Star Wars: Shattered Empire - Graphic Novel by Greg Rucka

With all the attention given to the Star Wars universe with the release of Episode VII it is no surprise the comic publishers are pumping as many titles as can be sold.

Shattered Empire tries more to expand the stories of the aftermath of Return of the Jedi than to fill in the gaps of the main characters from the first trilogy of movies.

We generally follow Lieutenant Shara Bey and how she must deal with the inevitable mopping up of resistance from the Empire and to try to re-unite with her husband and to stand down from war.

I liked the story very much.  It added a touch of reality and complexity that the movies simply could not address, without being six hours long.

Since this story was a mini series, only running four issues, Marvel Comics added the first issue of the new Princess Leia series and the first issue of the classic 1977 adaptation of A New Hope.

This served to up the page count to an acceptable level given the $18.99 cover price and to whet the appetite for more buying of the books.  On it's own the added stories only made the reading disjointed and leaving me a bit puzzled.  I am not sure it worked.

I may have been more satisfied had there been some extras like sketch art and an interview with the author about the series.  I found the added stories took away from what was otherwise and excellent exploration of the Star Wars universe and the complexities of winding a war down.