Star Wars: Legacy
October 12th 2007 00:09
Category: Movies
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics.
Production Team: Jan Duursema – pencils/story, John Ostrander – text/story, Dan Parsons - inks, Brad Anderson – colours, Michael David Thomas – letters and Adam Hughes – cover art.
Cost: $US 2.99/$AU5.75.
Originally Marvel Comics were the first to give Star Wars the comic treatment; they focused primarily on the main characters of the saga and staying with the era of episodes IV, V and VI. Yet despite the popularity of the movies Marvel’s Star Wars comics eventually faded into obscurity, the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo et al were longer told on the printed page. Fast forward to the nineties and the emergence of Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse took up the Star Wars universe and began taking it in directions that Marvel had never considered. New characters emerged, new worlds emerged and new history emerged as Dark Horse didn’t just remain within the era defined by the original three movies nor did they remain with the central characters of the movies as their focus. They travelled several thousand years into the past of the Star Wars universe and began telling the tales of the ancient Sith civilization and its empire and the age long war between them and the Jedi Order.
Now Dark Horse has decided to take their comic franchise of the Star Wars universe in the opposite direction; into the future. Star Wars Legacy is set one hundred and thirty years after the events of the first Star Wars movie at a time where the Empire is once again resurgent within the galaxy and the Sith long believed to have faded into the mists of time have returned to shatter the Jedi Order, scattering the few survivors across known space. Naturally with such a setting most of the familiar characters form the movies are no longer, though a few have managed to make it through to the pages of Legacy. Luke Skywalker makes an appearance as a disembodied entity ala Obi Wan Kenobi in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi and the ubiquitous R2D2 ends up becoming the sidekick of the main protagonist within the series.
Cade Skywalker is the central character within the series, the descendant of Luke Skywalker and heir to the Skywalker legacy. As the series opens Cade is a bounty hunter and former pirate working for the Dread Pirate Rav, he has turned his back on his Jedi heritage after seeing his father and fellow Jedi students massacred by the Sith and their allies on the planet of Ossus. The Ossus Massacre as it becomes known is the culmination of the Sith’s re-emergence on the galactic scene and the sudden take over of the Empire. Thus it mirrors effectively the original movie where the protagonists were in a galaxy dominated by an imperial power ruled by the paragons of the dark side; the Sith.
Despite being the heir to most powerful family of force users known Cade is something of a broken man, when we first see him he is something of a mercenary hooked on death sticks by his boss Rav and seemingly drifting aimlessly through life looking more for that one big score than trying to make his mark on the galaxy. His two compatriots Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn are in a similar situation being down on their luck and always looking around for the next big score to break out from under the influence of Rav. Fortunately neither Syn nor Blue has the additional burden of being death stick users. What they don’t realise is that Cade predominantly uses this narcotic not so much out of a need for them; but to deaden his connection to the force and also to prevent the visitations of his ancestor Luke Skywalker.
Naturally being a Skywalker Cade has a destiny and he has been avoiding that destiny hoping to fade into obscurity and not drawn down the unwanted attention of the Sith. Unfortunately for him the force has other ideas, the leader of the Sith; Darth Krayt already has some inkling of Cade’s existence and that is an event which is confirmed after Cade, his crew and two passengers they take on board their vessel have an encounter with Darth Talon. Talon survives her clash with the former Jedi and his allies only to return to her master and inform him that a Skywalker lives and is able to wield the force.
Though this seems to be the main thrust of the series, the voyage of self discovery that Cade slowly undertakes it is not the sole focus of the series. There is also the fact that despite having seized the Imperial Throne Darth Krayt was unable to kill the previous incumbent. That person was the Emperor Roan Fel who managed to escape being killed by the Dark Lord and made his way to a system where he could rally to his cause supporters and forces. As a result a guerrilla war was begun against the Sith by the supporters of the deposed emperor. Once again we see another mirror of the original movie, where the galaxy is undergoing civil strife but the twist is that the strife is not a dual sided conflict and that two of the sides involved are simply factions of a divided Empire.
All in all the actual look of Star Wars Legacy is great, the team who produce the comic Jan Duursema, John Ostrander et al have given the reader something that looks and feels like they have a movie in their hands. The comics have a cinematic feel to them, characters have an expressive and active feel to them, and the background feels dynamic and alive. Reading each issue of the series is fairly much like watching a movie with the production values that have been employed, it draws you in and you can pretty much hear the theme song trailing away in the background as you start on the first page.
Production Team: Jan Duursema – pencils/story, John Ostrander – text/story, Dan Parsons - inks, Brad Anderson – colours, Michael David Thomas – letters and Adam Hughes – cover art.
Cost: $US 2.99/$AU5.75.
Originally Marvel Comics were the first to give Star Wars the comic treatment; they focused primarily on the main characters of the saga and staying with the era of episodes IV, V and VI. Yet despite the popularity of the movies Marvel’s Star Wars comics eventually faded into obscurity, the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo et al were longer told on the printed page. Fast forward to the nineties and the emergence of Dark Horse Comics, Dark Horse took up the Star Wars universe and began taking it in directions that Marvel had never considered. New characters emerged, new worlds emerged and new history emerged as Dark Horse didn’t just remain within the era defined by the original three movies nor did they remain with the central characters of the movies as their focus. They travelled several thousand years into the past of the Star Wars universe and began telling the tales of the ancient Sith civilization and its empire and the age long war between them and the Jedi Order.
Despite being the heir to most powerful family of force users known Cade is something of a broken man, when we first see him he is something of a mercenary hooked on death sticks by his boss Rav and seemingly drifting aimlessly through life looking more for that one big score than trying to make his mark on the galaxy. His two compatriots Deliah Blue and Jariah Syn are in a similar situation being down on their luck and always looking around for the next big score to break out from under the influence of Rav. Fortunately neither Syn nor Blue has the additional burden of being death stick users. What they don’t realise is that Cade predominantly uses this narcotic not so much out of a need for them; but to deaden his connection to the force and also to prevent the visitations of his ancestor Luke Skywalker.
Naturally being a Skywalker Cade has a destiny and he has been avoiding that destiny hoping to fade into obscurity and not drawn down the unwanted attention of the Sith. Unfortunately for him the force has other ideas, the leader of the Sith; Darth Krayt already has some inkling of Cade’s existence and that is an event which is confirmed after Cade, his crew and two passengers they take on board their vessel have an encounter with Darth Talon. Talon survives her clash with the former Jedi and his allies only to return to her master and inform him that a Skywalker lives and is able to wield the force.
Though this seems to be the main thrust of the series, the voyage of self discovery that Cade slowly undertakes it is not the sole focus of the series. There is also the fact that despite having seized the Imperial Throne Darth Krayt was unable to kill the previous incumbent. That person was the Emperor Roan Fel who managed to escape being killed by the Dark Lord and made his way to a system where he could rally to his cause supporters and forces. As a result a guerrilla war was begun against the Sith by the supporters of the deposed emperor. Once again we see another mirror of the original movie, where the galaxy is undergoing civil strife but the twist is that the strife is not a dual sided conflict and that two of the sides involved are simply factions of a divided Empire.
All in all the actual look of Star Wars Legacy is great, the team who produce the comic Jan Duursema, John Ostrander et al have given the reader something that looks and feels like they have a movie in their hands. The comics have a cinematic feel to them, characters have an expressive and active feel to them, and the background feels dynamic and alive. Reading each issue of the series is fairly much like watching a movie with the production values that have been employed, it draws you in and you can pretty much hear the theme song trailing away in the background as you start on the first page.
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