Oh… My… F&@*#!g… God… If I thought the first four episodes were great then the second half of the series absolutely blew me away! Seriously, the only reason I didn’t watch all four in one night is because it got to almost 1am and the grownup part of my brain won the argument.bi Starting off with a ‘Goonies’ style adventure looking for hidden pirate treasure amongst a high society Spa was a stroke of genius. A real fun, fast paced romp that was a much needed shot of frivolity after the darker tone of the previous episode and the moodierb tone of the follow-up episode, directed by ‘Mandoverse’ hi uh hiugh iDirector extraordinaire, Bryce Dallas Howard and once again proves that Lucasfilm just need to hand her free reign to do her own Star Wars project.

And the ‘Cavan Scott Award for Most Brutal Death Scene’ goes to… George Mann ladies and sirs, for Amadeo witnessing the husking of Master Lox as the Master protects his Padawan from one of The Nameless. Without a shadow of a doubt, ‘Tears of the Nameless’ is required reading, like ‘Defy The Storm’ this book does so much heavy lifting in the run up to the series’ conclusion in a few months. The book focus’ on Reath Silas, now a Jedi Knight after his Master, Cohmac Vitus left the Jedi Order to follow his own path of discovery after the fall of Starlight Beacon, as he tries to find a link between The Nameless and The Blight that is spreading across the Galaxy.

Three more years! Three more years! Kathleen Kennedy has extended her contract as head of Lucasfilm until 2021!!! That'll show the haters who think Kathleen Kennedy is doing a bad job running Lucasfilm. From the day it was announced that George Lucas had hired her as his replacement as the head of the company I, and may others have believe she was the best choice. Her resume speaks for itself, her name is synonymous with my childhood. I was raised on Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, The Goonies, Jurassic Park and many more.

As of writing this post, I have only watched the first half of the series, but I have seen some spoilers (major or minor I have no idea). “Stranger Things in the galaxy far, far away.” That was what first piqued my interest for this series. I love ‘Stranger Things’. Aside from ‘Star Wars’ I can safely say it’s my favourite series. I may not have been around for much of the 80’s but I was raised right, on ‘The Goonies’, ‘E.T., ‘Star Wars’ (well duh), ‘Indiana Jones’ and more the 80’s was always there for me so having ‘Stranger Things’ be that blast from the past was amazing.

Some of the best Batman movies are straight to DVD. There, I said it! But it’s true, and to boot, they are animated and more often than not, either inspired by or a direct adaptation of a well known story arc from the comics. Just look at the amazing two-part adaptation of ‘The Dark Knight Returns’. Visually stunning, a stellar cast and incredibly faithful to the source material (in fact, there was only one or two minor changes that moved scenes around to accommodate the two-part structure. Add in the cost-effective nature of animation (compared to massive live action budgets) and the built in audience (Disney+ subscribers to say the least) and a whole wealth of available content for Lucasfilm to play with.

I can't imagine the excitement for fans in 1991 when this book was released after eight years since 'Return of the Jedi' has been released. Of course there had been new content, the two Ewoks films as well as the Droids and Ewoks cartoons, but this was the first story that continued the heroes adventures. I first read it in around 1994/95. I had just learned that there were Star Wars books and after either Christmas of my Birthday, armed with what felt like mountains of cash I decided to buy my first Star Wars books.

Her be a review of two halves. The first being the final three issues of the ‘Star Wars’ series, and then the four part ‘Empire Ascendant’. The final three issues of Greg Pak’s story arc really struggle to be remotely good. With Threepio flat out bullsh***ing Vader to his face and escaping intact, to Chewie taking Vader on in hand-to-hand combat, the rock people being able to emit an emp to stop the detonators (and ships and droids). Han is rescued by Leia and her ‘not’ former boyfriend by making a deal which they go back on, instead they con the local Star Destroyer captain into chasing them through hyperspace whilst Luke manages to find his lightsaber, save the Rebel cell and make the thief have a change of heart and join the Rebellion.

Please note that I wrote this review based on the Abridged Audiobook, and yes, I am aware that the unabridged version has recently been released and I'm sure it's better but this is the version I have had the opportunity to listen to. And Happy Valentines Day. My binge of Star Wars 'Legends' Audiobooks took a turn away from the X-Wing series for a moment, after tearing through the first four books of the series I opted to take a break from the rip-roaring fast pace of Star Fighter Pilots. In doing that I have also made the decision to listen/read all of the early EU novels from 1991 - 1999.

Please note that I wrote this review based on the Abridged Audiobook, and yes, I am aware that the unabridged version has recently been released and I'm sure it's better but this is the version I have had the opportunity to listen to. And Happy Valentines Day. My binge of Star Wars 'Legends' Audiobooks took a turn away from the X-Wing series for a moment, after tearing through the first four books of the series I opted to take a break from the rip-roaring fast pace of Star Fighter Pilots. In doing that I have also made the decision to listen/read all of the early EU novels from 1991 - 1999.

The second part of a trilogy usually holds the most weight and has the highest stakes. It’s the second act which, traditionally holds the most story beats because it leads our heroes into the final act (coming later this year thank the Force because, like Han Solo, “I hate long waits.”) Tessa Gratton builds on what they started in ‘Defy the Storm’ (with Justina Ireland) with Avon Sunvale’s method of breaking through The Stormwall, Cair San Tekka’s smuggling ring to help save people from the Occlusion Zone, Xylan Graff’s double crossing of The Nihil, the fragile relationship between Avon Sunvale and her mother, defecting Senator, Ghirra Starros and the spreading of a new blight across many planets that turns all living organisms to ash.

The second part of a trilogy usually holds the most weight and has the highest stakes. It’s the second act which, traditionally holds the most story beats because it leads our heroes into the final act (coming later this year thank the Force because, like Han Solo, “I hate long waits.”) Tessa Gratton builds on what they started in ‘Defy the Storm’ (with Justina Ireland) with Avon Sunvale’s method of breaking through The Stormwall, Cair San Tekka’s smuggling ring to help save people from the Occlusion Zone, Xylan Graff’s double crossing of The Nihil, the fragile relationship between Avon Sunvale and her mother, defecting Senator, Ghirra Starros and the spreading of a new blight across many planets that turns all living organisms to ash.

A few years ago there was a ‘May the 4th’ sale on Amazon where I picked up a whole bunch of ‘Star Wars’ collected editions that I was missing in an effort to always have some back up content for the blog in case of a slow few weeks… And I never got around to reading any of them until now, where I have now committed myself to finishing off the 2015 run of the main ‘Star Wars’ comic (having finished ‘Darth Vader’ off ages ago (2019 to be precise).

Writer - Jason Aaron Artist - John Cassaday Colourist - Laura Martin Let's just set the scene. Early 2015. Star Wars Issue 1 arrives. I bought it. I devoured it. I had a complaint. Why is Luke facing Vader? I really didn't like that aspect of the story (I have grown to accept its place in the story but at first it was almost blasphemous). The sabotage of the Imperial facility on Cymoon 1 was a great story, Han, Luke and Leia heading up a mission to slow the Imperial war machine that little bit was fantastic.

Greg Pak starts the his run on the 2015 series with artist extraordinaire, Phil Noto with a lukewarm affair. Starting as he means to go on (well, with his ‘Darth Vader run at least’ by lifting parts of a film (the first paragraph of the crawl from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ with images of Probe Droids flying out of a Star Destroyer. Fortunately for this volume, that’s where Pak’s predilection for padding out a comic with sequences from the film’s stars and ends. Until I put two-and-two together, I though the opening page was a phenomenal way to set us the road to Hoth, but one of my biggest criticisms of Pak’s ‘Darth Vader’ series was his overuse of film sequences.

Greg Pak starts the his run on the 2015 series with artist extraordinaire, Phil Noto with a lukewarm affair. Starting as he means to go on (well, with his ‘Darth Vader run at least’ by lifting parts of a film (the first paragraph of the crawl from ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ with images of Probe Droids flying out of a Star Destroyer. Fortunately for this volume, that’s where Pak’s predilection for padding out a comic with sequences from the film’s stars and ends. Until I put two-and-two together, I though the opening page was a phenomenal way to set us the road to Hoth, but one of my biggest criticisms of Pak’s ‘Darth Vader’ series was his overuse of film sequences.

Writer - Jason Aaron Artist - John Cassaday Colourist - Laura Martin Let's just set the scene. Early 2015. Star Wars Issue 1 arrives. I bought it. I devoured it. I had a complaint. Why is Luke facing Vader? I really didn't like that aspect of the story (I have grown to accept its place in the story but at first it was almost blasphemous). The sabotage of the Imperial facility on Cymoon 1 was a great story, Han, Luke and Leia heading up a mission to slow the Imperial war machine that little bit was fantastic.

In the run up to ‘Ahsoka’ being released, we got a look at the Ahsoka Lego Collection and as I say in the post, I was excited for all of them (still missing the E-Wing set though). And the big one for me was ‘The Ghost and Phantom 2’ because having missed out on the previous version of the Spectre screw home base wasn’t about to miss this one (even after a year off) so when the opportunity arose with discounts and vouchers, this was my big Christmas get. Clocking in at 1394 pieces across 13 bags it’s a nice big set to get your teeth into (but it comes with a Lego multi tool so no teeth required).

In the run up to ‘Ahsoka’ being released, we got a look at the Ahsoka Lego Collection and as I say in the post, I was excited for all of them (still missing the E-Wing set though). And the big one for me was ‘The Ghost and Phantom 2’ because having missed out on the previous version of the Spectre screw home base wasn’t about to miss this one (even after a year off) so when the opportunity arose with discounts and vouchers, this was my big Christmas get. Clocking in at 1394 pieces across 13 bags it’s a nice big set to get your teeth into (but it comes with a Lego multi tool so no teeth required).

A few years ago there was a ‘May the 4th’ sale on Amazon where I picked up a whole bunch of ‘Star Wars’ collected editions that I was missing in an effort to always have some back up content for the blog in case of a slow few weeks… And I never got around to reading any of them until now, where I have now committed myself to finishing off the 2015 run of the main ‘Star Wars’ comic (having finished ‘Darth Vader’ off ages ago (2019 to be precise).

Tyler Parrott Shares Some Designer Insights Behind Twilight of the Republic

Writer - Kieron Gillen Artists - Lenil Yu and Salvador Larroca Colourists - Jason Kieth and Edgar Delgado The third graphic novel of Kieron Gillen's series contains the Darth Vader Annual, which is set before the events of of 'Vader Down' and sets the events of the Shu-Torun storyline into motion when Vader wipes out the planets royal family except the youngest daughter, Trios who Vader places on the throne to rule the planet that provides a lot of resources to the Empire. The main story follows Vader who is sent back to Shu-Torun when Queen Trios need aid to fend off a rebellion from the planets Barons who wish to overthrow the Empire's hold over the planet.

Writer - Kieron Gillen Artists - Lenil Yu and Salvador Larroca Colourists - Jason Kieth and Edgar Delgado The third graphic novel of Kieron Gillen's series contains the Darth Vader Annual, which is set before the events of of 'Vader Down' and sets the events of the Shu-Torun storyline into motion when Vader wipes out the planets royal family except the youngest daughter, Trios who Vader places on the throne to rule the planet that provides a lot of resources to the Empire. The main story follows Vader who is sent back to Shu-Torun when Queen Trios need aid to fend off a rebellion from the planets Barons who wish to overthrow the Empire's hold over the planet.