Why The Expanded Universe was so Important for Star Wars

 Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Wednesday, which means it's time to talk Star Wars. Today I'm gonna be talking about why the expanded universe of Star Wars novels, comics, and video games was so important to the franchise. Let's get into it.

When Star Wars first came out in 1977, novels and comics were commissioned by George Lucas as tie-in material to the movie. While they could take place before or after the movie and expand upon things only hinted at in the movie, in the case of the novelization, these books and comics couldn't contradict anything shown in the movie, nor could they affect plotpoints in upcoming movies. They were simply there to tide people over until the next movie came out.

However, by the time Heir to the Empire was published in 1991, there was no indication that George Lucas would make anymore Star Wars movies, letalone sequels to Return of the Jedi. In fact, if he did make more Star Wars films, they'd be prequels, dealing with how Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side of the Force and became Darth Vader. So while authors couldn't write Star Wars novels dealing with the Clone Wars, the fall of the Jedi Knights, or the rise of the Galactic Empire, they could write novels that acted as sequels. The only exception to this was A.C. Crispin's Han Solo Trilogy (The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn) as George likely wouldn't include a young Han Solo in his prequel trilogy.

The comics were a whole different story. While they also couldn't cover the Clone Wars, the fall of the Jedi, or the rise of the Empire, they also weren't limited to the time period set after Return of the Jedi. In fact, Tom Veitch and Kevin J. Anderson did an entire comic book series called Tales of the Jedi which took place thousands of years before the events of A New Hope, which is how they were allowed to tell a "prequel" story.

The early days of the Expanded Universe were rough. Despite the intention that it was to be one big Star Wars universe, Timothy Zahn ignored what Dark Horse was doing with Dark Empire and Tom Veitch ignored Zahn's novels. That's why the opening crawl in Dark Empire #1, on page 1, doesn't mention Thrawn at all, even though the story is set in 6 ABY, only a few months after the New Republic defeated Thrawn in the Battle of Bilbringi. Basically a lot of inter-company politics was at play here, which I won't get into in this blog post. 

Due to the success of both Heir to the Empire and Dark Empire, the Star Wars Expanded Universe truly became expanded as more novels and comics were published. Unlike Star Trek, which was a television series first, Star Wars is a movie franchise first, so, books and comics were the only way you could get new Star Wars stories inbetween movie releases. Especially in the late '70s and early '80s, since there were no commercial home video releases of the movies yet. In the '90s though the novels and comics were the only way we could get new adventures of the classic trilogy characters like Han, Leia, and Luke since it seemed highly unlikely that George would be making the Sequel Trilogy.

Movies are inherently meant to be self-contained stories. Oh sure, they can have sequels and prequels, but the movies themselves don't have a lot of time to explore the backstories of every single character whether they're a main character or not. And while television is better suited for that kind of long form storytelling, novels and comics were the best way to tell many of these stories since all a writer had to do was write the story, and in the case of comic books, the artist had to draw everything the writer wanted to see. They didn't have to think about how much it would cost to portray it on screen.

With Star Wars having TV shows these days, the Expanded Universe is less prevalent than it was thirty years ago, but that doesn't make it any less important. Particularly to those of us who love the novels and comics. And for me in particular, the novels are still very important, even if I don't read every single one that comes out. It gives us a look into the larger Star Wars Universe that the movies and TV shows can't necessarily give us. Especially when it would be cost prohibitive to make a show or movie about certain parts. Though, obviously, Andor proved that a show can be made out of any aspect of the Star Wars Universe. Even still there will always be Star Wars stories that need to be told as a novel or a comic book.

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. Join Katie, Nat, and I tomorrow night at 9 PM (Eastern Standard Time) on the VHS Club Podcast for our discussion on Batman Forever. Then join me on Friday for my review of this week's episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds over on The Star Trek Journal. May the Force be with you!

The Power of the Force 1995-2000 Toyline...30 Years Later

 Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Friday, which means it's time for a little trip to the Star Wars Universe to talk about toys. Specifically the 1995 Power of the Force toyline that ended in 2000. So let's get into it.

Being a kid of the '90s I had a lot of action figures, including a bunch of the classic Kenner Star Wars figures that one of my nurses at the hospital passed down to me after her son didn't want them anymore. However, there hadn't been brand new Star Wars toys on shelves since 1985, when the original Power of the Force line ended. But, with the surge in popularity that Star Wars gained between the announcement of the Prequel Trilogy being produced, the novels that were selling extremely well, the Special Editions coming out in 1997, and the re-release of the trilogy on home video in 1995, which I talked about last week, Hasbro, using the Kenner name, began producing a brand new line of Star Wars toys under the same label as what Kenner had used in 1985, The Power of the Force.

These figures, a few of which I own today, were musclebound figures, which was typical for toys marketed for boys at the time (just look at the original Ranger figures from Bandai's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers toyline). Even the new Leia figure looked like she was on steroids or a really heavy workout regime. While this was toned down as the late '90s went along, the look of these original figures is what people came to associate with the The Power of the Force name. 

As I said earlier, as a kid in the '90s, I had a lot of action figures, including the classic Star Wars figures from Kenner. However, I was still excited to get new Star Wars figures, especially after I saw the movies in late 1995/early 1996. And I did. Let's take a look at the ones I got when I was a kid, as well as the one I got a few years ago.

The coolest toy I got from the Power of the Force line was the Millennium Falcon. It was an update of the original Falcon toy that Kenner released in 1978-1979, so not only could it hold the new figures coming out, but it could also hold my original figures from the late '70s and early '80s. Which is probably why my parents and grandparents ever looked for the original Falcon toy for me at garage sales and flea markets because we had the new one and whenever my siblings and I played with the Star Wars toys, the Falcon and the classic AT-AT Walker always came out as well.

To go along with the Millennium Falcon, we got the Han Solo figure as well. I don't remember if we got the Han Solo figure at the same time as we got the Millennium Falcon, or if we got him after we got the ship. I just remember having both. I kept the Han Solo figure with his DL-44 Blaster Pistol. 

A little bit later on, we got the Electronic FX R2-D2 figure that came with a stand in which, using magnets in its 'feet', you could make Artoo move around on, as if it was the scene from A New Hope. Jawas weren't included though. Also, when you pressed spot where the two vents are in the center of Artoo's torso, he makes the Artoo warbling sounds and his center 'eye' lit up. I actually still have this figure in my collection.

The last Power of the Force figure I got when I was a kid was the Greedo that came with the Commtech chip. Since we didn't have the Commtech Chip Reader (which was designed to look like a Commlink from The Phantom Menace) we couldn't stand Greedo on it and hear it say whatever line from A New Hope that was programmed into the chip. Still though, it was interesting to have Greedo.

A few years ago, I picked up the original Power of the Force Darth Vader figure from 1995 at my local comic book store. I was looking for this figure specifically to go with my Power of the Jedi Emperor's Wrath Vader figure that I got at Ottawa Comiccon back in 2017. I gave my Millennium Falcon to my friend, Jonathan, back in 2015 because my parents and I were getting ready to move and I didn't think I'd have enough space for it in whatever house we were going to be moving to. And I was right because I don't have enough room for it. As for the figures, the only one I don't have anymore is Greedo. I got rid of it in either 2015 or 2016 before we moved.

My siblings and I played with my Star Wars toys a lot. Not as much as my Star Trek toys, but we still played with them a lot. Especially when the Special Editions were coming out and Star Wars was at the height of its popularity in the '90s. At that point in time there wasn't a lot of Star Trek stuff that I didn't already have and the toys had become scarce after the Star Trek Generations toyline had come out in 1994. Luckily Star Wars was there to pick up the slack a little bit, along with Gargoyles, Batman, and Power Rangers. I also remember seeing the commercials for all of the Power of the Force toys and of course, Galoob's Micro Machines Star Wars toys as well. 

That my friends, is it for this week. I haven't quite decided what I'm doing next week. The two episode season premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds drops on Thursday and I'll be watching both episodes on Friday evening, so you'll get a post on The Star Trek Journal on Monday, some sort of post on Josh's Geek Cave on Wednesday, a post here at The Star Wars Journal on Friday, and then my review of Strange New Worlds season 3 episodes 1 and 2 on Saturday over at The Star Trek Journal. That's the plan. Until then have a great weekend and may the Force be with you! 

Legends Novels That Don't Have the Legends Banner on Them

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well for a Friday. So today I'm going to be talking about some Legends novels that haven't been published with the Legends banner across the top. This is going to be in their original publication order. Let's get into it.

Originally published on February 2nd, 1995, Ambush at Corellia was the first book in the Corellian Trilogy, written by Roger MacBride Allen. While the second and third books in the trilogy, Assault at Selonia and Showdown at Centerpoint, both got reprints in the mid 2010s that included the Legends banner across the top of the front cover and the spine, for whatever reason, Ambush at Corellia didn't. There's not really an answer as to why all the novels I'm talking about today haven't gotten a Legends banner edition. They just didn't. I also don't really know how well the Corellian Trilogy is regarded by Star Wars fans in general, but, unlike with the Essential Legends Collection, the fan reaction to the books didn't seem to play a factor into what books were published with the banner and which ones weren't. As I'll mention again a little bit later. I also remember enjoying this book when I first read it sometime in the 2000s, though obviously not enough to get the rest of the trilogy, and not enough to keep this book in the collection in 2015 and 2016.

Originally published on May 1st, 1995 in hardcover, and then published in June 1996 in paperback, Children of the Jedi was written by Barbara Hambly as part of the unofficial Callista Trilogy, named after a Jedi character that appears in the book. Again, there's no actual reason as to why this book didn't get a Legends banner reprint. Especially because its follow up novels, Darksaber (by Kevin J. Anderson) and Planet of Twilight (also by Barbara Hambly) each got one. I honestly don't really know why Children of the Jedi didn't get a Legends banner reprint. I know it isn't as well regarded as other Star Wars novels are, but it's not hated like The Crystal Star is. In fact, even if it was, it still would've gotten a Legends banner reprint because The Crystal Star did, and that book is probably the most hated novel to come out of the Bantam era. I also don't remember if I've read Children of the Jedi or not. I know I owned the original hardcover sometime in the late 2000s and early 2010s, but I don't remember if I read it then, or if Garrett lent the paperback edition to me when we were in the same grade 5/grade 6 split class in 1998 and I read it then

Tales from Jabba's Palace is a weird one to me for a book to not get a Legends banner edition. The reason being that the rest of the Tales anthology books all got one, including Tales from the Empire (1997), and Tales from the New Republic (1999). Tales from Jabba's Palace is another book that I don't remember if I've read or not. I'm pretty sure I did either because I borrowed it from the public library or because Brad lent it to me when we were in high school, but I don't remember for sure.

While the second book in the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy by Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Shield of Lies received a Legends banner edition, for whatever reason the other two books in the trilogy, Before the Storm and Tyrant's Test, haven't. Now, I'm a fan of these three books, and they're some of the ones I kept in my collection during the Great Collection Purge of 2015 and 2016 that I performed before we moved and while I was unpacking my things after the move. So, it baffles me that Shield of Lies got a Legends banner reprint, but Before the Storm and Tyrant's Test didn't. Especially because Shield of Lies is the weirdest book in the entire trilogy because of the way the author structured the story in that book.

 

Medstar II: Jedi Healer by Michael Reaves and Steve Perry was published in 2004 as part of the Clone Wars Multimedia Project, but for whatever reason, didn't get a Legends banner reprint. Its predecessor, Medstar I: Battle Surgeons did, but this book didn't. I didn't read either book until 2005 or early 2006 when I borrowed them from the branch of the Ottawa Public Library that was right next door to my high school, and I wasn't connected to the Star Wars fanbase back then as I didn't have regular access to the internet, wasn't on fan forums, and didn't have regular access to Star Wars Insider. So, I had no idea how well either of these books were received. But, again, how well received a Star Wars Legends novel was has nothing to do with the book getting reprinted with the Legends banner on it. So it confuses me as to why half of a duology of novels gets the banner and the other half doesn't, like in the case of the Medstar Duology.

Like with the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy, the Coruscant Nights Trilogy only got one book reprinted with the Legends banner on the cover. And that was the first book in the trilogy, Jedi Twilight. I realize I'm sounding like a broken record here, but it absolutely baffles me that one book in a trilogy would get the Legends banner treatment, but the other two books in the trilogy wouldn't. The Coruscant Nights Trilogy was published in 2008 and 2009, similar to how the first two books in the Han Solo Adventures trilogy were published in 1979 and the final book was published in 1980. Now, I've never read any of the books in this trilogy, so I have no idea whether they're any good or not. When these books were originally published, I was busy with college and barely had any time to read for pleasure. And when I did have time to read, I was catching up on the books I'd missed in The New Jedi Order when that series was coming out between 1999 and 2003.

This last one, Knight Errant by John Jackson Miller, is probably the weirdest one to not have a Legends banner reprint. Originally published in 2011, Knight Errant was a tie-in to the Knight Errant comic book series being published by Dark Horse Comics around the same time. So while it was slightly less high profile than Darth Plagueis or X-Wing: Mercy Kill, both of which came out in 2012, due to the tie-in to the comic, Knight Errant should've gotten a Legends banner reprint.

What's funny is that even though it didn't get a Legends banner reprint, in 2024 Knight Errant got a reprint which was a part of the Essential Legends Collection. So far this is the only book in that collection to not already have a Legends banner reprint. Which is interesting because the rest of the books in the collection are the most popular Star Wars novels to have come out in the last 46 years and have all had mid to late 2010s reprints with the Legends banner on them.

That's all I wanted to talk about today here on the Star Wars Journal. I'll be back next week with more posts on both blogs. So until then have a great weekend. May the Force be with you!