Hey everyone! How's it going? Happy Friday! I hope you all had a great week. I did. Actually I had a busy week. I went to do groceries, got my flu shot and I have a video chat with a friend of mine tomorrow morning. Other stuff happened to, but I'm not here to talk about my week. Today I'm going to be looking at the first trade paperback volume of the 2006 comic book series, Star Wars: Legacy, Broken, as the first in a new series of reviews and discussions on Star Wars Legends, which was the original Expanded Universe that ran from 1976 until 2014 and spanned novels, comics, video games, TV shows, and TV movies. I'm going to be focusing more on the novels, because I've read more of them than I have the comics but that medium as well as the TV shows, TV movies, and video games will come into play from time to time. Like right now with Star Wars: Legacy. So let's get into it.
I first heard about Star Wars: Legacy in issue #87 of Star Wars Insider back in 2006. At the time Star Wars was in an interesting place. The prequel trilogy was over, we were just getting news about a potential animated Star Wars TV show, as well as a potential live action Star Wars TV show, but the movies were done and we hadn't found out that the animated TV show was going to launch with an animated theatrical film yet, I don't think. In case you're wondering, when I say "we" I mean all of us in the Star Wars fan community. Novels, comics and video games were still coming out at the time but the movies were done and at that point we knew that George Lucas wasn't going to be making a sequel trilogy with Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Billy Dee Williams reprising their iconic roles from the Original Trilogy. He had come right out and said it in interviews in 2005, shortly after Revenge of the Sith had come out.
So where was I in my Star Wars fandom and in life when Legacy started? Honestly, I was just getting out of high school and taking a year off before heading to college in the fall of 2007. However, I didn't start reading new comics again until 2009 and I was only reading Batman content from DC Comics at the time. In terms of my Star Wars fandom, my collecting days were actually kind of coming to an end. I had bought almost all of the Bantam era Legends novels and had just started picking up the books in the New Jedi Order series since all of them were in paperback by that point. But I couldn't keep up with all the novels that Del Rey was publishing however many times a year, which included all the ones outside of the New Jedi Order that I'd missed in the early to mid 2000s while I was in high school, having focused on trying to catch up on the Bantam era books that I'd missed in the '90s.
I also wasn't a big Star Wars comic book guy either. I had a few issues here and there that I'd gotten as gifts for birthdays and Christmas, but I didn't actively collect them. Mainly because I didn't have room for the single issues, most of the '90s trade paperbacks were out of print by then, and Ottawa didn't have anywhere near the amount of geek sales, comic book sales, or conventions that we do now. In fact we didn't have any in the mid to late 2000s. So I didn't have access to any of the older material. I was also borrowing the older Star Wars novels from the library as well, and they didn't have too many of the trade paperback collections either.
Because of all of this Legacy just kind of passed me by. I kept tabs on it through Star Wars Insider but the magazine wasn't covering the comics issue to issue, so I eventually lost track of it. But then, finally, two years ago, my buddy, Jonathan, let me borrow the first two Legacy trade paperbacks since he had the original editions from 2007. Then the pandemic happened and they've been in my possession ever since. Which is why I decided to start the Star Wars Legends Reviews with volume 1.
When I first read this book, I had a hard time getting into the story and characters. Mostly because it felt like they were just repeating stuff that happened in the prequels, the Original Trilogy, and the novels of the early 2000s, and none of the characters are even remotely likeable. Well, except for the princess, Marasiah Fel. Which is actually my problem with the Legends continuity starting with this comic book series and the novel series that ran concurrently with it, Legacy of the Force, but I'll get into that another time, because it ties in with why I stopped investing in Legends in the early 2010s, just before Disney announced they'd bought Lucasfilm and that they were throwing out the Legends continuity altogether.
Star Wars: Legacy takes place 125 years after Return of the Jedi and once again the Galactic Empire is in control of the galaxy because apparently the Emperor, Roan Fel, decided it would be a good idea to ally himself with the Sith, led by Darth Krayt. Let me repeat that. The Emperor, who isn't a Sith Lord who infiltrated the Imperial Remnant, the way Palpatine infiltrated the Republic, knowingly allied himself with the Sith. What the heck???? At least the Republic didn't know they'd elected Darth Sidious to be the Chancellor until AFTER the Clone Wars. Naturally, the Sith managed to wipe out the Jedi, for the millionth time, and now Emperor Fel and his daughter are on the run from Darth Krayt, who has declared himself Emperor after betraying Fel. See what I mean about things repeating themselves in Legends? Then again the Sequel Trilogy also repeats what happened before in many places, so I can't complain all that much about it.
Oh there's also a Skywalker in this era. His name is Cade and he was once a Jedi Apprentice, but came perilously close to the Dark Side when he attempted to heal his Master, Wolf Sazen during the final battle against the Sith. It scared him so much that he closed himself off from the Force and became a Bounty Hunter, who uses Deathsticks (cigarettes basically) and hallucinates the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker, or is actually visited by the Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker, it's not actually made all that clear in this volume what is happening in that regard. It's weird.
Despite my disbelief at the fact that the Emperor willingly allied himself with a Sith Lord, because the Empire never learns, I actually like this book alot more than I did when I first read it two years ago. I think that's because as a fan of Star Wars who hasn't delved into very much of the canon material beyond one book, the first twelve issues of the main comic book series, and of course the movies, I'm starting to appreciate what Legends was trying to do. Especially in the late 2000s and early 2010s, when they weren't allowed to kill off Han, Luke or Leia and the post-Return of the Jedi era was winding down with Han, Luke, Leia, and Lando all being elderly people. Legacy was the chance to really step away from the Original Trilogy era, though they still went back and wrote stuff that took place in between movies, and still do to this day.
Darth Krayt is a fascinating character. If I remember correctly from the articles in Star Wars Insider Krayt has a connection to the Clone Wars era as he was a Jedi Knight who survived Order 66 and turned to the Dark Side. I won't spoil who it is, because his non-Sith name isn't mentioned in this book, nor is it mentioned in Volume 2 (that I can remember anyway). Also, he's not a character I'm familiar with since, again, I haven't read very much of the comics from the 2000s. I'm sure other Legends fans, like the people from Youtini.com, can probably tell you more than I can about the actual lore beyond what I know from the New Jedi Order and the Bantam era, since I only have a passing familiarity with Legacy of the Force and Fate of the Jedi. Hopefully that will be remedied through these reviews. In this book, something is weakening Krayt, possibly similar to how Palpatine used up his clone bodies in Dark Empire II and Empire's End. Or maybe it has something to do with the Yuuzhan Vong from the New Jedi Order? I don't know, but I'm interested in finding out someday.
As for Cade and his crew, Syn, and Deliah Blue, honestly, Deliah is the character I like the most, because she isn't a complete jerk the way Cade and Syn are. Okay, I get that they're bounty hunters, but even Boba Fett has a code, and that code includes not being a jerk unless you've really done something to warrant it. Like Han and Lando did in The Hutt Gambit. Syn is just unbearable for most of this volume, especially when he finds out that Cade was once a Jedi.
Marasiah Fel is an interesting character. While she's a princess like Leia was, she is very different from Leia. While Leia grew up on Alderaan, with a father who opposed the Empire, Marasiah grew up in the Imperial Court. And yet, unlike Imperials we saw in the Bantam era, like Ysanne Isard, Admiral Daala, and Captain Pellaeon, Marasiah, or Sia as she is referred to, doesn't have that arrogance and swagger that the other Imperials do. She's confident but not over-confident. As a Force user, her skills rival the skills that the Jedi's best warriors had in combat. Which is cool. She also carries alot of guilt due to her father's decision to ally the Empire with the Sith.
The writer of this series is John Ostrander and the pencil artist is Jan Durrsema, who also created the story along with Ostrander. The artwork is amazing, and they both came up with a great story, even if it does repeat a bunch of things from the movies and previous Legends material.
My problem with this book though is a problem I have with Dark Horse trade paperbacks from the '90s and 2000s. They don't give chapter stops, so unless you bought the issues as they were coming out, you have no idea where one issue ends and the next begins. Volume 2 doesn't have that problem, but everything from Dark Empire to this book has this problem. The only reason I know where Dark Empire #2 ends, #3 begins and ends, and #4 begins is because I had issue #3 when I was a kid. Like I said, Volume 2 fixes that. At least for that volume. Dark Horse is really inconsistent with that. At least in their Star Wars books.
Overall, I'm glad I was able to re-read this book because like I said, I could not get into Star Wars: Legacy when I read these first two volumes a couple of years ago. I will get around to reviewing Volume 2 eventually, but with these Legends reviews, I'm going to be jumping around alot otherwise it would just end up being too tedious to read and review the novels in chronological order or even publication order. Especially the Bantam stuff and the early Del-Rey stuff from when the movies were first coming out in the '70s and '80s. As I write about each piece of Legends content, I'll try and give you my personal history with them because even though I haven't read or seen or played all of it, I have read, seen, and played a decent chunk of the material.
That my friends is going to be it for me for today. I will be back soon with another piece on some media from my childhood. Christmas is coming up, so I think I'll be starting the Christmas themed content very soon. I'm also reading Dune so I can talk about it on The Review Basement, along with the 1984 movie, and stay tuned because next week I'll be reviewing the 2011 movie Super 8, directed and written by JJ Abrams, and then in 12 days the premiere of Hawkeye drops, so I'll be talking about that over on The Review Basement as well. Lots of good content coming from me in the next few weeks. January will be when I start with the Legends reviews a little bit more though, because, like I said, I got Dune to review before the end of the year. In the meantime have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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