  Once the story here gets to Metropolis what we get is largely a rehashing of the first Christopher Reeve movie.  Now it has to be noted that Johns was once the assistant to the director of Superman, Richard Donner, so this is clearly a deliberate homage but it definitely leaves you feeling like you would rather have just sat down and watched that classic film (not to mention the equally awesome Superman 2).

Overall, 'Secret Origin' is a competent but ultimately redundant retreading of familiar territory.  Maybe if you've never heard of Superman before you'll enjoy it, but then I would have to wonder what planet you're from.

Similarly, the throwback story by Jerry Coleman is perfectly fine but also largely unremarkable.

2 out of 5

 

Superman/Batman: Alternate Histories

featuring Brian Augustyn,  Mark Waid , Jon Bogdanove, Judy Kurzer Bogdanove,  John Byrne  and Chuck Dixon

(Art by Alcatena,  John Byrne , Humberto Ramos, Joe Staton, Horacio Ottolini, Ron Boyd, Dan Davis, Wayne Faucher, Dennis Janke, Andy Lanning, Rob Leigh and Ande Parks)

A collection of four Elseworlds stories.  One sees Batman recast as the 18th Century pirate Leatherwing whilst another, set in the 1920s/30s, has Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent fighting over the mantle of the Bat.  There's a tale of an alternate America where Kal-El helps to overthrow his grandfather who seized control of the country in 1770s and an alternate origin for Steel set amid the horror and cruelty of a slave plantation in the 1860s.

DC's Elseworlds stories have a tendency to have a clever 'what if...?' premise but not actually much substance beyond that.  The stories on offer here are definitely more insightful than some others I've read but, due to their short length, still all feel underdeveloped.  However, no-one could argue against the power of a story which sees John Henry Irons rising through tragedy to build himself a suit of righteous armour and throw off the oppression of those who've kept him and his family enslaved.  With some serious alternate history issues there's the danger of trivialising them through the introduction of superheroes, but here it feels justified.

3 out of 5

 

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies

featuring Jeph Loeb and Edmond Hamilton

(Art by Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, Curt Swan, Stan Kaye and John Fischetti)

Part of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection, this book contains the titular story in which Superman and Batman are declared outlaws by the President of the United States, Lex Luthor, and a throwback story from 1952 which has the first time the two characters teamed-up.

I was a bit concerned, due to the title and some of the imagery on the title pages, that this was going to be a story of Batman and Superman fighting and anyone who's seen Zack Synder's car-crash movie can tell you that there's not a lot of interesting mileage in that idea.  However, instead the title refers to the fact that DC's two premier heroes find themselves on the wrong side of the law and hunted by heroes who they once considered friends.  How we get there is a bit contrived (Kryptonian asteroid headed for Earth; must be because Superman's evil) but I actually really enjoyed seeing exactly why these two are DC's premier heroes (sorry Wonder Woman, you're getting there but you're still not Clark or Bruce).  Between them they're smarter, stronger and just more experienced than anyone that Luthor can throw against them.

It has to be said that at times this book veers too sharply away from the tedious 'hero versus hero for reasons' that it could have been and the internal monologues of the two title characters go a bit too far in their adoration of each other to the point that you wonder if they're going to take time-out and get a room in a motel together.

Weirdly, that's not too far away from the plot of the 1952 story by Edmond Hamilton, 'The Mightiest Team in the World!', in which Superman and Batman find out each other's secret identities after being forced to share a cabin on a cruise (no, really).  Why would any cruise company ever force a billionaire customer to share a cabin with some random investigative journalist?  Doesn't matter, don't think about it.  Oddly enough for the first-ever team-up of these comics powerhouses, the antagonist is just a jewel thief and the heroes spend more time wondering whether Lois Lane fancies Batman more than Superman.

All in all this book is worth reading for the 'Public Enemies' story but the back-up story is remarkable only for being the first team-up.

3 out of 5

 

Superman/Batman: Supergirl

featuring Jeph Loeb and Otto Binder

(Art by Michael Turner, Richard Starkings and Al Plastino)

Part of the DC Comics Graphic Novel Collection.  In the first of the two stories in this book we see the Kara Zor-El version of Supergirl reintroduced to the DC Universe.  Arriving on a ship from Krypton as a teenager, Kara immediately falls under the protection of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman but each of them has their own fears and hopes for the girl.  Those fears and hope are pushed to the limit when Darkseid makes a bid to control the powerful young woman.  The second story, from 1959, shows the first ever appearance of Supergirl as Superman's cousin.

I like the updated version of Supergirl that Loeb introduces us to.  Her story is very familiar but I like that she has a depth that was previously somewhat lacking in the character; here's she's very much her own person with her own agenda instead of just a sidekick to Superman.  The reactions that the 'DC Trinity' have to her feel very justified too; Batman is naturally suspicious, Superman his desperately hopeful and Wonder Woman sees a girl she can train and liberate.  It's also significant that none of these parent figures consider Kara's own feelings and desires to any great degree.

Character aside, however, the actual story of Loeb's part of this book felt a bit lacking to me.  The pace is set way too high, to the point that I had to re-read sections to make sure my copy wasn't missing pages.  It crams in Kara's arrival, first meetings with Superman and Batman, her training on Themiscyra, an attack by Doomsday clones, a rescue mission to Apokolips, a visit to Smallville, a second confrontation with Darkseid and Kara's debut as Supergirl.  It's far too much to cover in such a short space of time and as a result the story feels rushed and unsatisfying.

The throwback story, 'The Supergirl from Krypton!', once again (or should that be 'originally') covers Kara's arrival on Earth in a rocket and meeting with Superman, but this time we do get a little bit more information about her childhood on a splinter of Krypton and how her parents sent her to follow Kal-El.  There's nothing wrong with the story until Kara actually comes to live on Earth.  Where it all becomes a bit 'Yikes' is when Superman rapidly gets over his joy at having a cousin and immediately packs her off to an orphanage and forbids her from using her superpowers.  I suppose it makes an interesting contrast with Loeb's story; here a young woman gets no say in her own life and in the more modern story she gets almost no say.  That's forty years of progress in women's rights, right there.

3 out of 5