COMIC: Top of the Stack - Star Wars: Legacy - War # 6 (Review)

Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Jan Duursema
Cover: Jan Duursema

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.50

The last week of May brought a sizable stack of comics with over twenty titles in it, a quantity that is quickly becoming the norm when it comes to my reading list. Unfortunately this was also one of those weeks where very few of the comics actually stood out and it was tough going for awhile getting through the titles and finding one worthy for the top of my stack.

If one thing has come out with all these comic reviews I have written it is that I am a sucker for all-ages books and that made MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN #14 with Spider-Man and George Stacy battling Mysterio a contender but in the end it was the climactic showdown between Cade Skywalker and Darth Krayt in STAR WARS: LEGACY - WAR #6 that put the final issue of the mini-series at the top of the stack.

Writer John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema have been involved with the characters and time in the Star Wars universe for awhile now, being the creative team on the mini-series and having worked together on the ongoing title that preceded it. They have the spirit and style of the book down pat as this mini is more of an extension of the previous ongoing and a fitting wrap up to this era of Star Wars if this is indeed the end.

In this final issue Darth Talon unintentionally leads Cade right to Darth Krayt and the final showdown between the two commences with the attack on Coruscant ongoing. Roan Fel finds his advisors opinions to be unsatisfactory and not loyal leading to a fight between he and Antares Draco. But it is Krayt trying to push Cade to the dark side that is the real climax to the story as the full vision helps guide Cade to his true discovery, his destiny to be a Jedi like his forefathers before him.

Of course not even Cade can go away quietly, deciding that Krayt had infected his body so he needs to plunge himself into the sun as well to truly eradicate any trace of Krayt. It is Cade's family that steps up in the end, Morrigan getting word to the Mynock and the spirit of Luke Skywalker giving sage advice as Cade stands on the precipice.

Having a STAR WARS: LEGACY title to read month in and month out the last few years has been a joy and now I hope that I will find a new Star Wars title to fill the hole that now needs filling. Something I am sure Dark Horse will accomplish with ease looking at the track record of Star Wars titles and my reading of them. Here is to the next adventure in a galaxy far, far away.

COMIC: Top of the Stack - Star Wars: Legacy - War #1 (Review)

Written by John Ostrander
Pencils by Jan Duursema
Cover by Jan Duursema

Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Price: $3.50

The week of December fifteenth brought a plethora of big DC books to my stack, along with a few stubborn ducks via BOOM! Studios but it was the return of the characters from the cancelled Dark Horse Comics series, Star Wars: Legacy, in the first of a six issue mini-series, Star Wars: Legacy - War, that climbed to the top of the stack. Veteran comic book scribe John Ostrander reunites with artist Jan Duursema to bring the creative team of the award-winning Star Wars: Legacy series to the next chapter of that universe.

Legacy - War starts from the events in the Legacy finale, Darth Krayt once leader of the One Sith and thought to be dead at the hands of Darth Wyyrlok is alive and the revelation of his return sent ripples through the Force to all Sith ... and Cade Skywalker. Wyyrlok's betrayal has awoken a fiercer attitude from Krayt who immediately sets forth to reclaim his leadership position with his goal to bring the galaxy to war so that the galaxy can experience the pain and rebirth he went through. But opposition forces are gathering, including a newly resolved Cade Skywalker who is determined to follow his destiny and destroy Krayt.

With the creative team from the series back on this mini, the book feels like a continuation more than a new mini-series. Duursema drew a fierce cover with Krayt on it that stands out from other books, and with the interiors Duursema continues to expertly create beautiful panels, especially scenes involving Sith characters. One of the reasons I have been attracted to the Legacy universe is that focus on the Sith, and the many unique designs they come in like the beautiful but deadly Twi'lek Darth Talon.

This first issue sets up the battlefield that the upcoming war is going to take place in and who are the main characters that will be involved in it. I do not know what plans are for the universe after this mini but I always remember feeling like the last issue of Legacy did not feel like a finale and I hope that this mini-series delivers some finality and resolve if this is the last look in on these characters.

Check out Geek Plate's Tumblr for today's Star Wars themed picspam.