Comics Poe Dameron #20-25: Legend Found (6/6 released)

Reminds me of a line from Borderlands.

"I'm dying...well, at least I'll finally get off this planet."

 

Do we know much about the future of this series? I'm dying for them to go into post-TLJ, but I don't see them really doing that. Do we know how much longer this is going to go on?

--Adm. Nick

 

Since they've given the location of the Map, I think it's wrappinhg up soon.

 

I think this can last a bit longer. If nothing else Poe could do flashback stories until 9 if they pace this right.

 

Great issue! Wraps up this arc, has some surprising encounters, and provides a bit of closure to some characters. There are more than a few heartwarming scenes, Charles Soule continues to demonstrate that he is a top class writer! The art is excellent as well.

--Adm. Nick

 

Charles Soule interview.
https://news.marvel.com/comics/85937/poe-dameron-soars-star-wars-force-awakens/

Marvel.com: Charles, as we approach the 25th issue of the series, what can you share with us about who you felt the character was when you were preparing to pen at the start and who you think he is now—two movies and twenty-five issues later?

Charles Soule: I started writing POE DAMERON #1 before I’d even seen the first movie. I’d gotten a great rundown from Lucasfilm, flew out to San Francisco with Phil Noto (the amazing artist who launched the series with me and still handles the covers) to get a bunch of visuals, the story, etc. and had an idea of who Poe was, but I hadn’t seen him talk or walk, so to speak. Fortunately, where I landed seems to have worked pretty well, and it’s only sharpened now that I’ve had plenty of opportunities to see how Oscar Isaac approaches the character on screen. He’s not too different from who I thought he was—but I suspect I’ve written more dialogue and adventures for him at this point than any Star Wars writer, including the movie folks. It’s an interesting place to be.

Marvel.com: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” has also recently been released, and Poe is, of course, one of the lead characters. So far, your story has taken place before “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” but was there anything that changed how you view Poe upon seeing him in the latest movie? Were there any new aspects of his character that might not seem obvious at first glance?

Charles Soule: I don’t want to be disingenuous here, but Poe is Poe. He evolves a bit, he learns, but he’s a person who can be taken at face value. What you see is what you get—even when he’s trying to pull off a tricky scam-type maneuver, as he did in “The Last Jedi,” he’s putting it all out there. I bet he’s a terrible poker player.

Actually, that’s a great idea for a scene. Poe losing terribly at sabacc because he just gets too excited when he gets a good hand.

Marvel.com: As you were beginning this series, were there any specific constraints placed on the story you and Phil Noto were looking to tell? How would you compare writing issue #1 to writing issue #25?

Charles Soule: There’s definitely a sense of trust that gets built up—not just with the Marvel editors, but also with Lucasfilm. When I began working on Poe, I’d only done about ten issues of Star Wars material: my LANDO limited series with Alex Maleev and the OBI-WAN & ANAKIN series with Marco Chechetto. Plus, Poe was set in the new canon time period—which still hasn’t been explored too much. So, there was a lot of outlining and pre-approvals for the series back then. It’s a bit looser now, which is partly because the time period I’m exploring has been fleshed out a bit more and is better understood on all levels, but also because at this point I’ve written 56 issues of Star Wars related stuff between POE, the other series I mentioned, and of course, the DARTH VADER series I’m doing. It earns you a little bit of trust—which is not to say I can do anything I want! It all needs to fit into the bigger picture.

Marvel.com: Looking back on your time with the Resistance’s premier pilot, what’s been your favorite moment to write?

Charles Soule: I hugely enjoyed the one-off issue #7, which was a story about Poe taking a little downtime to meet up with an old friend who has since become a series semi-regular, the space journalist and snake person Suralinda Javos. Everything about that just worked—my first time working with Angel Unzueta, who has since become the series regular artist, the introduction and design for Suralinda, the action beats, the theme…I just dug it all.

Another would be the “I’ll be luminous” moment in issue #14, written just after Carrie Fisher’s sad passing, and Oddy Muva’s sacrifice in issue #19. Lots of great moments, though—I’ve had a blast on this series.

Marvel.com: Likewise, what would you say has been the most challenging aspect of taking the helm of POE DAMERON, especially in light of the other Star Wars titles you’ve written?

Charles Soule: Well, let me say that by and large, challenges are a good thing in writing. They force you to be inventive, and inventive is always better, both from a skill development standpoint and for the readers. So, one thing I’d say here is that there are essentially no Force-wielders in the POE DAMERON series. It’s a series about a group of fighter pilots going on secret missions. Yes, it’s set against the rich tapestry of the Star Wars galaxy, but unless I’m forgetting something I don’t think there’s a single lightsaber in the whole thing. It makes me happy, honestly—writing a series that’s been able to run this long and do so well without an element some would say is essential to Star Wars storytelling—just makes me feel good.

Marvel.com: You’ve been asked a lot about your love of Star Wars and which elements influenced you most, so we shouldn’t retread old ground. However, I am curious to know how you recharge your batteries. What do you do before sitting down to work on POE DAMERON? What things help get you into the mindset to take the Black Squadron to flight?

Charles Soule: At this point, it’s relatively easy for me to snap in. I will say that I think the “Star Wars: Rebels” television series, which just wrapped up its four-season run, is some great Star Wars. It gets everything right about what’s come before while also expanding the ideas inherent to the universe. Watching an episode of that always gets the gears going—but I’ve also got a number of visual dictionaries and encyclopedias I can flip through if I need to.

Marvel.com: Last question: where do you see this series going next?

Charles Soule: We’ll have to see! I will say that the issues beyond #25 should be great for fans of both “The Force Awakens” and “The Last Jedi,” and those of us (me included!) who can’t wait to see where the saga goes in “Star Wars: Episode IX.” I can’t wait to see what people have to say when those issues start to hit.

 

Great issue! Lor San Tekka lays down the wisdom left and right. Marvelous writing, but by now that's no surprise coming from Soule.

From a continuity angle,

Spoiler

I haven't read Join the Resistance: Escape From Vodran yet but I believe Leia officiating at Snap and Kare's wedding conflicts with that book's version of the event, in which Poe officiates (under, shall we say, less than auspicious circumstances). Presumably (and hopefully) this issue's version of events takes precedence.

 

Why would one take precedence over the other? Aren't both equally canon?

 

THIS.

And yeah, the comic doesn't mesh with the novel at all. Leia officiates instead of Poe, it's not a secret wedding but a public event with Leia and other officers in attendance, dearly departed Oddy Muva isn't there and, most importantly, there aren't any incidents involving bad food and exuberant flatulence.

I posted a comparison of the scene from the novel and the comic on Twitter:

Anyway, JtR's tone has had me questioning its canonicity since book 1; I guess the stellar Poe #25 just put a nail in that coffin.

 

Well yeah, I wonder if the JTR version will be their actual wedding, after which they go through their difficulties and brief break-up in Poe, and reconcile to renew their vows with a second wedding in #25.

 

Poe probably still farted or at least left to drop a deuce. Why else would he be outside the party watching and not joining in? Two of his team mates just tied the knot. Go party Poe!

 

I haven't read any of the JtR books, but they were never considered canon? Are they something like the LEGO stuff where they are obviously not canon, but only vaguely depict canon events?

 

Maybe they had a secret ceremony when they weren't sure that their superiors would approve, and then a public second ceremony once their superiors were agreeable?

 

I think their canonicity was assumed - there wasn't much of a reason before now to not make that assumption, really.

I'm perfectly okay with the JtR series wandering off into non-canon land. It's not awful, but even before reaching the infamous "farting wedding" more than one story decision - including the entire premise of recruiting orphans into the Resistance to fight against the First Order, with Ackbar acting as a sort of headmaster - has been a little questionable.

 

I was vaguely aware of the farting incident. It's one of the reasons I've stayed away from that series. This wedding is infinitely preferably, plus a nice way to cap off the arc.

--Adm. Nick

 

I'm good with the fart wedding being non-canon, TBH. There's only a certain length I'm willing to go to keep everything canon, and if we have to consider Join the Resistance to be non-canon as a whole just to be rid of the fart wedding, so be it. That's honestly one of the most offensive things any SW fiction has done, so...

 

That's what I assumed before the contradiction in the Poe comic, which got me a bit confused since no one (no one that I'm aware of at least) has "protested" this contradiction like it was with the last issue of the Darth Vader comic. If this happened back in the day before the Story Group and the "everything is canon" announcement I wouldn't have bat an eye. This makes me question how seriously canon are the IDW comics too (btw, this remark has nothing to do with the quality of the comics).

Anyway, in order not to derail this thread way off topic, I'll cap it off by saying thanks for clarifying

 

Great issue! In hindsight, it's not surprising that this arc didn't lead directly into TFA. The story group seems to like leaving gaps in between content so as not to rule out more stories at a later date. I think that's smart – I'm certainly down for more Black Squadron action in the future.

Regarding the fart-wedding, I always got the impression that its description in the second JtR book takes place in a really trippy context: Mattis is under the spell of Lorica's Zeltron pheromones, he's been hearing things, and the past few of his PoV chapters have taken place in a bit of a hazy fugue, given his state of dejection (and teenage hormones or something?). It's easy enough to suggest that the three J-Squadron members reminiscing about Snap & Karé's wedding is just another hallucination of his. Although that just doubles down on the book's problematic representation of mental health...

Then again, it's also easy enough to ignore the JtR books altogether.

 

Even only via secondhand accounts that's such a WTF?!? moment for me that I wholly endorse your position.

 

Very good issue. In regards to the canon conflict with the Join the Resistance series. Well there is that but the JtR series was a ridiculous tongue in cheek series that was obviously being written for a very young audience. I don't have any problem simply ignoring the wedding conflict that arises because one of the JtR books chose to have Snap and Kare get married in one of their books. If you still want to include JtR I guess you could just say the story was being told by a bunch of twelve year olds within the Resistence that liked to tell fart jokes and what they said shouldn't be taken seriously (and they took the wedding that we saw in this issue and created their own humorous story of the event).

All in all JtR doesn't take itself seriously so I don't think there is any reason for us to take it seriously as a true canon event.

 

Technically everything is supposed to be equal but JtR was an intentionally silly book (only read half of the first one then quit and have no intention of picking up book two or three). There are also canon conflicts within that very series as stuff that is said in book 2 conflicts with what book 1 said (go to the Join the Resistence wook page to see what canon conflicts there are within the very series http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Join_the_Resistance:_Escape_from_Vodran ).

If they aren't even bothering to line things up between book 1 and 2 and it is also pretty much just a junior high style comedy style book anyways I don't see any reason to take it seriously as canon when it isn't even bothering to take itself seriously.