Force Matters: ‘Star Wars’ #10 And The End Of ‘Star Wars’ Comics For Now
by Austin Gorton
The Battle of Nagi, as well as the current era of Star Wars comics, concludes in this week’s Force Matters!
Star Wars #10
By Alex Segura & Luke Ross
Reyna Oskure is defeated as the Nagai reclaim their homeworld with the help of the New Republic.
- Luke Ross, fresh off his run on Legacy of Vader, provides the art for this final issue.
- This issue reveals that the two larger, green-ish, vaguely pirate-y beings hanging out with Oskure’s loyalist Nagai are Tof. Back in the old Marvel Comics canon, the Tof were the traditional enemies of the Nagai (and both hailed from outside the galaxy). They were typically drawn in bright colors (often green), were larger than most species, and had dress and ship designs that made them look like extras from a Gilbert & Sullivan opera (their space ships were basically space Man O’ Wars). Had he more time on the series, Segura planned to expand the role of the Tof in the series (much in the same way as the original series introduced the Nagai and followed them up with the Tof.
- Han’s remark about him and Leia being apart for two is perhaps a wink at the fact that their reunion in this issue represents the only time the pair has been on-page together in this entire series.
- With this issue, the current era of Star Wars comics comes to a close, as all the regular series launched last year have concluded. Next month, we get the start of a Benjamin Percy-penned Darth Maul miniseries (presumably meant to piggyback off the Disney+ animated show) and a new Galaxy’s Edge miniseries meant to dramatize the theme park’s conversion to being less Sequel Trilogy-focused. Dark Horse is continuing to publish its All Ages Star Wars books, with another High Republic on the horizon. And in May, Marvel will begin celebrating the 10th anniversary of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with a series of one-shots. But in terms of a major new publishing initiative — to say nothing of a new flagship series called “Star Wars“, as of this writing, nothing has been announced, making this the quietest era for Star Wars comics since Marvel relaunched the comics in 2015.
Not surprisingly, this is more “conclude an arc” than “conclude a series,” and Segura deserves credit for not scrambling at the last minute to cram all his ideas for future stories into the end of this arc. It’s a shame he didn’t get more room to work — the fact that Leia spends most of this series entirely isolated from everyone else is unfortunate. As the end of an arc, this is a perfectly fine conclusion. As the end of the series — of a publishing line, effectively — less so, but that’s also not what it is was ever meant to be.
Tales from the Toybox
Check out Tony Thornley’s review of the new Black series Anakin Skywalker here.
Question of the Week
Now that the current publishing has wrapped, which of the various series/miniseries launched since Star Wars (vol. 3) #1 was your favorite?
