CAUTION| Contains minor story elements for Marvel's Star Wars #1-15, Darth Vader#1-15 and Vader Down one-shot |CAUTION
A short time ago, not far from here in galactic terms….

I had an overall positive opinion of the ancillary Star Wars books. They managed to weave their stories into the established cannon without cheapening the films’ tale. At the same time, that was what kept them from being truly impactful, being shackled to the main storie's outcome. I think the enjoyment I found in those books came from the new characters they were based on. Those characters can still have complete arcs, with permanent repercussions. 

Marvel’s been throwing everything they have at the main titles. The titan, Jason Aaron writing “Star Wars” with a revolving cast of top shelf artists, and Kieron Gillen Writing “Darth Vader” with the ever-consistent Salvador Larroca handling art exclusively. Both books contain rich casts of new and re-imagined supporting characters, so you do get a taste of the unknown. Unfortunately for these books though, following the main cast makes them feel like they’re spinning their wheels. These are grade-A writers, so you get your money’s worth, but in the end it just didn’t leave me with anything. 

The Marvel Star Wars universe doesn’t seem to be the only corner of the comic industry suffering from this. While there are a lot of really solid books out from all the publishers, there just doesn’t seem to be many standing out from the crowd. This may just be attributed to the fact that we’ve just had a couple years of groundbreaking titles. The bar has been raised.