‘Star Wars’ flashback: The 10 best ‘Clone Wars Adventures’ digest stories (2004-07) (Comic book reviews)
The Genndy Tartakovsky “Clone Wars” TV microseries (2003-05) delivered bite-size kinetic tales that served as a testing ground for “The Clone Wars” (2008-14). Its comic-book parallel was the “Clone Wars Adventures” digests (2004-07), in which artists – most often the Fillbach Brothers – and colorists mimic Tartakovsky’s work and the microseries’ energy.
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Purge’ (2005-13) (Comic book reviews)
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
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Darth Vader and the Lost Command’ (2011) and ‘Ghost Prison’ (2012) (Comic book reviews)
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
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘The Force Unleashed II’ (2010) (Book and comic review)
Out of all the Legends stories that went unfinished due to Disney’s rebooting of the timeline, none is more of a cliffhanger than the “Force Unleashed” saga. At the end of 2010’s “The Force Unleashed II” – both the novel by Sean Williams and comic by Haden Blackman — Darth Vader is captured by Starkiller and the Rebel Alliance
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘The Force Unleashed’ (2008) (Book and comic reviews)
“The Force Unleashed” (2008) – the multimedia project highlighted by a video game, novel and comic — despite being a fairly recent endeavor, is among the first Legends material to be wiped out by the new Disney canon (specifically “Rebels”). (It’s also back in the spotlight because fans continually say “The Force Unleashed” instead of “The Force Awakens” when
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘X-Wing Rogue Squadron’ special issues (1995-2005) (Comic book reviews)
If you’ve devoured Michael Stackpole’s 35-issue “X-Wing Rogue Squadron” comics series but are a completest who wants to gather up all the ancillary stories, you’ll want to check out “X-Wing Rogue Squadron” No. 1/2 (1997), “X-Wing Rogue Squadron Special” (1995) and the three-issue “X-Wing Rogue Leader” (2005).
‘Star Wars’ flashback: The top 25 dramatic stories in ‘Star Wars Tales’ (1999-2005) (Comic book reviews)
Earlier this year, Disney announced that its Lucasfilm Story Group would make sure every new story fits with the new Disney timeline. The opposite approach was taken with Dark Horse’s anthology series “Star Wars Tales” (1999-2005). It was an outlet for writers and artists to do whatever they wanted. Stories could fit with the established continuity of
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Obsession’ (2004-05) and ‘General Grievous’ (2005) (Comic book reviews)
The 2008-14 Clone Wars contradicted some things from the 2003-06 Clone Wars, and some of those things were retconned – for example, Lucasfilm’s Leland Chee managed to reconcile Asajj Ventress’ Rattatak and Dathomir backstories in an article for Star Wars Insider Issue 122. Other things simply could not be reconciled, and the contradiction between the
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Republic’ Issues 60-71 (2004) (Comic book reviews)
The 2004 run of “Republic” marks some of the finest ongoing “Star Wars” storytelling. Primary writer John Ostrander balances his long-running Quinlan Vos saga – taking the shadow-dwelling Quinlan up to his return to the Jedi Order and keeping us guessing about his true loyalties – with treatises on the relationship between war and the loss of
‘Star Wars’ flashback: ‘Republic’ Issues 49-59 (2003) (Comic book reviews)
Begun, the Clone Wars did, in Dark Horse Comics with “Star Wars: Republic” Issues 49-59 in 2003. This the start of what I call Phase I of the Clone Wars, with Phase II being the 2008-14 TV series (and related books and comics) with Ahsoka Tano as Anakin’s Padawan. While I prefer Phase II, Phase I has