Here we are denizens and sentients of the galaxy. At the end of our journey into “Star Wars Legacy…” except not really! We’ll get into it, but the false finale of this series had all the weight of a real one, only we get the real thing right after! I’m riding pretty high on that good good Star Wars and I hope you feel the same. Let me tell you a bit about what I mean.
“Star Wars Legacy” #47-50
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 Heisler
Published by Marvel
Originally published by Dark Horse
My least favorite part of the series so far has been the occasional returns to the Occupation of Dac. The Mon Calamari are cool and all, but I never connected with Admiral Stazi or any of the point of view characters, which made it hard to process the atrocities of the Sith, which were many. That all reaches a head here when the Sith decide to poison the whole planet and the good guys race against time to perform a planetary rescue. And friends, it was a great issue!
That’s got to be at least in part thanks to the collaboration between series writer John Ostrander and series artist Jan Duursema. Normally, the Dac sequences are drawn by other artists. While talented, Duursema has them beat on two counts. The first is that her design work and style define the series and anything else sticks out like a sore Quarren tentacle. But the other is that Ostrander loves Duursema. Duursema loves Ostrander. They are perfectly attuned to each other and their layouts, pacing, and all the other good good comic book stuff is better when they work together.
All of that is important because this is allegedly the end of the series! That’s it, no more “Star Wars Legacy.” Oh sure, there’s one more arc consisting of six more issues, but this is the end of the series proper and the issue makes you feel that. I have no idea what was going on at Dark Horse in 2010 that would make them cancel a series six issues prematurely only to conclude it in a miniseries, but hey that’s comics as hell. (In a bad way).
I’m not knocking that series finale feeling though! Character arcs conclude and disparate threads are tied. Like remember Azlyn? Cade’s childhood buddy who joined the Imperial Knights? She’s alive! And the Imperial Knights have a big role to play in the final battles and in rescuing Princess Sia Fel. And my main lady, Queen Jool the Hutt? She and the other Hutts have a big role to play too! Every random one-off Sith comes back for the finale (with two major exceptions, we’ll get to those in a bit) and every friend we’ve made along the way shows up to do their thing and fade back into the galaxy. No better feeling than a huge story like this coming together!
It doesn’t really end though. Cade’s final duel isn’t with Darth Krayt. It’s also not with Darth Wyyrlok, Darth Talon, or Darth Nihil. It’s not with anyone he’s ever met before! No, Cade has a pretty awesome duel with Vul Isen, the mad Sith scientist who made the poison that killed Dac. Isen is no match for Cade, but he’s got a wildcard energy which actually goes pretty far. You never worry that Joke is going to overpower Batman, but when they really get at it you are still scared for Batman’s safety. Joker is a maniac, and can do anything. That’s the vibe of this final fight. It’s cool!
As a committed devotee to the Imperial Knights, I liked their involvement in these major conflicts. Knight Captain and best character Antares Draco has to disguise himself as a Sith to infiltrate the temple and rescue his true love Sia. He faces down his former master, now turned Sith. It’s that good Star Wars, the kind we all love. My only criticism is that we could have had some better foreshadowing. The duel between Draco and Darth Havok is way cool (wow, lots of duels in this arc) (and they are all cool!) but lacked even the emotional weight of Cade vs Isen, even though it was far less personal. Ah well, it felt personal to me because I am over-invested in the Knights and the Fel dynasty and whatnot. Hard for me to imagine how it would land for a skeptic.
Continued below
The proper ending of the series proper ends with a lot of loose threads. Darth Krayt is still out there, looking more withered than Snoke, but alive. And Darth Talon is with him. Actually the entire bad guy squad is still at large and the war rages on. It’s nothing like an ending at all. And yet, it feels like one of those cool Game of Thrones finales, where the final battle happens in the penultimate episode. Now everyone is positioned for the real finale, the emotional one where the stakes aren’t big, they are personal. See you all at the end of the line. May the Force be with you!
Star Wars Track of the Week: “The Mandalorian” by Ludwig Goransson from The Mandalorian
