Nearly twenty-five years ago, Dark Horse Comics debuted what would prove to be an underappreciated pillar of the late "Legends"-era Star Wars Expanded Universe. First appearing several months after the premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Tales was a comic book anthology series, which ran roughly contemporaneously with the release of the Prequel Trilogy, for a total of twenty-four issues and nearly a hundred stories.
Star Wars Tales mixed of canon and non-canon narratives, spanning the sprawling Star Wars galaxy and its history. Stories could veer from deathly serious to downright silly within the same issue; Tales made the galaxy feel bigger, and stranger, on a month-to-month basis. The series produced some of the most enduring "Legends" comic book stories. Below are five of the best Star Wars Tales stories, in order of release.
6 "Thank the Maker"
In many ways, 1999's The Phantom Menace did not deliver what long-time fans of the Star Wars franchise had been expecting from a prequel. One of the movie's most surprising – and to some critical viewers, startlingly incongruous – revelations was the fact that a young Anakin Skywalker was the one who constructed C-3PO. While 3PO's lack of recognition of this in the Original Trilogy could be attributed with relative ease to his previously established history of mind wipes between trilogies, the larger question that remained on fans minds was why George Lucas had chosen to include this tether between the franchise's central tragic figure and the anxiety-prone protocol droid.
Release a year and a half after Phantom Menace, Star Wars Tales #6 contained the story "Thank the Maker" – written by Ryder Windham, penciled by Kilian Plunkett, lettered by Steve Dutro, colored by Dave McCaig – which identified a moment from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back that could be used to explore the Vader-3PO connection in a meaningful way. Very few Darth Vader stories could be called tender, but the end of "Thank the Maker" is exactly that. Occurring off-screen on Bespin during the events of Empire, C-3PO has stumbled across some stormtroopers, nearly spoiling the Imperials trap, and been blasted to pieces as a result.
The inactive pieces C-3PO are brought to Vader, who flashes back to his youth on Tatooine as he was crafting the droid. ing a conversation about the droid with his mother, Vader is for a flash Anakin Skywalker again inside his suit. Holding 3PO's head in his hands, Vader touches the droid's cold metallic forehead to his own, making material this brief reconnection with his past, before going on to enact his plan, as seen in Empire. Having been born out of one of the Prequels' more quixotic elements, and building on the still-fresh knowledge of Anakin's origins, "Thank the Maker" provided a stunning moment of pathos for Darth Vader.
5 "Outbid, But Never Outgunned"
Similar Darth Vader, the Boba Fett of the early 2000s Star Wars Expanded Universe was still very much an "intergalactic man of mystery," as the cover of Star Wars Tales #7 declared him. Though the EU had established his survival of the Sarlaac's belly, where he ended up in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the canonicity of his backstory – as depicted in several Star Wars sources up to when the franchise returned to the big screen – was still hotly debated. George Lucas himself would give Fett his definitive origin in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, establishing him as a clone of Mandalorian warrior Jango Fett.
Preceding Attack of the Clones by just over a year, "Outbid, But Never Outgunned," from Star Wars Tales #7, provided readers with a surprising Boba Fett story, one that gave the character a dimension previously unexplored by Star Wars writers up to that point. The story features Boba competing with another bounty hunter, a human woman named Sintas Vel, to retrieve a mysterious cannister from a criminal. While much of the story presents this as a professional conflict between Fett and Vel – with the cannister being something they have been hired to retrieve for a client – the story's conclusion reveals its deeply personal meaning to both characters.
Of course, it is Fett that kills the criminal and retrieves the cannister – but its contents were major shock to readers at the time. In the cannister is a holo-recording of Fett with his arm around Sintas Vel. In her arms is a baby, their daughter Ailyn Vel. The revelation that Boba Fett had a relationship, and produced offspring, was a huge swing for "Outbid, But Never Outgunned" – by Beau Smith, Mike Deodato Jr., Neil Nelson, Steve Dutro, and Dave McCaig – and the result was one of the mos poignant Fett stories, hitting an emotional peak that few, if any, stories focusing on the character managed to reach before or since.
4 "Resurrection"
In the decades since his introduction, and demise, in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul has returned to play a major role in Star Wars canon, serving as the leader of the nefarious Shadow Collective, a network of criminal organizations spread throughout the galaxy. In 2001, Star Wars fans were still clamoring for more Maul, and while some Expanded Universe materials had begun to detail the character's backstory, the idea of resurrecting the former Sith Lord – and what's more, pitting him in a one-on-one confrontation with Darth Vader to see who deserved to be Sidious' apprentice – was more than novel. It was incredible.
"Resurrection" – by Ron Marz, Rick Leonardi, Terry Austin, Steve Dutro, and Raul Trevino – appeared in 2001's Star Wars Tales #9, a 48-page action-filled confrontation between Maul and Vader, set on what could be described as a proto-Mustafar. The set-up for their showdown finds Darth Vader lured to the moon Kalakar Six with the promise of information on the Rebel Alliance. As it turns out, a group called the Prophets of the Dark Side have brought Darth Maul back to life, unleashing him on Vader, with the intention that he will kill the cyborg Sith and resume his place at Darth Sidious' side.
Maul seems to have the upper hand for much of the duel, trading insults with Vader, taunting him – in itself notable at the time, considering the character's scant dialogue in his on-screen appearance. The story climaxes with Maul closing in behind Vader, prepared to strike a killing blow. Vader, who has been disarmed, uses the Force to pull his lightsaber to him. Out of desperation, he sticks the saber to his own stomach and lights it, gutting himself, but also spearing Maul in the chest. Shocked, Maul asks, "What could you hate enough to destroy me?" to which Vader replies, "Myself." Without a doubt, this remains one of Darth Vader's most iconic moments in franchise history.
3 "Trooper"
Star Wars movies have always had some form of faceless, anonymous foot soldiers working at the behest of its galactic powers. The Prequel Trilogy's Seperatists had their Droid Army, while the Republic used clones. The Original Trilogy pioneered this with its white-armored stormtroopers and their many variants. The Expanded Universe had provided insight into the lives of stormtroopers before 2001's Star Wars Tales #10, but it was this issue of Tales, containing a story by one of the comic industry's most daring creators, that made a stormtrooper one of the franchise's most unexpectedly tragic characters.
"Trooper" was written by comic book legend Garth Ennis who was just a year removed from finishing Preacher at the time, and was still several years from debuting The Boys. The story – which features art by John McCrea, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Brad Anderson – is set in the opening moments of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, told from the point-of-view of one of the stormtroopers boarding the Tantive IV in order to capture Princess Leia and secure the Death Star plans. When the narrator is selected to lead the charge onto the enemy ship, an assignment that equates to almost certain death, his life begins to flash before his eyes.
The trooper recounts his father's death at the hands of the Imperials, his own recruitment, the brutal training endured by stormtroopers, and his own moral failings as an instrument of the Empire. When through the sheer luck of battle he survives the initial breach of the Tantive IV, and the ensuing hallway fire fight, he swears to leave the Empire behind and defect to the Rebellion. Before he can make good on this change of heart, however, he encounters Princess Leia, who shoots and kills him. Much like "Thank the Maker," "Trooper" takes a small, seemingly insignificant moment from the Original Trilogy and turns it into a heartbreaking Star Wars story of its own.
2 "Storyteller"
The "Legends"-era Star Wars Extended Universe detailed a rich history of the galaxy, spanning over twenty-five thousand years by the time the Disney reboot occurred. The EU had the tendency to go backward in history, filling in the details of the galaxy's far-flung past, as well as the events leading up to the film trilogies. The post-Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi EU progressed at a rate roughly analogous to the time that elapsed between the Original and Prequel trilogies, with the exception of Star Wars: Legacy, a Dark Horse Comics series that depicted one-hundred years further into the future than had previously been explored by the franchise.
Though its precise place in the timeline is never stated, "Storyteller" – written by Jason Hall, penciled by Paul Lee, and lettered by Steve Dutro – is perhaps the furthest glimpse into the future of the Star Wars galaxy that either "Legends" or the Disney-era canon have ever offered fans. While the story was almost certainly non-canon, even by "Legends" standards, it is also one of the most fascinating produced in the entirety of Star Wars Tales' run. The story features one alien race subjugating another on a technologically primitive planet. Two of the subjugated race undertake a quest to visit a mysterious "Oracle" – which turns out to be the remains of C-3PO.
Playing on 3PO's role as an orator in Return of the Jedi, "Storyteller" finds him relating the story of the Original Trilogy to the two young aliens, who imagine themselves undertaking the heroic actions. As his story is completed, the conquering alien race, the Vindar, arrive and destroy C-3PO, killing one of the young aliens as well. The other hides, and once the Vindar have left, the alien youth crawls over 3PO's remains – and discovers Luke Skywalker's lightsaber hidden in his chest. The story ends with the alien poised to liberate his people, inaugurating a new era of heroism for the unnamed planet. As with many Star Wars Tales entries, "Storyteller" exceled by stretching Star Wars to its most magical, unexpected limits.
