Lit Which canon Star Wars comics are good to read and in which order?

Hey Guys,

So I have read most of the canon novels and watched the two animated series but I havn't read any of the canon comics yet. I would like to know where to start and which series are worth my time. Also do I need to read them in a particular order because of references in other ones?

Thanks

 

Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir is hands-down my favorite. Darth Vader is my second-favorite.

 

I would recommend to just follow the order they were published in, so first Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (not to be confused with the current Darth Maul mini-series), which is the last series published by Dark Horse before they lost the license and compliments the Dark Disciple novel and some of the unfinished threads from TCW, as it is based on unfinished Darth Maul episodes from TCW.

After that, it's the Star Wars series (still ongoing) and Darth Vader (the best series Marvel produced so far IMO), which compliment each other and there's even a small crossover between them called Vader Down.

After you finish Darth Vader (25 issues), you can continue with the Doctor Aphra series, which is sort of a sequel to the Vader series.

Then there's the ongoing Poe Dameron series, which is pretty much a standalone, so you can start reading it without worrying about any references, plus it's the only comic series so far set during the sequel trilogy era.

There's also the now finished Kanan The Last Padawan series, pretty good IMO, especially if you like the Rebels cartoon as it explains a lot about Kanan's origin. And the Shattered Empire mini-series, which is about the first days and weeks after the Battle of Endor.

And then there are the mini-series: Princess Leia (bad), Chewbacca (really bad), Lando (good), Han Solo (good), Obi-Wan & Anakin (good), which you can read in any order. Just pick the character/era you're most interested in.

And that's pretty much it.

Almost forget, there are the comic adaptations of TFA (really really bad) and Rogue One (so far good).

Hope this helps.

 

On the matter of what you should read, you're going to get very different answers, and so it may be worth thinking about what sort of SW you like. For instance, the Vader series is average at best in my opinion; It's filled with either lazy or absurd designs and ultimately has nothing of import to tell because its central character is invulnerable (made worse by the fact that Vader is greatly overpowered). But if you like weird (it has space whale ships and all sorts of bizarro characters) then it might be one that you like. I don't like the artwork so that might also be something that you may want to consider. I thought Dark Horse told much better Vader stories.

There's two sorts of SW comics, ongoings and miniseries. But even with the ongoings these are split into arcs, so don't feel you have to get the entire run. The main Star Wars series has the following arcs, which vary in quality (art wise and story wise).

#1-6: Skywalker Strikes
#7: Kenobi prequel issue
#8-12: Showdown on Smuggler's Moon
#15: Kenobi prequel issue
#16-19: Rebel Jail
#20: Kenobi prequel issue
#21-25: The Last Flight of the Harbinger
#26-30: Yoda's Secret War

The only one I would recommend reading is Rebel Jail, which has a set up issue in Star Wars Annual #1 that you should also read. I liked this one because the themes and questions it raised were interesting to me. Showdown on Smuggler's Moon is quite fun and has good cameos. Between some of the arcs, there is a standalone Kenobi story. These are ok.

We've had one crossover event, Vader Down, which plays out like a Vader power fantasy, and the next one, Screaming Citadel, has just started and seems promising so far. There's an issue in that it has 3 different artists working on it, and the quality of the art is jumping around a lot. Further, Larroca and Broccardo's art styles (Vader and Kanan, respectively) are almost polar opposites.

The problem with a lot of the Marvel stuff is that they feature characters we know won't be harmed (because they're set before movies). So there's this element where nothing really important can happen. Ideally, stories should therefore feature new characters or put the characters through a fundamental change of some kind that makes sense.This is why I would actually recommend reading the Princess Leia miniseries, because it feels significant to Leia's sense of identity.

Dr Aphra is different from anything else and almost on that basis is worth a read (thankfully you don't need to have read Vader to pick this up).

I want to like Poe Dameron (the characters and setting are great), but the series isn't quite consistent enough to be great. It's helped enormously by having the most consistently good artwork of all the comics with Noto and Unzueta, but the overall series doesn't seem to know what it wants to do. Each arc seems to be have a different tone. Noto also drew the Chewbacca miniseries, which is also one that I like.

To be honest, I've only read 3 must haves so far:
Han Solo (miniseries) - this is a fun Han and Chewie flying space adventure
Shattered Empire (miniseries) - a sort of codex to ROTJ. This also looks very likely to be tied into the upcoming Battlefront 2 story.
Darth Maul (miniseries) - still going so I may change my mind on this if it ends badly, but all round good so far.

 

Most of the new comics are very bad I would recommend the first numbers of Star Wars and Vader, The Maul mini series The Obi-Wan and Anakin comics and the comics of Kanan

 

I've just done a full read through of the new Marvel comics in chronological, or near as since some are not definitive placements. I think it worked really well. Really enjoyed it and I actually ended up enjoying the series that seem to be derided such as Leia and Chewbacca.

 

When it comes to the current connected storylines, I usually read them by trade volumes in order of when they came out so this should be an easy list to follow for the main run. These trades also collect the annual issues. (Except for Star Wars Annual 2 which I haven't even read yet)

1. Star Wars Vol 1: Skywalker Strikes
2. Darth Vader Vol 1: Vader
3. Star Wars Vol 2: Showdown on Smuggler's Moon
4. Darth Vader Vol 2: Shadows and Secrets
5. Vader Down
6. Star Wars Vol 3: Rebel Jail
7. Darth Vader Vol 3: The Shu-Torun War
8. Star Wars Vol 4: Last Flight of the Harbinger
9. Darth Vader Vol 4: End of Games
10. Star Wars Vol 5: Yoda's Secret War
11. Doctor Aphra Vol 1: Aphra
12. Where we're currently at: The Screaming Citadel

Everything else can be read standalone. I thought I would need to read Shattered Empire to see if the Poe Dameron comics would reference it but no it's kinda useless.

Everything else that's standalone: Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, Princess Leia mini, Kanan (2 volumes), Lando mini, Shattered Empire, Chewbacca mini, Han Solo mini, the ongoing Poe Dameron comic, the C-3PO one shot, Obi-Wan & Anakin mini, Darth Maul mini, an upcoming different Darth Vader comic and the upcoming Captain Phasma comic.

As for which ones I would recommend, well the Vader comic is mostly well done, Kanan is my favourite comic so far, the new Darth Maul one is coming well nicely, Lando is okay, Obi-Wan & Anakin is alright, I like Poe Dameron a lot and the C-3PO one shot was really nice. Everything else has mostly been bleh to me, especially the Leia comic, Chewie, Yoda's War, the Harbinger, and god the Rebel Jail arc had so much potential that was just wasted away in my opinion.

 

Please continue this conversation in our general question thread. Thanks, folks.