Obviously, I enjoy Star Wars more than the average person does, and this drags me into quite a bit of a mess sometimes. Arguing with Star Trek fans aside, the dirty business of trying to keep up with the canon in some way tends to be the most painful thing that a Star Wars fan has to do. Verbally assaulting Trekkies (Trekkers...whatever) isn't that big a deal in comparison.
Dark Horse has held the Star Wars license for twenty years, and has done a lot with the franchise. From sweet adaptations of the films and the Thrawn trilogy, to recent ongoing works like Legacy and Knights of the Old Republic, they treat the property with a lot of respect, providing readers such as myself with a diverse selection of material to read when I drop by my local comic shop. Then there are the recent books that make my eyes roll directly out of my skull.
Now let me say this first: none of these books are innately bad. They just don't reach the level of quality of the other books from the Star Wars franchise. For example, KOTOR writer John Jackson Miller is writing a new series called Knight Errant, focusing on new character Kerra Holt, a Jedi knight who is going to fight Sith and blah blah blah, oh dear God why is this series about another bloody JEDI! Knights of the Old Republic was a great series, and it ended. Most writers would want to move onto new material, or at least make it seem fresh. Kerra Holt is a largely uninteresting character, and I'm rather bored with Knight Errant, and there's only been six issues. Miller is a great writer, and knows the universe well, so I can't help but wonder why this series is so unbelievably dull.
This isn't the only Jedi focused attempt at cashing in on the Clone Wars television craze. An Episode I precursor about Qui-Gon Jinn is coming up later this year, and I'm not exactly excited about this one either. I'm going to read it, yes, but that doesn't mean I have high hopes. There doesn't seem to be any reason why it should exist, other than to tell another story about another Jedi.
That said, Dark Horse does have two series with Jedi in them that don't irritate me. One of those is Dark Times, a particularly dismal take on the period between episodes III and IV, about a wayward Jedi, redefining his role in the universe after the fall of the Jedi order. Sixteen issues, and it's a far cry from Knight Errant, with great characters, fantastic writing, and everything I love in a good Star Wars comic. The tone of the story sits somewhere between classic Samurai film and a good Spaghetti Western. If you haven't read this one, you are missing out on what is easily the best Star Wars book running.
The other end of the quality Jedi-ish books are the Legacy series, which received an absolutely pointless restart after issue 50, which was supposed to be the finale. Considering the delay of the last issue, I think that there was a decision made somewhere to extend things, and a convenient little six issue mini series was dictated at the proper move. Well, I'm going to say that the mini has been just as good as the fifty issues that preceded it, but it still stings going through my comic boxes, and there is a renumbered ending for the end of a series. It looks odd, and now I'm just showing my insane OCD behaviors, which only exist for my hobbies! Aside from that, Legacy is a blast, riding on the vibe that you are actually supposed to be enjoying this rather unwholesome galaxy that exists when the focus isn't directly on the Jedi. It's also nice to see a Skywalker with personality. We haven't got one of those since Luke Skywalker, and thankfully Cade isn't exactly like his lineage would suggest.
Now that I've got my Jedi bashing out of the way, it's time to poke the giant elephant in the corner with a javelin--Blood Ties was terrible. It's unforgivable fan service pointed directly at the possibility of selling a book just because Boba Fett is on the cover. I am probably in the minority in saying this, but I feel like Fett is far less intimidating since AotC. Gone are all of the possibilities of his origin that could have been far more exciting, just like the neutering of the Clone Wars, which were always hailed as a far more interesting time than the Robots Vs Stormtroopers bit that we got instead. Anyways, let's get back to mark here.
The Darth Vader mini-series running right now is actually pretty good. I have to give them credit here: they are trying something different with the character, which allows him to be the cold hearted killer that we remember from the first film over thirty years ago, all the while giving us the inner turmoil of the past he could have had as Anakin Skywalker, with only one child that shows Jedi potential (nice move on writer W. Haden Blackman's part). Blackman is making strong strides for the quality of writing in the Star Wars universe, although I question his decisions in the production of Force Unleashed II. But that is beside the point. He's doing good things. Next target, please.
John Ostrander, who is responsible for Legacy, is putting a new book out that is set in the classic Rebellion/Republic era. It's called Agent of the Empire, and that's pretty exciting to me. Star Wars usually is at it's best in this era, at least for me. Empire/Rebellion were two fantastic books that delved into territory that hasn't been touched enough--the period between IV and V. There's little information on the series right now other than it's coming out this year, and crowding my box at the shop, along with...
CRIMSON EMPIRE III. Yeah, they are bringing this one back. Here's hoping they reprint the first two volumes, as I missed out on those back in the late nineties, aside from a great article in Star Wars Insider, covering the launch of the series. There is a preview of the series coming out next month in Dark Horse Presents no. 1, so maybe I'll stick a review of it up here.
I also read in Previews this month that there is to be another arc of The Old Republic comics. This hurts me quite a bit actually, as the first six issues were horrible up to merely acceptable in quality. When great things are happening in the Star Wars universe, and this is the stuff that they send for me to read, it's easy to be disappointed.
And that's what is in store for Star Wars fans who read comics this year, and why I'm skeptical. Well, not as skeptical as I could have been. I could just write off the whole franchise right now, claiming that the giant arc focus of the novels makes it almost impossible for me to get into any of the new stuff, and the mediocre selection of comics makes me cringe when I see that I have to drop three more dollars on another story about someone swinging a sword made of light against another sword made of light while talking about how they will be killed and Sith and dull and why am I still typing this sentence? I know I don't have to buy these books, but I will, and hope that they grow into something. I'm just dying for Dark Horse to impress me once again. They've done it, and they do it often, so I just want them to get on with it!
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