Yeah, I am. I haven't read any of the 'Darth Vader And...' books, or the PURGE books, so I figured, why not.
Depending on the story, Purge can be very good. The 'Darth Vader and' tales are highly variable too - would recommend you bag the Ghost Prison hardback if you can.
I just bought both Dark Times volumes and I'm loving it. Are there any other comics or novels that focus on the aftermath of Order 66? Or even fleshing out Order 66.
There's Republic Commando: Order 66, but that's a Traviss book, with all the quirks that her books tend to have (emphasis on the immorality of the Jedi for using the army in particular). Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader takes place during and after Order 66 - and we see a squad of clones question the order as handed down from their clone commanders, and not obey it.
What Iron_lord said. Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader is referenced in the first Dark Times arc. Check the Purge comics as well, they deal with post Order 66 Vader/Jedi as well.
There's lots of books and comics for the first few months/years after Order 66 - not so many that actually show Order 66 happening. The Coruscant Nights series (with The Last Jedi added at the end), and the Last of the Jedi series for younger readers, are the first that spring to mind besides those that have already been mentioned. There's also the Darth Vader hardback comic book series, of which Darth Vader & the Ghost Prison is usually said to be the best. Already been mentioned.
The "Darth Vader and..." series are set in the first few months after ROTS, but they don't deal with Jedi or anything Order 66 related. However, what may be relevant to this thread is that "Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison" has a small reference in "Dark Times: Fire Carrier"
Indeed. It's still my favourite source for "Vader was the Emperor's second-in-command": Our Empire may yet be young, but it is strong! While Emperor Palpatine rules from Coruscant, our valiant clone army continues to keep us safe from the galaxy's many threats! And leading our military is the Emperor's hand-picked second in command -- Lord Vader! Forged in the deadliest battles of the Clone Wars, Vader single-handedly defended our strategic AT-AT bases on Ovation Seven … quelled the uprising of the mighty Wookiee warriors of Kashyyyk … and thwarted the murderous plot of General Gentis that left thousands dead on Galactic Center! From Bandomeer to the Ghost Nebula, wherever a threat arises, Lord Vader is there to meet it … to crush it! Wherever your travels in the galaxy take you, the forces of the Empire are there, keeping you safe and secure!
The vast majority of people who will ever read (or reread) the series will do so over a span of several hours- long distant publication delays won't even be a thought in their minds when it comes to caring about the story- they'll be able to enjoy Wheatley's work.
I think this sums it up perfectly. The release schedule, even without delays, didn't support the previous Republic model of switching between storylines, so Parallels was a huge misstep. Especially since K'kruhk wasn't set up to ultimately join the others. So, it needed to be either the Uhumele series or, let's face it, the Dass Jennir Jedi series. Parallels had the chance to make it a Firefly-like Uhumele series, but didn't use that. And while I'm at it, Vector was obviously there just so they had a crossover; and even though it made sense to have an episode set in that timeframe, having only two issues made it a filler, same for Rebellion (and I wonder if they could have managed to salvage that by making it more of a four-issue Vader arc; it's already kind of a Purge/Darth Vader spinoff anyway). Uhumele-Dark Times would have needed to kill off the Jedi character in the first arc, switching main character duties completely over to the non-Force-using Bomo. Just thought about it for the first time, but that would have been seriously great. Really dark times with the Jedi's fire really having gone out of the universe. Instead, Bomo doesn't even get an arc of his own because we have to show K'kruhk survive for Legacy; and once Dass is back, he's cooler than ever (because instead of the Age of Han Solos we get the Age of Han Solo-type Jedi), gets an arc of his own and is finally revealed to be the only character that can make the Uhumele storyline go forward because they won't do anything without him. Making it a Purge variant, including the Quinlan Vos ending that wasn't a good choice even the first time around. That being said, I really enjoyed The Path To Nowhere and Blue Harvest. EDIT: By the way, in case anyone in here's interested - I've recently seen the Path To Nowhere gallery edition's price drop significantly. $50 at Think Geek and $60 at Amazon.
Lui Antonio, whose art was awful, penciled the Uhumele plot in one of the issues while Ross did the K'Kruhk plot, but Ross did the other four issues solo. I thought he did a great job that's always been underappreciated because of the big shoes he had to fill. The opening pages of the first issue in particular, featuring Bomo waking up from his nightmare, were fantastic. Ross did some great work on Legacy, as well. The covers for Trust Issues and the interiors for Issue 42. I would have liked to have seen more from him. I can never get behind that as an excuse. Good trades shouldn't come at the expense of a bad individual-issue release schedule. I also can't help but feel that such a poor track record on the artist's part, coupled with the author's insistence that that artist continue to be used, would have led to the cancellation of any series that wasn't the pet project of the Vice President of Publishing.
Theories of favoritism aside, I just have to fundamentally disagree- the monthlies should not come at the expense of the work as a whole. Having a top-quality work for TPB (and/or post-publication singles/digital purchases) should be more important than rushing out an issue to meet a publication schedule. It's kind of like the Miyamoto quote, "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.". If you rush out monthlies to stick to a schedule (or are forced to make a work uneven by changing artists midway through), you're stuck with that forever. But harm the schedule to get a consistent result? Readers and fans are benefiting long term. Not saying that both can't be possible, but if a particular result takes time, it should be given it if it is worth it- and Doug's work was definitely worth it.
I have only read the first arc of this series, and I skimmed a little bit of one of the later TPBs at a friend's house, but I definitely liked Paths to Nowhere. The art was especially good in this series. I also liked the Nosaurians and how the first book referenced Luceno's Vader novel. The K'kruhk story kind of turned me off to Dark Times though. It seemed really boring so I stopped following the series. Maybe I will pick up the Blue Harvest TPB though, people around here seem to praise it a lot.
The Parallels arc (or the arc after The Path to Nowhere) has a parallel (yup ) story with K'Kruhk and Bomo. There are some rather important events happening in regards to Bomo and the uhumele crew in Parallels, so if you skip it you may get a bit confused. As for Fire Carrier (the second arc with K'kruhk) the story is mostly about him and the younglings, so if you are strictly interested about Dass and the Uhumele crew you won't miss out a lot from Fire Carrier. Still, I encourage you to read them all since they are great stories, and if you can find the two Dark Times omnibuses then do so, instead of buying TPBs. At the end of the day make sure you enjoy the read, so read what ever you like and buy whatever you want, I can only give you an advice based on my opinion.
Thanks for the advice. I suppose I will find a way to suffer through the K'kruhk parts than. Ever since he had usurped Luke's Jedi order in Legacy, I have always held a little bit of a grudge against the Hat. If it's integral to Bomo's story though, I will probably suffer through it. It's really hard to find the Dark Times omnibuses at my local store but perhaps I could track them down on Amazon.
It was unfortunate that John and Jan were deep into book four of Dawn of the Jedi when the cancellation news came in. I agree that Dark Times got the better ending. I liked the first book a lot (A Path to Nowhere) and the art is fantastic, but it kind of floundered story wise for me.
