Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
We first heard about The Imperial Handbook earlier this year and it was finally officially announced without a word about whether it fits into Legends or the new canon. Well, Mark Hurliman of Star Wars Report got an answer: It’s Legends.
This isn’t a big surprise – predecessors The Jedi Path, Book of Sith, and The Bounty Hunter Code are clearly Legends as well – but with Lucasfilm choosing to leave things vague (for sale purposes?) it’s good to have this nailed down.
Pre-order The Imperial Handbook. We heard about this a while back, but here’s the official announcement. It will ship on October 14.
Chances are you don’t need this reminder, given that Del Rey Fancorps members woke up at least 8 emails in their inbox about the release of A New Dawn. It is, of course, the first of the new canon novels, a prequel to Rebels and our first new Star Wars novel since Honor Among Thieves back in March.
In addition the emails, there are the reviews. We have James’, of course, but you can also catch opinions from the usual suspects: Tosche Station (who also did a Go/No-Go) Jedi News (twice,) EU Cantina, Roqoo Depot, Lightsaber Rattling and Making Star Wars (twice.)
We’re also just about a month away from the official premiere of Rebels itself, on October 3rd. The next novel, James Luceno’s Tarkin, is due out on November 4.
On sale today, A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller is the first novel that is part of the Lucasfilm Story Group approved timeline. Set in the dark times between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and several years before the upcoming Rebels cartoon, it’s a tale of how two of the show’s main characters, Hera and Kanan, first encounter each other and eventually decide to team up. As someone excited by Rebels, I enjoyed the novel and found it interesting to see the characters before they united for a common cause.
Miller brings his skills in combining likable characters with clashing viewpoints, in a story setting that he has mastered before in Kenobi and Knight Errant: a Jedi alone in hostile territory. Only this time, the Jedi’s not interested in being a Jedi, or even be on the hero’s path at all – while someone else is sorting out what type of people are and aren’t needed for a rebellion to the Empire’s rule. And as with Knight Errant and Lost Tribe of the Sith series, where various Sith philosophies were being forged and tested against each other, the villain, Count Vidian, has his own philosophy being pushed to the extreme, and we witness it in practice.
Minor spoilers beyond this point.
Continue reading “Review: A New Dawn pumps up excitement for Rebels”
Comic review: Legacy #18 wraps up the conflict between the Imperial Knights and the Sith and Darth Wredd, with Ania Solo and her friends caught up in the middle. Jawajames gives it a big thumbs-up for staying true to the characters and giving us a big epic Star Wars battle.
And if you missed it last week, Jawajames also reviewed Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir #4, the finale of this storyline — this would have been a fantastic episode arc of The Clone Wars, and it’s great to see it in comic form.
StarWars.com has announced Marvel’s first repackaging of Dark Horse’s Star Wars comics. Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Empire Vol. 1 will contain Republic 78-80, all three Purge minis, Darth Vader and The Lost Command and Dark Times #1-5.
There’s no date yet (I’m hearing April, but it’s not in the official item,) but Marvel’s first reprint, of their own classic content, begins in January. (Which was itself previously reprinted by Dark Horse.) The same month, their own brand new canon comics will launch.
It seems appropriate that Dark Horse’s final Star Wars comic this Wednesday is Legacy #18. The Legacy series as a whole has been one of their more ambitious offerings in the 20+ years they’ve held the license.
This won’t be our last Dark Horse release – there are still reprints and collections in the pipeline through the rest of the year – but it is our last original issue.
First, if you’re going to be at DragonCon, Tosche Station has 25 signed copies from Del Rey, and I think they said something about giving them away at panels. If you’re not going to the con, Del Rey is giving away 20 copies randomly!
And of course the book will be out in hardcover on September 2, so it’s not that long a wait.
Jedi Bibliothek apparently spotted a blurb for the Christie Golden Asajj Ventress novel. They don’t seem to give a source – the Amazon.de link is dead, or simply hasn’t arrived yet. They give the not-final title of Ventress, but here’s the real meat:
When the Jedi decide to target Count Dooku—Darth Tyranus—himself, they turn to his ex-apprentice, Asajj Ventress, for help in getting close to the slippery Sith Lord. But when unexpected sparks fly between Ventress and Quinlan Vos, the unorthodox Jedi sent to work with her, the mission becomes a web of betrayal, alliances, secrets, and dark plotting that might just be the undoing of both Jedi and Sith—and everything in between!
A real title for this thing would be nice. Whatever it ends up being called, the book is due out next summer.
Man Cave Daily (eyeroll) has an interview with with Marvel Star Wars editor Jordan D. White, who promises that they will be revealing… something. The question is in relation to the old ’80s Marvel stuff, but the answer to me seems much bigger than that:
Actually–let me take that back–there IS a big thing we have not announced yet that will be revealing stuff in comics first. It’s a big part of a character’s backstory that is important to them but that has not been shown before. We’re going to have the chance to reveal it in comics first. I can’t say what or where yet…but I will eventually.
I know our (okay, MY) first instinct is always Episode VII, but if he’s even mentioning it now, my guess is Rebels. Maybe something we’ll learn about at New York Comic Con?
Marvel’s first Star Wars comics will hit the shelves in January.