Journey to Star Wars - The Force Awakens

Shattered Empire is a series of loosely connected tales focusing on varying characters from the Original Trilogy era and beyond (including Poe's parents). Great writing, beautiful art, and meaningful tales make this well worth picking up... for both hardcore fans and newcomers alike. I can't say much about the stories as it's quite easy to spoil the experience, but I will say that you will see Leia connect with her mother on a small scale, see Luke in action as a Jedi Knight, meet Poe Dameron's parents, and learn more about how the Empire continued after the second Death Star was destroyed. Highly recommend this, 5 out 5 stars.

So this comic takes place right after the Battle of Endor when the Rebels had destroyed the second Death Star and the Empire was forced to retreat. But honestly it's not super interesting, it's just a lot of space battles and Luke sneaking into an Imperial facility with a pilot with him posing as an Imperial officer. It always makes me chuckle when reading these comics or novels, the Imperial facilities must have HORRIBLE security because the Rebels always seem to be able to sneak into them or hack their security easily.

Overall it's just mindless Star Wars content with lots of ships, fights and battles. It keeps you interested because there is action going on, but very little actual meat to the plot that impacts the overall Star Wars saga. The comic ends with issue 1 of Princess Leia and issue 1 of the original Marvel Star Wars. The Princess Leia story is boring, all she does is complain she's sick of doing nothing and then runs off to try and do some Rebel stuff on her own, and the Star Wars issue 1 is just boring because I've already read that issue decades ago, and I've already seen A New Hope dozes of times so it doesn't add anything to the storyline either.

Like I said this is just a bunch of battles with little impact on the saga. It's good to kill time but if you're looking for something essential to the Star Wars continuity, you can skip this one.

What happened in the days immediately following the destruction of the 2nd Death Star in the movie RETURN OF THE JEDI? Well, STAR WARS: SHATTERED EMPIRE is a graphic novel that fills in some of the gaps. Instead of focusing on the main players from the original Star Wars trilogy, SHATTERED EMPIRE follows the exploits of a couple of, until now, unknown fighters of the Rebellion. There's Shara Bey, an amazing pilot and her husband, Kes Dameron, a skilled fighter. The couple fight in different divisions and are looking forward to the time they can retire and begin the life together that they have been fighting for. However, before that can happen, Shara is sent on one last mission to assist Luke Skywalker in an important task.

At the end of the SHATTERED EMPIRE story, there is the first issue of the PRINCESS LEIA comic. In addition, the issue of PRINCESS LEIA is followed by the very first issue of the STAR WARS comic from 1977.

Overall, I enjoyed SHATTERED EMPIRE. Shara was a great character and it was nice to see some back story about the parents of Poe Dameron. It's a nice story that Star Wars fans will enjoy, particular fans of THE FORCE AWAKENS.

This is an okay book. It covers what happened directly after the second Death Star explosion. We see Han, Leia, and Luke fighting different battles against dug in Imperial forces. However, they are not our main characters. We actually follow Bey Dameron, who is Poe Dameron's (hot shot X-wing pilot from Force Awakens) mother. While her husband and Poe's father is part of Han Solo's pathfinders, Bey flies missions with both Leia and Luke. This story is fun to see that the Empire didn't just crash and die with a single loss, but that it was a drawn out process. However, this book feels more like a quick cash-in by Disney. For die-hard Star Wars fans, this is a cool book to have and is fun, but it isn't as good as the other Star Wars comics that Marvel is currently publishing.

While this short story cycle of post-Endor events is not particularly engaging, it does feature a number of references to in-universe history. There is, for example, the first appearance of Naboo in the new Disney universe, as well as background on the parents of Poe Dameron, the Rebel Alliance pilot from The Force Awakens, and the fate of the trees from the Jedi temple, first seen in The Clone Wars cartoon. Altogether the stories don’t amount to much and apart from the artwork there isn’t much to recommend them.

Picks up immediately after ROTJ and you really get some great insight into Poe Dameron's parents. Greg loves writing his stories with leading ladies, and this is no exception. The writing and art is so well done in this book, it feels like an extension of ROTJ.

The book just has that deep Star Wars feels rooted in it. It looks and read just like a Star Wars book should.

If you enjoy great writing, awesome art, and some real good Star Wars story telling, you should definitely pick this up. Also pick up Smuggler's Run and Before The Awakening. Both of those are awesome books. Damn good stuff.

What a load of c..ap! They are gonna keep milking it forever.

These histories have no punch, they are assembled like industrial line. They are much worse than the book based on the franchise, that are well thought and intelligent histories (for the most part).

In this stupid comics, at least the drawnings are good. As the screenplay, forget about it. A fast and cynical cash in.

In "Star Wars: Shattered Empire", writer Greg Rucka and artist Marco Checchetto focus on the events immediately following "Return of the Jedi". For his main character, Rucka follows Lieutenant Shara Bey, call sign Green Four, who flew an A-Wing in the attack against the second Death Star. After making it through the battle, she goes down to the planet Endor and reunites with her husband, Sergeant Kes Dameron, part of the Rebel strike team that destroyed the shield generator. Together with Han Solo, they take part in a mission to ferret out remaining Imperials on the forest moon where they learn the locations of other Imperial bases. The following issues in this trade paperback that collects the four issue limited series depict Shara Bey as she aides Princess Leia in saving the planet Naboo, which was fated for purging following the Emperor's death, as well as a mission with Luke Skywalker to retrieve trees imbued with the Force from an Imperial research lab.
Rucka's story gives the first glimpse of Star Wars' main characters immediately following "Jedi" and offers tantalizing clues as to their futures. Leia displays some aptitude for the Force, sensing the lingering presence of Darth Maul on Naboo, while Luke continues to research the Force. Shara Bey and Kes Dameron have an infant son, Poe, who appears briefly in Rucka's story and will play a role in the upcoming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Rucka's episodic story structure worked particularly well as a monthly comic, but feels a bit disjointed in this collected edition. Issues 1 and 4 have self-contained stories while issues 2 and 3 are a longer story. This does not detract from the stories themselves, but simply reflects the monthly nature of comic books. In addition to "Shattered Empire", the trade paperback contains issue 1 of Marvel's "Star Wars: Princess Leia" and the first issue of Marvel's 1977 adaptation of "Star Wars: A New Hope". Those looking for more clues as to the events of "The Force Awakens" will find some hints, while Shara Bey is an interesting new addition to the Star Wars universe who will hopefully appear again.

I read this collection in single issue format as it was coming out, and thoroughly enjoyed each issue. Since then I have seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and now that this story has been collected I am eager to revisit this story about the parents of Poe Dameron.

If I had any complaints about this book it would be the extra preview pages in the back of the title are excessive, I wish it could have been a longer mini-series, and the title is really long and doesn't seem to connect to well with what I have read.

Despite these trivial complaints I do recommend this title to anyone who is curious about the current canon in the Star Wars universe, or if you just want a good story to read.

Loved the story and the fact that this compiled format comes with other Star Wars issues is a bonus, but I wish they sent the book out in a flat/skinny box instead of an envelope. Upon receiving my copy the bottom of the book was badly bent and pages were wrinkled. Other than that I'd highly recommend getting yourself this incredible story, however, you may want to just get it in a local book store to avoid the risk of receiving a damaged product due to inadequate packaging.

Lackluster
You get the same information on one paragraph
You will get to know about the parentage of one new character from the force awakens but that's about it, personality wise you get nothing.
Cool art but one huge letdown

What we have here with Shattered Empire is an interesting look into the post-ROTJ era in the new canon. I have not (and will likely not) read Aftermath, so this will serve as my post-ROTJ story until The Force Awakens. I've read the series when it came out weekly and all in one go with this collection, and I must say that I really like it.

The first thing I notice with comics, for better or for worse, is the art. I love the art for this entire series, but Marco Checchetto is my favorite of all of the new Star Wars artists thus far (and that is saying a lot). He truly captures the spirit of Star Wars with his art, and his humans are also very well drawn. His Luke and Han (another artist pens the issues with Leia) are spot-on, too. The writer here is Greg Rucka, who recently did one of my favorite novels of the new Star Wars canon, Smuggler's Run (starring Han Solo and Chewbacca). As I stated in my review of that, Rucka *knows* Star Wars. The entirety of this miniseries feels like the natural turn of events after the end of ROTJ, while it also sets the stage for the new era of the Resistance and the First Order. The main character is Lieutenant Shara Bey, who just happens to be the mother of a certain new character in The Force Awakens.... How this all will tie in is very intriguing to me. I have my theories, but my guess is as good as anyone's. I thought she was a cool character, and seeing her interactions with the main heroes of the original trilogy was great.

My favorite issue is #4, not just because it feature post-ROTJ Luke Skywalker (my favorite character), but because it does provide a nice sense of closure while also adding to the mystery revolving around Luke in Episode VII. If I have any quibble with Shattered Empire, it's that I would have like an extra 2 issues. But that's just a nitpick, really. Since I didn't go in with preconceived expectations, I was very happy with what we got. Greg Rucka is one of my favorite Star Wars authors for sure, and now I'm also pumped for his book Before the Awakening, coming out the same day as the new film.

I recommend this book if you want to read a star wars comic. Its really good and worth reading. My only issue is that the art tends to be unexpressive. Emotion is understood more through the dialogue than through the characters. Otherwise it's fine.

Probably the first star wars graphic novel i`ve read that actually made me go "meh". I picked it up because the promise of a bridge between return of the jedi and the force awakens sounded extremely interesting, but they don`t go into it nearly as much as I had hoped. The line "I guess the Empire doesn`t know they lost", or some form of it, is said at least five times. The Empire never feels like a real threat. No characters are ever endangered, and their master evil plan is just to give Naboo some bad weather. I also gave it some eye rolls for ripping off the space battle from the phantom menace. If you want to learn more about the events surrounding Poe Dameron, then this is the novel for you. I don`t want to say it`s bad, but you can definitely find a more meaty star wars book for the same price.

The book kicks off during the battle of Endor and focuses on Shara Bey and her husband Kes Dameron, yes Poe's parents. The book does feature all of the main Star Wars characters but only in how they interact with Shara and Kes. Greg Rucka is a great writer and that trend continues here. Marco Checchetto provides some top notch art. It meshes very well with the Star Wars look. The only negative I have is a 3rd of the book is reprints. It contains the four issues of the series plus Princess Leia #1 and Star Wars #1 from 1977.

I bought this for my 8 year old nephew who is an avid reader and a huge Star Wars fan. I'm glad I flipped through it first, because the sexual innuendo in the first few pages is not appropriate for him! Now I have to return this gift.

Why they decided to make this series only four issues long, I haven't the foggiest idea. It starts getting quite good around Issue 2, and you feel that there's enough plot to make an extended series, then at the end of Issue 3 they abandon the plot altogether, so that Issue 4 is basically a one-off. It seems absurd, especially since this is the only canon comic series we get after RoTJ. For the rest of the story, I guess you'll have to read the Aftermath trilogy and play Battlefront II, neither of which I've heard are that great.

That being said, the stories we do get are very interesting, the art is gorgeous, and this hardcover edition is well-worth having if you're a collector of SW comics like I am, especially since it comes with the C3PO issue, which gets more into tFA. The characters have a lot of potential for development, but unfortunately the creators just grew bored with this idea and dropped it, so I doubt we'll see more of Shara Bey and co.

I recommend this book if you want to read a star wars comic. Its really good and worth reading. My only issue is that the art tends to be unexpressive. Emotion is understood more through the dialogue than through the characters. Otherwise it's fine.