Welcome to Forces of Geek’s Road to Episode VII. We are approximately three months away from the release of the film and everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what the end result is going be.
This time we’re looking at three recent releases to the cannon including the last issue of Marvel’s Lando mini-series, the second issue of Star Wars: Shattered Empire, set after the events of Return of the Jedi and Paul S. Kemp’s novel, Star Wars: Lords of the Sith.
And be sure to come back tomorrow for a special review in honor of Star Wars Reads Day.
In the words of Obi-Wan himself, May The Force Be With You…
Star Wars: Shattered Empire #2
Writer: Greg Rucka
Art: Marco Checchetto
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
I’ve read and enjoyed many of the expanded universe books, now officially categorized as “Legends.”
However, I never took them as gospel since, in my mind, the Empire completely crumbled after Return of the Jedi. Not only is that now officially not true, but I felt silly for even thinking it had occurred for all these years.
Emperor Palpatine was driven by the power he gained thought complete control. He’s not going to give that up easily, and if he is forced to relinquish his hold on that power, you can damn well better believe that his contingency plans will have contingency plans.
Those who took it away from him would suffer like they never have before.
The book’s opening pages show the tense nature of the personnel aboard a Star Destroyer as its bridge is being evacuated.
The reason: so Emperor Palpatine can deliver a message from beyond the grave to one select person. This would have sounded cheesy reading it in a text-only format. It’s anything but, though, as the eerie ingenuity of it all was executed to perfection.
The artwork of Marco Checchetto takes center stage once again as an assault on an Imperial base 18 days removed from the Battle of Endor is filled with action and suspense as Y-Wing’s attempt to destroy an AT-AT that a squadron of A-Wings can barely scratch. Andres Mossa’s coloring unlocks the scene’s splendor as vibrant and select dark pallets augments the aerial twists, turns, and attack vectors of a dog fight.
My initial thoughts after reading the second installment of Shattered Empire is that Greg Rucka should write every Star Wars comic book from here on out.
On top of being an immensely talented author, the dude just gets Star Wars. All of the Journey to The Force Awakens material has it up and downs. If you can only read one story to fill in the gaps between Episode VI and Episode VII, Shattered Empire answers some old questions while presenting new ones that fans will desperately wanted answered.
Star Wars: Lando #5
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Alex Maleev
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
This five issue mini-series will go down as one of the surprise hits of 2015.
Lando Calrissian is a popular character, but you pretty much know what you’re going to get from this debonair stagiest. He will talk his way into and out of any situation to get what he wants and break a few hearts along the way.
Those who were hoping we would finally get to see how Lando lost the Millennium Falcon didn’t get their wish as this story takes place one year after the Battle of Yavin.
However, this particular tale was highly intriguing. Lando and Lobot stole a ship carrying a plethora of priceless artifacts.
Unbeknownst to them, that vessel was the personal spacecraft of Emperor Palpatine.
Yeah, I’m not sure how anyone can talk their way out of that situation. Various stories throughout the new canon has shown the urgency in which Palpatine conceals his true identity as a Sith lord. Soule teased many different avenues that Lando could have exploited, such as blackmail and espionage.
There were even subtle teases that suggested the series’ finale would have Lando getting caught, and Palpatine let him live on the condition that he owes him a big favor which would explain the Lando’s betrayal in the The Empire Strikes Back.
Charles Soule went a different path in this final installment, which added more depth to the titular character. We still got a lot of the core essential elements that makes Lando, Lando; such as tricking people into believing he doesn’t know how to use a blaster, only to be revealed as an excellent marksman.
Alex Maleev’s artwork is consistent and hits all of the right notes while the dim coloring of Paul Mount provided an aura of danger as Lando and search for a way off the ship, only to encounter treacherous traps that are strengthened by ancient Sith statue.
Marvel has had more hits than misses with their slate of Star Wars comics. If you were on the fence about reading this book, go out and buy them all right now. You won’t be disappointed.
Star Wars: Lords of the Sith
By Paul S. Kemp
Published by LucasBooks
Lords of the Sith is a cautionary that takes place 14 years before the Battle of Yavin and right before the events in James Luceno’s Tarkin.
I use the word cautionary as opposed to dark to describe the comings and goings of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine because if these characters were real and you wanted to kill them, this book would convince you to not only abandon your plans, but you wouldn’t dare to think of such a plot ever again.
The story revolves around the Twi’lek home world of Ryloth, that has succumb to Imperial control. The main protagonist is Cham Syndulla (Father of Hera from the Rebels animated series), a Twi’lek revolutionary that takes advantage of a rare opportunity and hatches an intricate plan to kill Vader and the Emperor.
Paul S. Kemp brilliantly highlights the darkness throughout the galaxy by not only examining the subtlety treacherous teacher and student relationship between the Sith lords.
Vader is one move ahead of everyone, and the Emperor is arrogantly two or even three moves ahead of his apprentice. There are times when Vader respected his master’s seemingly infinite wisdom, and there are other moments when the former Jedi Knight wondered if he was just another pawn.
These back-and-forth moments of degradation that are hidden under the guise of instruction raise the intensity to the nth degree. Then, just as it looks like Vader will continue to take the calculated verbal abuse, Vader puts the Emperor in check and my imagination ran wild with possibilities of what would happen next. Of course, nothing happened because of a little movie called Return of the Jedi. However, Kemp’s engrossing narrative makes you forget about what you know and immerses yourself in the story at hand.
The wonder of Vader and the Emperor working together truly takes form when they have to fight their way out of a nest of giant indigenous predators with exoskeletons called Lyleks. Kemp’s description of lightsaber strikes and Force powers being used in tandem will transport you to a front row seat inside this dark cavern.
Cham is a character that is well-realized due to the conviction he is instilled with. In moments when the Twi’lek teeters on taking things too far, he takes a step back and reminds himself that he is a “freedom fighter, not a terrorist.” That becomes extremely difficult when he witnesses the horrors that Darth Vader is capable of. Cham’s urgency to get rid of the Dark Lord increases with each turn of the page where he is the focus.
If you’ve watched the first episode of Rebels, season 2, Hera doesn’t recognize Vader, so it appears that either Cham never intended to tell his daughter about him or he never had the chance to do so.
It’s hard to get people interested in a story revolving around the peril of two characters when you know they are not going to die. However this had the additional hook of Vader and the Emperor having to fight their way out of trouble (something we’ve never seen) while being introduced to new characters that are intriguing, and add to the story in a substantial way. Paul S. Kemp not only made this concept work, he did so in a manner that will be hard to surpass.
