This week, Marvel continues its onslaught of Star Wars comics with the most important new title yet: Star Wars: Shattered Empire. In this book, writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto look at the events directly after Return of the Jedi, as the rebels celebrate their destruction of the second Death Star and the march towards the complete disintegration of the Empire begins.
What Rucka and Checchetto do brilliantly here is weave classic beats from the Original Trilogy with the unexplored aftermath of the movies. What do the Rebels do now that they've won? Will the transition of power be a peaceful one? And what about the Empire? How can an organization that powerful go down without a fight?
In the first issue of the series, these questions are posed, not answered. But Rucka's script is incredibly strong, capturing the voices of these classic characters, while weaving in some political dilemmas that the movies never really dove into. And then there is the art by Checchetto, who captures all of the classic Star Wars visuals perfectly (the Battle of Endor, in particular, is just pure glee).
However, this book isn't about Luke, Chewie, Lando or Leia; it's about an intriguing female pilot who was a hero during the Battle of Endor: Lieutenant Shara Bey.
Along with her husband, Sergeant Dameron, Bey is a newcomer to the Star Wars universe, but her story might be an important clue for one of the main characters of The Force Awakens, Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaac.
As with everything in Disney's new connected Star Wars universe, nothing here is left to chance, so Dameron isn't just some common name thrown about needlessly. Shara and Sergeant Dameron are very likely Poe's parents, who we now know were both integral to the Rebels' defeat of the Empire. With so much of The Force Awakens wrapped in secrecy, any illumination like this about a main character is welcome news.
While it likely won't play a huge part in the movie, knowing the backstory for the main characters should add a bit of gravity to them once we finally see them on the screen.
Star Wars: Shattered Empire #1 is out right now.
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