For those of you unaware, about a year ago Marvel brought back their line of Star Wars comics (with a vengeance) and as both an avid comic-book and Star Wars fan I have been reading them and am enjoying them a surprising amount. I grew up reading the original Marvel Star Wars comics (that, in hindsight, were all horrible) and then dipped in and out of the Dark Horse Star Wars comics over the years but never really felt like they truly evoked a Star Wars feel, something that the new comics have ups and downs with, but overall it feels pretty solid.
So far, the following have been released -
Journey To The Force - Shattered Empire
This is set immediately after the Battle of Endor, splits between Leia and Shara (Poe’s mother) back on Naboo and then helping out Luke with a mission to find some Jedi relevant stuff. I liked the fact this showed some of the chaos immediately after Endor but it felt kinda lightweight overall. I didn't realize initially that it was only 4 issues and felt a little short-changed when it ended. I did like seeing Leia fly the N-1, however, and it made me wonder if the universe really WOULD implode if FFG implemented it...
Star Wars
This ongoing series has various arcs and some of them have been better than others but overall it’s kept a Star Wars feel to the characters, if not to all the plots. There has been a bit of a tendency to show Luke as a Neo-like superhero but I think that's sort of natural when trying to add color to the character.
Darth Vader
Another ongoing series, this has been really great. It's a testament to the writing, but you can almost hear the mechanical breathing behind what’s his words and it’s kept fairly faithful to the spirit of the movies in terms of character, setting and aesthetic. This is, to my mind, the strongest of the comics to date.
Princess Leia
This centered around Leia trying to rescue survivors of Alderaan and although it was sort of weak in some respects, it did a good job showing the after-shock of having your planet destroyed. There was another female pilot in this and it felt like an echo from Shattered Empire and although it would have caused continuity friction, it would have been better to have Shara join Leia again. Recommended for directly after a ANH viewing with cheese
Chewbacca
This is a really light romp (no surprise when you can’t understand the titular character) but has been a lot of fun. The last issue isn’t out yet but shows Chewie helping out the needy on a random planet that we’ll never hear of again and although it has all the depth of a red-neck’s bath, it’s been a cute little read.
Lando
Full disclosure, I read one issue and dropped this one as it just felt sort of lazy – lookee, lookee, Lando has a caper! However, someone told me it actually picks up so I have issues 2-5 ready to read, soon as I find some time.
Kanan
The 3rd ongoing series, this has sort of been the surprise of the bunch – I read a few issues of this not expecting much but not only did it turn out to be better than expected but it got me to rewatch the pilot of Rebels, and now I’m a bigger fan of both. The first few arcs showed how Kanan escaped Order 66 but it is now in the current day and mixing nicely with the crew of the Ghost and flashbacks to The Clone Wars.
Vader Down
This has been fantastic, a cross-over between the ongoing Star Wars and Darth Vader titles. Vader is brought down on a planet swarming with Rebels and it shows their attempt to capture or kill him, none of which works as planned. When I read the synopsis for this I thought it sounded trite but has turned out to be way better than expected. Looking forward to the finale.
Upcoming are two more limited run series, an Obi-Wan and Anakin story and a C3PO one-shot, evidently detailing how he gets the red arm.
Overall, I have really been enjoying the series but I would say the only ongoing book I’d strongly recommend would be Darth Vader, and as obvious as it sounds, the limited series are probably best reserved for those that genuinely like or care about those characters or Star Wars die-hards. Not sure they really progress the stories, the character backgrounds or the canon of anything contained to consider them a “must read” and can’t think of a single detail that really affected how I saw TFA or anything that made me considered a ret-con or backdrop. I'm hoping that future series will build around stuff we've seen in TFA to add more depth and color but we'll see what they come up with. I read somewhere else that no matter what Marvel does, their comics still always feel like superhero comics and although I wouldn't say that's 100% true here, there is an element of that as an undercurrent.
Anyway, my boring conference call is coming to an end and I have to do some real work - so, who else has read any or all of them and what are your thoughts? Which would you recommend, which would you avoid (with hindsight) and what would you like to see from future comics.
Edited by Bojanglez