Battlefront: Twilight Company now has a cover

battlefront-twilight-company700Revealed today at StarWars.com, the cover for Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed. The game tie-in comes out November 3, 2015, in the long drought (ha) between Force Friday and The Force Awakens. As it happens, the novel’s blurb quietly went up a few weeks ago and I never got around to posting about it, so here you go:

The bravest soldiers. The toughest warriors. The ultimate survivors.

Among the stars and across the vast expanses of space, the Galactic Civil War rages. On the battlefields of multiple worlds in the Mid Rim, legions of ruthless stormtroopers—bent on crushing resistance to the Empire wherever it arises—are waging close and brutal combat against an armada of freedom fighters. In the streets and alleys of ravaged cities, the front-line forces of the Rebel Alliance are taking the fight to the enemy, pushing deeper into Imperial territory and grappling with the savage flesh-and-blood realities of war on the ground.

Leading the charge are the soldiers—men and women, human and nonhuman—of the sixty-first mobile infantry, better known as Twilight Company. Hard-bitten, war-weary, and ferociously loyal to one another, the members of this renegade outfit doggedly survive where others perish, and defiance is their most powerful weapon against the deadliest odds. When orders come down for the Rebels to fall back in the face of superior opposition numbers and firepower, Twilight reluctantly complies. Then an unlikely ally radically changes the strategic equation—and gives the Alliance’s hardest-fighting warriors a crucial chance to turn retreat into resurgence.

Orders or not, alone and outgunned but unbowed, Twilight Company locks, loads, and prepares to make its boldest maneuver—trading down-and-dirty battle in the trenches for a game-changing strike at the ultimate target: the very heart of the Empire’s military machine.

There’s also a patch for the company’s members. And don’t forget about Janine K. Spendlove’s short story in the October Insider!

Journey to The Force Awakens book previews give us a glimpse into the GFFA 30 years on

Jedi-Bibliothek spotted previews of the four Journey to The Force Awakens books for young readers on iTunes – and they reveal – or confirm – at least a few things about the film. Turns out, the prologues to Moving Target, Smuggler’s Run, and The Weapon of a Jedi are actually set in The Force Awakens era. In Moving Target we get a glimpse of Leia – and a confirmation of her title – and Han tells a story about the Millennium Falcon in Smuggler’s Run. Luke’s situation will have to wait for the movie, though – Weapon of a Jedi features a red-armed C-3PO and Jessika Pava, a pilot with Blue Squadron. (We’ve heard of her before, spoiler-lovers!)

I’ve cropped the Phil Noto art, above, but head to Jedi-Bibliothek for some screenshots and a bit of story. (Including Lost Stars, which, alas, has no such illustration.)

The Journey to the Force Awakens novels will all be out September 4.

Out this week: Star Wars #8, Kanan #5

Star Wars #8 (crop)

Out on Wednesday at your retailer of choice are two comics, both milestones for their respective titles. Star Wars #8 is the start of both a new storyline (‘Showdown on Smuggler’s Moon’) and a new artist, Stuart Immonen. Kanan #5, on the other hand, is “the final chapter of the secret origin of Star Wars Rebels’ Kanan Jarrus.” (The series will continue with a jump into the Rebels era.)

Meanwhile, Force Friday looms ever closer…

Star Wars out this week: Take a chance with Lando #2

Lando #2 (detail)

The lone brand-new release of the week comes Wednesday with Marvel’s Lando #2 (preview.) Also shipping out to comic fans is the second printing of Lando #1 and the ‘remastered’ edition of their Empire Strikes Back adaptation. (AKA the one with the ‘modern’ coloring sucking all the gloriously insane 70’s out of it.)

Meanwhile, dropping (very quietly) on Tuesday is the standalone version of Daniel Wallace’s Imperial Handbook. James did an unboxing video back when this first came out, in all the deluxe box set glory. Like The Jedi Path and the others that preceded it, this one is Legends.

Hera, Tarkin and Rae Sloane subjects of Rise of the Empire’s short stories

rise-of-the-empireStarWars.com has revealed some short synopses for the three original short stories that will be packaged in the A New Dawn/Tarkin bind up, Rise of the Empire.

The first, ‘Mercy Mission’ by Melissa Scott, follows a young Hera and her father, The Clone Wars’ Cham Syndulla, on Ryloth. ‘Bottleneck’ by John Jackson Miller features Grand Moff Tarkin and A New Dawn’s Count Vidian. And Jason Fry’s ‘The Levers of Power’ features Admiral Rae Sloane during the Battle of Endor.

Rise of the Empire comes out in trade paperback on October 6.

Journey to the Force Awakens: Shattered Empire follows new characters

shattered-empire-1-crop

In an interview with StarWars.com, Shattered Empire writer Greg Rucka reveals a few thing about the series. Mainly, that it stars a pair of married Rebels, Shara and Kes Bey.

“Shara flies, Kes is a ground-pounder, and a very experienced one,” says Rucka. “So, they have spent more time apart than together, and they’re in the Outer Rim world where the Imperial presence is felt, and they’re hoping that they can bring an end to this. But they’re both very tired veterans, and they come out of [the Battle of] Endor with the elation that we see in [Return of the Jedi]. ‘We’ve won. It’s over.’ — only to discover that, no it’s not. The Empire was huge.” Despite the fireworks, despite the funeral pyre of Darth Vader, despite the joy on Endor, the Empire is far from broken.

Luke, Leia Han and company are present in the series, though:

They’re all key figures in the Alliance, and will be represented. Just not in starring roles. “This is important,” Rucka says. “This could never be, as much as I wish I could’ve written, and would’ve loved to have written, the story of, ‘We’re gonna follow Luke for four issues after Return of the Jedi.’ That was never what my mandate here was. But, with that in mind, we see Luke, we see Leia, we see Lando, we see Han, we see Chewie. We see what they are doing, and while the stories are not about them — they’re about Shara Bey — the stories link. Issue 1 sort of stands alone. Issues 2 and 3 follow the same story path; they’re like a two-parter, and they lead into the fourth. As it stands, we meet Shara in [issue] 1 during the Battle of Endor, and we come out of the Battle of Endor, and then we cover about three to six months total in the series following the Battle of Endor. In that time, Shara and her husband find themselves in some situations only incidentally in the path of the principles, and in other situations, working quite closely with them.”

The four-issue series will start in September.

Two new Shattered Empire variant covers spotted

Yakface discovered two variant covers for Marvel’s first entry into Journey to the Force Awakens, Shattered Empire, on eBay this morning. The Palpatine/Vader one is exclusive to Comic Pop Collectibles, while Luke and the Falcon will only be available from Third Eye. We knew there’d be variants – they’ve already revealed one, and Marvel editor Heather Antos tweeted about them last week – but the final number is a mystery. I expect there will be quite a few, though.

Star Wars out this week: Darth Vader #8

Vader8-crop

This Wednesday brings Marvel’s Darth Vader #8 to your favorite comic outlet. There’s a preview of the issue on StarWars.com.

As for other releases, next week brings the standalone version of Daniel Wallace’s Imperial Handbook: A Commander’s Guide, in what may very well be our last Legends release. Of course, just over a month away is Force Friday, when the Journey to the Force Awakens will drop 5 novels – among them Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath – on us.