Star Wars: Agent of the Empire; new series by John Ostrander

I hope we don't get a bunch of relatives of characters we know from the surrounding timeline, such as the Clone War era and the Rebellion/New Republic era.

I don't want everyone's father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommates to show up.

I don't want Quinlan Vos, Tholme, K'Kruhk, A'Sharad Hett or anyone like that showing up, either.

 

Ahh, just checked the Wook - if it's intertrilogy, Armand is still in charge.

 

It's pretty much a perfect concept (James Bond in Star Wars) and the area of spy adventures, intelligence work, and secret agents is woefully underexplored in the EU. I'm really looking forward to this, and Ostrander is well suited to it. The fact that he's an Imperial is an odd twist, though -- is he going to be a non-heroic protagonist, a good Imperial, or the subject of a defection plotline?

 

Now we need to know more about the Untitled Jan and John series. It could be about the Second Galactic Civil War, or maybe about the secret history of the Hat

 

Well that's just it, isn't it but John's got a track record of doing very good stories with what appear to quite dubious characters.

 

I'm sure we'll get a great story out of it. I just really hope we avoid a defection storyline; it's so cliche. Even done well, it's hard to help feeling that it's the same preordained arc of every Imperial protagonist.

 

Yeah, but this is 3 years pre-ANH, before Tarkin blew up Alderaan - so it's far easier to believe in the Empire as emodying order and law.

 

If thats the case, I do hope we see Ysanne planning his downfall and perhaps Cronal in the background as well since I always found the black projections of him quite... disturbing to see...

 

Yay, new series by Mr. Ostrander! Not sure I really care about it though, to be honest. Imperial James Bond in space does sound sorta cool, but not sure I really care about an Imperial protagonist. Either they're nice, but then they'd probably defect sooner or later, or they're mean, so I care even less about reading about them (no offense, I'm sure the writing will be great, just not my main interest). Not to mention between the trilogies isn't my favorite time period, although this sounds like closer to Yavin than the actual Dark Times comic. Hm, wonder if there would be an official Rebellion yet or not (not sure what counts anymore after TFU). Still, a lot of potential to see a lot of characters from that time period (Vader of course, maybe Tarkin, either Isard, or various other Imps). I'll keep an eye on it in the future at least, glad to see him still writing.

 

Interested, but not yet convinced. I´ll give Mr Ostrander the benefit of the doubt, of course.

 

Maybe so...

 

I like John Ostrander but this does not sound interesting at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Dark Times + Bond homage + Ostrander =

Sold.

 

I can definitely see this comic appealing to a smaller audience than Legacy. Not the other way around.

 

Hmm... I've never really been interested in this era if it doesn't involve Vader kicking butt, but this is something different and it's being done by John Ostrander, so I think I'll give it a try.

 

John + Dark Times - Jedi = Yes.

 

Hi Gang.

I'm here to post more of the info that was given in the panel today.
First of all, the artist is STEPHANE ROUX and he's is terrific. You've seen his work on the covers of THE DARK AGE.

The main character's name is JAHAN CROSS. We're starting in the era 3-0 BBY. Yes, we're doing it as a series of miniseries. The aim is to make each arc a complete story but there will be an overall narrative moving forward. Cross is a loyal Imperial; he believes that without it, everything goes to chaos and he has reasons to believe that. We'll get into his backstory as we go but don't expect it all at once in the first arc.

The robot pictured in the promo piece above is IN-GA 44 and she is Cross's companion and helper.

I do plan to have characters from that era show up as is appropriate and as the timeline allows. Part of the reason to take this different perspective is to use those characters without getting bogged down in the continuity for this era which is pretty tight.

"James Bond meets Star Wars" is a shorthand way of describing the series but it will be more than that. Cross is not Bond but the stories will be influenced by Bond, as well as Secret Agent, Jason Bourne, and so on.

Armand Ysard IS the head of Intelligence at this time and Ysanne IS around as another agent.

And, yes, Jan and I WILL be doing a series together (we're working on it now). It's not LEGACY and I can't say anything more about it for now. Yes, that means I have TWO series on which I'm working for Dark Horse. Yes, we want all your money.

Again, nothing was said here that wasn't said at the panel, so far as I know. And I think that's all for the moment. Hope it helps.

-- John

PS I'm very excited about this series and I think, if you give it a chance, you will be, too.

 

My favorite kind.

Seriously, sounds brilliant (Armand!). Haven't been looking forward to something this much in a long time.

 

ARMAND!



If the Isards are in I'm completely psyched now!

 

This sounds awesome.

The ForceCast also reports that Leia and Winter may be featured, in addition to Isard.

 

Mr. Ostrander, you have just earned 1 dedicated reader who doesn't read any Star Wars stuff anymore.

God bless you, sir.

 

ARMAND! Loyalty!

EDIT: Also, I checked up on Roux's art, and it looks good.

 

John - if DH is supposed to be focusing less on the Dark Times era for the time being, by what criteria is AotE exempt from that? Timeline placement? Subject matter?