Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 2 #4
Showdown with a Sith!
Script by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman
Art by Gabriel Hardman and Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover by Dave Wilkins
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 26, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99

Picking up the outstanding groundwork established in the original Legacy series, and creating some new outstanding work of their own, the creative team of Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman continue delivering the goods with the new Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 2, focusing on a descendant of Han and Leia, named Ania Solo.

Unlike Cade Skywalker from the first series, Ania has no formal Jedi training, and is more in the vein of a Han Solo smuggling underworld type of character. Following the gargantuan galactic war with the One Sith led by the formidable Darth Krayt, the galaxy is now run by a new Triumvirate, a conglomeration of multiple governments working together to form a prosperous and peaceful time to come.

Star Wars: Legacy, Book 1
Story by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Art by Jan Duursema, Brad Anderson, Sean Cooke, Adam Dekraker, Travel Foreman, Dan Parsons, Ronda Paterson, Colin Wilson,
Cover by Adam Hughes
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: June 5, 2013
Cover Price: $34.99

There are very few series within the Star Wars Expanded Universe that are universally celebrated by fans, so much so that their content would stand up on its own in film adaptations. Star Wars: Legacy is one of these. Boldly setting the storyline 125 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the creative team of John Ostrander and Jan Duursema established a new saga in the Star Wars universe that fans have since embraced as some of the most outstanding Expanded Universe material since Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy.

Star Wars: Legacy, Book 1 collects the first three volumes of the Dark Horse series (nearly 20 issues, massing an impressive hardcover collection of 482 pages!), and is most certainly a must-read for any Star Wars fan. The series follows Cade Skywalker, descendant of Anakin and Luke, though ripped from his original destiny to become a Jedi, he finds himself torn between the light side and the dark side of the Force, unwilling to face his future, and tormented from visions of the ghost of Luke Skywalker appearing before him.

Star Wars: Dawn Of The Jedi – Prisoner of Bogan #5
Story by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Script by John Ostrander
Pencils by Jan Duursema
Inks by Dan Parsons
Colors by Wes Dziobha
Cover by David Michael Beck
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: May 22, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99

The concluding issue of Prisoner of Bogan continues the extraordinary level of storytelling and artwork we’ve come to expect from the Dawn of the Jedi series. Set tens of thousands of years before the events of the movies we all know and love, the series is essentially pre-history for the Star Wars galaxy, referencing many elements from all areas of the Expanded Universe, conspicuously the Rakatan Empire from Knights Of The Old Republic.

The precursors of the Jedi, known as the Je’daii, are at a turning point of their times past and existence. For millennia they have striven to keep balance between the Light Side of the Force and the Dark Side of the Force. But an outsider alien rich in the power of the Dark Side, a Force Hound bound to the Rakatan known as Xesh, crash lands on the Je’daii home planet of Tython, forcing everything into imbalance.

Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 2 #1
Prisoner of the Floating World, Part One
Script by Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman
Art by Gabriel Hardman
Colors by Rachelle Rosenberg
Lettering by Michael Heisler
Cover by Dave Wilkins
Designer: Jimmy Presler
Assistant Editor: Freddye Lins
Editor: Randy Stradley
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: March 20, 2013
Cover Price: $2.99

In Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 2 #1 we return to the universe created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema based on George Lucas’ Star Wars universe. I have to admit, although I really liked the original series, I did stop reading after awhile, so I went into this series fresh, but filled with excitement.

Writers Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman immediately brought me back to that “sub universe” of Star Wars that I loved so much. This is SO different that any Star Wars setting that we’ve seen in that past, that you almost don’t recognize it immediately as Star Wars. Thankfully, some of the trademarks fall into place rather quickly and you’re reminded of just where you are. There is a LOT of story in this issue, but not too much, and the whole premise behind it is pretty shocking, and no, you won’t get spoilers here. Sorry.

Star Wars: Dawn Of The Jedi – Force Storm #3 and #4
Written by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Pencils by Jan Duursema
Inks by Dan Parsons
Colors by Wes Dzioba
Cover Art by Jan Duursema
Dark Horse Comics
Issue #3 Release Date: April 18, 2012
Issue #4 Release Date: May 16, 2012
Issue #3 Cover Price: $3.50
Issue #4 Cover Price: $3.50

The intriguing basis for Star Wars: Dawn Of The Jedi continues to be its greatest selling point: this is a time before Jedi and Sith, and before the Light Side and Dark Side of the Force was so diametrically opposed to each other. This is the Star Wars galaxy before it was the Star Wars galaxy; where the Balance of the Force is beyond important and more significant to the plot than what it was in the films.

Issues #3 and #4 of Dawn Of The Jedi: Force Storm continues this universe revealed in the opening chapters of this series, which seems to be serving as a “Book of Genesis” for the Jedi Order. Complete with references to and cameo appearances of the Rakatan Empire, Dawn Of The Jedi covers an immeasurable amount of ground that is sometimes a little too much to digest.

Xesh, a Force Hound for the Rakatan Empire (basically a Force-sensitive warrior who tracks down Force energies for the Rakatans), finds himself on Tython. His mere presence there ignites a gigantic Force Storm, of the likes has never been seen in the galaxy, nor probably would ever be seen again. Members of the enigmatic Je’daii Order find themselves corrupted by Xesh’s Dark Side leanings, and torn away from the doctrine of keeping the Force in balance.