Lit Overwhelmed by Comics Options

Hello Friends!

I am a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available reading material. I currently own the Star Wars "Original Marvel Years" volumes 1-3, as well as the "Newspaper Strips Vol 1". I really like the 70's-80's Marvel Comics and purchased the original Marvel GI Joe, which I prefer over the material over the last few years.

Amazon has the Star Wars Epic Collections:
The Empire
Infinities
The Old Republic
The New Republic
Rise of the Sith
The Rebellion
Legacy
more?

In your opinion, which are "Required Reading" vs "Nice to have, but not necessary" vs "Skippable"?

Thanks!
Mike

 

I'd skip Infinities and anything that comes after Return of the Jedi.

 

Thanks for your reply! Just to verify, does that mean you recommend reading: The Empire, The Old Republic, The New Republic, and The Rebellion? Or do I have that wrong?

Mike

 

There is no required reading. I suggest you read whatever you feel you want at the moment, otherwise it might get tedious. All those comics stand on their own so there's no chronological order requirement or anything.

 

In my opinion:

- Required reading: The Empire, The Old Republic, Legacy

- Nice to have, but not necessary: the rest of the titles mentioned in your post, including Infinities. I think they are a fun read.

 

I don't know how it gets divided up, but whichever collections contain Tales of the Jedi, KOTOR, the original Republic Clone Wars run, Rogue Squadron, and Legacy would all be essential Star Wars comics reading.

 

I'm running into the same problem, having finished all the novels I only now turn my attention to the comics.

There's some other recommendations here: http://boards.theforce.net/threads/star-wars-comics.50043254/

Check out the Dark Empire trilogy.

The thing I like about the Legends comics is that some of the information contained in resource books (dictionaries, essential guides, ect.) came from these comics, and finally reading the comics fills in a lot of blanks.

 

Definitely Dark Empire. A very important event in Galactic history that's not covered in the novels.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

From the original Marvel run - the Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson run and the David Michelainie (sp)/Walt Simonson run. Those were the best that comic ever was. The Walt Simonson run actually managed to present real tension, even though you knew deep down that everyone had to make it to the next film.

Dark Horse was at its best in Legacy and Dark Times IMHO. Story and art just really clicked in those. Plus, now, you don't have to wait four months between issues of Dark Times. bonus! Oh yes, also Knights of the Old Republic.

Where they all fit in Marvel's release schedule, I have no idea

 

You should try everything at least once and make your own opinions on things.

 

That's nice in theory but with the RRP for the Epic collections being $35-40, not so easy in practice!

My recommendations would be:

Old Republic = The very praised and popular KOTOR run, so that's a must.

Legacy is another praised run. Clone Wars is where that, in a way, really starts too.

 

I enjoyed all the new canon comics so far. Aphra and Vader are the best larger series, Poe, Kanan, and Lando are also really good. I really like Leia, but that is kinda an unpopular opinion.

Legends wise, Crimson Empire, Dawn of the Jedi, Lost Tribe of the Sith, Legacy, and KOTOR are my personal favourites. Not sure if any comics are required reading, but I would say all I mentioned are for sure not "skippable".

 

All of this is great and I appreciate everyone's help. I certainly would like to try it all at some point, but it comes down to money and time. With limited amounts of both, I wanted some guidance as to where to start - pick your battles so-to-speak, and your responses helped.

I'll admit I was a little apprehensive about posting, as I wasn't sure what sort of reception I would get ("What?! You don't know? You haven't read any of these yet? Jeez!") - but there was none of that, and I am thankful for your responses.

 

I was once in a similar boat as you, as I only recently got into the Dark Horse Star Wars comics. My advice? Browse Wookieepedia, read the plot synopsis of the different comics, see if any stick out to you or sound interesting.

Speaking of which, Wookieepedia has a handy list of current and upcoming Epic Collections, as well as which comic issues are contained in them.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Epic_Collection

I should probably also point out omnibuses. I bought a couple of them to fill in the gaps of my collection, or get issues that hadn't yet been reprinted in Epic Collections. However, I'd urge caution: since they're out of print it can be hard or a bit expensive to track them down, and the pages are smaller than in the Epic Collections.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Omnibus

Finally, there's Marvel Unlimited. It's a paid monthly service that lets you look at digital Marvel Comics, including the Star Wars ones that were formerly Dark Horse. Also you can do a 1 month long free trial..

 

If the OP is just interested in these Epic Collections, then from this list I would personally suggest the Empire Vol. 1, and all of the Old/New Republic volumes.

 

I'd just suggest:

Tales of the Jedi
Dark Empire Trilogy
Crimson Empire Trilogy
Legacy

And the Thrawn Trilogy adaptation before Dark Empire if you haven't read those novels. Those at least provide a sort of framework for the expanded universe at large and don't really rely on the films at all.

Then if you like those you get into KOTOR/Republic/Empire/Rebellion. Which are more along the lines of "filling in the gaps" of films.

I personally love Dark Empire for how utterly ridiculous the whole thing is. Just turn off your brain and you'll like it.

 

How does the release work between DHC/Marvel, new/old, Legends/canon? Is Marvel able to reprint anything Star Wars with it's current license?

 

I recommend Legacy and Agents of the Empire

 

But seriously, just read Dark Empire first. In post Marvel Classic world that's pretty much the launching point for everything

 

The Legends Collections barely scratches the surface of the Dark Horse comics, in my opinion you can only really appreciate Legacy when you've read the Star Wars: Republic line which is followed by Dark Times, and even then there's the whole Vector crossover spanning 4000 years forward. I do recommend all of the collections they've done so far though, except for Infinities, while I loved those stories they are intentionally non-canon what if scenarios about the films. The Old Republic collection however, get that, KOTOR was one of the best comics Dark Horse had and it's a perfect place to start, even if you'll be scratching your head when they mention Exar Kun and you'll go "Who?"

For stories that haven't been collected yet, I'll just fire recommendations:
Dawn of the Jedi
Tales of the Jedi (Admittedly a mixed bag imo but the final story arc was worth it)
Knights of the Old Republic
Darth Maul (2000), Jedi Council: Acts of War, Republic, Jango Fett: Open Seasons, Jango Fett & Zam Wesell two parter, Purge, Boba Fett: Blood Ties
Dark Times, Rebellion, Star Wars (2013), Boba Fett: Enemy of the Empire, Shadows of the Empire, Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand, Dark Empire, Crimson Empire, Star Wars Tales
Legacy and Legacy Vol 2
Tag & Bink

That's most of what I've read so far, I still have to read things like Lost Tribe of the Sith, Knight Errant, Invasion, and the comic adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, but everything I've recommended I've enjoyed.

 

Great list there Kik.

 

I find this very interesting. I was late to SW comics game, only really reading the novels, and have been catching up by buying all the Epic Collections. I assumed we must be at least halfway through DH's output by now. Is this not the case?

 

Personally I would recommend:
Tales of the Jedi
Dark Empire Trilogy
Crimson Empire Trilogy
And anything having to do with KOTOR era

 

I want to be generous and say we've covered about a sixth of what Dark Horse produced but there's still, a lot left so I doubt that's an accurate estimate. I mean they've been making Star Wars comics for 22 years, and while Marvel have begun collecting KOTOR, Legacy and The Clone Wars comics, we've still got hundreds of stories to tell, Dawn of the Jedi will no doubt come in one collection, Tales of the Jedi might be released in two collections with hopefully the Tale of Ulic's cousin sliced into the collection before the Redemption arc starts, we still have another 2 or 3 collections of The Old Republic to finish, I'm not sure if Marvel has even started collecting stories focusing on Ki-Adi-Mundi and Quinlan Vos, I would like to see a Darth Maul collection even if it would be difficult to lump the canon Son of Dathomir comic in with the Legends Maul comics, there's plenty of Boba Fett and Jango Fett stories still untouched, Dark Empire trilogy, Crimson Empire trilogy, Thrawn trilogy, Union, Chewbacca, Jedi Academy, Invasion, lets say 3 more volumes collecting Legacy not to mention all the Rogue Squadron comics and about 5 Darth Vader mini series that came out toward the end of the license, but my point is, yeah we still have a lot left to cover. XD

 

Yes. Whoever holds the licence is able to reprint everything. What Dark Horse produced, never belonged to Dark Horse, it always belonged to Lucasfilm. now Marvel have the licence, they can reprint the stories