The Legacy era returns, and this time they are going SOLO! Gonk investigates the launch of Legacy: Volume 2, this week’s Star Wars comic release.
Dark Horse returns to the Legacy timeframe, but with a new cast and a new crew. While the galaxy is still recovering from the damaging impact of The One Sith, life’s not that great when you’re just scraping by, even if your name is Solo. Legacy Volume 2 kicks off with their first issue (DarkHorse.com profile) to let us know who the players are, and that writer Corinna Bechko and writer/artist Gabriel Hardman are going in a new direction, and not just continuing where the old Legacy series ended. Let’s check out what going on with Part One of ‘Prisoner of the Floating World’.
For those not familiar with the Legacy era, the story takes place 138 years after the Battle of Yavin in Star Wars: A New Hope. Just recently, there has been a galaxy-wide war between the One Sith and an unlikely group of allies: the Fel Empire with their Force-using Imperial Knights, the Galactic Alliance, and the Jedi, who had been in hiding after the Sith re-emerged under Darth Krayt. It took a Skywalker to help in the end, Cade, who with his friends and allies, was able to be pivotal point in defeating the One Sith, while facing his own walk between the light side and dark side. The war left worlds devastated – the Mon Calamari homeworld was rendered lifeless, and Coruscant was ravaged. Now, the galaxy is rebuilding under the Triumvirate: Jedi, Empire, Galactic Alliance.
Summary: The Triumvirate has embarked on the construction of a galaxy wide communications array, to re-connect worlds to the galactic community. Master Yalta Val, an Imperial Knight, is on a mission to reach the array under construction in the Carrerras system, but is shot down to an unknown world, and his crew killed by a Sith warrior. A recon drone finds his lightsaber but is damaged while fleeing the planet. The broken droid ends up in the hands of Ania Solo, a junk dealer, and her Mon Calamari friend, Sauk, who realize that its value will help get them a better life – if they can find a way to fence it. Val shows up at the Carrerras system and demands to take control of station security to root out the Sith. Ania runs afoul of the local law enforcement, and rather than turn over the lightsaber, she decides that being a Solo means shooting first. And there’s a final little end scene that I won’t talk about.
Review: The artistic style of Gabriel Hardman (with colors by Rachelle Rosenberg) definitely lets you know that this is not the Legacy comic of the Ostradner/Duursema era. Hardman’s style reminds me more of the Dark Empire style of Cam Kennedy, without the heavy colorization – lots of hard shading, soft lines, shadow and grittiness. My favorite panels? the end of the attack on Val by the Sith at the crash site, and Ania’s first appearance in her junkyard.
For a first issue, we get some great introductions and a good bit of action – Master Val has a saber duel against a Sith, while Ania has an alleyway chase with her friend Sauk. (And see that while Ania’s a bit more tempermental, Sauk, a fellow refugee, is a bit more cowardly). We also get some big picture stuff with a scene on Coruscant where the Triumvirate debates how to best rebuild and restore the galaxy.
It’s gonna take a while for the art style to grow on me, but I am intrigued by the story by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman – we’ve got Ania and her friend afoul of the law, and trouble brewing for Master Val, and I’m eager for the next issue!
Dave Wilkins handles the regular cover with fine style, teasing heroes, villains, spaceships and lightsaber duels. Plus Ania has that faraway look in her eyes, like a fringer looking toward the horizon waiting to get off that rock she’s stuck on.
And there’s some variant covers out there, teased by Jen Heddle on Twitter:
The left one is the regular cover, the middle one is a WonderCon exclusive cover, and the right one is the Phantom cover by Gabriel Hardman, going to a set of retailers, such as at Collector’s Paradise comic shop in LA, which is having a Phantom variant release party on Saturday, March 23 with Gabriel Hardman, Corinna Bechko, & Dave Wilkins. See the full cover by Hardman here. Bechko, Hardman and Wilkins will also be signing on Wednesday evening in Anaheim, and at WonderCon (on Sunday, March 31). See Hardman’s blog for more info.