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“Star Wars Legacy: Broken”

By | June 11th, 2020
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Before the Force awakened, before there was Rey, before there was Kylo Ren, there was the EU. The Star Wars Expanded Universe (now called Legends) covered eons of story, but only one dared look at the future of the Galaxy Far, Far Away. Welcome to our coverage of “Star Wars Legacy.” Every week we will read another story of Cade Skywalker, Darth Krayt, the Imperial Knights, and one of the most fascinating wars ever fought among the stars.


“Star Wars Legacy” #1-3, #5-7

Story by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Written by John Ostrander
Illustrated by Jan Duursema
Inked by Dan Parsons
Colored by Brad Anderson
Lettered by Michael David Thomas
Published by Marvel
Originally published by Dark Horse

The story of “Star Wars Legacy” is credited to two people- writer John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema. (For the record, those are both excellent Star Wars names). Ostrander got his start in comics in the mid 80s. His first pitch was picked up by DC and turned into the original run of “Suicide Squad.” Ostrander also was responsible for turning Barbara Gordon into Oracle, a choice I would argue is among the greatest and boldest creative decisions in superhero comics history. Ostrander first partnered with Durrsema on 1992’s “Hawkworld” for DC (later re-titled “Hawkman”). The two of them started doing “Star Wars” comics together and well, here we are.

Ostrander and Duursema’s stylistic preferences are a throwback to their start in the late 80s. Duursema is credited for example, with creating Aayla Secura, the blue-skinned Twi’lek Jedi babe best remembered for her skimpy outfits. Ostrander likes dark, troubled protagonists like fallen Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos, another popular character mostly formed by this creative partnership. You’ll see Ostrander’s old-school style in how heavily he leans on long narrative captions, a staple of Bronze Age comics. “Star Wars Legacy” started coming out in 2006 and you can feel how much Duursema is struggling to adapt to digital art. Her characters are extremely well drawn, but often have a sticky or rubbery look to them. And there’s something off about the firmness of her characters lips.

But the story, the one they are both credited on, the one we are here to talk about? This story is pretty great. We begin 125 years after the Battle of Endor and though the Galactic Civil war definitely casts a shadow on the Galaxy, the real conflict remembered from that era is the Yuuzhan Vong War which played out in the Star Wars novels from 1999 to 2003. And this is nothing like any Star Wars Galaxy we’ve ever seen.

In “Star Wars Legacy,” the galaxy is ruled by Emperor Roan Fel, who is generally pretty well liked. Well, not by the Sith. Fel’s Empire uses a lot of the trappings of Star Wars bad guys- he’s got stormtroopers and TIE fighters and stuff- but he’s not a cackling evil wizard. He’s a complicated guy. A despot sure, but one who genuinely seems to care about good rule. He’s deeply pragmatic, but not unfeeling. He seems like a good leader all things considered.

That is, until the Sith show up to overthrow him. These Sith are led by Darth Krayt. We’ll really dig into him later in the series but for now what you gotta know is that he looks like a tacky ripoff of Stryfe from “X-Men.” But Krayt has hidden problems of his own- his body is wasting away, and he is not as strong as he appears. Krayt is definitely closer to the kind of Star Wars villains we are used to, but he too is different. He’s relatively polite. He’s an idealist. He is wise and seems to understand his limitations. He also commands a cult of vintage 2006 Sith edgelords, and they are a trip.

Finally, there’s Cade Skywalker. Ostrander once remarked that he started shouting one syllable names until he could say one that sounded like Aunt Beru calling Luke. “Cade! Come drink your blue milk Cade!” We meet the young Skywalker on Ossus at the Jedi academy. But immediately the Sith show up and there is a massacre. This is Cade’s origin story. His dad goes down fighting a dozen Sith. His master is struck down. And Cade is ordered to grab the younglings and take them to safety. He’s a little too fiery for that and by the end of things, he ends up using the dark side to bring his master Sazen- but not his father- back from the dead. And that’s not supposed to be a thing!

Continued below

We pick back up a number of years later- Cade is a pirate and a junkie. In fact, he’s using drugs to literally chase ghosts away, mainly the ghost of his ancestor Luke Skywalker. He’s teamed up with a couple of sexy criminals- Deliah Blue and Jeriah Syn. The three of them have an Episode IV Han Solo code of ethics- they’re in this for the money sweetheart! But their latest target ends up being Imperial Princess Sia Fel, who is being hounded by the same Sith who killed Cade’s father and the rest of the Jedi.

The first arc ends at a crossroads. Cade uses the dark side once again to save the Princess, then flees his friends to see what destiny the Force has cooked up for him. Wow, that recap was exhausting. That’s because “Legacy” has approximately a bazillion characters. It is a true epic in scope. But good “Star Wars” designs and Duursema’s clean artwork help a lot with that. No two characters look alike. Sazen is a bronze Zabrak with cool hair. Darth Krayt is covered in spikes. Deliah is fluorescent pink and wears gaudy clothes. I want an action figure of every single character (and indeed, you can buy a Cade Skywalker/Darth Talon two-pack. This is Star Wars after all).

All three of the Star Wars movie trilogies are defined by their unplanned messiness. The most recent sequels have the whole Palpatine hullabaloo. The prequels responded to massive critical backlash and the limitations of their own cutting edge technology. Even the original trilogy has obviously unplanned developments like the whole Luke and Leia twin thing. Hell, Clone Wars was canceled and brought back from the dead twice. There are few Star Wars stories with consistent minds behind the creative process who get to use foreshadowing, and have it pay off in a meaningful way.

In that, “Star Wars Legacy” is unique. Through deliberate use of things like foreshadowing, and the slow development of its massive ensemble, it goes to places that other Star Wars stories couldn’t. While the whole series is caught up in some early 00s aesthetics (we didn’t talk about Cade’s disgusting soul patch), that now feels as charming as the 70s hair styles in the original trilogy. I’m excited to immerse myself in this epic and I hope that if you’ve read this far, you are excited to take this journey with me. It’s going to be arduous, and take us across the stars, but I think we can do it. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. Do you have the strength to say the same?


//TAGS | 2020 Summer Comics Binge | Star Wars

Jaina Hill

Jaina is from New York. She currently lives in Ohio. Ask her, and she'll swear she's one of those people who loves both Star Wars and Star Trek equally. Say hi to her on twitter @Rambling_Moose!

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