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Each week Star Wars Spotlight combs through the digital archives of Marvel Unlimited to showcase one classic story from that distant galaxy filled with Jedi, Sith, princesses, scoundrels and droids.
John Ostrander and Jan Duursema took the first seven issues of STAR WARS: LEGACY to set up a whole new era of Skywalkers. Set over 126 after “Return of the Jedi,” this series saw the Sith taking over the rest of the Empire, Emperor Roan Fel escaping to Bastion, and the near destruction of the Jedi, including the temple on Ossus. Seven years later, Cade Skywalker, who saw his father killed by Sith, decided to stop playing pirate, saved Fel’s daughter, reunited with some of his fellow Jedi and left his former companions Jariah Syn and Deliah Blue behind.
Instead of diving into another multi-issue story, STAR WARS: LEGACY #8–13 split focus between four different tales. The first, by Ostrander and Adam Dekraker, jumped back to the time of the first issue and shows how Moff Nyna Calixte schemed her way into the good graces of both the Sith and Emperor Fel. Though not fully trusted by either side, she still manages to tip Fel to Krayt’s intentions of killing him, allowing the leader to flee to Bastion. At the same time, she convinces the Sith that they need her to unite the Moffs to keep them on their side.
In issue #9, Ostrander and Colin Wilson started a two-parter called “Trust Issues” that partially took place on The Wheel. There, Cade ditched his Jedi compatriots and Imperial Knights Antares Draco and Ganner Krieg tried and failed to keep peace between Imperials and Galactic Alliance officials. More importantly though, a Sith agent called Jor Torlin and Morrigan Corde, a freelancer working for Calixte, joined up to find Cade. They succeeded in sabotaging the meeting between the GA and Empire, but not so much when it came to finding Cade, but mostly because one of them wiped the other out before revealing a hidden relationship to the Skywalkers!
In issues #11 and #12 Ostrander and Duursema brought the focus back around to Cade who returned to Ossus. Though he wanted to be alone with his Death Sticks, he instead found himself surrounded by visions of Mara Jade and Darth Vader as well as the very real presence of Jedi K’Ruhk, Sazen, and Shado. There he decided to finish his Jedi training. In the process he and Shado fell into a hidden part of the temple that housed artifacts along with Yuuzhan Vong who had worked with Cade’s dad to build helpful terraforming machines to make up for the horrors their kind brought to the rest of the galaxy.
After a tussle with Sazen where Cade’s former master unveiled more truths than he may have been ready for, the youth meditated and communed with Luke Skywalker. The Force ghost informed his descendant that he needed to right a wrong from the first arc when he sold Jedi Hosk Trey’lis out to the Sith. At the end of the issue, armed with his father’s lightsaber and the long-lasting droid R2-D2, he set out to do exactly that.
Finally, in issue #13, Ostrander, Duursema, and Wilson joined forces to prove why Emperor Fel stood as the head of the Empire. Lady Maladi sent Darth Kruhl on a secret mission to kill Fel that ended rather poorly for the Sith villain. Still, Maladi considered the mission a success as it potentially lulled the leader into a false sense of security.
From the Jedi Temple Archives
Up to this point, the Yuuzhan Vong haven’t appeared much here in Star Wars Spotlight. First showing up about 25 years after the Battle of Yavin as seen in “Return of the Jedi,” the race from beyond the galaxy made their presence known. The ensuing war lasted for five years and cost many lives including that of everyone’s favorite Wookiee as chronicled in STAR WARS: CHEWBACCA. Many decades after that, they were used by the Sith in a gambit to take over the Empire, leading to the events seen in LEGACY.
Next time, see the Yuuzhan Vong attack in STAR WARS: INVASION by Tom Taylor and Colin Wilson.
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