You may have noticed that last week, we skipped issue #4 of “Star Wars: Legacy.” This was no accident. There are a lot of characters in this series, so I didn’t want to cover the interlude story, ‘Noob,’ until we had sorted out the basics. This one-shot is part of a proud Star Wars tradition of presenting us with the stories of the bit players in the Star Wars. In this case, a fresh stormtrooper experiencing his first day on the front lines.
“Star Wars Legacy” #4, #8-12
Story by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Written by John Ostrander
Illustrated by Travel Foreman, Adam Dekraker, Colin Wilson, and Jan Durrsema
Inked by Dan Parsons
Colored by Brad Anderson
Lettered by Michael David Thomas, and Michael Heisler
Published by Marvel
Originally published by Dark Horse
We get to see how in this iteration of the Star Wars galaxy, there is a community of veterans who have been serving in the star wars for generations. These troopers aren’t clones, or brainwashed child soldiers. It’s a military that looks a lot like the US military, but with more white plastic armor. They are uncomfortable in serving the Sith, but they are utterly loyal to each other. And speaking of loyalty…
It’s kind of incredible how quickly the Moffs betrayed each other, and how much impact their petty backstabbing had on the Jedi purge. Take Moff Calixte. She was responsible for legitimizing the Sith in the weeks leading up to their Jedi purge on Ossus. But she was also the one who tipped off Emperor Fel, giving him a chance to escape execution. Meanwhile, Moff Veed desired to be emperor himself, not understanding the new Sith hierarchy at all. All of this contributed to the death of Kol Skywalker and the events we discussed last week.
This tightly wound watch of a plot feels like pure Star Wars. Not the movies, those are usually broad, messy, and lots of pew pew fun. But once you start getting into the Expanded Universe- the books, comics, video games, cartoons- you see that circumstances had to be just right for the story to go the way it did. The droid happened to be malfunctioning, the guard was having a bad hair day, and the ship manufacturer was cutting costs. In “Legacy” we see how all sorts of tiny decisions can have a galactic impact.
We follow a couple of different characters in these issues, which are drawn by Travel Foreman, Adam Dekraker, and Colin Wilson, before Jan Duursema returns to do issues #11 and #12. Where Duursema is in the process of adapting her style to incorporate modern techniques, the others draw in a much more 90s style. There’s a lot of cross-hatching, a lot of busy linework, making everyone look old and every space look grimy.
That’s actually pretty effective for the Imperial Knights portion of the story. They are on a dirty old space station, trying to secure an alliance. They don’t realize that their mission is being sabotaged by a spy named Morrigan Corde. Despite dressing like a teenager in 2006, Corde is supposed to be in her mid-40s at least, and the busy linework helps sell her age. Corde’s allegiances are less clear. Moff Calixte hired her to find Cade Skywalker, but Calixte is neither loyal to the Emperor or the Sith. And Corde seems to be loyal only to herself.
In the closing moments of her story, we find out why: she is Cade’s mother! It seems that all Skywalker men (and a few women) have a weakness for bad girls/boys. Corde isn’t really trying to capture Cade at all. She’s trying to assure his freedom. That puts a cool twist on the expected Star Wars secret parent reveal. What if your mom was a bad guy, but like, a really, really cool one?
In the final two issues of the arc, we see Cade deep in meditation/dying of a drug overdose. He conjures the ghosts of his ancestors including Mara Jade Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker. They attempt to scare him straight but it’s really the tough love from his former Jedi companions Sazen and Shado that makes him realize what he has to do. And that is, rescuing the innocent Jedi healer he sold to the Sith at the beginning of the story. Cade hasn’t embraced his destiny as a Jedi or a Skywalker, but he wants to try doing the right thing, even if it’s a really bad idea. And in this case, the right thing means a suicide mission to the temple on Coruscant. What could go wrong?
