Lit Stackpole's X-Wing comics

Yes. I forget where it was in the succession, but I think Battleground: Tatooine was my favorite.

 

Art and Story-wise, I think those two you mentioned are by far the best.

 

Aside from the weakest arc that was Maskerade and the confused opener, it was all good.

The Rise of Isard arc was particularly good - save for that screw-up that was Maskerade, the Fel one-shot was great and the final arc was a killer.

 

Well, that explains it.

 

I wasn't a huge fan of the earlier storylines, but I thought the ending third that dealt with Pestage, Isard and Fel was a great sequence.

 

It's one of the very few times in a SW comic when I thought the art was absolutely abominable Todd, the tech was especially crude and simplistic - I could have drawn a better Star Destroyer than what "graced" the pages of that!

Fortunately the next arc was Mandatory Retirement and that kicked all kinds of arse and had stuff like this:

 

In the Empire's Service was my favorite. It had the best plot, action, and art in the series. And by the Glove, they followed through with the 181st being terrifying to go up against.

 

I would give my beloved Ackbar figure for an X-wing comic series by Stackpole set during the NJO!

--Adm. Nick

 

Hmmm...

I have never really been a "comics" guy, so while I loved the X-Wing books I never was interested in the comics. But... since I've got into Knight Errant, I might have to expand outwards and get the X-Wing comics, especially since the OP mentioned that the OP thought they were better than the books in some ways. Do they have an omnibus like they do for some of the other series?

 

Well, I'd second this, but only if the quality was the same. Rogue Leader was basically a continuation (or a prequel I guess) and it wasn't that great. I've also always thought of Union as largely an X-wing continuation and it also never thrilled me.

 

"In the Empire's Service" is of course amazing, as is every subsequent comic in which Soontir, Baron Fel takes part

tbh i'd prefer a series about him and syal though over a new x-wing comic. they're like the original power couple

 

I miss this series. Still probably my favourite series/miniseries that Dark Horse ever did. Edvin Biukovic's art on The Phantom Affair was probably my favourite in the whole series (as well as his work on The Last Command which is where my avatar is from, if I'm not mistaken).

 

I'd agree that the series was at its best when it tightened its focus and developed an ongoing plot with Fel rather than hopping from one-off adventure to one-off adventure. The Rebel Opposition was a misfire as an opener -- Stackpole had trouble conveying all his ideas to the scripter -- but it contains some solid ideas at the core. The execution got a lot sharper for the next several arcs, but the twofold problem with the early arcs is that Darko Macan, with The Phantom Affair, was the only scripter of Stackpole's story concepts good enough to elevate the material even further and was given the best material with Wedge's backstory, and the series was just too unfocused to start. The early arcs, Stackpole was just sort of making up concepts as he went along, with the idea of focusing each around a sort of reprise of some major Star Wars element. So you just get these scattered standalone missions where the Rogues end up being as much special ops as a squadron at war.

It was when Stackpole focused on the idea of telling the story of an actual military campaign pushing the New Republic forward, and building in a bigger plot following Isard's rise within the Empire, that things really snapped into focus and got out of the one-off, underthought adventure rut. They stopped just being fun throwaway adventures and started being a real story with bigger stakes that was developing the overall plot of the galaxy. The addition of the ridiculously compelling Fel added to that big-time. The Making of Baron Fel is still probably my favorite single-issue comic.

The series got a big boost out of having fantastic artwork, too. Edvin Biukovic is one of the best, and John Nadeau was a perfect choice as the predominant penciler of the series -- his tech was so good. Gary Erskine was fantastic in Requiem for a Rogue, and Steve Crespo was tremendous. It's too bad that the series went through a rough patch in art for Family Ties and Masquerade -- it could have really used Crespo or Nadeau there, or brought Erskine back.

 

Yup, three of them. Which were also the first three SW omnibi that Dark Horse did. Nyah, nyah, and nyah.

I picked up Volume 1 around Christmas '07 and was really disappointed by it. Rogue Leader was a pretty underwhelming and pointless prequel, and The Rebel Opposition was, to be honest, atrocious. Apparently the plot made even less sense in the original issues and was tweaked for the trade release, but the final product I read in the omnibus was still a nonsensical mess. The painfully bad characterization of Winter and the awful art didn't help matters. The Phantom Affair was the saving grace of the omnibus, but it wasn't enough to redeem the volume. My experience was bad enough that I skipped Volume 2 and went right for the highly-recommended Volume 3 the following Christmas. Now that was an Omnibus. I can't speak for Volume 2, but I'll definitely add my voice to the chorus that recommends Volume 3.

 

My local library system has a bunch of them -- the only problem is the one Omnibus collection had pages ripped out. Asshats. And that was the only copy.

 

Uncultured Ruffians! They deserve to go to a special hell for that. One does not damage publicly owned books and even if one does, one has the balls to admit it and buy the library a new copy.

 

I have only ever bought 3 comic "books" in my life X-wing omnibus 1,2 and 3.

 

At first, I skipped the X-Wing series because I thought they were boring.
Now, I think of the series as one of the best comic series ever written.
I evry much liked the intrigue between Pestage and Isard.

 

Rebel Opposition wasn't great, but it did set up quite a few of the characters. Phantom Affair is where the series hit it's stride. Rogue Leader was written and drawn far later, and a poor addition to the series. Much better would have been to see the Reenlistment of Baron Fel, which Stackpole and Zahn collaborated on and have fully written in both comic script and short story form in their computers.