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The Comic Book Thread

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bikingjahuty:


Just finished the 2nd book for Star Wars Legacy which included vol. 20 through 36 and the series is still going very strong. While not as entertaining overall as the first book, this one for better or worse helped establish more of the subplots going on which are definitely relevant to the overall story, but just aren't as interesting as the main plot involving Cade Skywalker, his companions, and the Sith they are fighting against. There have also been a lot more references to past expanded universe material, specifically content introduced or exclusive to the comics. While both are pretty well explained in Legacy, I couldn['t help but think I'd enjoyed the references made if I was more aware of the expanded universe within the comics before Legacy. Specifically there is one character that makes an appearance who has been in various comics whom I thought was incredibly interesting and awesome, but I felt like I would have appreciated her more had I read the content before Legacy that she appeared in. There have been few dull moments in the 16 volumes this book includes and I am dying to know how this series concludes with the third and final book!

bikingjahuty:


The third and final book of Legacy and the concluding series Legacy: War, this one was pretty good, however it was the weakest of all three books due to some questionable and rushed writing, new aspects introduced that weren't very well explained, and various plot conveniences that just seemed lazy. Despite this the general story was good and had some interesting twists along the way, as well as an ending that had a bit of ambiguity which balanced out an otherwise happy ending. On top of that various character arks came full circle which I really enjoyed as well as other characters redeeming themselves which added to the satisfying ending.

One overall gripe I have with this book, but Legacy in general is the artists depiction of action in the frames which really forced the reader to imagine quite a bit about what was happening during lightsaber duels, space battles and the various other action sequences which seemed grossly under developed and realized in the book. Despite this, the story and what was happening was still mostly entertaining and as I said in my review on Book 1, this is the direction I wish Star Wars would have taken rather than Disney rebooting the entire series, ignoring 30-years of a rich expanded universe including the events of Legacy.

People who defend The Last Jedi often site the massive fan backlash as a result of people just wanting more of the same while shirking at anything that is different. The Legacy series is very different than anything else in the Star Wars universe, even within the expanded universe content. Cade Skywalker is almost an antihero who constantly straddles the line between light and dark, as do various other characters throughout this series. Not only that, but Legacy is the first realized piece of Star Wars fiction to really develop gray jedi, or neutral force users that do not embrace either the light or the dark, but a balance between the two. Going back to Cade, he is also a wreckless drug addict throughout most of the series which is explained very convincingly and makes sense with his character. Mix this in with themes concerning genocide, chemical warfare, shaky alliances, blending the old republic with the current era, sex, and madness and you have something vastly different that also stays true to the source material and overall theme of the content it is based off of.

If I had to give Legacy an overall rating I'd give it a solid 8/10; the series drags on a bit too long at certain parts, the writing can be spotty at times, and the action sequences are a bit underwhelming/under developed at times, but beyond on that you have one of the best pieces of old expanded universe canon even put to paper. This was an excellent read and one that I'd highly recommend to anyone wanting to see Star Wars done differently, but correctly.

bikingjahuty:



It's been a while since I read some Star Wars comics, and this one, Star Wars Omnibus: Rise of the Sith, was the last one I left off on, probably about 6-months ago. The comics in this collection all concern events that take place leading up to Star Wars Episode 1, introducing various major and minor characters from that film and given them some back story. Since these are individual comics I will review each of them briefly.


Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: The Aurorient Express and Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan: Last Stand on Ord Mandell: These are actually two separate comics, but I am reviewing them together because they both revolve around the relationship between Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, several years before the events of Star Wars Episode 1. Also, both stories are fairly uninteresting and do little to establish either character anymore than the films do, and also contribute little to building their relationship as it exists in Episode 1. Essentially both stories are about assignments that master and padowan are given by the Jedi Council, one involving a barge with an explosive on it and the other involves a dispute with an alien species on Ord Mandell. Both are fairly boring, and honestly unless you are just aching to hear more about what Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were up to in the earlier years of their relationship as master and padowan, then I'd really give these ones a pass.


Jedi Council: Acts of War: This one is somewhat similar to the the previous two; Jedi are alerted to a serious situation in a Republic system and have to go and resolve it. However, this time it's decided that a bunch of Jedi masters on the Jedi Council have to get involved as well, leading to sort of an all star crew of Jedi badasses investigating issues with a war-like species attacking another group within the same system. It turns out that Darth Sidious is behind the whole thing, and his motives for causing the crisis was to remove the tyrannical species from the system so they would not be a potential threat to his bigger plan that play out in the prequel films. You get introduced to a lot of the members of the Jedi Council, including some that you never see in the films due to them dying in this comic, with one in particular being somewhat of a bummer since he ends up being really cool. And also like the previous two comics, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are part of this important mission. I don't know, this one is okay, bordering below average, but it's at least better than the previous two comics in this omnibus.


Prelude to Rebellion: This is actually the first part in the Republic series which chronicles the events leading up to and during the clone wars. This portion of the story revolves around one of the Jedi Council members Ki Adi Mundi, the old human-looking guy with the long lumpy looking head, and his life right before joining the Jedi Council which takes place on his home world where he serves as an ambassador for the Jedi on the planet while living his day to day life. Essentially the plot of this one involves a movement of pro Republic, pro technology activists who are using the planet's youth to push their agenda that has more sinister agenda behind the scenes. One of Ki's daughters is a supporter of these activists and ends up getting mixed up with a bad crowd which is further complicated by one of these friend's killing an innocent activist at one of the activist rallies. This ends up becoming Ki trying to get to the bottom of the activist leader's real motives as well as a bunch of illegal shit he's also involved in, while also trying to find and save his daughter. My favorite part about this story is how it really develops Ki's character which prior to reading this I knew nothing about; he is truly a cool, yet very flawed character which makes him very likable and interesting. You get some of his back story as well during his training under Master Yoda when he was younger as well. This one is pretty good, although parts of it are a bit boring. The writing is definitely good and it really explores a lot of different themes well. Definitely recommend checking this one out.


Vow of Justice: This comic also follows Ki Adi Mundi, but this time it takes place while he is a young, cocky, headstrong man fresh out of the Jedi Academy and back on his home planet in order to get revenge on an infamous raider that terrorized innocent farmers during Ki's childhood right before he was taken to be trained as a Jedi. Obviously revenge is not a Jedi trait, and it really shows how different of a character he was from the previous story, which I highly recommend reading before this one since it allows you to better appreciate Ki's character growth from where he is right before Episode 1 as an older, wiser Jedi compared to how he was as a padowan in his young adulthood. He eventually catches up with the raider, but he is not greeted by the same man he knew as a child. This one is pretty short, but still explores some complex themes and also develops Ki more, making him even more likable and interesting. There's no reason to not read this one and serves as a great companion to the previous story.


Darth Maul: This is by far the best story in this entire omnibus. As its title suggests, this one is about everyone's favorite double bladed lightsaber Sith, Darth Maul. While it doesn't go into who Maul is or any sort of origin story, it does establish his character as an insanely powerful warrior that single handedly takes down an entire crime syndicate by himself at the order of Darth Sidious. After reading this one, saying Darth Maul is a total badass is a huge understatement; the guy is practically a force of nature and just destroys anyone that gets in his way, including a really cool force sensitive witch that he does combat with. This comic was extremely good and very entertaining, and does nothing but make the already cool Darth Maul even cooler. It also clearly shows how he was able to take on two experienced Jedi at once in the Phantom Menace.

wartoy:
Been thinking about getting back into comics for some time now not quite sure where to start haven't collected in about 20 years.Still have all my old stuff though about 12,000 books from late 70s to late 90s mostly Marvel and DC
My Favorites were Avengers,spider man,Silver Surfer,Quasar,Captain America,Green Lantern,Fantastic four,
New Mutants. So much has changed since then I'm kinda lost.

turf:
Rise From Your Grave!!

I recently started dabbling in the comic world. I’m not too into the mainstream comic collecting, but I’m loving old 80’s toy/cartoon comics. Star Comics (an imprint of Marvel) did some really cool stuff like He-Man and Thundercats. I’m loving it.
I’m looking hard at the Indiana Jones stuff from Marvel. It’s cheap and I’m a big Dr Jones fan.

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