CAN IT BE!!!??? Insider 96: The Imperial Issue

Did you guys read what they plan on doing with the live action series? So much for that!

 

WHat did it say?

 

It gives first names for Bast, Praji and a few other Imperial officers.

 

Hmm, yeah, after looking at the wooki article I'm slightly less ecstatic.

Still, at least Abel's back. Hurray.

(Am I insane to hope for Vader's Legacy in the web supplement? )

RF: Tell me you're kidding about the Traviss thing...?

 

The Imperial Army is only 1 million clones!

 

And they all enjoy Mandalorian Square Dancing in their free time.

 

Yeah. That's kind of lame. Nothing else new or interesting in the Who's Who?


And the Men/Aliens Who Built The Empire looks like it will just be movie stuff again.


What about the Imperial Officers Field Guide? That looks like it has the most potential to me.

 

Yeah, this is issue isn't EU.

It's mostly "Unknown Facts about all the Imperial Officers we see in the movies."

Though, happily, we finally know who the "She'll die before she'll tell you anything" person is and "Our first catch of the day" captain.

 

Erm...we already knew who Daine Jir and Lennox were before this article, Charlemagne.

EDIT: Checked the Wook, and a new name and info are given for Lennox and new info for Jir. My bad, Charlemagne.

 

Wait, so even with Pena and Wallace on tap, there's nothing to get excited about here? Where are the ret-cons? Where are the scads of new info? Can this be right?

TC

 

The "Whose Who in the Navy" is Motti, Tagge, Jir, Lennox, Piett, Ozzel, etc.

The only EU mention in the whole Magazine is Grand Admiral Thrawn in the aliens who built the Empire section.

 

But what about the other aliens who built the Empire? What then, is the whole thing about Thrawn, Sly Moore, and Mas Ameda? How can there be a whole article about aliens in the Empire without more from the Expanded Universe? What about Rahz and Sk'ar and Suprema and Hethrir and Hissa, hmmmm?

TC

 

Maybe we'll get lucky and get a heretofore unexplored treasure trove of Dar Wac information.

 

Yeah, no mention of them.

And yes, it's Sly Moore/Mas Ameda/Thrawn/Genosians and the Kaminoans

And I'm not kidding.

 

All right, all right....At the risk of looking like an idiot, an you guys indulge me in some information about the whole "Insider" and "Hyperspace" thing?

How much does this Insider thing cost, is it worth it, and is there anywhere you can get all the back stories? If I subscribed to Hyperspace is the content online? Do they sell insider at Bookstores or Comic Shops? How large is an issue? Can I get a bundle of the old ones somewhat easily and at a reasonable price?

 

Yes. Hyperspace costs about $15 right now and it's well worth it. Insider...apparently not.

So I'm going to ask this again, not because I don't believe you guys, but because I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it. There are not one, but two articles that Abel Pena was involved with, and neither of them have a substantial amount of new information? No details on the Kaminoan plot to overthrow the Empire, no clarification of the Geonosian/Rebel uprising, no hint as to the final fates of Moore and Ammeda? Nothing like that at all?

I was going to go buy this issue, but it's not worth the money, is that correct?

TC

 

Based on what we know so far, I'd say so, but I'm still holding onto the thin reed of hope that is the Imperial Officer's Field Guide, but no one's said anything about it, so far.

 

Yeah, that's not a good sign that no one has mentioned it yet.

We should probably consider ourselves lucky that Thrawn even got mention, and a few random-ass officers got full names and backstories. That's as amuch EU content as it looks like we're going to get from Insider anymore.

Though I have to admit that Insider has really outdone itself this time. In the past they'd make it really clear that there would be no EU content, but now they make it look like there is going to be good EU content, and then surprise! There is none. Plus they've gone back to photo covers which just sucks. Even if there was no new content inside, the illustrated covers used to give us something new and interesting to look at, even if only for a minute.


Carnage: You don't seem to understand. Insider is just a fan magazine, and one that's been shying anway from EU content more and more at that. They used to have short stories by pro-fic authors, but that stopped around the time ROTS came out. The last one I can think of is "A Two-Edged Sword" by Karen Traviss, which was actually quite good. Those stories would often have a few illustrations to go along with them. That was the real good stuff. Then there would sometimes be articles like the General Grievous one that expand on something from the movies, but are really in depth and give us a lot of information. The Mando article by Karen was decent and gave us a lot of new stuff to my knowledge, and the GGAR is supposed to be good. There was also a time when they would do EU Who's Whos. But now all the Who's Whos are just random background movie characters, the articles are nothing but regurgitated movie information we already know, and not a bit of EU in sight, much less a short story. So the back issues might be worth getting for the stories (are those on Hyperspace? They might be...) and the occasional article like the GG one, but there is no "story" to keep up with, and no (to my knowledge) packaging of multiple issues together. However the new issues just continue to suck.

 

Even back in the day, the best stuff was always on line. Abel's best works always got tucked away in the Web Supplements.

/keeps praying for Vader's Legacy to show up online...

 

I'm guessing the new folks are very, very tentatively feeling out the market for Abel articles and the information-and-expansion heavy articles. Give us new background info on movie characters, see if it sells. Give us Abel and Dan, see if it sells. But don't actually go out on a limb and let Abel and Dan do that crazy wacky EU stuff -- that might destroy the magazine entirely!