Change seeped into every aspect of the comics in 2018, from series like Poe Dameron and Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith ending, Doctor Aphra exploding into a new year of storytelling, IDW’s fun miniseries like Tales from Vader’s Castle, and the beginning of a new maxiseries, “Age of Star Wars.” Change also came to aspects behind-the-scenes, with a Marvel editor shake-up that has led to some dubious decisions, while I’ve personally had to adjust how I cover the comics thanks to some fantastic new life changes. Head below the cut to see my 2018 Star Wars Comics Year-in-Review, where I look at the ups and downs of a year full of change, my Top 5 moments of the year, and hopes/fears for 2019!
— Spoilers for comics released in 2018 —
Here are the things I liked the most/thought worked the best from the comics in 2018:
A) Soule-verse
Out of all the authors of the novels, Claudia Gray has not only written some of the best works in Star Wars of all time, she likes to sneak in fun, rewarding references to her other novels, giving her work the affectionately named Gray-verse. In terms of comics, Charles Soule has been writing some of the best works in Star Wars of all time as well, and he also includes plenty of rewarding, useful references to his other works, thus his comic work deserves a similar moniker, the Soule-verse (which has a really nice ring to it, no?). Both Poe Dameron and the Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith series have call-backs to his first Star Wars comic, Lando, where Poe included it’s main gangster and Vader revealed the backstory for both its bounty hunter and the creepy mask which caused havoc for Lando and his crew aboard Palpatine’s personal yacht (and even more for Vader). Only the Poe comic hasn’t included an appearance from Palpatine in some shape or form, while his Obi-Wan & Anakin series is the only one not containing a reference to his other works besides Palpatine appearing (as far as I can tell). Beyond his own series, he has an incredible knack for seamlessly mixing in content from all over the canon and media spectrum, like Grakkus the Hutt from the Star Wars series appearing in Poe, twice, or the Tenth Brother being a character from the Mace Windu miniseries. The Soule-verse being wonderfully connected isn’t its main feature however, instead it’s how phenomenal Soule’s writing is, which keeps each series compelling, deeply explorative of its characters and the era they’re in, and a blast to read. In fact, 2018 saw the end to two of his series, Poe and Vader, and they both ultimately had exceptional finales that built on everything that had come before, making a large hole in the comic realm’s narrative where his writing used to be. As he’s been teasing since both Poe and Vader ended, there’s plenty more work ahead for him in Star Wars and I’m eagerly anticipating whatever it might be.
B) IDW Having Fun and Taking Some Diversity Strides
Seeing as IDW’s comics are written for all-ages, I’ve found it difficult to write reviews for their mainline Adventures series because I felt like I would be repeating myself, though I’ve chimed in with their miniseries from time to time because it’s far easier to talk about five issues together considering its content. Despite my lack of reviews, both miniseries like Forces of Destiny and Tales From Vader’s Castle, as well as the main Adventures, continue to deliver an endless stream of fun, playing fast and loose with characters all over the timeline, that shouldn’t be missed. IDW and its creative teams feel like they’re having fun, not trying to take themselves too seriously like most of Marvel’s output can get, resulting in a series which is easy to read, full of good lessons for the younger readers, and full of character pairings fans have either dreamed about or never could’ve imagine. From seeing Hera Syndulla, Leia, and Han on Hoth together, IG-88 and Agent Kallus teaming up to chase down an Imperial deserter and known Enfys Nest collaborator named Han Solo, the amazingly funny Shriv from Battlefront II on a mission with Nein Nunb, to Jaxxon and Amaiza being recanonized, IDW provided all sorts of fun and surprises for fans of all parts of the saga. Marvel’s “Age of Star Wars” seems like an answer to Adventures’ ability to jump all over the saga and tell little tales, but it’s merely a wishful hope on Marvel’s part to capture that same magic, as IDW has the market cornered. Each year I’ve taken data on the diversity in comics, in partnership with Eleven-ThirtyEight’s Mike Cooper and his Diversity Report, and 2018 was the first full year of IDW comic data I could take. While the Forces of Destiny mini netted the year’s highest parity score (female to male character ratio) at 53%, it still only had 10 total female characters (whom speak and are named) of a total overall 19 characters; IDW all together (the minis and Adventures) had 36 female characters and 80 male characters, resulting in 31% and 69%, a result close to Marvel’s 32% female (66 characters) to 68% male (139 characters), meaning even having a female-only creative-led miniseries wasn’t enough to help change up diversity in the comics. That being said, IDW had 17 female creatives (vs 39 males) compared to Marvel’s 6 (vs 46 males), and considering only one of Marvel’s female creatives is a writer (Jody Houser) and she wrote three separate comics, at least IDW seems to be trying. There’s a lot more to be said about diversity both on and behind the panels, and how the numbers don’t always tell the full story (as Mike talks about heavily in his latest report), but that’ll be at another time and place.
C) Thematic Crossover Better Than Traditional Crossovers
In my negative section for 2017’s year-in-review, I called out the crossovers because, while they haven’t been bad, they haven’t felt like they deserved all the hype due to how they cram too much story into 5 issues or are never really mentioned again besides in off-handed lines. In 2018, something new was tried, a “thematic” crossover, where two series covered different eras of a conflict, where Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith‘s “The Burning Seas” arc, set a year after Order 66, showed the Empire’s crackdown on Mon Cala, and the Star Wars series’ “Mutiny at Mon Cala,” showed the Rebellion’s efforts to help Mon Cala free itself from Imperial rule so 20 years later. Both series were allowed to breathe their own complex story after a different event in Mon Cala’s history, setting the course for the Mon Calamarian’s place in the grander war against oppression. If we return to crossovers in 2019, I hope it’s more along the thematic line, but if it goes back to two series combining for one story, I wish the teams involved the best of luck.
Here are the things I didn’t think worked and how to fix them:
A) Editor Change Leads to a Cowardly, Unnecessary Fiasco
Originally, this particular minus was about how we went from a female/male editing team to a male/male editing team, a disappointing step back when we even saw a female assistant editor help out during the switch. And as the new team settled in, I was at least going to say how great it’s been to have Tom Groneman, the assistant editor, engaging with fans and doing fun things with behind-the-scenes/letters pages since the editor Mark Paniccia has been so removed. Both Jordan D. White and Heather Antos were friendly, outgoing personalities who you could tell loved the material as much as the fans, and Groneman hasn’t been too far behind, but Paniccia was an enigma for some time. But then we saw his true colors when a really stupid decision was made by Paniccia, firing Chuck Wendig from a now cancelled Shadow of Vader series, which that’s all this section really needs to be about. As Wendig has said on his blog about the whole situation, at least they could’ve let him finish the series and then silently ghost him, never hiring him again. But to do it in such a high-profile manner, in the middle of the work and after the project was publicly announced, was a political play to appease the Comics Gate Nazis who used an army of bots, not real people, to try to stir up a ruckus about Wendig’s latest politically charged tweet-storm; An ironic move on Paniccia’s part, considering he fired Wendig for being too political (and too vulgar, which honestly he can be), and ironic work on the Comic Nazis part, as they claim diversity is killing comics when they kill one themselves. Since the whole debacle, Marvel announced a replacement series, Vader – Dark Visions, with a fairly similar idea as Wendig’s cancelled series, showing the various sides to Vader through the eyes of those who have dealt with him. Not only did Paniccia unceremoniously cancel a previous series on bad grounds, he made the choice to replace it with something along the same lines, which even shares cover artists, making this all stink even worse. And even if Paniccia is making this decision due to someone’s urging even higher above, not backing up Wendig would seem to imply complicity. What I haven’t addressed is my decision to continue covering Marvel comics, as there were other sites which completely blacklisted talking Marvel after Paniccia’s decision, a move I both respect and sometimes wondered if I should’ve made. But in the end, I decided to continue talking about them because all the other creators involved in each comic, as it’s not their fault Paniccia made such a cowardly move, and I still want to support them for their great work. Is it the right decision? It really depends on how you feel about the whole situation, but it felt right to me so I’m sticking with my choice. And until Paniccia is let go himself, he’ll only be mentioned on the Manor to once again call him out for his terrible choice, without any credit for any of the other work because he doesn’t deserve it anymore.
B) Over-adapting
When I noticed there would be THREE adaptations dropping in 2018, I… I even looked a bit into the sales of the adaptations, maybe trying to argue there wasn’t a market for them, but after using Comichron to do so, I couldn’t concisely say the sales didn’t merit further adaptations. Examples: Thrawn‘s adaptation hit at #13 in sales in its first month and dropped down to and stayed just above 60 for its final few issues, with its TPB coming in at #13; The Last Jedi adaptation came in markedly lower for its first issue at #76 in sales, dropping as far as #137 for its final issue, with the TPB hitting at #131. Even my favorite series, Doctor Aphra, had sales around the same as both those examples, though its TPBs do slightly better, with one being #2 behind only the powerhouse that is Saga. So if I can’t argue against adaptations due to sales, then this boils down to a personal preference. When I see an adaptation come up, I immediately think of how that space and talent could’ve gone to producing something new or original, though I’m not to bash against the excellent creatives working on adaptations. For these past few years I’ve hoped for a comic series focusing on brand new characters, much like the TV shows Rebels and Resistance, but so far it’s only Aphra who’s been the sole original work. Being a fan of the comics, and focusing so much on them over the past few years, I’ve really wanted them to get a chance to start something new, like carving out a different part of the timeline, but so far they’ve focused on the well-known characters. The “Age of Star Wars” maxiseries is a part of a step in the right direction, as it’ll give us new stories on a lot of different characters from all over the timeline, but all of them are already established. Imagine if it had gone just a little further, including the Age of Old Republic, and (re)introduced a Legends era to Canon in exciting little teases of single issues! That’s the magic of what the comics can do, so hopefully one day soon we’ll have less adaptations and more originality.
C) Marvel’s Miniseries (and One-Shot) Miscalculated
2018 might have been the worst year for non-adaptation miniseries to date, minus IDW’s offerings, as Marvel’s felt like creative duds, some even with glimmers of better ideas within. Lando – Double or Nothing at least had great art, but its characterization of Lando completely botched the smooth-talker, making him an excessively annoying talkative young smuggler, which is nothing like his appearance in Solo or Last Shot. With the series ending as basically an explainer for why Lando was on Vandor in the film without adding anything important to the character, I’ve decided to believe DoN is actually meant to be part of his Calrissian Chronicles, pointing everyone in the direction of the excellent first Lando comic instead. The other mini, Han Solo – Imperial Cadet, filling in the time jump at the beginning of Solo: A Star Wars Story, has been simply fine, providing a by-the-numbers tale of Han’s time with the Empire without any real spark to make it feel worthwhile. Most of the one-shots, like the Annuals and Beckett, turned out rather well, but DJ: Most Wanted basically put DJ in the jail for his The Last Jedi appearance and that is it. At times this year, it felt like these blunders happened because they chose to focus on a well-known character and built a story around having them as the focal point/build-up to an appearance in a film, instead of trying to find a story about a character which informs us about them during that time and place, or dives into what makes them tick. If 2019 can provide miniseries with an eye on character building over getting a character from point A to point B, we won’t be in this same spice freighter again. IDW is exempt from this though, as the Forces of Destiny tie-in mini and Tales from Vader’s Castle were solid concepts with wonderful execution, and its 2018 Annual was fun on all counts, including Jaxxon’s recanonization.
Looking Back at My Fixes/Hopes/Fears for 2018 & Looking Ahead at 2019:
In my 2017 year-in-review, I had some ideas for how 2018 could both improve or fail, and now I’m going to quickly look at what I did and did not get right:
- The Star Wars series didn’t end as I hoped, but it’s gotten much better as of late and I’m less inclined to want to throw it under the chopping block at the moment.
- No original characters were created to start a series/miniseries…boo!
- The era between original and sequel Trilogies was unfortunately not touched on by the comics.
- No Hera comic, though she was in Doctor Aphra a bit!
- No Batuu tie-in, but that came in novel and TV show form instead.
- The Aphra series thankfully didn’t end as I feared, instead finding new life in the start of its second year of storytelling!
- Too many adaptations is something I’ve already touched on.
- Not a damn alien lead in sight for some silly reason.
Biggest Hopes for 2019:
- MORE FEMALE CREATIVES.
Rey hasn’t been written by a woman, even in all her comic appearances over at IDW, Rey has only been written by two women, Jody Houser in the FoD mini and Jen Muro in the Forces of Destiny short which the comic is based on, which is a damn shame (Oops, can’t believe I forgot that, thanks ETE for pointing it out); Or even Aphra for that matter, regardless of how great Simon Spurrier has been. With the solicitations going out to March 2019 as of this publishing and no new female writers/artists on their way at least for Marvel, my hopes for this to be true are getting slimmer by the moment. - I think I’ve made it clear Paniccia being fired would be a giant plus.
- Original characters created to start a new series.
- Besides the already announced Vader mini for 2019…no more Vader-related comics for the rest of the year, or several years, please! Let like, ANYONE else shine…like say Leia!
Biggest Fears for 2019:
- As always, I fear for the disaster that is Aphra, but considering 2018 saw her not only released in the Vintage Collection line of toys from Hasbro, but a Black Series figure was announced as well, maybe I shouldn’t have to be as fearful…but old habits die hard.
- No series exploring an era not being touched by the movies or TV shows
- Still no alien lead for a on-going/miniseries that isn’t an adaptation or issue of an “Age of”
Top 5 Moments (in no particular order):
This part is never easy to do and year after year I want to make it a Top Ten moments, but staying with five keeps me more objective. What made this year particularly difficult were both Doctor Aphra and Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith being jammed packed with plenty of fantastic, unforgettable moments, while IDW’s first full year resulted in plenty of moments worthy of consideration as well. Without further ado, 2018’s Top 5 Moments:
The Kiss Heard ‘Round the Galaxy with Doctor Aphra and Inspector Tolvan (Doctor Aphra #16) – Ever since Aphra let Tolvan go in issue #6, on the grounds she found Tolvan cute, I’d been hoping we’d see the two together again one day. Enter the “Remastered” arc, where a charged meeting between the two women during a raid Aphra makes on behalf of Triple-Zero puts them on a collision course over the next few issues. When they do finally meet again, they’re trapped by a giant chthonic worm monster, and with death imminent, they put all their baggage aside to take advantage of their mutual feelings for one another and go out with a kiss. Of course they survive, and the series goes on to explore their complicated relationship, from Aphra’s selfish and disastrous tendencies to Tolvan’s blind love of Aphra coming at odds with her love for order by the Empire, and unfortunately it all ends in tragedy (not death-related, thankfully!). A few issues after their kiss, there’s even a cabin getaway scene that doesn’t leave much to the imagination, but I chose the kiss to be the highlighted moment because it was so important, big, and the first canon visually depicted LGBTQ+ moment in Star Wars. And while the series took the promise of more LGBTQ+ representation, due to their first kiss, and delivered, it’s still only a small effort in the grand scheme that is the Star Wars canon. I was originally going to make an entry in the positive column above about this series’ representation, but it’s only happening in one comic series and the Aftermath Trilogy, with the films falling short on all counts, like only saying Lando is pansexual but never showing it on film. This was still a fantastic and needed moment for LGBTQ+ rep in the saga, but it’s only a small step, as on-film representation is what seems to count the most.
Darth Vader Destroys List of Force Sensitive Children…Heroic or Selfish Act? (Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #10): Tasked with hunting down Jedi archivist Jocasta Nu, Vader doesn’t have to go far when she comes to Coruscant to retrieve a hidden list of all the Force-sensitive children in the galaxy. Though initially asked by Palpatine to keep her alive, once Jocasta figures out Vader is Anakin Skywalker, the newly minted Sith Lord considers overriding his Master’s commands. Jocasta puts up a decent enough fight, but Vader captures her, and she tells him exactly what he needs to hear: Palpatine’s using him and will dispose of him when he no longer needs him, hence the potential need of the list of Force-sensitive children (though that might be for something else entirely, referenced as Project Harvester). Though he ends her life swiftly after that, her final words stick with him, as he destroys the list and lies to the Emperor about how it happened. It’s an extremely ambiguous moment, as one could surmise Vader did it as a heroic gesture, saving the children from death or being put through the same ringer he was due to Palpatine’s manipulations. The flip side is Vader destroyed it to secure his place in ol’ Sheev’s plans, preventing his Sith Master from training any potential replacements so he can stay as #1 enforcer until he can find some way out of his new chains. Or maybe it’s a complex combination of the two. Will we ever know his true intent with the choice? I honestly hope not, as leaving this open results in deepening Vader’s complexity, as he’s more than just a thrilling hallway slaughter scene, which the comics have been enriching series after series. And my hopes aren’t misplaced, as Soule plans on keeping Vader’s intentions unclear. There were a lot of fantastic moments from this series, especially in the series finale, but I felt like nothing summed up Soule’s take on Vader better than this.
Jaxxon and Amaiza Recanonized (Star Wars Adventures Annual 2018): Part of me almost didn’t want to pick this moment because it seemed too obvious a choice, but I picked it because it was so well handled AND it exemplifies the joy IDW is having mixing and matching stuff from all over canon and Legends. Jaxxon’s place in Legends is complicated (as this Eleven-ThirtyEight piece covers in excellent detail), as to many he’s the poster rabbit for everything wrong with Legends, while to some he’s a fun, enjoyable aspect to Legends looser approach. Regardless of your feelings towards the cottontail, in the span of a very short story (written by Cavan Scott, art by Mauricet), he and his cohort Amaiza are handled with fun and care, neatly fitting into canon without as much as a scratch. The same can be said for a number of fun moments hidden within IDW’s breadth of work, be it having Agent Kallus (!) and IG-88 hunting down a deserter and known Enfys Nest ally, Han Solo, to bringing the amazing Shriv from Battlefront II into the comics, or Anakin Skywalker looking like Ralph McQuarrie’s artwork version of Vader in a duel where he’s being called the villain (bravo Elsa Charretier and Pierrick Colinet for the witty writing and art on that one!). It might be written for an all-ages audience, but IDW is making reading their work worth it to all-ages indeed and Jaxxon being recanonized is a perfect example of it.
Rey, Finn, and Poe Recoup on the Millennium Falcon post-The Last Jedi (Poe Dameron #26/#27/#28): There are a lot of great moments to choose from in the Poe Dameron series’ final year, including the awesome droid narration of events from The Force Awakens in issue #28 or the whole of Poe’s Black Squadron coming together to save themselves in the finale, but nothing was bigger or more surprising than learning we’d get to see Rey, Finn, and Poe together for the first time after the events of The Last Jedi not in Ep. IX, but in the Poe Dameron comics! Nothing of great importance came from them being together, mind you, but the simple fact of having these three together, finding friendship and comradery in one another again despite all that happened to them in TLJ, was a pleasant, welcomed development. It should be no surprise writer Soule is the one who wrote the new Big Three’s time together and did it exceptionally well, capturing their banter to the point it was easy to hear Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac, and John Boyega having fun with the lines, while the gorgeous art from Angel Unzueta and Arif Prianto made it look like they actually were there. Rey, Finn, and Poe deserved a break and getting to see it, in the comics no less, was a memorable moment.
Lopset is Evazan, Evazan is Lopset or The Twist Heard ‘Round the Galaxy (Doctor Aphra #25): When Doctor Aphra #25 revealed that Aphra’s bumbling pal Lopset Yas, who accompanied her during her tumultuous and heartbreaking stint in Accresker Jail, turned out to be Doctor Cornelius Evazan, my jaw dropped open as wide as the Sarlacc pit, yelling “wwwhhhhaaattttt?!” It’s not very often the comics contain such big twists, but if it’s one series you can count on to make its readers exclaim a variety of feelings aloud, it’s going to be Doctor Aphra, but nothing had quite prepared readers for this one. Or did it? A good twist, like something from Six Sense or Fight Club, is actually hiding in plain sight the whole time, and Evazan’s identity was cleverly spread across the entirety of “The Catastrophe Con,” and while I won’t cover all the examples here, I go into greater detail in my issue #25 review and the arc review. But it wasn’t only writer Simon Spurrier’s sneaky writing which made this twist so memorable, it’s also due to how it recontexualized everything that came before, paying off the first year of my favorite character’s series with aplomb, and set up a fresh and exciting new thrust for our rogue disaster archaeologist’s next adventure to begin. Marvel’s best keeps getting better.
Runner-up Moments include: Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith #25’s vision quest; Winloss and Nokk’s introduction in Doctor Aphra Annual #2; Vader stopping Luke’s podracing career short in Star Wars Annual #4; Dark Lord of the Sith‘s 18th issue; Sana letting go of her hate for Aphra/Tolvan letting Aphra go as well; Farren Barr’s misguided ideals; Tales from Vader’s Castle as a whole; Aphra getting multiple action figures (that might be cheating but hey, this is my list).
Overall Rankings
2018 had some clear, exceptional series, with IDW being the most consistent across the board and Marvel putting up the year’s best, worst, and a lot of middling content, making this year’s overall rankings actually somewhat easy to call. Despite that, for the first time since I’ve started doing these year-in-reviews, you’ll notice some ties in the rankings, but it’s less to do with being unable to make a decision over what’s better and more about feeling the exact same way about some content, like say the adaptations.
- Doctor Aphra
- Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith
- Poe Dameron
- Tales From Vader’s Castle
- Star Wars
- Star Wars Adventures
- Age of Republic
- Star Wars Adventures – Forces of Destiny / Destroyer Down (tie)
- Han Solo – Imperial Cadet
- Thrawn / The Last Jedi / Solo: A Star Wars Story (tie)
- Lando – Double or Nothing
From epic finales for fantastic series, IDW’s fun miniseries and character crossovers, to Aphra’s latest antics or another classic Vader-focused series, 2018 packed lots of fun within its panels, but it was also mired in controversy due to a poor editorial decision, too many adaptations, and some lackluster miniseries. The fine folks over at Comics With Kenobi shared their thoughts on 2018 and, as always, it’s worth a listen, as I agree heavily with their love of the Aphra series, which goes beyond her being my favorite character and the fun and talent behind the whole package of Tales of Vader’s Castle, though they liked the Lando mini more than I did. 2018 feels like it might’ve been the best year of the comics yet, but with 2019 here, with more content than a Hutt can shake a fleshy appendage at, here’s hoping the comics can rise above the noise and leave an impact at the same level they have every year since 2015.
One final note: While we added arc reviews and full series retrospectives to our content in 2018, most miniseries going forward will not receive issue by issue reviews, instead full miniseries reviews after all of their issues release. Minis like the eras for the “Age of Star Wars” maxiseries will still get issue by issue reviews due to the nature of their content, but it’ll be on a case-by-case basis for the rest of the minis in the interest of time (unless someone is looking for a place to write about comics!).
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Bluesky, Twitter @MynockManor, and Instagram @mynockmanor. All comic images are credited to Marvel/IDW/Lucasfilm
COMIC YEAR IN REVIEWS:
2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022