– Spoiler Review –
Marvel celebrated 10 years of taking back over Star Wars comics this January via A New Legacy #1, a special one-shot which brings together several notable writers and artists from the past 10 years with a series of short stories focusing on characters created in the comics. While it at least starts strong, and overall is a fun time, what it’s lacking makes it an overall (good and bad) fitting representation of their 10 years of comics.
I started the Manor in June 2014, so last year the site celebrated its 10th anniversary and as of January 2025, Marvel’s been making comics for 10 years and somehow, someway, I’ve been writing reviews the same amount of time. I went over this in my 2024 Star Wars Comics Year-in-Review article, but it’s still a milestone I’m working on processing, partly by having reviews be less frequent, as I’ll instead be reviewing more comics by story arcs than individual issues, mainly because I want more time for my family and my own writing. Experiencing this celebration of 10 years, A New Legacy, comes at an interesting time for me, and I can’t help but cover it with the perspective of 10 years and thoughts of the future mixed in together. Overall, I think A New Legacy is a fun time at the comics, with lots of Doctor Aphra, my favorite character of the Saga at this point, but in the end it felt like a muted celebration, something that takes it shots to appreciate how far it’s come but also something that doesn’t quite feel like it’s grown to learn from its past, good and bad. The egregious problem? The complete lack of diversity behind the panels, as the creative teams, from editorial on down, are completely made up of male identifying individuals. One thing I’ve also been covering on the Manor, first in incremental updates for Eleven-ThirtyEight’s Minority Reports and then later my own yearly comic reviews, is tracking the diversity on the page and behind the panels. If you’ve only even read one piece of coverage, you already know the consistent outcome of these last 10 years: a disproportionate amount of male identifying creatives and characters, year after year, with a sole bright spot in 2021 when marginalized creatives inched upwards and the parity of characters on the page did too. By perpetrating the cycle by hosting this celebration without any marginalized creatives, Marvel shows they haven’t listened and haven’t attempted to grow, which makes A New Legacy at times feel more like them strutting to the tune of their own horn, simply proud it’s been 10 years than actually trying to push towards anything new or show they want to take their ownership of the comics into a new direction; saying is their new legacy, as it where, but it’s not as positive as they’d like us to think. This isn’t on the creative teams involved in this issue, they do wonderful at their jobs here and have throughout the years they’ve contributed, and likely will in the years to come, but as someone who both loves this silly space franchise to bits but also wants to hold it accountable where I can, I can’t help but mention this glaring problem. In fact, 2025 will be more of the same, with primarily male-identifying creatives on the four Marvel series announced, as well as two for Dark Horse comics (though I’m very proud of them for dropping Neil Gaiman): Jedi Knights written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Madibek Musabekov; Legacy of Vader written by Charles Soule with art by Luke Ross; The Bad Batch: Ghosts Agents written by Michael Moreci with pencils by Reese Hannigan and inks by Elisabetta D’Amico; Hyperspace Stories: Codebreaker written by Ethan Sacks, with pencils by Marc Yarza and inks from Jose Marzan Jr; and The High Republic: Fear of the Jedi written by Cavan Scott with art by Marika Cresta. In that list, there’s only one marginalized creative per publisher. If Marvel really wanted to celebrate 10 years, innovation and trying to be better would’ve been a stronger stance to take rather than highlight more of the same. I believe this is an important point to make, to hope and push for, because marginalized individuals are experiencing an unprecedented attack from their governments, be it the fascist push of the Trump administration here in the United States, or many of the right-leaning power players pushing into governments across the world, and if publications can spend 10 years making stories and never really consider diversifying, celebrating without any change makes it feel hollow in the end. Supporting and helping marginalized individuals see themselves in the stories they love, or see those like them are the ones making those stories, is a powerful and seemingly simple message publishers like Marvel and Dark Horse could send to fans in these unprecedented times. I still enjoyed the stories and these characters and the work done in A New Legacy, but perspective really is everything sometimes and it’s hard to read this in a vacuum.
“The Empire’s Most Powerful Gather” – Charles Soule (Writer), Ramon Rosanas (Artist), Neeraj Meno (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer throughout)
Easily my favorite tale of the collection, Soule’s winds together a fun series of events with many familiar characters, and manages to make all the cameos and appearances feel natural and fitting for the era/timeframe. I was the “Leo DiCaprio Pointing” meme when certain characters appeared in frame or names were dropped, like gangster Papa Toren, the clone twins Aleksin and Pavol from Soule’s Lando miniseries, Poe Dameron comic antagonist Agent Terex’s early stormtrooper days, Grakkus the Hutt’s many times in frame, Inspector Thanoth’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo, or even Domina Tagge’s fitting glance Aphra’s way. I was worried this smorgasbord of characters would feel too self-serving or stick out, but I was glad how snug they fit, from main role or background player.
Darth Momin’s tirade over not being credited on his artwork was hilarious, though fitting for the times with the rise of AI and its wanton stealing of creative work to line the pockets of executives and the wealthy across the world. How Star Wars (2020) antagonist Commander Zahra factors in was another highlight and neat way to show two memorable antagonists from Soule’s time in the comics together. Beilert Valance and Rik Duel’s inclusion was fine, as it didn’t sway me one way or another about either of them, though we know at least Valance will be back for the upcoming Star Wars (2025) series, but is there room for Duel? This didn’t make a case for him to feature.
As for Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra and Sana Starros, they are the main show and you can tell Soule enjoyed writing them again, from their fight over the big important way their heist goes wrong, to the way, despite their tiffs, they still have each other’s backs against Valance and Duel, was a real damn delight. It really makes me even more anxious for when and where we’ll see Aphra again!
As for art, Ramon Rosanas delivers once again, with a big highlight being Momin’s tirade and eventual “death.” The one page panel of Momin, the helmet on the head of a stormtrooper, which he’s covered up with an all-white Imperial flag, the logo draped over his back and a bit obscured due to how he’s wearing it, standing in front of the giant sculpture Aphra and Sana came to steal (but were told was much smaller), his word bubble of “I know you” settled within a part of the sculpture, sets such a reverence and love for his own work, it makes sense, even if you’ve not read stories with the character before, why he’d get so angry when he’s not credited for his work. Having the panel where he learns the artist is “unknown” the same where Aphra and Sana are more the focus, he’s just in the forefront, gives the feeling of how unimportant he is and how ignored artists are at times, especially like I said earlier, in a day and age where corporations are jumping on the AI bandwagon. A few pages later, when Duel and Valance confront Sana and Aphra, two panels hit some small little comedic moments so well, the first being Sana casually pointing a finger over her shoulder, saying she’s not sure they’ll get out of his fracas alive, and what she’s pointing at is the chaos of the party, blaster shots and debris flying everywhere, highlighting her point. The next panel, where Duel and Valance no longer pointing their guns at the pair of women and Sana’s suggesting a team-up to survive and then they can work this bounty out on Aphra’s head, gets a blaster bolt at the same level of Valance’s hesitation word bubble, the bolt impacting the wall just behind Sana, a debris cloud pillowing out and Cowles’s sound FX of “KRCK” a janky, yet effective telling of how deadly it is and how cool of a customer Sana can be, makes Valance’s little “Fine” word bubble feel like it hits right after the blast, Sana’s point hard to fight against. The following page, with Momin holding the statue above his head, bending blaster bolts around him with the force, wearing this robe that makes him look dramatic and important, is a fun visual, while I also really liked Zahra brandishing her sword, ready to charge in, and the following series of panels showing Valance (who gets a shot to the face and keeps running), Duel, Sana, and Aphra running out in the fight, trying to flee, and they all feel very in-character for how they are standing over approaching the moment, Valance charging along like a Terminator, Duel trying to be all fancy with his blasters, Sana almost looking like she’s dancing she’s so cool-as-a-cucumber about this, and Aphra sort of stumbling out and making it through again.
“The Fate of Scar Squadron” – Jason Aaron (Writer), Leonard Kirk (Artist), Jay David Ramos (Colorist)
I have no love for Task Force 99 aka SCAR Squad, as I felt their time in the initial Star Wars (2015) series was a waste since all they did was fail, so it was not surprising their return didn’t change my mind in the slightest and only confirmed by disinterest with them. But Jason Aaron came back because he had something to say with this story and, according to how I took the tale, it’s a punctual message about how the far-right fascists see themselves, the heroes of the story, even if it means hurting others and trampling over their rights, as they’d rather burn it all down than look in the mirror and see the terrible, horrible people they are.
The team of Kirk and David Ramos is very fitting for this tale, especially with how dark David Ramos keeps the colors throughout the story, as there’s a shadowy quality until SCAR commits act of violence, the colors getting so bright and overwhelming, it’s like the overall point of the story in smaller detail, as their violence helps them blind themselves to the truth of their actions. There’s one page I enjoyed the most, as while the one of the kids all dressed up as Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Threepio, and Artoo was a fun one, I appreciated the four panels of various SCAR Squadron adventures. The first is a swampy looking planet, icky greens for the water they dredge through, the heat of the desert/rocky planet they visit comes off thanks to the washed out colors from the local sun, the one of them flying over the magma fields, with an industrial looking city in the background, is a visual that works really well to sum up some of the cool and wild things Star Wars can do with familiar designs, while the heavy, seemingly acidic rain eating away at their uniforms and pounding them down sums up how they are withering away as much on the outside as on the inside.
“Vader and Aphra’s Troubled Partnership” – Kieron Gillen (Writer), Salva Espín (Artist), Israel Silva (Colorist)
We all know to always let the Wookiee win, but what if the Wookiee is up against the deadliest homicidal manic droids Triple-Zero and BT-1?!? The shortest story of the collection, “Rogue’s Gambit” is a delightful, funny, and over-the-top return to some familiar characters from their original creator, and while Darth Vader’s presence makes sense given the timeline and characters, it’s probably the only part which falls short. A solid and fun final story to close out the collection, at least!
Salva Espín and Israel Silva are the crack team from Dark Droids: D-Squad, the comedic droid-centric side story to the Dark Droids storyline, and it’s their style which brought the laughs home there and they do so again for “Rogue’s Gambit.” For starters, this might be my favorite depiction of the Ark Angel II, as Espín crams a lot of good detailing to it while Silva makes it seem more impressive with the shiny sheen he provides, while the grey and teal give it a distinct droid,-leaning sensibility. Having already work with Triple Zero and BeeTee, this pair is great at making them intimidating thanks to how Trip’s frame seems like it contort in strange, unnatural ways, while the red, piercing glow of the eyes gives me the shivers. When Vader appears, the perspective of Aphra, the droids, and even Krrsantan looking up at the Sith Lord makes him even more intimidating and helps show his place in all their lives at this moment.
Story-wise, A New Legacy #1 is a good time at the comics, but it makes one wonder what’s been learned in the past 10 years…and what’s been ignored.
+ Lots of Doctor Aphra and all in a good way!
+ First story is the best, but I did like what Aaron potentially had to say about the times we live in, while Gillen’s is a fun ending
+ Art teams match their tales intensity, humor, or darkness
– Perpetrating the wrong legacy with its lack of marginalized creatives…
– …leaving one feeling defeated nothing’s been learned or changes aren’t coming
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.