Star Wars: Union (1999, Dark Horse) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Wednesday. I haven't done one of these for a while, but I'm back with a comic book review. Today I'm taking a look at the 1999 comic book miniseries, Star Wars: Union, published by Dark Horse Comics. I read it from the original trade paperback collection, which a friend of mine lent me. So, let's get into it.

Written by Michael A. Stackpole, with art by Robert Teranishi, Union was written not only as a bookend to the Bantam era of Star Wars novels, which had ended earlier that year with Starfighters of Adumar, but also as a bridge between the Bantam era and The New Jedi Order series, which Del Rey had begun to publish only a month before the first issue of this miniseries came out. It was also the first of the last three Star Wars projects that Stackpole ever worked on.

In Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn (1998, Bantam Spectra), Luke Skywalker proposed to Mara Jade, in a rather unusual, but totally Star Wars way, and at the end of the book, which was the final book in the Bantam era within the in universe Expanded Universe chronology, the couple began making plans for the wedding. But, the next time we see them in Vector Prime by R.A. Salvatore (1999, Del Rey), they're married and have been for about six years. Of course, within the chronology both the Junior Jedi Knights series and the Young Jedi Knights series take place between Vision of the Future and Vector Prime. But they had both begun publication in 1995, with the last Junior Jedi Knights book being published in 1997 and the last Young Jedi Knights book being published in 1998, just after Vision of the Future came out. So the marriage between Luke and Mara hadn't been thought of yet. Especially not when both of those series began in 1995. As a result, this comic book series was published to bridge the gap between the two publishing eras, since Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights aren't included in the Legends novels timeline anymore, even though they actually were when this comic book series was published and continued to be until 2004 or 2005, for whatever reason.

So this series actually deals with everyone preparing for Luke and Mara's wedding. We see Han, Leia, R2-D2, C-3PO, Chewie, Jacen, Jaina, Anakin, Wedge, Iella, and their kids, Myri and Syal, both of whom would play major roles in the final X-Wing novel, Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston (2012, Del Rey), Corran, Mirax, and their child, Valin, who would play roles in both The New Jedi Order (1999-2003, Del Rey), and Fate of the Jedi (2009-2012, Del Rey), and pretty much every New Republic officer, politician, and ally ever introduced in the novels up to this point. Borsk Fey'lya even makes a cameo appearance, though unlike in the novels, he doesn't say a word in this miniseries. He just appears next to Mon Mothma as she arrives at the venue for the wedding. Talon Karrde, Booster Terrik, all of Rogue Squadron, Winter, everyone from the novels show up. No Pellaeon, Thrawn or Daala though. Naturally there are some bad guys trying to stop the wedding, but it's nothing major. In fact, kinda like Oliver Queen and Dinah Lance's wedding in the DC Universe, where Superman, and some of the Green Lanterns go outside to deal with attacking villains, Wedge, Chewie, Corran, Rogue Squadron, and Kam Solusar (one of Luke's Jedi apprentices from Yavin 4) deal with the majority of the bad guys, while Luke talks down the supposed mastermind of the attack. Basically these guys aren't Thrawn, Isard, Daala, or Moff Disra (the main antagonist in Timothy Zahn's Specter of the Past and Vision of the Future).

There aren't any space battles in this miniseries. The majority of the story takes place on Coruscant, though the bad guys are Imperials and come from a planet called Dolis 3, which is a planet inside the borders of the Imperial Remnant. I guess Stackpole chose not to go too big with this series, and I think it works wonderfully. I'm not familiar with the artist, Robert Teranishi's work, but apparently he did the art for the one shot Qui-Gon Jinn comic that Dark Horse published as part of the marketing campaign for Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace when the movie came out in May of 1999. Honestly, Teranishi does a wonderful job with the art in this book. His style is more photo realistic. So Luke looks like Luke, Han looks like Han, Leia looks like Leia, and Wedge looks like Wedge. Which is something than be difficult to do. Especially because comics in the '90s still generally looked very cartoony, despite the medium having become more mature in the mid to late '80s. 

I actually first became aware of Star Wars: Union in the article done on the book in issue #47 of Star Wars Insider, which just happened to have a live action Mara Jade on the front cover, as the character was going to be appearing in the Star Wars Customizable Card Game from Decipher and the model hired to portray the character, Shannon Baksa, was interviewed alongside Timothy Zahn in that issue. I was never able to get my hands on the single issues. When I got this issue of Star Wars Insider it was probably early 2000, though the issue itself was published in either September or October, 1999 (the cover date is December 1999/January 2000) and the comic started coming out in November, 1999. I wasn't actually getting comics anymore at this point, though the hobby store that my dad still goes to today, still sold comics, and that's where I got a good chunk of my childhood comic book collection, though the Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man comics I had were all bought at the CHEO gift shop. So I just never got my hands on the miniseries. I also wasn't aware of the trade paperback collection either.

Speaking of the trade paperback collection, that's how I read the miniseries today. My buddy, Jonathan, lent it to me over the summer, at the same time he lent me the Dark Forces graphic album trilogy, and the copy he lent me is the first edition. Which is cool, because I think this edition has been out of print for quite sometime as it was republished in 2008 as part of the 30th Anniversary Collection, and was reprinted in the Marvel Epic Collection, The New Republic Vol. 7. 

I really enjoyed this story. Despite being four issues, this miniseries is actually pretty short. I mean, most Star Wars trade paperbacks published by Dark Horse are, but this one was a really fast read. I enjoyed it though. I wasn't expecting it to do the stuff it did, given that this is a Star Wars comic. It was nice to have this story be as low key as it is. I've said it many times in previous posts, but the smaller, more character centric stories are what draws me into fiction the most, no matter what medium I'm experiencing the story in. Though oddly enough it was the expansion of the universe in the novels that got me into Star Wars in the first place. Definitely recommend reading this comic.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I have a movie review planned for tomorrow, and then my final Star Trek pilot/premiere episode review coming up on Friday. And then we'll see from there. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.