Star Wars: Heir to the Empire #1-6

Star Wars: Heir to the Empire #1-6

Originally released in 1995

Written by Mike Baron

Art by Olivier Vatine, Fred Blanchard

As it's May the 4th, I decided to cover a Star Wars comic today.  I considered looking into a Darth Vader solo series, but I realized this was an opportunity for me to dip my toes into the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which I'm largely unfamiliar with.  There was a series of novels called "The Thrawn Trilogy", written by Timothy Zahn, and I saw that there were comic adaptations of them on Marvel Unlimited, so I started with the first one, "Heir to the Empire".

The story takes place five years after the destruction of the second Death Star in the movie Return of the Jedi.  The Empire is a shadow of its former self, with seemingly only one Grand Admiral remaining.  Thrawn is apparently the only non-human to have a high-ranking position within the Empire, seemingly for his tactical prowess.

Luke is trying to restore the Jedi Order, with Leia as his first student - she can consciously tap into the Force, though she's still learning how to use a lightsaber.  While she doesn't get a lot of focus in this comic, I like how they're showing Leia tapping into the Force. (I liked how it was handled in The Last Jedi as well; I get that it was a consequence of Leia's status as Luke's sister being a last-minute decision, but it's something that the original trilogy didn't really explore)  As well, Leia's married to Han and pregnant with twins, with one of the villains being particularly interested in the twins.

Thrawn teams up with Joruus C'baoth, a Dark Jedi who wants pupils to train, and C'baoth is convinced that Luke, Leia, or the twins can be broken down and turned to his side.  I wasn't sure what the difference was between a Dark Jedi and the Sith, but apparently, a Dark Jedi is a Jedi who fell to the Dark Side of the Force, whereas a Sith is a member of a specific religious order dedicated to the Dark Side and uses the title "Darth". (so Darth Vader is a Dark Jedi and a Sith, while Emperor Palpatine is just a Sith)

As this is the first part of a trilogy, C'baoth is introduced here, and his potential threat looms over the story, but he doesn't get much to do.  Another character who's introduced here is Mara Jade - while I don't know what role C'baoth has in the future, I'm aware that as time goes on, Mara Jade becomes Luke Skywalker's love interest, though at the moment, she hates him because she worked for the Emperor and Luke was responsible for the Emperor's death. (another concept that makes its debut in this story is the planet Coruscant, the capital planet of the Republic, which was later used in the prequel trilogy movies)

I haven't really gotten into the Expanded Universe, so I could be wrong about fan reactions, but it seems to me like Mara Jade is a popular character.  However, she largely seems to be set up here - she wants to keep Luke alive long enough to learn about Jedi abilities like mind control, but by the end of the story, she just kind of vanishes.

The character art in the book isn't great in my eyes, though maybe that's because I'm so used to picturing Luke, Han, and Leia as resembling their actors - the resemblance is inconsistent at best here.  However, the landscape shots are well-drawn, with the Wookie homeworld of Kashyyyk and the smuggler base Myrkr getting double page spreads to show off their beauty.  In addition, the drawings of the ships are detailed, with the ones from the movies resembling their movie counterparts.

Reading this leaves me wondering what the novelization was like, as that format would allow the writer (Timothy Zahn) to go into more detail about character thoughts and motivations.  The ending of the comic didn't really feel like a definitive ending to a story - more like the first episode of a series. (in contrast, even if A New Hope was the first movie of a trilogy, it still ended with the destruction of the Death Star)  I kind of get why Thrawn and Mara Jade are popular, but I didn't get much to go on for the latter.

Still, I liked reading the comic.  The story feels fresh rather than seeming like a retread of the original trilogy, and assuming that the next book, "Dark Force Rising", has a comic adaptation (I don't see why it wouldn't; this is Star Wars we're talking about), then I'm hoping to look into that at some point down the line.