Three films into the DC Extended Universe and the cinematic comic book shared universe has built somewhat of a reputation for putting out bad movies, or movies that will be negatively criticized by critics. Some say these critics have been paid by Marvel Studios – if you believe in such a conspiracy – while others just want to believe that DCEU films get a bad rap. No matter how you slice it, we are still going to get films based on DC characters, at least until 2020. So hopefully by then Wonder Woman would have steered the DCEU ship into the right direction or at least save it from sinking itself.

It’s still hard to believe that Suicide Squad shares the same criticisms as the previous two DCEU films. But John Ostrander, the creator of the comic the movie is based on, believes that critics had it out for the film since the very beginning. More on the story below.

Star Wars: Purge
Trade Paperback | Kindle Edition
Written by Haden Blackman, Alexander Freed, John Ostrander
Art by Michael Atiyeh, Marco Castiello, Andrea Chella, Jim Hall, Alex Lei, Mark McKenna, Ronda Pattison, Chris Scalf, Douglas Wheatley
Cover by Adam Hughes
Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: July 10, 2013
Cover Price: $17.99

The collected trade paperback of Star Wars: Purge draws together the standalone and miniseries issues released by Dark Horse that follow skirmishes involving Darth Vader as he continues his obsessive purge of the Jedi, following the rise of the Empire across the universe. While Palpatine endures as Emperor, the focus of the Sith become in strengthening the New Order, but Vader soon learns that to purge the galaxy of the Jedi, he must purge his very being of all traces of what once was Anakin Skywalker.

The first chapter, the self-titled “Purge,” was the first comic to be distributed to depict Vader on his Jedi Purge mission. A group of surviving Jedi, having evaded Order 66, collectively meet in an abandoned mine on Kessel, to discuss their options having now faced the fall of their friends and the rise of the empowered Sith. But the gathering’s organizer has something more devious planned, having heard of Vader’s obsession for locating Obi-Wan Kenobi, she puts out word he is with them to meet”¦ and Vader is coming to them.

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.