John’s top 10 TV shows of 2014
These were my 10 favorite shows of 2014: 1. “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (Season 6, Netflix) – “The Clone Wars” saves the best for last with arcs delving into the Order 66 brainwashing, Palpatine’s manipulations to take over the galactic banking system, and Yoda’s surprising encounter with a dark avatar and his first communication with a
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Yoda: Dark Rendezvous’ (2004) (Book review)
Throughout the entire George Lucas “Star Wars” reign, we never got Yoda’s backstory, partly because it was declared off limits and partly because few authors would be brave enough to tackle such a responsibility. However, the final arc of “The Clone Wars” gave us a fascinating Yoda arc – where he fights his Gollum-esque dark
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘MedStar II: Jedi Healer’ (2004) (Book review)
While I disagree with the canceling of the Expanded Universe, one positive aspect of the new Disney canon is that all future projects will be connected to each other. On the other hand, part of the fun of the old system was seeing how the EU and canonical George Lucas projects sometimes accidentally fit together.
‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ goes out on an incomplete, but high, note with ‘Lost Missions’ and story reels (TV review)
While I and most fans will always be irked that “The Clone Wars” wasn’t allowed to bring its character threads to natural conclusions, I have to admit that “The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions”(2014), released in March on Netflix and now available on DVD, hits on several crucial elements and bows out with a beautiful grace
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘MedStar I: Battle Surgeons’ (2004) (Book review)
In the Season 5 finale of “The Clone Wars,” Barriss Offee goes to the dark side, driven by her frustration with the corrupt Republic and Jedi Order. It came as a surprise to most viewers, who had last seen Barriss as a doting teacher’s pet to her master, Luminara Unduli, in earlier episodes and most
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters’ and ‘Darth Maul: Death Sentence’ (2012) (Comic book reviews)
While this year’s “Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir” is a continuation of Maul’s “Clone Wars” TV arc, taken directly from unproduced Season 6 scripts, Dark Horse Comics also released two Maul stories in 2012 that nicely filled in the gap between Seasons 4 and 5: “The Clone Wars: The Sith Hunters,” the ninth of the 11
Darth Maul’s ‘Clone Wars’ storyline continues in ‘Son of Dathomir’ (Comic book review)
“Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir,” a four-issue comic series now available in trade paperback, is both very cool and kind of disappointing. It’s the first continuation of “The Clone Wars” outside of the canceled-too-soon TV series, but it also screams to be seen on TV.
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘The Cestus Deception’ (2004) (Book review)
Like “Shatterpoint,” its predecessor in the “Clone Wars” series, “The Cestus Deception” (2004) takes place on a single planet that’s in dispute between the Republic and the Separatists. But while “Shatterpoint” is an epic cost-of-war novel, Steven Barnes’ lone “Star Wars” book is a political morass, with readers invited to wade into it with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Kit
‘Star Wars’ flashback: Hasbro comics (2002), ‘Brothers in Arms’ (2005) and ‘Routine Valor’ (2006) (Comic book reviews)
Dark Horse Comics bookended its 2002-06 phase of “Clone Wars”-era stories with issues that couldn’t be found in comic shops. Four 10-page stories were packaged with Hasbro/Toys R Us “Episode II: Attack of the Clones” toys in 2002, and the 10-page Free Comic Book Day issue, “Routine Valor” (2006), closed out Dark Horse’s first phase of “Clone Wars.” It
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Shatterpoint’ (2003) (Book review)
“Shatterpoint” (2003) has a number of firsts to its credit: It was the first published “Clone Wars” novel and the first story to explore Mace Windu in-depth. Now, with the publication of “A New Dawn,” it has the ignominious distinction of being the first great work of the Expanded Universe to be erased by the new