Star Wars Adventures Annual 2018

Star Wars Adventures Annual 2018

     I'm absolutely loving this series!!! I've read the first and second trade paperbacks and they are both outstanding! The review on the second TPB is forthcoming. This series takes obscure characters from comic book series and novel series and puts them all in one place! I love how connected it makes the Star Wars universe...truly a gargantuan effort by the Lucasfilm Story Group. Much applauding from this fan.

     Both of these stories take place before the Star Wars long-run comic series.

"Mind Your Manners" written by John Jackson Miller, illustrated by Jon Sommariva and Matt Herms

     Sarka is a very green planet where the Sarkans live underground and mine gems. And apparently these gems are valuable for use in laser cannons! The Sarkans are obsessed with ritual and protocol...which is unfortunate because Leia twists her ankle when Luke crash lands in a Sarkan cave. Man are their protocols obscure and ridiculous! And poor Luke gets roped into playing diplomat while Leia is out of the game. Turns out, Lord Rooz, the Sarkan Queen's advisor, is up to no good! With all the crazy specific protocols Luke has to follow and with Rooz on the offensive, it's not long before all hell breaks loose. 

     Interesting continuity tidbit. It appears that Garindan, the Imperial spy from Mos Eisley in A New Hope is in this issue, but if you've read "The Secrets of Long Snoot" in From A Certain Point of View, you know that Garindan actually hated the Empire and was just trying to get back home to his family. I wonder if it's just another Kubaz spy...could be...Garindan did say his homeworld was led to believe the Empire was all great, loving, and mighty. Hmmm...

     This was a super fun story and the rituals of the Sarkans made it a hoot! While we don't get any cool canon connections in this one, it was still an enjoyable read.

"The Lost Eggs of Livorno" written by Cavan Scott, illustrated by Mauricet and Chris Fenoglio

     So one of the reasons people were excited about the new canon is that it weeded out the weirder and more non-Star Wars-ey characters...including Jaxxon the tall green sentient bunny rabbit...well guess what??? He's canon again! Definitely an interesting choice by the Lucasfilm Story Group. He even calls himself a rabbit and Han calls him a cottontail...I'm not a fan of when authors use Earth names to describe Star Wars species...but I guess I'll live.

     This tale features Jaxxon captaining his ship The Rabbit's Foot with a very forgetful droid named ML-O8 or Mel for short and a human first mate named Amaiza Foxtrain who seems to be infatuated with Han Solo.

     We get two new planets: Aduba-3 and Livorno from which a sentient bird-like species hail. 

     Jaxxon's mission is to protect the last remaining eggs of the people of Livorno from the Empire and get them safely to Leia. While Jaxxon doesn't want to get involved with the Rebellion, Amaiza keeps pulling "the Han card," saying she'll contact and join up with him if Jaxxon doesn't get his act together. Well, the tables completely turn...twice!...definitely wasn't expecting how this story ended up. It was absolutely a good read--Jaxxon and all.

     As always, Star Wars Adventures has managed to do a bang up job with producing some great stories that filter in little known characters. This one didn't have near as many canon connections as some of the other issues, but it was still a delightful read and worthy of being canon.