Last weekend at NYCC, Dark Horse announced Invasion, a new ongoing series set during the massive New Jedi Order series. Fandom, at least the TFN version, went wild with fanboy squee at the news. But for many of us, the NJO and the five years of books detailing it is something we’d rather put behind us. Do you have faith in Dark Horse’s ability to revitalize (or recapture) the era? Vote on the sidebar or beneath the cut.
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Look, it’s about time we revisit this era again. I’m getting sick of seeing novels taking place after the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, without any mention of the war, or the YV themselves. What, the galaxy just forgot about them, because of a few whiny fans? Please. They should play a bigger part in the EU. They were really the only fresh idea LucasBooks had going for a while; it something besides the usual Jedi Vs. Sith. I’m not a big comic book person, but I’ll definitely be checking into this.
I think folks had a hell of a lot more reasons to whine about the NJO than, say, LOTF. Specifics aside, five years/nineteen books of a single storyline? That’s just out of hand. People who didn’t like it had every reason to be sick of the Vong and such after that… If they kept reading. And quite frankly, it was where a lot of people I know stopped, and I can’t say I blame them. I sometimes wonder how I made it through myself.
So, obviously, I wasn’t that thrilled with the NJO. But I’m pretty firmly in the maybe/slight optimism camp for this. Legacy has given me some faith in DH, and it’s possible they could pull something out. And hell, at least it’s not another PT comic.
I raised a similar idea as Scoke with the BCaT VIP’s over on StarWars.com (before it was deleted): that is the YV war was possibly the single greatest event to occur in the SW galaxy as the Vong literally tore the galaxy in half. And yet what have we got to show for it – 19 books detailing the adventures of the Big Three, their siblings, a few dozen core Jedi, a dozen core starfighter pilots and military leaders, etc. The YV war would have affected everybody in the galaxy – what would be nice is some stories detailing minor characters and how they coped with the war – this is what I’m hoping Invasion will bring and DHC are usually really good at minor/unknown character storytelling.
It’s not another PT story, but they dumped Rebellion for it. Is the NJO really more popular than the OT? I hope they know what they’re doing.
I always thought that they should do more I, Jedi or X-Wing type books during the NJO. This is just as good.
And I have no problem with Dark Horse dropping Rebellion. I never enjoyed those stories. They always seemed below canon so I read them but I never really cared.
I’m in the maybe camp on this one. I was ultimately disappointed with the NJO it was still better overall than DN and LoTF. It just depends on how they go about doing it. I know some people are tired of “the Big Three” and their kids, friends, cousins etc. I would like to see more of them and frankly, Dark Horse seems to be putting out better SW stories than Del Rey (FoTJ just does not sound appealing). Besides it’d be nice to see some characters again like some that were needlessly killed off Anakin Solo (huge mistake there!) and Chewie. Maybe we can see more of Luke and Mara together as we should have seen them.
I’ll check it out. Fingers are crossed on this one.
Stooge, I think people are just full of the OT. Writers can’t reach literary greatness in this era since there’s no place for character development. Creating new characters (such as Deena, in Rebellion) and connecting them to the heroes misses the feeling of the OT, and actually manages tospoil it. Of course, writers are forbidden to do anything to the Big-Three, which makes things even harder for writers. It results in the creation of some shallow, recycled adventures.
Same goes for the PT and the Clone-Wars, which is plainly a farce. The future of Star Wars lies in post-ROTJ material, and that’s why I’m so excited about the new DH series. I disliked the NJO books because I didn’t like the focus of different authors on “their” characters, which made the books too narrow for such a galaxy-spanning war, told through the eyes of the leaders. The concept, however, is still intriguing, and I hope not to be disappointed.
Stooge: Every time I picked up Rebellion (or Empire before it) I wasn’t drawn in. I really didn’t have much faith in DH’s more traditional offerings until Legacy. Loved the funny Tales stuff and Tag and Bink, but that’s about it…
Izikavazo: It is curious that they never gave the Rogue Squadron comics another try… But maybe we’ll see more of that in Invasion. (Or in Star Wars Adventures, which I’m really hoping is the new Tales.)
I still haven’t forgiven NJO. It killed Star Wars for me.
The Vong would have been tolerable, if the good guys/republic had faced them with a modicrum of intelligence instead of lying down on their backs to get run over.
Hm, they slayed and gold plated our diplomat and promise to kill us all…eh, let’s just sit back and see if they mean it.
So whether the comic book series is a good idea is going to hinge on whether they can bring something new to that era. Like the protagonists acting with some level of intelligence…or maybe a Vong falling to the allure of a new pain free system of thought/morality.