The Armchair Squid: Star Wars Comics: Crimson Empire #5-6, X-Wing Rogue Squadron #30-35, Mara Jade #1-4, Jedi Academy #1

Monday, August 9, 2021

Star Wars Comics: Crimson Empire #5-6, X-Wing Rogue Squadron #30-35, Mara Jade #1-4, Jedi Academy #1

With this stretch, I've wrapped up two strong series and begun, at least so far, two strong new ones. I'm a little sad for the end of the X-Wing series, definitely my favorite so far. By the end, they were trying to do too much: too many characters, too many threads, three - or was it four? - simultaneous romantic tales. It was at its best when it settled on a narrow focus for a while. In fact, in my experience, that's pretty much always the case in comic books.

I don't need to be too wistful about Crimson Empire because I'll be starting the second series soon.

Mara Jade might very well be the single best character introduced between the original and prequel movie trilogies. Timothy Zahn deserves the credit, having invented her for his Thrawn book trilogy. The truth is, quite a lot of badass female Star Wars characters were introduced in the '90s - heroes, villains and, best of all, in between. Unfortunately, Padme was a step backwards in that regard but perhaps these others were important precursors for Rey further down the line.

The greatest contribution by the Dark Horse comic books to the broader franchise was the fleshing out of an ancient history for the Jedi/Sith struggle. While I tired of that thread after a bit, Jedi Academy has renewed my curiosity. It's actually the latest in the timeline of any series I've explored so far but it's well grounded in the earlier legends.

My Recent Reads

Crimson Empire #5

Originally published April 15, 1998

Writers: Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley

Artist: Paul Gulacy

In-Story Timeline: 11 ABY