Lit Legends reading order between ANH and ESB

Those were the only ones I remember, but they did do an April Fools day gag in 2001 that put the whole site into 1979, complete with Marvel comics and Brian Daley novel coverage.

At least, Wookieepedia tells me it was 2001, and I can only hope to the Maker that it's wrong because I know I saw this gag page when it was brand new, and 1979 is only a few years more removed from 2001 than 2001 is to this year. I'm gonna go lie down now.

 

I was trying to make a reading order that exclusively used pre-90s sources... almost immediately ran into an issue where three separate comic sources contradict each other. Pizzazz Magazine's "The Keeper's World" story depicts Luke and Leia leaving Yavin 4 in the aftermath of the Death Star's destruction. Then Marvel's Star Wars #8 depicts only Luke leaving Yavin on a separate adventure. Finally, the newspaper strip's "The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell" storyline depicts Luke and Leia leaving Yavin after the Death Star's destruction (which that story is then contradicted by the "Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell" audio drama). I'm sure there's retcons to place each of these events at different points, but the author's intent still stands with the mention of this immediately following the Death Star's destruction in each.

I wonder if there's a hierarchy of canon between those; I know that the Marvel comics and newspaper strip both had characters elements directly from Lucasfilm. It's easy to rule the Pizzazz comics out since they're the earliest and much more sci-fi than Star Wars would become as the series became more defined. The Marvel comics also had a lot of that 70s sci-fi weirdness, but also had the subplot of Han losing his reward money that was dropped from the movies (making this an element that directly enhances Empire IMHO). The comic strip's storyline had the benefit of hindsight by coming out after Empire, but chronologically putting it in the aftermath of A New Hope. Just an aside, but this is my personal favorite depiction of the main cast post-Yavin; the tone, characters, and even the universe aspects are nailed perfectly.

 

The old Marvel and newspaper strips are also my favorite version of ANH-TESB, and while there are certainly some inconsistencies, I'm not sure the examples you mentioned are really contradictions. Between Carol Titelman overseeing continuity (such as it then was) and Goodwin and Williamson doing most of the comics, the era is pretty cohesive. Sure, the first meetings of Luke and Boba Fett in The Holiday Special cartoon and the newspaper comic Frozen World of Ota don't fit together, and the Yavin 4 evacuations depicted in the newspaper strips and in Blackthorne's Star Wars 3D don't mesh well, but those are about as bad as it gets in pre-1990s SW.

A pre-1990 ANH-TESB timeline could look a lot like TalonCard's, the main difference(s) being leaving the epilogue of SW #37 - when Jabba [Mosep Bineed] restores Han's bounty - in its original placement, instead of moving it to make everything fit, and thus moving The Power Gem and related newspaper strips later as well. (Sorry I kinda ran out of steam toward the end, in terms of including the publication info, etc.)

Spoiler

I. "Shortly" after the Battle of Yavin

- The Day after the Death Star (SW Weekly 97-99 [Marvel UK]): This is the only story set literally, immediately after ANH, continuing the celebration from the end of the film
- Marvel SW #7 "New Planets, New Perils," first 6 pages: "The dreaded Death Star is no more... and the evil Darth Vader, its sole survivor, is fleeing across the galaxy, lost from the sight of men." Han and Chewy are about to leave Yavin to pay off Jabba; Luke, with Leia, says "we" need to find a new base before Vader contacts the Empire. En route to pay Jabba, Han's reward money from the rebels is stolen by Crimson Jack. Han and Chewy lay low for an undefined period of time. Meanwhile...
- The Keeper's World (Pizzazz #1-9, reprinted as SW #0): These are part of the old Marvel comics, written by Thomas, just like SW #1-10, but published under a different label. "After the main rebel base on the fourth moon of Yavin has beaten off Darth Vader's Imperial forces, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia find they have another mission to begin..." Their mission is to contact other rebel bases before the Empire can mount a surprise attack. This doesn't tell us exactly how long after the DS this takes place; the best clue is Threepio's complaint that the rebel tech's "hasty repair job" on Artoo has not "fixed him up properly," so presumably in the past few days.
- The Kingdom of Ice (Pizzazz 10-16)
- War on Ice (SW Weekly 60 [Marvel UK]): Written by Archie Goodwin, following right on from The Keeper's World. Luke and Leia continue trying to connect with other rebels or allies, in effect scouting other bases.
- The Bounty Hunter of Ord Mantell (newspaper strips, 2/9/81-4/19/81). "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... Between the explosive end of the dread Death Star... and the moment when the evil Galactic Empire struck back on the ice planet of Hoth... Many adventures befell the Star Warriors of the Rebel Alliance. This is one of them." "Sometime after the fall of the Death Star..." Not set immediately after the DS at all explicitly. Luke and Leia continue searching for a new rebel base, are saved by Han from Imperials, and encounter a bounty hunter on Ord Mantell
- Darth Vader Strikes (newspaper strips 4/20/81-5/3/81): Han, Luke, and Leia return to Yavin 4; Vader plots with Admiral Griff to ensnare rebels and disloyal Imperials. [Per the 5/31/81 strip, the rest of this story occurs "several weeks" later.]
- Marvel SW #7 "New Planets, New Perils," remaining pages: Han and Chewy are back to laying low, and they begin acting out the plot of The Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven on Aduba-3.
- Marvel SW #8 "Eight for Aduba-3" Han and Chewy continue moonlighting as heroes. Meanwhile, "Events are moving quickly on the fourth moon of the distant planet Yavin, unnumbered light-years away. For since the destruction of the Empire's dreaded Death Star, the Rebels on the verdant world have been on constant vigil... though only a few telltale recon-towers, jutting up out of the thick jungle, would give them away." Again, we're not told how long it's been since the DS. Now, only Luke goes scouting for new bases. Apparently, Dodonna has now confirmed that Bail Organa was on Alderaan when it was destroyed, and uses that as his excuse to keep Leia - last surviving member of the House of Alderaan and symbol of the Rebellion - on the base.
- Marvel SW #9-15 Luke, Leia, and Han all reunite on Drexel; Han recovers his reward from Crimson Jack.
- Marvel SW #24 Flashback story about Obi-Wan during the Clone Wars.
- Marvel SW #70 (flashback)
- Marvel SW #16 Valance begins his pursuit of Luke Skywalker.

II. Beginning of the Blockade

- Marvel SW #18-27 Vader attacks Luke psychologically/spiritually through the Force while Luke and Co. are at the Wheel; Han and Chewy split to settle things with Jabba; Luke and Leia return to Yavin 4 and disrupt the Tagge-run Imperial blockade; Valance stops trying to kill Luke)
- Tatooine Sojourn (newspaper strips 9/10/79-11/5/79): Luke returns to Tatooine, first return visit to Chalmun's Cantina.

III. Han debt and bounty-free/Vader does not know Luke's name

- Marvel SW #28 Han squares things with Jabba [Mosep Bineed].
- Marvel SW #29-34 Luke returns again to Tatooine, reunites with Han, and disrupts Tagge schemes there and in the Gordian Reach.
- Marvel SW #50 (flashback)
- Devilworlds: "The Pandora Effect"
- The Second Kessel Run (newspaper strips, 1/1/80-2/25/80)
- Darth Vader Strikes (5/4/81-7/26/81)
- The Serpent Masters (7/27/81-11/1/81)
- Deadly Reunion (11/2/81-1/3/82)
- Traitors Gambit (1/4/81-3/7/82)
- The Nightbeast (3/8/82-5/16/82)

IV. Han debt and bounty free/Vader knows Luke Skywalker’s name

- Marvel #35 "Dark Lord's Gambit" (beginning): Vader learns Luke's name
- The Faithful Wookiee (Holiday Special Cartoon)
- The Holiday Special (Happy Life Day!)
- Devilworlds: "Tilotny Throws a Shape" (Leia sprains her ankle)
- Marvel #35 (the rest of it) -37 (Vader fails to capture Luke but takes revenge on Tagges)


V. Han’s bounty back on/Vader continues to search for Luke

- World of Fire
- Marvel #37 In Mortal Combat (Epilogue: Jabba restores bounty on Han)
- Marvel # 38 Riders in the Void
- The Frozen World of Ota (Fett reminds Han Jabba’s bounty is back on)

VI. End of the Blockade/Evacuation of Yavin 4

- The Return of Ben Kenobi (5/17/82-7/25/82)
- The Power Gem
- Iceworld
- Revenge of the Jedi
- Blackthorne SW 3D, #1-3 (Somehow, these probably have to go somewhere around here. An earlier evacuation? But after Luke discovers Hoth. MMV)
- Doom Mission
- Race for Survival


VII. Post-Yavin 4

- Gambler’s World
- Princess Leia, Imperial Servant
- Bring Me the Children
- As Long as We Live
- Planet of Kadril
- Marvel Annual #1
- The Maverick Moon
- The Mystery of the Rebellious Robot
- Splinter of the Mind’s Eye



VIII. Lead-up to Hoth

- Rebel Mission to Ord Mantell (2nd bounty hunter on Ord Mantell - never explicitly said to be the first or only)
- Paradise Detour
- A New Beginning
- Showdown (3rd bounty hunter on Ord Mantell)
- The Final Trap
- The Kashyyyk Depths
- The Constancia Affair

 

Most of the inconsistencies in this release era are just repeated events - Luke and Boba, Luke on Tatooine, Ord Mantell - that don't necessarily contradict each other. Similarly, the backstories Wedge Antilles and the Millennium Falcon get later weren't wrong at the time, but even then they didn't quite add up, and Annual #1 needed a fix after TESB.
I don't consider the SW 3-D comics part of that "first generation" of EU, though, since they were published after the WEG's RPG.

 

Excellent summary! Since the timeline order I posted is based mainly on internal references, it's fairly consistent no matter what sources you take out. That being said, in the pre-90s order Marvel #7-34 would all take place before the Bounty Hunter/Darth Vader Strikes. The only reason I placed it as far back as I did was to remain consistent with Scoundrel's Luck and Scoundrels, which wouldn't have been published yet. With Scoundrels out of the picture, there's no reason for Han to leave in #7 only to return to the Rebels before Aduba--everything happens without a break as the original comics intended.
Similarly there's every reason to place Paradise Detour-The Final Trap immediately after Race for Survival, since the forced two year plus gap in the newspaper storyline was only established in The Essential Chronology and cemented with Windham's Luke and Vader biographies--the newspaper strips themselves have these stories take place one right after another with no breaks.
I think Splinter of the Mind's Eye would probably have a slightly earlier placement too; maybe just before or after Marvel #37? I don't think the book itself puts the events at 2 ABY (I think that's the Essential Chronology again), and Luke is mentioned as having refused a rank in the Alliance, so this would work better before Dodonna promotes him in the newspaper strip if we allow ourselves that freedom.

 

Considering nobody has adventures everyday, we need to follow this as spread out in months. Who's to say Baron Tagge was screwing around during the adventure to Vorzyd V?

 

Looks TalonCard's timeline covers Missions #1-4, 9-12, and 17-20. Is there any consensus about where the rest of the series is placed in the post-Yavin EU?

 

Missions #5-8 and #13-16 were both written by Dave Wolverton (RIP ) and aren't directly connected to the other books in the series written by Windham or the Star Wars Kids comics, though at least #5-8 were probably originally intended to occur exactly where they were placed in series order. #13-16 kick off with the heroes trying to obtain parts to build shield generators on Hoth, so this implies a setting much closer to TESB than the explicit pre-Classic Star Wars setting of the other books.

#5-8 are tricky to place because the references to time passing since ANH ("a few weeks", so less than a month) don't add up with some of the circumstances the Rebels find themselves in during the books that relate to other sources, such as Luke's identity being known and Momaw Nadon returning to Ithor. Because Dengar appears, Wolverton appears to have expanded on a reference he made to Dengar's adventures hunting Solo on Tatooine in his Tales of the Bounty Hunters short story Payback, an event which at the time was implied to have been in 3 ABY. Because of this, a lot of timelines out there either place the books later or earlier than makes sense.

I've been torn on this placement myself, and until I found a reference to Ithor in Empire #26 I had placed it much closer to ANH to try and make the spirit if not the letter of the "few weeks" reference work while I was working on the timeline initially. Ultimately I decided to put it just after Galaxy of Fear #9, 10 months after the Battle of Yavin. My notes are below.

I haven't made detailed notes on #13-16 yet, but for now have them at 2 ABY due to the Hoth references. (Though since the shield generators haven't been constructed yet, there's probably some nuanced references to other sources I haven't taken into account yet.)

STAR WARS MISSIONS #5: THE HUNT FOR HAN SOLO
-Prefect Eugene Talmont of Tatooine has information stating that Han Solo helped the Rebels destroy the Death Star "only a few weeks ago."
-There are simply too many issues with this placement in other sources to take Talmont's statement at face value.
-To be fair, it's said that Talmont's documents state that the destruction of the Death Star happened only weeks ago, but not how old the documents are.
-The circumstances of the resolution of this arc (see below) require that these books take place after Vader's Quest and Star Wood, when Luke's identity and involvement in the Battle of Yavin are well known, even to the citizens of Tatooine. This would place these books four months after ANH at the earliest.
-Empire #26 and Galaxy of Fear #9 (see below) push these books even farther down the timeline.
-Still, I'm placing them as close to Galaxy of Fear #9 as possible to maintain something of the original intent.
-Talmont's position indicates that the events of the RPG adventure Tatooine Manhunt, in which Talmont was introduced, have already taken place. Tatooine Manhunt is set shortly after ANH, so this works out.
-Talmont recruits Dengar and other bounty hunters to ambush Solo when he returns with Grubba, Jabba's kidnapped nephew, in another attempt to clear his debt. This places these books when Han has both the Empire and Jabba's bounties to worry about.
-Unfortunately for Han, Jabba still wants 10,000 credits on top of returning Grubba.
-After bounty hunters re-kidnapp Grubba from the Falcon, Luke manages to mind trick Bib Fortuna and several Gammorean guards into letting them go. He had previously attempted a mind trick in Heir to the Jedi, but failed.
-Jabba increases the bounty on Han to an unspecified amount.
-Dengar recalled just missing Han Solo on Tatooine in Dave Wolverton's Payback: The Tale of Dengar in Tales of the Bounty Hunters. Since Wolverton also wrote this batch of Missions books, this seems to be an expansion of that reference, though Dengar seems to have a selective memory regarding these events as the details don't quite line up. (While Solo escapes here, it's all part of a plan by the bounty hunters to lure him to Kubindi, and Dengar actually captures Solo on Togoria in #8.)
-Dengar also stated in Payback, set in 3 ABY, days before TESB, that he's been hunting Han Solo "for over a year." This is technically correct, though again, this book dates itself just weeks after ANH rather than less than two years before TESB.
STAR WARS MISSIONS #6: THE SEARCH FOR GRUBBA THE HUTT
-Luke and Han return to the Mos Eisley Cantina, placing this after Luke's first return in Tatooine Sojourn.
-This is the weirdest book in all of Legends. It really has to be read to be fully appreciated.
-The Rebels receive a transmission from "Rebel headquarters" directing them to Ithor.
STAR WARS MISSIONS #7: ITHORIAN INVASION
-General Olan Dewes is in command of the Imperial occupation of Ithor.
-Han Solo mentions Admiral Ackbar as the Alliance officer who sent them to Ithor, putting this after their first meeting in Classic Star Wars #13.
-Luke has not been to Ithor before. It was previously indicated in Empire #26-27 that he also hadn’t been to Ithor during that time, placing these books after those comics.
-The Rebels return Momaw Nadon to Ithor for the first time following his exile. They don't seem to have returned to Tatooine to pick him up.
-Momaw’s return is another indication that Tatooine Manhunt has already occurred, since Galaxy Guide #7: Mos Eisley states that the death of Momaw’s lover Slag Flats in that adventure was one of the reasons he decided to leave his exile.
-Momaw is reunited with his wife Fandomar, and promises not to leave her again. This would seem to place these books after Galaxy of Fear #9, in spite of the "weeks ago" reference to ANH in Missions #5.
-Momaw doesn’t seem to be able to keep that promise, as the Essential Guide to Characters and Dark Apprentice state that Momaw didn’t return for good until after the death of the Emperor.
-Han Solo’s Rescue Mission could be helpful in resolving this discrepancy.
-Jabba agrees to meet with Han on Togoria to receive Grubba, but he betrays Han to Dengar and company to ensure Han's death rather than simply cancel the debt in exchange for Grubba's return. This is the second time Jabba has made it impossible for Solo to repay the debt, third if you count reinstating the debt over Crimson Jack's wrecked cruiser.
STAR WARS MISSIONS #8: TOGORIAN TRAP
-Leia mentions that the bounty hunters have been pursuing them for weeks, indicating that at least two weeks have passed since Missions #5. The remainder of the book takes place over three to four days.
-Although Dengar and company succeed in capturing Han, Luke, and Leia, they are fooled into returning them to disguised Rebels rather than the Empire.
-Galaxy wide news broadcasts pick up both the Empire's announcement that the Rebels responsible for destroying the Death Star have been captured and the Alliance's follow up statement that they had been freed. Moisture farmers on Tatooine are seen celebrating because Luke was one of their own.
-This places these Missions books after every adventure where Luke's identity was a secret, particularly Vader's Quest and Star Wood. This includes the period between Rebel Force #3 and Marvel #31 when Luke's friends on Tatooine thought he had been killed during the attack in the Lars Moisture Farm.
-This is probably what caused the authorities to blame Luke for the murder of Owen and Beru, as seen in Galaxy Guide #1.
-It’s probably unintentional, but the Rebels have an unexplained Victory Class Star Destroyer here. On this timeline the Rebels had previously obtained the Victory Star Destroyer Decimator in Star Wars Missions #12, which adds a little bit of intra-series continuity to the Missions series.

 

Very cool information, thank you! Still hope to see this timeline completed one day lol.

 

Every time I visit this thread I'm amazed at the effort @TalonCard has invested in creating a coherent timeline for the post-ANH time period in Legends. Very well done! I knew there was a lot going on post-ANH but I didn't know series like Rebel Force and Star Wars Missions even existed. Were those series intended to be "soft reboots"? I don't get the impression they were making much of an effort to play nice with the existing continuity at that time, although that might well be just the nature of the continuity.

It inspires me to do something similar for the corresponding era in the canon timeline, except in canon those several months after ANH are far less crowded and pretty straightforward for the most part... not to mention DK's upcoming Timelines book is probably going to beat me to the punch.

 

Missions tried to at least fit with the Archie Goodwin/Al Williamson comic strip, and the comics in the Star Wars Kids magazine sold with the adventure books. It wasn't always entirely successful, though.

Rebel Force is a direct continuation of the Jude Watson Jedi books. It mostly ignored the other stories in this era, but used concepts and characters from other parts of the EU.

 

I'll probably still be tinkering with it when the next reboot comes along, lol.

Thank you! Star Wars Missions and Rebel Force, while both are from Scholastic, were pretty different in spite of being set in the same era. Missions is a very strange but long running series; it's kind of a solitaire point based roleplaying game book but without the multiple paths seen in Scoundrel's Luck and Jedi Dawn books. Each game book began and ended with a few chapters of prose content though, making them slightly closer in spirit to the other young adult fiction series than an RPG. While most installments featured established movie characters (frequently changing perspective during each arc from the Rebels to the Imperials to bounty hunters), the game sections would be ambiguous about which character was involved in the adventure so you could choose that part yourself. There was a whole kit that accompanied each book, including character cards and the Star Wars Kids magazine, which itself had exclusive comic stories. These kits were subscription based, so you would have to order it by mail and maintain the subscription month to month in order to get the whole series.

This concept was essentially continued with the prequel-era Episode I Adventures and Star Wars [Episode II and Episode I reprints] Adventures. By this time Scholastic seemed to have realized that a lot of young fans were simply enjoying the stories without caring particularly about the game, so each kit included a regular novel version of the events and a smaller book containing the game material. The various series went on for so long (1997-2003) that while I'd started out bugging my parents to pay for it, by the time it ended I was paying the subscription with earnings from my first actual job. (Always by check each month via snail mail, truly a different time.) I'm thankful that I caught the Adventures books in their original subscription pack; trying to complete a collection can be difficult because the game books and adventure novels have the exact same titles so it can be tricky trying to purchase them online. Also appreciative of folks here on the forums who sent me some of the Missions books I was missing, and the Wookieepedia contributors who documented the character cards, most of which I either never had or lost over the years.

Because the Missions series was by established writers Ryder Windham and Dave Wolverton, it's not really much of a "soft reboot", and tried its best to fit in with the existing continuity, including the Classic Star Wars reprints and the 80s West End Games RPG as well as the other works by the series primary authors. The Marvel comics weren't consistently treated as part of the continuity at the time, so their omission wasn't really a reboot. As the series went on, the continuity got a little fuzzier; the tie-in comics in Star Wars Kids magazines began contradicting both the books and the Classic Star Wars comics. There are some aspects of the later books that were immediately contradicted by the Essential Chronology and Vader's Quest comics, though this seems to be more a result of the writers not having access to the books, which, as mentioned, were a huge pain to collect. (References to the series in other sources were almost nonexistent until about 2002 and remained pretty rare thereafter.)

By the time Rebel Force came along in 2009, it was more along the lines of what you'd expect in a "soft reboot" of the post-ANH era. As Rogue Whistler pointed out, this series was a direct continuation of the ongoing storyline from the traditional young adult novel series Jedi Apprentice, Jedi Quest, and Last of the Jedi, and was also tied in to the overall EU, including a Thrawn cameo and a major Jedi Academy Trilogy reference, but didn't really reference older stories from that era, with a few exceptions like TESB radio drama. Oddly, even though the Marvel comics had been effectively retconned back into the EU at this point, they were completely ignored here. The advantage that Rebel Force had was that it was written after all of the prequels had been released, so it used a lot of elements that weren't in previous stories.

 

For those keeping track, the recently released edition of Supernatural Encounters definitively places The Maverick Moon after ROTJ. Not exactly official canon but closer than not I guess.

 

The Maverick Moon seems to have been almost intentionally designed to confound any effort to place it anywhere within the continuity. Placing it post-ROTJ feels a little weird, with Luke reverting back to his farmboy outfit, thinking of Leia as his "friend," and nearly forgetting he knows how to use the Force, but it's probably still a better placement than post-ANH.

 

My headcanon for it is that it's a lotus-eater hallucination of Luke's shortly after ANH, where he gets the life he imagined if he'd gone off to the academy, with the "moon" as his memories of the Death Star resurfacing.

 

The Rebellion Era is something hard to follow in Legends to know the Origin of the Rebellion in Legends you need to play the Force Unleashed Video Games then Read the Young Han Solo Trilogy Novels because there they also show the first days of the Rebellion then after ANH you need to Read the Old Marvel Star Wars Comics Star Wars Scoundrels Novel is like a Sequel to the Young Han Solo Trilogy Novels you also have the Empire and Rebellion Comics they are Sequels to Republic and Dark Times Comics you also have Agent of the Empire Comic there are some Video Games like Rogue Squadron Video Games where they give you more context about the Galactic Civil War Battlefront 2 Dark Forces 1 Lethal Alliance are Video Games from the Rebellion Era too and also the Shadows of the Empire Multimedia Project