Star Wars Legacy: War #6

Written by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema
Art by Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons

I've been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember, but since I was fourteen, I found it to be a guilty pleasure, tempered by my acknowledgment of the corniness and sheer hack-ery of George Lucas's stories.  What I've always loved most about Star Wars was the potential to tell fantastic, sweeping stories on a grand scale.  That each of the movies (Empire Strikes Back least of all) fails in this has always bothered me, and I've tended to avoid the novels and comics that the franchise has produced.

And then I heard about John Ostrander and Jan Duursema's Star Wars Legacy, and decided to give the first trade a try.  This is what Star Wars should have been.  The Legacy book, which lasted for fifty issues before being wrapped up with this six-issue mini-series, is set while after the closing of Lucas's stories.  It has a Skywalker, Cade, who is a roguish pirate, unsure of his connection to the Force.  It has a universe that is suffering under the grip of Darth Krayt and his vision of the One Sith.  Krayt is opposed by Roan Fel, who claims to be the true Emperor, and by Gar Stazi, the last free admiral of the Alliance.

The series was as sweeping as Star Wars should be, and Ostrander took the time to develop a number of characters, each with their own sense of a story arc.  This book delved into politics, and the usual Star Wars theme of good versus evil.  Best of all, this series was completely lacking in cutesy alien races and animals, and only had one droid, who got next to no screen time.  Like I have said before, it was Star Wars done right.

This issue, which wraps up the entire series, brings every sub-plot (except the Mandalorian one) to a fitting close.  Characters act according to their own internal logic, and the end of the book feels very satisfactory.  John Ostrander is a giant among comics writers, and it's great to see him still putting out such good work.  As always, Jan Duursema does a wonderful job working with Ostrander.  The two of them are apparently working on a new Star Wars title; I can only hope it will be as good.