Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
We may still be recovering from Celebration, but it’s a big week for comics with two brand-new issues, one trade, and a reprint. Head to your favorite comic outlet for Star Wars #21, Darth Vader #23, the Obi-Wan & Anakin trade and a reprint of Poe Dameron #3.
In comic shops this Wednesday we’ll have Poe Dameron #4, Han Solo #2, and a hardcover Darth Vader, collecting #1-12 of the soon-to-end series.
And coming up next week is Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Life Debt.
In the comic shops this week will be Poe Dameron #3 and Darth Vader #21. Only 4 issues left of Vader, which will wrap up with #25.
If it’s Legends you’re out for, Timothy Zahn’s Specter of the Past has been on sale for $1.99 in Kindle for the past few days, though Visions of the Future is still regular price. The Hand of Thrawn duology, which wrapped up the Bantam era of publishing back in the late ’90s, is a Club Jade favorite. (If you’re new, I do have some Legends recommendations over at my sadly neglected personal site.)
Our next new novel is still just over a month away. Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath: Life Debt is dropping July 12 in hardcover and eBook. Del Rey gave a look at the book’s dedication last week. (And the first book in that series is also still on sale at Amazon.)
Head to your favored comic book vendor this Wednesday for Star Wars #19, the second printing of Poe Dameron #1, and Obi-Wan and Anakin #5.
For the trade collectors, there’s a new hardcover collection of Dark Horse’s The Phantom Menace adaptation from 1999, plus the second collection of Kanan.
Lots for The Force Awakens fans this week, as Bloodline by Claudia Gray drops Tuesday. The Leia-centric novel has been among the most anticipated since it was announced. (Look for my review tomorrow.) Out on Wednesday is Poe Dameron #2.
We’ve got a new episode of Unboxing Star Wars! Yowie and I hit the road for the Star Wars Rebels finale screening at Walt Disney Studios and we review ‘Twilight of the Apprentice’. I also check out Star Wars Character Encyclopedia Updated and Expanded by Pablo Hidalgo and Simon Beecroft, from DK. Plus I give a quick review of the first issue of the Poe Dameron comic, while Baby Jawa plays with a new R2-D2 toy and we check out some of the new Star Wars stuff we’ve picked up. And at the end, some Baby Jawa fun time!
Quick reviews
→ Star Wars Character Encyclopedia Updated and Expanded – Great for everone! Have fun learning tidbits about more than 200 characters and creatures from all the Star Wars films! (and watch for my interview with author Pablo Hidalgo on starwars.com early next week)
→ ‘Twilight of the Apprentice’ – Big thumbs up! When Rebels has a season finale, they pull out all the stops and unload a whole boatload of awesome. (Also, if you haven’t seen it already, I have the entire Q&A from the screening available to watch.)
→ Poe Dameron #1 – A promising start! I think I’m more interested in who Lor San Tekka is than about Poe on his tail but we’ll see where it goes. Plus BB-8!
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Note: DK provided a copy of Star Wars Character Encyclopedia Updated and Expanded for review.
Over at IGN, an interview with costume designer Michael Kaplan, and how the looks evolved for characters both old and new.
→ Our own James interviews Tales from a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens author Landry Q. Walker at StarWars.com, while comic writer Charles Soule talks to ComicBook.com about Poe Dameron #1. Soule also did a guest post for StarWars.com.
→ We all heard about Force for Daniel, but Lucasfilm and J.J. Abrams showed the movie to dozens of terminally ill fans.
→ Vulture takes a look at who’ll buy physical copies of The Force Awakens. I’m guessing… A lot of people? They also look back at the box office.
→ A look at how Rey’s isolation is framed in the film.
→ StarWars.com also presents their list of the ten best The Force Awakens moments.
There’s a lot this week, first and foremost The Force Awakens on Blu-ray Tuesday. There’s also a number of book for young readers, namely Pablo Hidalgo’s Star Wars Character Encyclopedia, Landry Q. Walker’s Tales From A Galaxy Far, Far Away: Aliens and Elizabeth Schaefer’s The Force Awakens Storybook.
Comic fans will have reasons to shop as well, as Marvel drops Poe Dameron #1 on Wednesday.
Writer Charles Soule and artist Phil Noto talked about their upcoming Poe Dameron comic with CBR. Soule reveals that Poe’s squadron is “ike a special missions crew,” and the new First Order villain is an intelligence officer who’s almost “an evil Lando.”
The comic’s first arc will deal with “a sort of cult,” and lead into (as we’ve heard previously) the mission that takes him to Lor San Tekka in The Force Awakens.
CBR also debuted a new, BB-8-centric variant cover by Joe Quinones for issue #1. The series is due to begin in late March.
Just over a year out from launch, IGN interviews Jordan D. White, who’s in charge of Star Wars at Marvel Comics, about the line – including why they all began in the same time period at first – and what’s coming up in the future.
On why they chose Poe Dameron for the line’s first The Force Awakens ongoing:
Ideally, a miniseries tells a very specific, self-contained story. “Here’s this event.” You know, “Here’s the time when Lando tried to steal the Emperor’s yacht.” “Here’s the story of how Princess Leia dealt with the destruction of Alderaan in conjunction with her place in the Rebellion.” And then once it’s finished, it’s finished. If we were to, as some people have suggested, talk about turning that into an ongoing, it would be, “Well, okay, now we need to come up with a totally different story and direction for it to go in, because that is done.” Whereas as ongoing series, again, you want to come up with something that can generate story after story.
When you look at the main characters of The Force Awakens — all of whom are super awesome, by the way — Poe is definitely the one whose previous stories are adventure stories.
He also teases upcoming miniseries, “some that are going to surprise people” and “some that people are not going to be expecting.”
His Jar Jar idea – which remains vague, just in case – isn’t going to happen “any time soon.” But there’s stuff in the pipeline for “fans of every era of Star Wars.”
The article also previews some interior art from Darth Vader #16.