I found the Noghri's relationship with Vader and subsequently with Leia "Lady Vader" Organa Solo fascinating. Especially as their view of Vader as their saviour was built on a lie and Imperial propaganda, while the Empire continued to poison their planet.

Hoping to do the next review tonight.... in the meantime.... I filled in a few holes for the future with Mile High's 65% sale.. came out under 3 bucks an issue (the prices are pre-discount)

Apparently, #60 of the regular series is a bit expensive, but that's quite a ways away.



STAR WARS (1998) (#0-83) (DARK HORSE)
#57 1 Good @ 10.50 10.50
STAR WARS (1998) (#0-83) (DARK HORSE)
#58 1 Good @ 8.75 8.75
STAR WARS (1998) (#0-83) (DARK HORSE)
#59 1 Good @ 8.75 8.75
STAR WARS (1998) (#0-83) (DARK HORSE)
#61 1 Good @ 8.75 8.75
STAR WARS (1998) (#0-83) (DARK HORSE)
#62 1 V'Good @ 13.25 13.25
STAR WARS TALES OF THE JEDI: GOLDEN AGE
OF THE SITH #1 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS TALES OF THE JEDI: GOLDEN AGE
OF THE SITH #2 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS TALES OF THE JEDI: GOLDEN AGE
OF THE SITH #3 1 Fine @ 10.00 10.00
STAR WARS TALES OF THE JEDI: SITH WAR #41 V'Good @ 8.00 8.00
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1994) (#1-6) (DARK
HORSE) #4 1 V'Good @ 5.00 5.00
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1994) (#1-6) (DARK
HORSE) #5 1 Fine @ 10.00 10.00
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1994) (#1-6) (DARK
HORSE) #6 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1995) (#1-8) (DARK
HORSE) #3 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1995) (#1-8) (DARK
HORSE) #5 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1995) (#1-8) (DARK
HORSE) #6 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1995) (#1-8) (DARK
HORSE) #7 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: DROIDS (1995) (#1-8) (DARK
HORSE) #8 1 V'Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: PROTOCOL OFFENSIVE (1997) #1 1 V'Good @ 7.75 7.75
STAR WARS: REDEMPTION OF ULIC QEL-DROMA
#1 1 Fine @ 15.00 15.00
STAR WARS: REDEMPTION OF ULIC QEL-DROMA
#2 1 V'Good @ 10.50 10.50
STAR WARS: REDEMPTION OF ULIC QEL-DROMA
#3 1 Good @ 7.00 7.00
STAR WARS: REDEMPTION OF ULIC QEL-DROMA
#4 1 Good @ 5.25 5.25
STAR WARS: REDEMPTION OF ULIC QEL-DROMA
#5 1 V'Good @ 8.00 8.00

Totally understandable. I think since the release of the prequels and the subsequent preoccupation with the various & sundry Sith conflicts in the EU, it's become especially hard for a lot of folks to wrap their heads around the idea of a powerful darksider not being a Sith or for Sith to be subservient to non-Sith, even if they don't particularly like the prequels. Lucas' revisionism is insidious that way.

Tales of the Jedi #3



script:: Tom Veitch
Art: : Janine Johnston
Technical Art Assist : John Nadeau
Letters: Willie Schubert [/b]
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Cover Art : Dave Dorman
Title: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider
Date: `December 1993
Rating: 5 of 10

Plot: This is completely unrelated to the previous two issues (For now...) The front text crawler imply the Jedi Holocron had lots of different stories for us.. though my memory tells me otherwise, but we'll see.

Here we have young Jedi Andur Sunrider, his young, force-sensitve wife Nomi, and their child Vima. They are going on a trip to find Jedi Master Thon, who Andur is hoping will train him in the finer points of Jedi lore so he can be Master to is daughter, who he expects will be a great Jedi. He also want's Nomi to be trained, be she says she's too gentle for such things and isn't interested.

That stop at a 'jump gate' and it gets out that they have some special crystals for lightsabers with them (a present for Master Thon) and a bunch of thugs attack... killing Andur. Nomi rises to the challenge and dispatches the theives with Andur's lightsaber, and continues the journey.



She finds the planet of their destination very barren and desert-like.. so much so their trusty droid says he has to stay on the ship. As Nomi finds a Jedi and his ranch... the bad guys (part of the Hutt crime family) have pursued, and attack the ship. They follow and the Jedi tried to fight them off with Nomi, only to be saved by the Jedi's mount:



That's no beast though, that's actually Master Thon... to be continued!

My thoughts: Pretty basic plot, but a perfectly good set up for Nomi's story. The arts goes the Star Trek alien route with Nomi and she's very human but with a weird hairline, while the Jedi she finds is the standard Trek 'humanoid with bumps on their head'. On the other hand, Master Thon is AWESOME. I love that dicotomy between him raging like a ferocious beast against his enemies, but then you have him in repose at the end of the story:



Otherwise, the art is pretty uninspired... decent I guess, but nothing to write home about. It annoys me that Nomi hair is the wrong color on the cover, since her having flaming red her is a thing, not to mention all the other colors are wrong (her clothes... Andur's hair, the babys blanket, etc)

Continuity notes: We get quite a bit that's different back in this era than we see later. Clearly, Jedi can be married here... and there is far less regulation on who gets trained. In fact, don't they usually say it's dangerous for a Force-sensitive child not to be trained? Like, that's the excuse for Jedi kind of kidnapping kids from their parents in the Disney era. Here, that's all fine (though you could imagine Andur helping Nomi with control even without specific Jedi training).

There's also a bit about Hyperspace travel... that there a beacons that indicate the well used paths, and while not exactly Bablyon 5 style actual gates, these beacons call for a station and commerce. That is the basis of alot of plot of the High Republic stories as well, but this is THOUSANDS of years ago, while that is supposed to be a couple hundred, so the lack of progress there, compared to the massive progress between that and the movies, it massively inconsistent and illogical. In my head, High Republic is FAR longer ago which is was supposed to be at first, but then they made it more recent so they could have a Yoda cameo, which is super dumb)

We've discussed the crystals before, and that is re-inforced here.. that they are just crystals, and come from different planets.. with some being better than others. Clearly, they also have other uses, since the Hutt crime lord is probably looking for cash value and not the building of a few Lightsabers.

The letters are back... they mention the upcoming Droids miniseries (which I'll do eventually), which started in Dark Horse Presents (they eventually re-packaged those in their own book) as a preview, I guess.. which I think they did with this issue as well.

Vima, of course, is allegedly the same Jedi that Leia interacts with in Dark Empire... the letters page specifically says so and refers to her as 'Vima Sunrider'.. so I guess she is a pretty good jedi to live like 4000 years. [/b]

Tales of the Jedi #4



script:: Tom Veitch
Art: : David Roach
Letters: Willie Schubert
Colors: Pamela Rambo
Cover Art : Dave Dorman
Title: The Saga of Nomi Sunrider, Part II
Date: January 1994
Rating: 7 of 10

Plot : Several months after her arrival, Nomi is still just chilling on Ambria (this issue Veitch seems to have remembered he has to name stuff, and does so with gusto). Vima is playing with some lizards that remind me a lot of the ones in another Dark Horse comic about a Jaxxon-rip off character:



When Vima goes too close to the dark side pool and Nomi has to use 'Jedi Battle Meditation' on some much bigger lizards. Apparently, this is like the 'These are not the droids you're looking for' trick, but MUCH stronger, as the two lizards decide to fight each other instead of eating Vima.



Interestingly, Luke does this in 'Heir to the Empire', but feels like it's Dark Side-y, and then refuses to use it again. While C'boath uses what seems like an opposite power (but in reality is still mind control, so probably still bad) to help Thrawn's fighters be extra co-ordinated.

Anyway, I digress. Nomi apparently hasn't been trained at all by Master Thon, and is rather afraid of him. Oss Willum (Master Thon's other apprentice, who also gets a name) is reassuring her when Master Arca and the crew from the first two issues turn up and ask Master Thon's help with the Freedon Nadd uprising. Thon agrees to send Oss Willum along, and actually starts training Nomi. She tells him she will never use a lightsaber(the next issue cover begs to differ) but Thon tells her it's her destiny. As they go off on their training trip, Nomi asks the droid to tell her husband's old master if anything happens to her (as if Thon is going to eat her or something), and off they go.

Meanwhile, the action in the story also serves as some nice establishing of a new region of the Galaxy. We learn we are in the 'Stenness Node' and the 'Nessies' are miners that use these awesome ships made of hollowed out giant insects to mine.. and that the Hutt that tried to steal Nomi's crystals and killed her husband (The Great Bogga) is in charge.



We see some pirates try to raid one of said ships, and Bogga stops them... he then punishes the pirate captain by forcing him to go to Ambria to kill master Thon. The pirate (captain Finhead) refuses at first, but after Bogga kills his first mate he agrees. To be continued!


My thoughts: There are definitely a few issues here if you're paying attention to details, and I absolutely HATE that our Jedi hero is scared of the beastly Jedi Master (I guess because she's just a gentle girl), but otherwise we have some good story here that both tells its own story and keeps us posted on what's going on with Ulic and company.

The location gets used a few times later in the EU, so for the first time we get something that lasts outside these series! I like the set up here, as it seems like a good way to lead into a series of adventures for Nomi, while still keeping us posted on what going on in Onderon. I don't remember if that's exactly what happens in the next series but it feels like it could!

I like David Roach a lot better than the previous artist, but he gets a little carried away with the visual shout outs. There's a guard in what is very similar to Leia's slave girl outfit. Which is fun, if a little silly. Vima playing with a stuffed Ewok is a bit much, though. I'll admit it made me chuckle though, and I guess from a continuity stand point, they do find an old Jedi Temple on Endor at some point if I recall, so I'll allow it. It IS a bit jarring, though.



Continuity Notes: It's official... awesome cover artist Dave Dorman clearly is just told what to draw, and doesn't get any reference, or care to match the inside. The scene on the cover does indeed happen in the story, but the Hutt there is clearly modelled after Jabba and not really what Bogga looks like... the guard beast is an alligator instead of a lizard, and Capt ain Finbone looks nothing like what he does inside.

The saga of Nomi's hair continues... she is a brunette now, and has a very normal, human, 90s style. Though it seems to be on purpose, as there is a flashback that show her weird alien do from the last issue (its in greyscale to show it's a flashback, so no color). She definitely is much more human looking in general.

We also find out that while Andria is out of the way, its not totally isolated, they mention it takes 'months' to get the parts to repair the droid, but clearly that did get those parts, and Nomi and Vima have new clothes. I guess Andur just didn't do enough research before the trip to know that it was a Hutt controlled system.

...and that seems a bit contradictory. The flashback seems to be intended to point out that Andur was a good Jedi Knight (even though it was killed by some random Hutt thugs)... it didn't really do the job though.

In regard to our previous discussions, Master Arca mentions they are fighting the Dark Lords of the Sith (yes, it's plural). There is a letters page back in this one, and one of the letter writers says something about there are supposed to be 12 of them and Vader is the 12th? Sounds biblical, and the sort of thing Lucas might do.. does that exist somewhere besides this letter writer's mind? The letters are all positive (gushingly so) and mostly involve fans begging for issues they missed. It does confirm that the Dark Force presents previews are just that... and don't contain anything that wasn't in the issues here. There is also apparently a preview issue other there, that is simply a photocopy of the proofs of issue one that was given out to generate buzz, so nothing we are missing it seems. (whew!)

Not sure of the exact details but that is broadly correct for a draft of the film....might have been the third.  They kind of blend together, for me.  That also demonstrates the influence of the Lensman Saga, as the series revolves heavily around the Kinnison family, first with Kim Kinnison, then his children, while the bad guys are the Boskone pirates, with the Good Guys being the end result of the Arisian efforts and the Boskone being the end result of the Edorians, who opposed them.  These same concepts influenced the Vorlons and the Shadows, in Babylon 5, as well as the Rangers.  The Rangers kind of stand in for the Galactic Patrol, once the Interstellar Alliance is formed.

There was a lot of mining of material from discarded drafts, both by Lucasfilm and licensees.  Marvel did a bit of that, based on things Lucas said in interviews, about background details, as well as material provided to them, by Lucasfilm.