Star Wars Omnibus: Early Victories by Darko Macan

Star Wars Omnibus: Early Victories Reviews

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  MC

  There have been myriad one-shot and mini-series format Star Wars comics published. Basically, with the exception of the popular X-Wing comics series, there were no ongoing monthly series published between the end of Marvel's run in 1986 and the various ongoing series started by Dark Horse Comics around the turn of the century.
  
  Some of the popular one-shot and mini-series that were published in the 1990's – yet have no overarching theme of their own – were compiled and published in an omnibus format by DH called Star Wars Omnibus: Early Victories. This collection was perhaps the most interesting in that it is comprised of various stories from all over the galaxy, both Canon and non-Canon. As with the review of Star Wars Omnibus: The Golden Age of the Sith, this review will be as follows. There will be brief reviews of each story within this massive comic, with a rating for each one, and a brief concluding review of the graphic novel as a whole, with a rating for the work as a whole as well.
  
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  Star Wars: Vader's Quest
  
  This story should have been stronger, but it wasn't. It was basically the tale of how Darth Vader tries to capture his son once he learns that he is alive. This knowledge was obtained by interrogating a rebel pilot for the name of the fellow-rebel who blew up the Death Star. It is a re-hashing of a similar story in the original Marvel Comics Star Wars run (minus the part with Luke as Vader's son, which wasn't known then by the writing team). At least, that is my opinion that it is an adaptation of said earlier Marvel tale. It never outright says that it is adapting that story, but the similarities are there, so I can conclude that's where the idea came from. And no, I don't remember the name of the relevant story, or the issue(s), in the Marvel run.
  
  Anyways, it should have been a great story, but it just.... wasn't. It was very clumsily done. The device of flashing backward and forward to tell different pieces of the story, and then interconnecting them, is useful, but it just doesn't seem to work as well here. It's kinda confusing how they do it, and in fact it is so confusing that only right now as I write this did I figure out something that I missed before.
  
  That said, the overall plot that hearkened back to a Marvel story, combined with the really quite beautiful art, saved the tale from being a bomb. Not the best story to read, but not so bad either. I would give this comic 2/12 to 3 stars for a rating.
  
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  Star Wars: River of Chaos
  
  This tale was definitely a good one. It had some of the “swashbuckling” adventure and intrigue that the Classic Star Wars Trilogy invoked. The story is about a beautiful and talented young mechanic named Mora, the man who adopted her, and an Imperial agent with clashing loyalties. And no, despite the romantic undertones, there is no goofy “I choose the Rebellion because I love you” plot. It is the agent's (Ranulf Trommer) morality that makes him a Rebel. It's just Mora and her father who make him see the evils of the Empire.
  
  The story begins on the planet of M'haeli, where a kindly H'drachi named Ch'no finds a starving and filthy human infant girl. Instead of abandoning the child to her death as many of his fellow H'drachi urged him to do, he adopts her. As the child grows older, some of the simmering bigotries between humans and H'drachi grow worse, and this is often taken out on the adoptive father and daughter family. Both sides hate and are unwilling to accept them, as they are somehow tainted by being near each other. This situation is made worse by the fact that Ch'no is better at using the psychic abilities of the his people than anyone else among the H'drachi, so their jealousy mixes with prejudice for a really difficult situation.
  
  Then things take a turn when Mora, Ch'no, and Ranulf (who is working undercover for the Empire at the time) find themselves in with the Rebels. Suddenly they must chooses sides as former neighbors and allies turn on them. What choices they make, along with an explosive secret from Mora's past, could decide the fate of their world.
  
  This was really a good story. While the art wasn't all that great, in fact is was merely serviceable, the plot itself more than made up for this. While reading it, I was reminded of the older Marvel comics stories, the ones that really did capture the feel of the original trilogy for me. I would give River of Chaos 5 stars for a rating.
  
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  Star Wars: Splinter of the Mind's Eye
  
  This is the comic adaptation of the novel written by Alan Dean Foster during the three years between the release of A New Hope and that of The Empire Strikes Back. Foster is also the one who ghost-wrote the novelization of Hope for George Lucas.
  
  The tale is a simple one. Luke Skywalker is escorting Princess Leia Organa to the planet of Circarpous IV for a meeting with members of the planet's underworld and rebel factions. Her mission is to gain the support of such groups for the Rebel Alliance, in their bid to dissolve the Empire. Luke, Leia, and the droids end up, through a confluence of events better explained in the story, crash-landing on a nearby planet. Once there, they find themselves on the hunt for an artifact called the Kaibur Crystal, which amplifies a Force-user's abilities many times above their natural talents. Worse yet, Darth Vader, who comes hunting them now has found out about the Kaibur Crystal....
  
  Like with the first story, this one had so much possibility to be a great read, but it wasn't. They cut out entirely too much material from the novel, and thus certain story elements are not explained. The book, for all of it's faults, makes clear how some of the plot details that contradict the later (chronologically as well as released) Empire could be reconciled. Not all such details, mind you, but many of them.
  
  I won't say much for the art, because it was touch and go. Some of the panels and pages were quite well-rendered, while others just were not all that good. A disappointment that fell far short of what it could have been. I would give this a rating of 3 stars.
  
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  Star Wars: Shadow Stalker
  
  This was a different story than most you come across for Star Wars. It entirely concerned the Imperials. In it, a former Imperial turned mercenary named Jixton is sent by Darth Vader to assassinate an Imperial Governor turned Rebel traitor, and blame the killing on the Rebel Alliance. Jixton is the perfect one for the job. Think of him as a Star Wars version of Batman, and you have the general idea of how good he is.
  
  It's a really fortuitous turn of events that Vader sent Jixton to handle this case, as the truth of the matter is quite a bit different, and more complicated, than Vader (and now Jixton) thinks. Vader has been duped, and only Jixton can solve this case and take down the bad guys.
  
  This was unique in not just being entirely about the Empire, but in showing a “good” Imperial (if only unofficially at this point of the story) who doesn't join the Rebellion. Granted that the story reveals he can't do so at this time, but he probably wouldn’t have done so anyway. I prefer stories like this and Tim Zahn's, that show that there are good and bad Imperials. Add to this a really fun story and an interesting plot, and you have a winner. The artwork was nothing to write home about, but it was pretty good overall. At least it was consistent, which is something. I would give this tale 4 stars for a rating.
  
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  Star Wars: Tales from Mos Eisley
  
  This was a one-shot comic that had three stories told by those passing through the “wretched hive of scum and villainy” as Obi-Wan Kenobi called it in the original Star Wars film. The comic was divided up into short vignettes that told the unusual and fantastical (even for the Star Wars universe) stories of three individuals. This comic came across more like Star Wars meets The Twilight Zone, but somehow it WORKED.
  
  The art was just right. I say that specifically because while it was just average, it wasn't supposed to be terrific. It was supposed to convey that sense of folks surviving and triumphing against the odds and telling their stories in this harsh, grainy, sandy, nowhere spaceport. Some of the fantastical elements were what made the stories worth reading. They were really fun short stories in comic form, and quite entertaining. I admit that I might be biased towards this one, though, since I read and enjoyed it back in high school. Nostagia was a nice little added bonus, to be sure. I would give this one-shot a rating of 5 stars.
  
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  Conclusion
  
  There isn't really a lot to say here as the disparate, disconnected nature of the tales makes for no unifying story or theme. While two of the tales were not great, the others three were, and even those two “not so good” stories were worth reading for a dedicated SW fan.
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  Thomas

  These stories read like they were written in the '70s, but these are late-'90s issues. It's just bad. There's little (if any) subtlety to them, and what few women characters there are (outside of Leia) are either hapless damsels, or evil to the core. Since it comprises three different four-issue series and two stand-along stories, the whole thing feels disjointed and awkward.
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  Nicholas Katers

  Fun look at the period between Episodes 4 and 5.
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  Jaime K

  The Omnibus wasn't TERRIBLE, but it was just decent.
  
  Vader's Quest
  - The art is quite odd, like with Luke and Palpatine's faces, but the colouring is spectacular. In some plaes, it looks like Vader has eyes, which is weird.
  - Vader learned who destroyed the Death Star from some random bird-creatures and woman named Mala who's operated by a droid.
  - The story was a bit disjointed at times, but the gist is that a Rebel named Jal (who had measles!?!) betrayed Luke then turned back to the Alliance.
  
  River of Chaos
  - The art is okay; colours are great.
  - Lt. Tromme goes to M'Haeli to infiltrate Rebel sympathisers to defeat a cell (with Leia). He realizes the Rebels aren't so bad, that they're willing to reach out and help ANYONE, unlike the Empire.
  - The cool thing about M'Haeli (a name I can't get over. It's too much like 'M'Hael' from A Wheel of Time series) is that there is a time stream that can be read to predict the future.
  
  Splinter of the Mind's Eye
  - The art is decent and realistic. It was a nice change. The cover art was amazing.
  - I think it's much like the novel (which I haven't read in many years): Luke and Leia go to Circarpous where they find a Force-using old lady who wants them to find the lost Kaiburr (I forgot these came from this!) crystal. There's an Empire cell on the planet though, and Vader meets up with the duo.
  - I find it very, very weird that LUKE knows how to swim but not Leia.
  
  Shadow Stalker
  - Very good art
  -Jix works for Vader and is sent to kill Governor Torlock (and maybe his daughter). He discovers though that an Imperial informant has set the Governor up using HRDs of Torlock & his daughter. The HRDs are the ones who survive in the end.
  
  Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina
  - Three years ABY…with ok art is good colours.
  - "Light Duty" is about a random Jellyfish Cove with jellyfish women
  - "Mostly Automatic" is about a ship that loses hyperspace and the man on board is able to live 71 years. I have no clue how he was able to eat. He finds a service droid after many years and she saves him from his old age, but it was just weird.
  - "Hegg's Tale" is about a time-rip where he saves his past self from a grumph (which I've never heard of before).
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  Michael Alexander

  Here's another Star Wars Omnibus. This one contains five separate stories, all taking place within a few months of the Battle of Yavin.
  
  Vader's Quest: Chronicles Darth Vader uncovering the identity of Luke Skywalker. During the Battle of Yavin, Vader had no idea of the identity of the rebel pilot who destroyed the Death Star. It's quite a shock for him when he hears the name Skywalker. The story is told well enough, but some of the characters are a bit annoying.
  
  River of Chaos: Story of an Imperial who goes undercover with the alliance. Wasn't a huge fan of this one, kind of predictable plot, awkward dialogue, and annoying characters.
  
  Splinter of the Mind's Eye: Probably the most well known story in here. Splinter was originally a novel written by Alan Dean Foster in 1978. It was one of the first pieces of expanded lore in the Star Wars Universe and tells of the Kaiburr Crystal, a gemstone that can amplify force powers. Luke and Vader are after the crystal and come into conflict over it. The art in this version is nice, but the story maybe doesn't hold up as well after 25+ years. There's one particular scene were Luke slaps Leia in order to shut her up. Weird.
  
  Shadow Stalker: I had never read this before, so I found this be the highlight of the collection. It features Jix, a highly skilled agent who runs secret missions for Vader. He's a cool character with an interesting back story. Odd I don't remember him appearing in anything else.
  
  Tales from Mos Eisley: Three short stories. All are being told by one character to another, so none of them actually take place in Mos Eisley. The characters just happen to be there while relaying the story. None of them really stand out.
  
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  Melissa Snow

  This collection includes 3 longer stories plus a few short ones. The highlight for me was definitely "River of Chaos," with script by Louise Simonson, pencils by June Brigman, inks by Roy Richardson, colors by David Nestelle and letters by Steve Dutro. The colors were gorgeous and the story was interesting, deftly bringing together several new characters and plotlines in a satisfying way. I wasn't sure about finishing the omnibus, which I started sort of in the middle with "Splinter of the Mind's Eye," which is what I borrowed the book for. The shorter pieces following it were OK or disappointing, but the two longer stories that preceded it rescued the book from being a disappointment overall.
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  Chris

  It is fascinating to re-experience early Star Wars stories that don't have to contend with plot elements forced into canon by the Prequel Trilogy. Mostly these hold hope, but a few have some laughable moments because of how they thought the history played out, but didn't. Also, it was nice to refresh my memories of Splinter of the Mind's Eye even in a graphic novel format as opposed to Alan Dean Foster paperback original. The couple of Mos Eisley shorts were fun in a Weird Science/EC Comics kind of way as well. All in all, a fun read that has me itching to dive into the old Marvel Comics series.
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  Hillingdon Libraries

  
  Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries
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  Shawn

  Generally good stories (although the first one had some especially large holes). Pretty good art. Very worth reading, especially River of Chaos. I do wonder if these stories are still considered canon now that Disney has taken over the Star Wars universe.
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  J.B. Mathias

  This is a great place to start if you are just getting into the omnibus collection. It's not the earliest chronologically but it includes the comic version of the earliest entry into the expanded universe Splinter Of The Minds Eye. A good mix of early stories from the rebellion era of Star Wars.
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  C

  3.5 stars if .5's were possible. Good stories. Most of the art was decent as well.
  
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  Kayla

  I really liked this book. I especially liked that it had the comic version of the second Star Wars book ever written, Splinter of the Mind's Eye (1978)
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  Michael Bloom

  not bad for non-cannon
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  Christopher

  Although most of the time it is a bit juvenile, often the story telling captures the imagination to satisfy. There is enough mystery, awe, and scope to want to read more.
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  Simon

  Terrible, just, terrible.
  
  The Luke/Leia on the run story. God. Unintentional hilarity.