By: Corinna Bechko & Gabriel Hardman (script), Hardman (art), Rachelle Rosenberg (colors), Michael Heisler (letters)
The Story: 125 years after Return of the Jedi, the galaxy is still in turmoil.
Review: I didn’t enjoy this as nearly much as I’d hoped. The primary problem with the issue is that the story is a little too busy and that leads to confusion.
The basic set-up is that Legacy takes place ~125 years after Return of the Jedi. The galaxy is currently recovering from being ruled by the Sith and the new government (consisting of leftovers from the Alliance, Empire and Jedi) is just trying to get a functioning government back in place to keep the galaxy from fragmenting. Of course, evil lurks in dark places and promises to make their job more difficult. And, as expected, there are some young, plucky, budding heroes who will be asked to step-up once they become embroiled in galactic events.
The biggest problem facing this issue is that there is so much status quo to establish. There’s really no way to avoid this problem, so it’s hard to blame the writers, but it still doesn’t make for the most exciting first issue. Who are all these people? What are their names? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? While those sorts of questions do need to be answered, reading about the blocking-and-tackling doesn’t make for the most intense reading experience. Knowing the creative team, the story will pick up, but this wasn’t a very stimulating beginning.
As far as being a new jumping on point, the issue really succeeds. If you read the previous Legacy series, you will notice a few familiar characters and many of the events of that series are referenced, but knowledge of that series isn’t essential. This issue is very “new reader friendly”.
Where this issue most succeeds is with the visuals. Gabriel Hardman is truly one of the best sequential artists that is working in comics today. I haven’t seen any of Hardman’s work for the last year or so because he was drawing titles that I wasn’t too interested in, but I think he’s getting better and better. What really strikes me about Hardman’s work (after my self-imposed absence) is his brushwork. In an era when more and more artists are inking their work digitally, it’s really nice to see an artist who is doing his linework and background with a brush. It just looks so much more organic than the digitally inked stuff. He also has a couple of panels that just come up aces, such as when we get to glimpse the secret villain. Wow, that guy looks cool! I want to know a lot more about HIM.
Kudos also need to go to Rachelle Rosenberg. I remember not enjoying her coloring all that much on The Red Wing (by Jonathan Hickman), but she is now a real beast with the colors (and has been consistently strong for the last couple years). She has a couple of panels in this issue where she has to show how the glow of a lightsaber reflects off other nearby objects and these panels are great. Lots of colorists make lightsabers look like red sticks, but Rosenberg makes is so that you can almost FEEL the heat and energy radiating from the blade.
Conclusion: Kinda a dull first issue from a story standpoint, but with this creative team’s track record, I think it’s safe to stick with the title, especially because it looks so nice.
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell
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