Star Wars Expanded Universe Recommendations

[packerbacker180]

Ok, The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars finale renew my interest in Star Wars that was somewhat dulled by the sequel trilogy. Prior to that, I'd gone well over decade between the 1990's and 2000's of not paying much attention to Star Wars. So I didn't really get into the Expanded Universe stuff until recently. Nor did I play any of the games from that time. Now, I'm not going to be reading all the novels, but I'm curious if anyone has any good comic recommendations. I already read, and enjoyed, the Star Wars Legacy series, and I was following some of the new Marvel stuff. I also checked out Darkhorse Thrawn Trilogy and the Yuuzhan Vong stuff, which seemed to just end abruptly if I'm not mistaken. But when I look at lists online, especially for pre-Original Trilogy era, like KOTR and Clone Wars, there's a ton out there, so just curious if anyone has read this stuff and can point to some of the better stuff? It's a bit overwhelming to try to make sense of what's out there.

I can only imagine this is what future generations might feel like with modern comics. When I was a kid, you read Captain America, it was Cap #311, so you had a good idea of what was behind to look for with Cap, 300+ issues, maybe some Avengers, but now, books are on their what, 8th series, 9th series? But I digress...

So, Star Wars?

[packerbacker180]

I found these at a used bookstore for $10 total. I used to love things like The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe when I was a kid so I was excited there was something similar for Darkhorse Star Wars since much of that isn't considered canon anymore and included in newer Disney SW stuff.




I'm on the third audio book of the Darth Bane Trilogy. It's kind of fun exploring all this stuff. It's like being a kid again and learning all this new information. With Marvel and DC, I've been reading that stuff since the early 80s and I just feel burned out on a lot of it. There's sooooooo many movies, and quite honestly, the constant reboots and relaunches of comic titles have sucked the interest out of me toward them. But with Star Wars, I saw all the movies, I'm watching the cartoons, but there's this giant gap in my knowledge from all the books, video games, and comics that came out between Return of the Jedi until now, so there's so many new eras and stories to explore, it's actually kind of invigorating.

I think I might check out the Darth Plagueis novel next, and maybe after that see what stuff I kind find on the KOTOR era.

[BrandonDaCollector]

Gosh Packer, this is an interesting topic.

Amazing, I just took a lot of time taking pics of ALL of My SW books because I have a huge collection of them and in time I wanted to have a special topic of My various SWs collections! I will showcase all of that and much in the near future.

I don't have those cool books you just bought but I do believe I have seen them before.

OK here is My side. I was an absolute huge SW fan in the 80s - 2000s. I LOVED the SW-EU, it was the best of times, IMO way better than today's SW stuff At first when the Disney takeover happen I was like ok, so what. Then when they touched the EU and scrapped so much of it and made them legends I get mad constantly, I complain about it a lot and everything always has to change

OK, since you missed a lot during that gap, hopefully I can help you out a bit Packer I miss the SW-EU of the 90s so much

OK, You already said some great EU stuff like Legacy and Thrawn, KEEP all what you just said, its all great!

OK, here is a small list right off the bat that I can think of for the moment. I took these pictures when I said earlier so consider this as a spoiling preview I will have very brief commentary from Me as well

SW: Rebel Assault II: IMO, this PC agme was the first true EU game. It was tremendous for it's time in the early 90s. The way Vader was presented was so cool.



SW: Shadows of the Empire: Ah wow, arguably the greatest EU story EVER and My favorite. It came out in 95/96 and was based on a novel that took place between TESB & ROTJ that spawned great action figures (I will showcase them in the future down the road), video games for the PC & N64 and comics. My favorite aspect of it was THE MUSIC




YES THE MUSIC! Great movie composer Joel McNeely was hired to write a musical score for this new tale that would make Star Wars return to full tenor! If you are unfamiliar with this, he put in many known SW themes plus HIS OWN stuff. The Battle of Gall and Beggar's Canyon Chase are tremendous but The Destruction of Xizor’s Palace is extremely epic and IMO one of the greatest cues ever for SW and because of Disney this has become legends and hardly ever talked about which IMO is so darn pathetic, it makes My sick



SW Dark Forces I & II: These were the golden ones for the EU. These were PC games and never released for any consoles sadly. These take place a bit after ROTJ. The first one is great but the sequel is live action + gameplay and was the first time before the prequels era that there was actually a live action SW! It was so awesome!





SW: Rogue Squadron: This was an awesome N64 game that really expanded ships and views of flying them. It takes places in various times during the OT.



SW: the Force Unleased 1 & 2: For Xbox 360 in the mid 2000s. These were so epic and two of the last EU stories because of the Disney takeover. It takes place BBY. Starkiller is the main character and there is many rad surprises and DLC to have. These so great and has so much great stories to them. These has of course been placed in legends. NOTE the pic is official but I did edit it somewhat.



There is more but that'll be for a later time. I hope that helps you Packer and since I posted pics of My own stuff, let Me know what you think or if you already knew about them

[packerbacker180]

Cool! I remember picking up the Darkhorse comic for Shadow of the Empire but it didn't really grab me, and having not paid attention much to Star Wars since the ROTJ, I found it hard to understand. But I wasn't as familiar with characters and names as I am now. Back then I knew all the big characters and such, but when you got into supporting characters with minor roles in the films, they just didnn't click with me. I think that was probably the last and only SW comic I bought until Marvel got the license back, so there's alot of territory for me to mine.

Thanks for running down some of the video games, again, I never really played many SW games. I think I went from The Empire Strikes Back on Atari, to not really playing another SW game until the first Battlefront for Playstion 2! I just never gravitated towards Star Wars much, and The Phantom Menace certainly didn't help.


Look at those "graphics"!

[BrandonDaCollector]

Your welcome Packer I see about the stuff you said. I beg the differ though, I was the opposite about that, I'm always for the minor and obscure characters & stuff especially in SW. So many franchises focuses on the main things while I want more and different stuff. That was one of the things I loved about the EU because it always wasn't about Luke & Leia, Solo or even Vader. I loved reading the origins of the Sith and/or what happens in between the OT and so forth but since the Disney takeover had to happen most of it is Legends but not in My book

That is a great pic there, that is when games were games My friend I never played that one as I never had an Atari system but always wanted a Jaguar but that's another conversation for another time.

Anyway, since speaking of classic and old games, here is arguably the most classic SW game of all-time which is Star Wars: The Arcade Game! These pics I took are of My version is for the Sega Genesis 32X (My fave game system of all-time).



I thought is was wonderful port. Even though it's heavily movie based, you could enter it with the EU as one of the first major entries within it Gosh, I was so young but I remember when My Grandparents & Mom took Me to ShowBiz Pizza Place (later to be Chuck E. Cheese), I played the heck out of the "actual & original" SW Arcade game cabinet! That was My first liking to SW outside of the films and the rest is history!

So, if you want, you can YT all of what I have showed you if you haven't seen it already. One thing I would do is check out that awesome musical score for SOTE if you don't know it. Its so wonderful and epic to listen to especially that choir on the last track, its one of greatest ever. While I'm there on that subject, are you a big movie music fan and know the film composers? I have have been since I was little and its one of My passions. I could start a topic about that one day if you like which would be really fun but just let Me know.

OK, there is more EU that I could go on, I will continue this with you sometime soon, that's all for now