Star Wars-The Big Question-Who are Rey’s parents? *possible spoilers!*

Along with the background of villain Supreme Leader Snoke, this is probably the no.1 question on Star Wars fan’s minds….who were Rey’s parents?

 

Rey is introduced in “The Force Awakens” living alone on Jaaku, collecting junk from the long-ago battle (chronicled in many Star Wars novels and games by now) and selling it for food. She also appeared to be semi-raised by Unkar Platt, but like with Watto and Anakin there’s little love lost between the two.

We know that Rey was left on Jaaku by her parents, as revealed in the force vision in Maz’s castle. We don’t know anything really beyond that, except that she was waiting on Jaaku for them to come back, and once she embarked on her journey, she was often adamant about going back in case they showed up. How and why are of course still unknown.

 

 

 

 

Let’s look at some of the candidates.

 

Luke

Of course, the big one, and perhaps the most obvious. Luke of course might have had reasons for leaving her behind (although it’s fairly implied by some sources that Luke’s exile/Ben’s fall is fairly recent, about 5 years before, and Rey is born considerably earlier).  If Luke is the father, makes you wonder who the mother is; and while Luke of course got married and had a son (and also apparently didn’t age for twenty years) in the now non-canon Expanded Universe legends stuff (His Jedi order was a bit different on the attachment/marriage issue)….

…Maybe his giving away of Rey has something to do with the Jedi rules forbidden attachment? Although of course Luke’s attachment to his father brought him back to the light in the end, Anakin’s fear about Padme’s death drove him in part to the dark side. Maybe Luke in this continuity is trying to follow the old Jedi rules? Then again, wouldn’t his nephew, Ben (Who, ironically, is the name of his son in the “Legends” stuff) count?

 

Certainly Rey being related to Luke would explain why the Lightsaber “calls” to her, and her affinity for the force. The second trailer for “The Force Awakens” also used Luke’s line from ROTJ, although edited a bit. “The force is strong in my family. My father has it. I have it. My sister has it. You have that power too”. Although of course nothing was revealed in TFA regarding that (Unless you count Ben/Kylo, as he’s that same bloodline as well), it still makes you think….

Plus of course Rey’s also a good pilot and mechanic, which of course also apply to Anakin and Luke…. (although I wouldn’t say piloting is genetic…)

 

But it could also apply to….

 

Han and Leia

I gotta admit, this one’s considerably more far-fetched and unlikely. Rey’s a good pilot and pretty much the new captain of the Millennium Falcon, and of course saw Han as a father figure. While many also speculated that Rey was their daughter in the initial buildup to TFA, neither Han or Leia seems to have any family connection. Also, why would they dump their daughter behind and simply raise Ben? Although the Falcon eventually ends up on Jaaku, I’m thinking there isn’t any connection here either. Although being a good pilot and a Jedi are both attributes of their “Legends” daughter, Jaina Solo…..(Who almost got her own book series before the Lucasfilm sale to Disney pulled the plug).

 

 

Obi-Wan Kenobi

While this one’s also far-fetched, it’s gained a bit of traction, and could explain why we hear Ben’s voice-in a mix of Alec Guiness(“Rey!”) and Ewan Mcgregor’s (“There are your first steps”) when her force vision ends. While Kenobi of course is shown to be a pretty straight-laced Jedi in the films, the “Clone Wars” series established that Obi-Wan had a past relationship with the queen of Mandalore, Satine (Which is said to not be an intentional Moulin Rouge reference, but it just seems like a major coincidence if it isn’t)

 

 

….and nearly left the Jedi Order for her (presumably during his apprenticeship under Qui-Gon). The two were reunited during the wars, and still had some feelings for each other, although Obi-Wan of course was committed to the Jedi Order. Their story forms an interesting parallel to Anakin/Padme’s. Unfortunately, Satine is later killed.

 

 

Although Satine leaves no heirs, this does show that Obi-Wan, much like his apprentice-but with less recklessness and anger-was sometimes willing to ‘bend’ the rules of the order just a bit….and so it’s possible he might’ve gotten in a relationship during his exile on Tatooine-or perhaps even earlier? That could’ve produced a son or daughter who might also be one of Rey’s parents. (He’s a bit too old and dead to be Rey’s direct parent, unless we’re talking something like Anakin’s birth). It also could explain Rey’s British accent.

 

 

Palpatine

While Palpatine never is shown to have taken an Empress or any form of female relationship, several of the old “Legends” expanded universe books did imply that he did possibly have heirs. They were….a bit odd, to say the least….Triclops, Triocolous from the strange YA books, and Irek Ismaren, AKA “Lord Nyax”, whose eventual form in the New Jedi Order books looks more like a video game boss than a believable Star Wars villain.

 

 

The last two ended up as pretenders to the throne, although the first one was kind of legit. Anyway, like with Kenobi, it’s possible, although somewhat more unlikely, and would form an interesting link with Kylo Ren-both being the grandchildren of Sith Lords….

Snoke

Here’s another theory, that Rey is possibly related to Snoke somehow. Granted, we don’t know much about Snoke quite yet, although he does appear to have a larger-and more corporeal-role in The Last Jedi. Could his talk of “raw power” be him talking to Rey?

 

“When I found you, I saw raw, untamed power. And beyond that, something truly special.”

Somehow supported by Luke later on, talking to Rey…

“I’ve seen this raw strength only once before. It didn’t scare me then. It does now.”

Of course, in both instances this could be referring to Kylo Ren….but maybe not?

 

Jyn Erso

This gained a bit of traction before Rogue One came out, due in part to her similar looks and accent. Since then, not so much, for good reason .

 

 

Idien Verso and Del Meeko

This is a new one.

 

Spoilers for Battlefront II-these two former Imperial “Inferno Squad” special forces members who eventually defect to the rebel alliance, fall in love, and apparently get married and have a daughter, although Meeko eventually meets his end at Kylo Ren’s hand. An upcoming DLC will continue her story. Some fans of course assume that the daughter might be Rey, but  I think that’s a bit far fetched. Even though the “Lucasfilm story group” generally keeps the movies/comics/novels/games tightly connected these days compared to the old EU, with several characters crossing over (Admiral Rae Sloane, for instance) I seriously doubt they’d have such an important plot point be relegated to spin-off media that will probably be seen by a fraction of the viewing audience. Although there is a bit of precedent for this-Poe Dameron’s parents were revealed in a Marvel Star Wars comic, Shattered Empire.

But let’s face it, Poe’s parentage isn’t exactly a big deal, and from all accounts he was raised pretty normally by these people (and of course inherited his mother’s piloting skills) as opposed to Rey and Finn. So it’s not a huge plot point like Rey’s parents.

 

Just Some ordinary people

In Marvel comics history, part of the reason that Steve Ditko left the Amazing Spider-Man is that he had a different idea for the reveal of the man behind the mask of the Green Goblin-he would just be some ordinary guy Peter Parker didn’t know. Stan Lee however, decided to have him be Norman Osborn, a character introduced a few issues before, and the father of Peter’s college friend, Harry Osborn.

So perhaps the ‘reveal’ will be something like Ditko’s original plan for the character, and not some “big reveal” like Stan’s plan, or of course, that other famous Star Wars revelation….

So maybe the parents aren’t that important or any character we’re aware of at all, maybe they couldn’t care for Rey somehow, didn’t care to, gave her to Platt to pay off some debt etc. or were scared of her force powers or something.

There was no father.

One of the other theories that’s a bit weird is that Rey doesn’t have a parent, or even that she’s actually a reincarnation of Anakin, and that maybe it’s the force making amends for kind of screwing up that whole thing in the first place.

While an interesting theory, it just seems a bit weird even for Star Wars, although I’m sure the film will delve into some arcane Jedi lore, if the shots in the trailer of the books in Luke’s tree are any indication. But something kind of feels a bit too hokey about this one. And it would certainly make the training a bit awkward for Luke.

 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi-Full Trailer thoughts

 

The latest trailer-and poster-for The Last Jedi just debuted. Here’s some thoughts and speculation.

 

Ren smashing his helmet into the Imperial-style lights what appears to be a First Order elevator….explaining this shot….and why the helmet is smoldering.

Speaking of Kylo-who gets a lot of focus in this trailer-we also get this shot of him looking out at what appears to be a First Order hanger.

Vader looking out a window at something was of course used quite a few times in the trilogy and ROTS…

 

 

And the prequels even had a few nods to it:

 

Although this is far from Kylo’s first rodeo with this thing.

The new model walkers, the MT-A6. Curiously you can see what appears to be smaller walkers-which resemble more closely the AT-ATs (Although with some small changes in the middle and the head it seems). As well as Kylo’s shuttle floating above. One of the big worries about the film is that it might mirror EMPIRE in a similar fashion that TFA does with ANH. This is pretty much the biggest evidence that it might.

Rey doing some Jedi moves.

Luke looking amazed as Rey seems to be cracking the rocks under her….

….and her raw power scares him, something that didn’t happen before…. (and what’s that emblem on the floor?)

….when presumably his own Jedi training facility was destroyed. Also, we kind of know what happened to the flesh on his robot hand now.

Resistance capital ships, which resemble the Rebellion’s old ships-The Mon Calamari cruiser, an escort frigate and possibly a transport-the ship dying on the left there.

Ren’s personal fighter, the TIE silencer. Seems to spin a bit, a “neat trick” he seems to inherited from both his grandfather and his father.

Kylo about to fire on Leia’s ship, but hesitates. Also wearing what appears to be the Star Wars version of a band aid.

 

Leia appears to be using the force to attempt to reach out to her son.

Leia’s expression here definitely reminds me of when we first see her using the force in ESB (although a bit more focused). Looks like telepathy is the main force trait she seems to have. Due to Carrie’s death I don’t think we’ll see Leia with a lightsaber and levitating stuff though.

Finn’s X-wing now seems to be equipped with a speed booster. Hopefully he’ll get more to do this time.

Finn fighting with Phasma using a riot weapon similar to the “Traitor!” Stormtrooper that used it against him in ESB. Phasma has some sort of spear, and it’s nice to know she’s getting her own action scene.

More of the space battles from the other trailer, although here we get a clearer look at the new First Order “Star dreadnought”.

Luke angirly telling Rey (“This isn’t going to happen the way you want it to!)

Some weird kind of crystalline wolf beings heading toward some kind of hanger on Crait, which seems to be one of the key locations of the film-it’s sand seems to kick up some red dust, which seems to have informed the look of the poster. Presumabely, some comic will reveal that it’s an old rebel base or something like that.

Leia looking a bit worried-perhaps about some upcoming battle?

Falcon evading some TIES, possibly on Crait judging by the crystalline/red stuff the planet seems to have.

 

Finn presumabely on his First Order infiltration mission. There doesn’t appear to be any sign of Rose, or his other mission on the “Casino planet” of Casio Bight in this trailer.

The first Order assembly, similar to their last assembly in TFA but also highly remiscent of the ROTJ scene of the Empire gathering for Palpatine’s arrival. Also, looks like the first Order’s version of the AT-ST in a few places, prominently on the right.

 

 

Snoke, in the flesh this time, lifting and using the force on Rey. Looks pretty painful for Rey.

 

 

 

And the trailer’s currently most talked about scene. Rey wondering what her part to play in all this is….and Kylo holding out his hand.

 

 

 

A light side redemption for Kylo, perhaps brought about by his hesitation to kill Leia? Or is it the other way around….a dark side fall for Rey? Or two shots just edited to give that impression somehow?

 

We’ll see, I suppose.

Curiously, the new poster seems to be somewhat similar to “Return of the Jedi”-with Luke in Vader’s spot, Rey and Ren sort of being similar to Luke and Han (Although Rey’s lightsaber is angled downward) Leia in pretty much the same spot (although more covered up!) and fighters on the ground on Crait instead of fighters in space. The poster also seems to put the good guys on the left (Rey, Chewie, Finn BB8, R2, 3PO and the bad ones on the right…(Ren, Hux, Snoke’s guards, the first order BB unit, and Phasma,with curiously, Poe on the right. Could another hero be heading down a dark path?

 

Legends of Star Wars: Post-Return of the Jedi – or”Duel of the Original Trilogy Fates” Part I

*Spoilers for the books and the new films*

 

In this series of articles, I’ll examine how the recently “de-canonized” Expanded Universe-the pre-Disney books, comics, video games etc. dealt with areas of Star Wars not covered by the movies-and how they compare to Disney’s ‘new canon’, which is composed of mainly, at this point:

1. The saga films-Episodes I-9, with 8 and 9 still in production
2. Spin-offs, such as Rogue One
3. The 2008-2013 Clone Wars TV series and film
4. The Rebels animated series
5. Del Rey’s post-2014 novels
6. The Star Wars comics by Marvel from 2014 onward

The old stuff is still sold, but is now branded with the term “Legends” to distinguish it from the Disney product.

Anyway, I’ll start mainly with character comparisons. These will mainly deal with the “Big three” OT characters for now, and pretty much only deal with their fates as of “Force Awakens”. I’ll probably provide a follow-up for “Last Jedi” at some point next year. Future articles will deal with other characters, settings, other comparisons etc.

 

Luke Skywalker

In both versions, Luke goes about re-building the Jedi Order. However, there’s one key difference.

He’s actually successful. He builds a sort of Jedi Academy on Yavin IV in the ruins of the old Rebel Base (which is later moved into the old Temple on Coruscant). Although it has a few bumps in the road- students (and Luke briefly) going to the dark side, interference from the New Republic, Imperial attacks, Yavin IV pretty much getting invaded or attacked by Imperial remnants and Vong etc. Luke’s order actually lasts a pretty long time, until the events of the “Legacy” series. Luke even settles down and marries his former enemy Mara Jade, and they have a son, Ben Skywalker, although Mara eventually is killed.

 

Luke’s Jedi Order in the Force Awakens? Not so lucky.

In both cases, Luke has to go into exile, but for different reasons, although they both involve Han Solo’s son going to the dark side.

In the “Fate of the Jedi” series, he is exiled after not only does his nephew Jacen go to the dark side and becomes a Sith Lord who plunges the galaxy once again into war, but also a group of Jedi start to go a bit mental shortly thereafter, and he takes the heat for it. He eventually is freed from this though, although he does take the oppurtunity to try to figure out exactly why his Nephew went bad, and discovers interesting new force users-and a new group of Sith-on the way.

 

In “Force Awakens” we learn that his Nephew Ben Solo fell to the Dark side, became Kylo Ren and killed (or also brought over to the dark side?) his students, although it’s not quite clear when this happened prior to the film. His exile seems to be self-imposed, although for some reason he’s looking for the original Jedi temple or something.

 

Han Solo/Chewbacca

 

In both continuties, Han marries Leia shortly after the events of “Return of the Jedi”. They remain more or less hapilly married (although with a few bumps in the road), and have three kids: The twins Jaina and Jacen, and Anakin (Named after his grandfather). Also, if the cover’s any indication (This novel is set around the same time as “Force Awakens” in the other timeline), he seems to be have aged a bit more gracefully. Although Chewbacca dies (more on that later  on) Anakin is killed during a Jedi mission, and Jacen goes to the dark side and is also killed by his sister no less, Han still keeps it together, with him and Leia even semi-adopting their granddaughter, Jacen’s daughter with fellow Jedi Tenel Ka.

 

Force Awaken’s Han Solo is a bit more down on his luck. After Ben went to the dark side and became Kylo Ren, he became estranged from Leia, and went back to smuggling with Chewbacca. He even got the Millenium Falcon stolen! However, the events of “The Force Awakens” help him to make a difference again, and he tries to redeem his son.

Now here’s where another thing is a bit different: Death.

 

In the novel series “The New Jedi Order” Chewbacca sacrifices himself saving Anakin Solo, and then gets crushed to death by a moon. This leaves Han devestated for a time, but he eventually is able to pull himself back together and help defeat the Yuzzhan Vong.

Movie Han? Once again, not so lucky.

Chewbacca unfortunately has to mourn for his friend, but not before knocking out a few Stormtroopers and also injuring his “nephew” Kylo Ren. After a period of mourning, he also accepts that life goes on and accepts Rey as the new Captain of the Falcon as they head to find Luke.

 

 

Princess Leia

In both cases, Leia becomes a politician for a time before moving onto other things, and eventually marries Han shortly after “Return of the Jedi”, and pretty much everything I wrote for Han in that period applies here too. In both cases, Leia eventually mostly leaves politics behind after a time, and here’s a key difference. In the novels, she decides to accept her Jedi inheritance fully at last, although after her kids become Jedi.

In the new continuity, Leia also leaves politics although in this case, it’s in part because a scandal reveals that she’s the daughter of Darth Vader to everyone, especially when she takes a hard line on the growing threat of the First Order. Also estranged from Han, she forms her own small force, the Resistance, becoming “General Organa”. Although not a Jedi, she still has force skills, as we see her ‘feel’ the death of Han (or alternatively Ben/Kylo’s feelings). Of course, her main quest in addition to fighting the First Order? Finding her brother so he can help her sort out this mess.

 

Unfortunately, with the death of actress Carrie Fisher (Although she had filmed her “Last Jedi” scenes, Leia’s fate in the sequel trilogy is in a state of flux now. But we’ll see what happens.

Star Wars Comics history-River of Chaos

 

Along with many of their longer-running titles-Dark Empire, Tales of the Jedi, Rogue Squadron and the later Legacy, Republic, Knights of the Old Republic series etc. Dark Horse also printed several limited series. One of these we’ll look into is “River of Chaos”, which featured Princess Leia in a supporting role. The series was written by Louise Simonson, who wrote the X-men spin-offs X-factor and New Mutants. For this series she was joined by June Brigham, her frequent partner and co-creator of the Marvel comic Power Pack. Brigham’s especially good at drawing the technology in this series.

 

 

“River” deals in part with Ranulf Trommer, a TIE fighter pilot hero who is sent to spy by the Empire on a planetary Moff (Star Wars speak for “Governor”) that the higher-ups believe is corrupt. However, the governor is wise to the scheme thanks to his own spies, and in turns sets Ranulf into a ambush, where he’s unexpectedly rescued by a local mechanic named Mora (raised by the local species, a force-sensitive species known as the M’ Haeli who sort of see the Force as a “river” of sorts) and the local rebel group organized by Leia.

Turns out the Moff is running an illegal mining corporation, and Ranulf believes if he exposes the Moff than the Empire will shut down his operation-and hopefully appoint a new, ‘nicer’ Moff in his place. He also begins to fall for Mora and become more sympathetic to the Rebel cause while Leia and co. not only have to deal with Grigor’s forces but a deadly bounty Hunter after them as well. (It also turns out Mora is the lost heir to the human population the planet, to boot). Eventually, after being tortured by Grigor and escaping, he reveals his true self to the Rebels-and although the Empire arrives and Grigor’s actions are exposed (and he himself killed) it’s clear that the Empire taking better control isn’t a good thing-they are, after all, the Empire!-especially as they want to get rid of Mora as she represents a threat to their interests and has been working with the Rebels. So Trommer betrays the Empire and formerly joins the Rebel Alliance with the help of Mora and Leia.

 

 

 

 

Star Wars-Those we’ve lost-Part one

Star Wars has spanned several decades, and unfortunately, some of the actors have passed on over time. Carrie Fisher is the latest, and perhaps the most noticeable, as she was one of the lead actors in the film series. Her influence on film, as well as her personal influence as a writer and activist cannot be underestimated.

 

Here’s a look at some of the other Star Wars actors who have unfortunately passed.

 

Kenny Baker passed away in August 2016 at the age of 81. He operated R2-D2, although in later films a lot of his work was sometimes replaced by remote control, he still served as a consultant for the character up until The Force Awakens. He also starred in several other films, such as “Time Bandits”.

Christopher Lee played Count Dooku/Darth Tyrannus, the Sith Lord leader of the Seperatists-and Darth Vader’s predecessor-in “Attack of the Clones” and “Revenge of the Sith”. Lee had an extremely diverse career, appearing in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies as Sauromon, the James Bond film “Man with the Golden Gun” as Scaramanga, and in several Hammer horror films as Dracula, in addition to many other roles.

 

 

Peter Cushing, who also starred in a great number of Hammer horror films,  passed away in 1994. He also played Sherlock Holmes, and a movie-only incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who, in two films based on the TV show’s Dalek stories (but outside it’s continuity)

Sebastian Shaw played the unmasked face of Darth Vader in “Return of the Jedi”, as well as the force ghost of Anakin Skywalker (prior to the 2004 DVD release). He passed in 1994. In addition to numerous TV and film roles, he was in a lot of plays in Britain.

 

 

 

Alec Guiness of course originated the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi survivor who helps lead Luke toward his destiny. Guiness starred in many films, such as Bridge on the River Kwai, Great Expectations, Our Man in Havana, and Lawrence of Arabia.

 

Irvin Kershner was the director of The Empire Strikes Back, and a mentor of George Lucas. In addition to Empire, he directed many other films, such as A Fine Madness, Never Say Never Again (A Bond film) and Robocop II.

 

Richard Marquand was the director of “Return of the Jedi”. He also directed a few other films, such as Jagged Edge and Eye of The Needle. He also has a cameo in the film, as an AT-ST driver who gets tossed out by Chewbacca and the Ewoks.

Michael Sheard played Admiral Ozzell, the ill-fated commander of Darth Vader’s imperial fleet at the start of The Empire Strikes Back. Sheard appeared in many British productions, including several episodes of Doctor Who as various characters, the British drama Grange Hill, and the Indiana Jones films Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade as two separate characters.

 

Star Wars Comics history-Empire’s End

“Empire’s End” was the finale of the “Dark Empire” saga (Although it would have a sort of semi-spinoff with the “Crimson Empire” series). Although still written by Tom Veitch, the series only lasted two issues, and instead of Cam Kennedy doing the art chores (which gave the first two mini-series a distinct look), it instead passed to Jim Baikie.

 

In “Empire’s End”, the Rebels/New Republic is still on the run, with Palpatine still in a clone body. What’s worse, their new base is destroyed by the Galaxy Gun, although they are able to evacuate in time due to rooting out an Imperial spy and a defective Galaxy Gun missile.

 

 

However, there is still hope for the Empire’s defeat-Emperor Palpatine is dying, as his clone body is starting to age rapidly due to his dark-side use and having been poisioned. He’s pretty much run out of clone bodies and now seeks a new host-the infant Anakin Solo. (Yes, that’s right, the Emperor basically is Vigo from Ghostbusters II)

It pretty much all ends at Onderon, the beast-world from the “Tales of the Jedi” comics (and still in Disney canon thanks to Clone Wars). While Luke, Han, Leia and their small group of force-sensitives try to protect Anakin from Palpatine on the surface, while a rebel strike force takes on the Emperor’s Star Destroyer Eclipse II in space.

The ship is sent through hyperspace accidentally back to Byss, where it crashes into the Galaxy gun, which causes it to launch a missile and destroy the Imperial throneworld.

Meanwhile on Onderon, the Emperor tries to steal Anakin and posess him. Han shoots Palpatine in the back, killing him but unfortunately allowing his force spirit to make a leap for Anakin.

However, Empatojayos Brand-the Jedi with a floating cyborg body-intercepts the spirit, having him pretty much posess him instead (although Brand’s personality still maintains control). Brand then dies, taking the Emperor’s spirit with him forever.

This ends the “Dark Empire” saga, although Crimson Empire would pick up some of the plot threads (including what happened with the Emperor’s final clone, and what’s left of the Empire between this and the “Jedi Academy” trilogy). Luke, Han, and Leia’s adventures would continue in the Jedi Academy trilogy, although for the most part, major sagas featuring them post-“Return of the Jedi” were left to the novels for the remainder of the original expanded universe (Although there’d still be a few more novel adaptations and stuff featuring the heroes in their OT days).

 

 

Star Wars Comics history: Return to the Dark Empire

Due to the success of “Dark Empire”, a sequel soon found it’s way into development. However, at the same time the novel series moved beyond “Dark Empire” with it’s Jedi Academy trilogy, set a year later. Therefore, the sequel series had to tie-up loose ends from the original Dark Empire, setting the stage for the Republic reclaiming Coruscant, the birth of Anakin Solo, and Luke finally being able to rebuild the Jedi Knights. When we last left Luke and co., he’d just recovered from nearly falling to the dark side due to the manipulations of a cloned Emperor Palpatine, as well as foiled the reinvigorated Empire’s latest plan to reclaim the galaxy. Leia also discovered she was pregnant with Han’s second son. The Rebels still largely reside on the Pinnacle moon of Da Soocha, as Coruscant has descended into anarchy fought over by various Imperial factions.

 

The main mission this time is for the Alliance/Republic to steal a shipment of powerful battle droids on their way to Byss, the new Imperial throneworld. Meanwhile, the Empire sends out it’s ‘darksiders’, a group of dark Jedi enforcing the Emperor’s will to foil both the plans of the alliance and Luke.

 

Luke and Leia both go on seperate missions to help restore the Jedi. Luke-aided by Jedi hopeful Kam Solusar (a former dark Jedi)- goes to the devastated Jedi library planet of Ossus, where he meets a bunch of force-sensitive primitives, one of whom which he begins a brief romantic relationship with, as well as a cache of Jedi knowledge and lightsabers. Leia seeks the knowledge of Jedi purge survivor Vima Da boda, who they last encountered on the Hutt moon Nar Shadda. Unfortunately, they’re not exactly welcome there; Han’s friends-Shug Ninx and Salla Zend-have lost their ship, another old friend-Han’s old academy friend-Mako Spince-has betrayed them to the Empire, and not only have the ‘darksiders’ arrived, they have to deal with Boba Fett again as well, still going after the Hutt bounty on the Solo. It all culminates in a Star Destroyer crashing into Shadda’s control tower, while Fett pursues the Solos into space.

 

To make things worse, it turns out the Emperor isn’t dead after all, he’s managed to find yet another clone body. He’s also got a new toy-the Galaxy Gun, a new weapon with the destructive potential of the Death Star, but with much improved range-able to launch planet-destroying missiles through hyperspace, allowing him to target anything. He targets the Rebel’s Pinaccle base, presumabely destroying the Rebel leadership.

 

Meanwhile Han and co. evading Boba Fett in a gas cloud, discover an isolated civilization led by surviving Jedi, Empatojayos Brand. Agreeing to help them revive the Jedi knights, he also outfits the damaged Falcon with a lightning weapon able to disable Fett’s ship.

Meanwhile, Lando and Wedge carry out their plan to capture the droid shipment on Byss, and use them to also attack the Emperor’s citadel. However, plans go awry when the Emperor orders the use of dark-force enhanced Rancors, of which even the new battle droids are no match for. Thankfully the survivors of the rebel force are rescued by Shug and Salla Zend, who were on Byss looking to find their lost ship.

 

Everybody regroups on New Alderaan, where Han and Leia’s offspring Jaina and Jacen have been kept safely. However, the Empire soon finds out about the base, nearly killing Luke and costing the life of his girlfriend from Ossus. With Lando and co. arriving with the cavalry as walkers descend on the base. They find out the Rebel leadership was order to safely evacuate the Pinnacle moonbase, and have now settled in an ancient old Republic space station. There, Anakin Solo is born, Luke has a vision of the three young Solos helping to rebuild the Jedi, and the rebels plan their counterattack, which will culminate in the third chapter of the saga, “Empire’s end”.

 

Star Wars Comics History-Shadows of The Empire

With the special edition films and prequel trilogy on the horizon, Lucasfilm decided to create a project in 1996 to increase the hype for the coming releases-by releasing a Star Wars multi-media event. Called “Shadows of the Empire”, it would deal with the events between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi”-an era seldom covered at that point by most Expanded Universe stuff, which had mostly been dealing with the post-Return of the Jedi stories, or the long-ago Tales of the Jedi material. “Shadows” spawned an novel, video game, action figures, and even a soundtrack (although not by John Williams)-and of course, a limited comic series by John Wagner and Killian Plunkett.

The novel mainly dealt with the POV of the main heroes, while the comic was more centered on Boba Fett, but also featured some material not in the novel, such as the Rebel Fleet up against an Imperial strike cruiser. Likewise, the video game focuses mainly on Dash Rendar, a sort of stand-in for Han Solo (who is still frozen in carbonite) who helps out Luke and co.

The primary story of “Shadows” deals with the villainous Prince Xizor-ruler of a criminal empire which uses a shipping organization as a legitimate cover-who wishes to usurp Darth Vader as the Emperor’s second-in-command by messing up Vader’s attempt to find his son-by killing him (and also Vader as well). This frustrates Luke and his friend’s attempt to rescue Han Solo as well. Even Boba Fett, who captured Solo and is bringing him to Jabba the Hutt, isn’t quite free of harm-the other “Empire Strikes Back” bounty hunters want to steal Han from him to receive Jabba’s bounty.

Vader also employs a mercenary named Jix to keep any eye on Luke after he’s targeted by Xizor’s people.

Apart from it’s focus on Boba Fett and Jix, and a few extra scenes here and there, the comic series mainly sticks to the plot of the ‘event.’-with Vader finally taking out Xizor, Luke helping the Bothans steal the location of the second Death Star (although of course this is a rouse organized by the Emperor as we known from Return of the Jedi; it’s also revealed Xizor had a role in that deception) Luke and his crew escaping from Xizor’s clutches)(with Leia getting the bounty hunter outfit she would use to infiltrate Jabba’s palace, and Boba Fett getting Han Solo to Jabba.

Star Wars Comics history-Thrawn trilogy adaptation

In 1991, Bantam re-launched the Star Wars novel line with Heir To The Empire, the first of three novels which would continue the Star Wars story beyond “Return of the Jedi”. Written by sci-fi/military writer Timothy Zahn, the focus of the novel would pick up with the character struggling to restore the Republic after seemingly having pushed back the Empire. Luke however, has his doubts about how to train a new generation of Jedi, especially without the guidance of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda; Han’s trying to bring his old smuggler friends back into the fold to help the Republic out, and Leia is pregnant with twins, while also trying to stabilize the new Republic. Lando of course is starting some new businesses after Vader kind of messed up his old one.

However, a new enemy emerges with Grand Admiral Thrawn, an alien Imperial genius who has returned from a lengthy mission to discover the Empire in pieces. Using his tactical genius-which includes studying his opponent’s weaknesses through art-and his knowledge of Imperial secrets, he starts to reorganize the Empire, leading to a new struggle for our heroes. Details of Thrawn’s backstory would also later be put to light in the novels Outbound Flight and Tatooine Ghost.

Although the series was mostly de-canonized when Disney created their own version of the post-ROTJ timeline, Thrawn is being reintroduced into the new continuity via the Rebels animated series and a new novel by his creator, Timothy zahn.

In 1995 Dark Horse started to adapt the Thrawn trilogy with three 6-issue limited series. Although taking some artistic license, and omitting a few scenes, it’s mostly faithful to the source material. The first series featured artwork by Oliver Vantine and Fred Blanchard, and was slightly more exaggerated than it’s sequels, with large versions of the Noghri race, who are actually supposed to be quite small.

 

The comic adaptations also helped give us a somewhat better artistic representation of Mara Jade, former Emperor’s hand who begins a relationship with Luke Skywalker: On the right here in early artwork:

 

and her revamped look for the comics (Terry Dodgson’s from Dark Force Rising  here)

Dodgson’s work for “Dark Force Rising” also more closely used the actor’s likenesses.

 

The series of course wrapped with “The Last Command” drawn by the late Edvin Biuković. It is also the first licensed Star Wars property to feature an image of Natalie Portman’s then unnamed Star Wars character-juxtaposed with her daughter and granddaughter.

 

 

 

 

 

Star Wars comics history-The Dark Empire

*Note: There were some comics released in-between Marvel’s Sw being cancelled and the revival of the line by “Dark Horse”-Droids, Ewoks, and a 3D series. However, I’ll cover those a bit later.

In 1991, there arose new interest in the expanded “Star Wars” universe, due to the publication of Timothy Zahn’s “Heir to the Empire” novel trilogy. Dark Horse-who had some success with “Aliens” “Predator” “Robocop” and “Terminator” comics, among others, got the comics rights to Star Wars, first publishing a story that had been in development at Marvel, but was sidelined. This new and ambitious saga would be “Dark Empire”.

“Dark Empire” takes place six years after Return of the Jedi, and a few months to a year after the Thrawn trilogy. In that trilogy, it was established that the Rebellion had taken the Imperial capital world of Coruscant, and had developed a new galactic republic. However, the schemes of a former Imperial admiral had weakened the new government, and in-between that trilogy and this series, other Imperials were emboldened to chase the rebels off the planet. However, the various Imperial factions then start to splinter, erupting into civil war. Luke and Lando lead an ambitious mission to retake the capital with a captured Star Destroyer, but they fail. The first issue of DE has Han and Leia searching for Luke among the war-torn city planet.

Both Luke and Lando are Okay, but Luke senses something’s not right, and allows himself to be taken by a mysterious “force storm” to Byss, where several Imperial fleets are massing. Turns out the Emperor is alive-his “force ghost” managed to find a clone body, and transport itself to it. Palpatine is now using a new weapon-“World Devastators”-basically giant city-sucking vacuum cleaners which take the ruined material and fashion it into new Imperial fighters-to fight back against the rebellion and restore his Empire. Luke figures the only way to fight back in this situation? Become Palpatine’s apprentice and defeat him from within. So much for “I’ll never turn to the Dark side”.

Leia senses something is wrong with Luke, and she and Han must travel to Byss-first stopping by the “Smugglers moon” of Nar Shadaa to find some transport apart from just the Falcon, and the right codes to locate the planet. Meanwhile, Lando and Wedge head to Mon Calamari to fight back against the Empire’s devastators.

Unfortunately, on Nar Shadda they also run into another old foe back from the dead:

Eventually escaping Fett and the Smuggler’s moon-along with an elderly woman claiming to be a Jedi survivor-they finally find Byss-but Luke doesn’t really want to leave just yet-and what’s worse, seems to be sucuumbing to the lure of the dark side. He provides Leia and Han though, with the codes to destroy the Devastators encased in R2-D2. Luke then appears to kill Palpatine, and destroy his clones. However, one remains-a younger version complete with a lightsaber-who quickly disarms Luke and places the now very dark-sided Luke under his control.

He then arrives, with the really, really big Eclipse Super Star Destroyer at the Rebel’s new base, the Pinnacle moon, to capture Leia and turn her to the Dark side, bringing both Skywalkers under his control.

However, Leia manages to find and draw out the good and Luke turns against his master, much like his father did before. Palpatine attempts to draw out another ‘force storm’ to kill them, but Luke and Leia turn it against him, destroying the clone and presumably, the Emperor’s evil forever….or have they?

Leia also senses that she is now pregnant with her and Han’s third offspring-who will become the character Anakin Solo, and appear in future books and comics. However, the threat is not over yet, and indeed future “Dark Empire” series would trouble our heroes further down the line, before reaching the point in the novels where Luke decides to rebuild the Jedi.

However, this would mark a new era in Star Wars comics nonetheless-Dark Horse would hold the title for nearly twenty years, with a variety of ongoing, limited series, and others to follow.

First off would be their color reprint/re-edit of the Archie Goodwin Star Wars strips, which told part of the Star Wars story between A New Hope and Empire, and since it was partially published after Return of the Jedi, was able to build on the whole trilogy as a result. Many tackled some of the elements of the gap between the films, such as Vader’s new Super Star Destroyer being constructed:

As well as the rebels fleeing the jungle moon of Yavin IV and setting up on Hoth, and even the Bounty Hunter Han ran into on Ord Mantell.

Next up would be of the “Tales of the Jedi” series, which would be a prequel series forming some of the foundation for “Dark Empire”‘s backstory, as well as the Jedi Academy arc in the novels. It would also form the setting for the Knights of the Old Republic video game series, including the current “Old Republic” series, but that’s for another article.