Star Wars: Shattered Empire

Comic Info

Star Wars: Shattered Empire #3

Reprints Star Wars:  Shattered Empire #1-4 (November 2015-December 2015).  Shara Bey and her husband Kes Dameron are fighters for the Alliance.  When the Death Star is destroyed and the Emperor falls, it is just the beginning of the fight for the Alliance to retake the galaxy from the shattered Imperial forces.  Bey finds herself teamed with the likes of Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker on important missions while her husband Kes helps Han Solo shut down Imperial bases.  When Emperor Palpatine issues an order from beyond the grave to enact Operation:  Cinder, a new fight may begin.

Written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Marco Chcchetto, Angel Unzueta, and Emilio Laiso, Star Wars:  Shattered Empire also goes by the longer title Journey to Star Wars:  The Force Awakens—Star Wars:  Shattered Empire.  The four issue limited series was part of Marvel’s relaunch of the Star Wars titles and serves as a prequel to Star Wars:  The Force Awakens.  Also included with the trade paperback are Star Wars:  Princess Leia #1 and the original Marvel Star Wars #1.

I was pretty pumped about Star Wars:  Shattered Empire.  I was looking forward to the new movie and enjoying the Marvel relaunch of Star Wars in general.  With a promise of secrets being revealed before the premiere of Star Wars:  The Force Awakens, I really expected more from the series than I received.

Star Wars: Shattered Empire #4

The book is very episodic.  I’m sure Rucka would argue that it is about the path of both Bey and Kes and what became of fighters after Endor, but even in that sense it was unbalance.  Kes doesn’t seem to be much of a presence in the book and probably should have been ignored.  The series primarily focuses on Bey who is the more interesting character.  In addition, the “last mission” of Bey really has little to tie in with the middle two issues which features an adventure with Leia on Naboo.  I think the title would have been better served by having one solid story arc.

This leads to the next problem in that it was a bait-and-switch title.  The series didn’t really give you any more insight into Star Wars:  The Force Awakens.  You learned these are Poe Dameron’s parents…that’s it.  Though I liked the Poe character, he felt really shoehorned into Star Wars:  The Force Awakens.  If it had given clues to Rey or somehow introduced Finn then I feel it could have been touted as something that give readers a “one-up” on other people.

This collection was rather disappointing.  With the undefined period between Star Wars:  Return of the Jedi and Star Wars:  The Force Awakens as the stomping ground for the current trilogy, I guess I shouldn’t have expected much from this series…and then I wouldn’t have been disappointed when I didn’t get it.