“The Returned” (9 p.m. Central Mondays on A&E) takes “mystery” to a whole new level. Traditionally, a mystery show is something like “Gracepoint,” where we try to figure out whodunit over the course of a season. Clues peppered into each episode lead toward the revelation of the killer(s).
As a kid, I imagined the Jedi Purge consisted of Darth Vader going from planet to planet slaughtering Jedi Knights. That’s what naturally springs to mind when we hear Obi-Wan’s line: “A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy […]
After writing the first two “Darth Vader” series, veteran “Star Wars” scribe Haden Blackman handed the reins to Tim Siedell for the final two entries. These two five-issue series follow the formula of the second Blackman entry, “Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison.” Rather than showing us Vader’s thoughts, we instead see Vader cut a hellishly violent […]
Disney is delving heavily into the dark side in its early “Star Wars” projects, from the novels “Tarkin” (2014) and “Lords of the Sith” (April) to the recently launched “Darth Vader” comic series that explores the Sith lord between Episodes IV and V. The old continuity, now known as Legends, trod similar ground in its […]
After the first 12 issues established Brian Wood’s “Star Wars” as a character-driven series that aspired to tell the definitive story of what happened between Episodes IV and V, it takes a slight step backward with Issues 13-20 (2014). Had the series continued beyond this, it probably would’ve paid off some of its big ideas, but it […]
As proven earlier this year when Marvel’s relaunch of the saga broke sales records, Issue No. 1s of series simply titled “Star Wars” draw a lot of interest. They also cause confusion for organizational purposes, as there are now four series by that name. The series that started in 1977 has traditionally been called Marvel […]
Last year’s creation of the Lucasfilm Story Group to make all future stories tie together was the biggest reorganizing of continuity in “Star Wars” history, but it wasn’t the first. Dark Horse did a soft reboot of sorts in 2006 when it canceled its existing titles and launched four new ongoing titles: “Knights of the […]
The “Empire and Rebellion” series was supposed to delve into the minds of Leia, Han and Luke, respectively, in three very loosely connected novels set between Episodes IV and V. 2013’s “Razor’s Edge” dropped the ball with Leia. “Honor Among Thieves” (2014), now in paperback, does a better job with Han, but doesn’t break any new ground. […]
Drew Karpyshyn’s “Darth Bane: Path of Destruction” put a tidy symbolic bow on two pieces of Sith lore that are known to the Jedi in “Episode I”: 1) That the Sith have been extinct for a millennium, and 2) That there are always two Sith lords – a master and an apprentice. In the closing […]
Darth Bane’s presence in the Disney canon is sparse: Terry Brooks introduced him as the originator of the Rule of Two (one Sith master, one apprentice) in the “Phantom Menace” novelization, then Mark Hamill voiced the specter of Bane, taunting Yoda, in “The Clone Wars” Season 6 finale. In the Legends universe, however, Drew Karpyshyn’s […]