• Writer: Greg Rucka
• Artist: Marco Checchetto

Ah, Marvel.  For months you've teased us with the knowledge that you'd be one of the few gatekeepers of information on the state of the post-Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) universe.  We learned that you'd be publishing Star Wars: Journey to the Force Awakens (TFA): Shattered Empire, a four-issue series which would begin to expose what happened in the thirty year gap between the sixth and seventh Star Wars films.  We saw numerous variant covers for the first issue, were teased with gorgeous teaser images of Marco Checchetto's recap of the final moments of Return of the Jedi, and now the first issue has hit, shortly after the release of the two other big Journey to the Force Awakens novels: Aftermath and Lost Stars.  The problem is that it's a long road from ROTJ to TFA, and while the two novels get a little bit down that road, Shattered Empire has only just started to creep out the garage door. 

This isn’t totally a bad thing; it’s just a drawback of the nature of modern comic books.  Novels are still released as an entire story all at once.  These days, comic books have become less self-contained, and they’re typically written “for the trade,” meaning that it’s intentionally structured to reflect a completed product in a collected edition down the line.  (All four issues of Shattered Empire will be collected in a trade paperback released on November 17, making it one of Marvel’s fastest collected editions in recent memory.)  I’m predicting that this story will read better in trade, when we have the full story.  But for now, the limited span of this story, coupled with our salivation for TFA, makes the story noticeably incomplete.  It only covers events from the Battle of Endor to…cleanup operations that literally begin the day after Endor.

All this is not to say that this is a bad story.  It’s really not.  In this short span of the story so far, we’re introduced to a Rebel wife (Sharra Bey) and husband (Kes, whose spoileriffic last name I’m omitting) who share an obviously powerful devotion to each other even in the face of ongoing military operations that, sadly, need to come first.  (War is like that.)  We don’t get a lot of insight into their backstories, but it’s apparent from their brief interactions that this is a passionate couple.  They’re instantly likeable in the course of only a few pages.  Let’s hope that Rucka isn’t setting them up for a tragedy, although that’s unfortunately where these kind of stories often end up going, and there’s hints that this will be the case.

Still, Shattered Empire gives us at least some initial glimpses of what happens in the intervening thirty years.  One, we see the implied-but-literal conception of one of the characters in TFA, which is an impressive feat for a Star Wars comic.  (There was a Dark Horse story that may have shown the conception of Luke and Leia, but it was never confirmed, and anyway, it’s a moot story now.)  I’m leaving Kes’ last name out of this review, but if you know the names of the characters in TFA, then Kes’ identity will make it obvious whose father he is.  Second, we also get hints of the bigger picture that the Empire was nowhere near finished after Palpatine’s death.  Aftermath and Lost Stars also deal with the post-Imperial problem, but Shattered Empire #1 hints at bigger problems than a simple military cleanup.

I cannot stress enough that Marvel is putting its top talent on its Star Wars comics, with particular care in selecting its art teams.  Marco Checchetto does a marvelous job here, accurately capturing every line of what he draws, from the panels on the A-Wing fighters to the hairs on Chewbacca’s heads.  He also really makes Sharra and Key stand out, both as distinct individuals and in their emotional expressions.  Sharra’s nervousness genuinely looks nervous; her reunion with Kes looks genuinely loving.  He also masterfully draws them with unique faces, avoiding the “same face” problem that many artists develop.  I’ll confess that I’m not familiar with his work prior to this story, but I hope to see more of it.

Two other points of observation.  One, Marvel must really be working well with Lucasfilm’s storygroup, because this story appears to be nicely coordinated with Lost Stars so far.  There’s a single throwaway line in the story which, if you catch it, is an obvious reference to Lost Stars.  That’s well done.  On the other hand, there’s a moment of publishing silliness in this comic, where an ad for a Lego Star Wars set featuring Luke and Vader’s ROTJ duel is placed just two pages after Checchetto’s portrayal of the same event.  It’s an amusing coincidence, although perhaps a little jarring in that it takes you out of the story for just a second as you wonder whether the characters have turned into their minifigure counterparts.  At least it won’t be repeated in the trade paperback.

This is good stuff.  We look forward to issue #2, which hopefully does start to give us a more substantive look at life after Endor.

Please also see our Star Wars: Lost Stars as well as our Star Wars: Aftermath review.

Rating: Four and a half Ackbars out of five