Graphic Novel Review: Star Wars: Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka, Marco Checchetto, Phil Noto

Star Wars: Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka, Marco Checchetto, Phil Noto

Genre: Space Opera, Science Fiction

Series: Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Publisher: Marvel Comics (November 2015)

Author Info: gregrucka.com

Artist Info: philnoto.tumblr.com

Artist Info: marvel.com/comics/creators/11748/marco_checchetto

Wendy’s Rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you go by what many fictional stories tell us, when the bad guy is defeated, you mourn your dead and then you throw a party. That’s not how reality works. Just ask the soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and so many other places where the war never ends, even when it’s over.

Of course, we don’t want our entertainment reflecting that reality. We don’t want to sit through Frodo moping around in the burning Shire, or Ender raging against that genocide he was tricked into causing. So what if this is the culmination of the heroes journey according to Joseph Campbell. We don’t want to see the sad parts.

Return of the Jedi ended with a party at Ewokville and we were all invited. Yub nub, bitches!

War’s over. Everybody go home.

But in Shattered Empire, Rucka reminds us of the harsh truth: the war isn’t over till the fat ewok sings (which we see hasn’t really happened 30 years later in TFA). And he also reminds us that the faces at the front aren’t the only heroes.

Shattered Empire drops us right outside the Emperor’s door as Han’s team struggles to collapse the shields around the Death Star and the pilots desperately try to protect the rebel ships from the trap they’ve flown into. On the ground, we meet Kes Dameron, but the focus of the series is above, on pilot Shara Bey.

Each issue features a mission starring one of the Star Wars faces we know, and Bey is swept along or volunteers. She is the quintessential soldier who does her job and does it well, and wants to fight the good fight, but she also struggles with her desire to leave it all behind and just go farming with her husband, Kes, and their young son, Poe, and the subsequent guilt that brings.

The stories themselves are a bit sparse, but I’m happy to fill in the blanks of Poe Dameron’s backstory, especially as it complements his story in Star Wars: Before the Awakening. I read the latter first and was particularly moved by Poe’s story because of how painfully bittersweet it is. We know Poe as the fun, passionate uber pilot, but these stories give him a bit more depth and sadness through his parents’ fears that everything they fought and people died for was for nothing. The series started with A New Hope, but, despite the ewok party, hope might not be enough. With all the flash and fanfare of TFA in the theatre, scratch the surface and you find a war that hasn’t ended, even after 30 years. Is there still hope? Is there still a point to hoping? Of course there is. The good guys always win, right?

The collected edition also includes Princess Leia #1, where Leia finds herself without a home or a role in the rebellion and the few of her people that remain don’t think too highly of her ice queen persona. Why doesn’t she grieve, they wonder? As if everyone must grieve in the same way. Leia imposes herself on an Alderaanian pilot named Evaan with whom she wants to be friends, though the woman keeps herself at a carefully caustic subservient distance.

When I was younger, it never dawned on me that Leia might be a little messed up after watching her entire planet destroyed. She got over it and went on to be awesome, right? Now, I’m quite happy that books explore her PTSD or apparent lack thereof, such as Martha Wells’ Razor’s Edge.

And finally, there’s the 1977 original Marvel retelling of Star Wars: A New Hope where Luke Skywalker looks a lot like He-Man and stormtroopers are a lot more acrobatic.