February. The shortest, coldest, and toughest to spell month of the year. Spellcheck says I got it right but I don’t fully trust it. It could be I’ve spelled it wrong so many times that it’s just learned the spelling. Hello, I went to college.
Time to make the donuts, by which I mean to write about comics…and other stuff.
I’m reasonably sure it was Warren Ellis that recently referred to Twitter as the “bird hell site” in his weekly newsletter and I’m inclined to agree with him. For the life of me, I cannot remember the last time I opened the app and saw something that I enjoyed.
I’ve been on Twitter since 2007 and I’m not trying to brag or flex my internet cred here (I went for literal years without tweeting). It used to be an interesting microblogging site that I could update on the fly by sending an SMS message using my KRZR (like the Motorola RAZR…but SKINNY) and it was…informational. In the dozen years since then, it’s certainly blown up and become a full-blown tire fire that cannot be extinguished.
As a form of mortification, I will occasionally look at the Star Wars topic on the Twitter app. If this were still the Dark Ages it would be akin to flogging myself with a flail of some sort…that actually sounds preferable now that I type that out. Since The Rise of Skywalker was released a new era of peace and prosperity has graced the Star Wars fandom. Just kidding, the Star Wars topic has devolved into a circle jerk of in-fighting, racism, misogyny, gatekeeping and on and on. The internet’s greatest hits, as it were.
It’s an interesting microcosm of fandom that Twitter is choosing to show me and it’s a wholly depressing one. I have to believe that the vast majority of fans liked or loved what’s been going on with the Star Wars franchise in recent years. I’m sure there’s some keyboard warrior out there ready to fire off some talking points about the Disney-era of Star Wars being an abject failure because Kathleen Kennedy failed to personally make the property one trillion dollars with each subsequent release. It’s exhausting. (For a delightful lampooning of the current state of Star Wars “fandom” lookup Tony Goldmark’s “Take the #CatsChallenge you cowards” video on YouTube. It’s painfully accurate..and hilarious).
Being a fan of something can be a deeply personal thing. You’re under no obligation to prove your enthusiasm for a piece of art, nor should you impose your views on other people to exclude them or diminish their enjoyment of something you’re both fans of. There’s a generation of fans coming up that hold the prequels in high regard. I’m a bit perplexed by that but it makes perfect sense that they would love the movies like they do because it was their first exposure to Star Wars. I’d probably feel the same way had I not been in college when those movies came out. For the record, I don’t hate the prequels…I saw The Phantom Menace FIVE TIMES that summer. It was NEW Star Wars and any new Star Wars was GOOD Star Wars as far as I was concerned.
And that brings me to…
Star Wars Adventures Omnibus
Various (W/A)
IDW Publishing
The Star Wars Adventures series of books by IDW is wonderful. It’s everything the title promises: Adventures set in the Star Wars universe. The book is targeted towards younger readers but can be enjoyed by Star Wars fans of any age, it’s got a slick animated art style throughout the book which makes you wonder what it would be like if there was a Star Wars: The Animated Series cartoon in the early ’90s. Yeah, yeah I remember Droids and Ewoks but this is like if Star Wars got the Batman treatment.
The main Marvel Star Wars series is great as well but it’s more mired in the continuity of what takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. I dig that but sometimes I just want to check out a fun story set in a galaxy far, far away. Clocking in just north of 300 pages, this omnibus would be perfect to give to a younger fan to keep them interested in the universe between movies and the impossibly long wait for season 2 of The Mandalorian. Heck, it would even be a good gift for ANY Star Wars fan, regardless of age. Ahem… “You’re not a TRUE Star Wars fan unless you’ve read the Adventures Omnibus.”
The Star Wars Adventures Omnibus is out NOW from IDW Publishing.
