Star Wars Tales was a comics series from Dark Horse that ran from around the time of the release of The Phantom Menace until Revenge of the Sith. These 24 issues presented lots of short stories featuring characters both known and unknown, written and illustrated by faces both familiar and unfamiliar. My plan is to review at least the first three trade paperback volumes reprinting these issues – and in the cast of today’s review, that means issues 5-8 of the series. Click on the link to get my thoughts.

Unlike volume 1, now we’re really in territory I’ve never read before. With Boba Fett on the cover, I was hoping to get a number of appearances by him within – and while it isn’t as many as Vader had in volume 1, I was still pleased. But we start off with a story set during Episode 1, Yaddle’s Tale: The One Below. I have mixed feelings on this one – I had no real interest in this character, and while her story is somewhat intriguing – it’s also marred by the fact that she’s just not an important character in the grand scheme of things (as shown in Episodes 2 and 3). Yoda comes across really hard-assed in this story, maybe not way out of character – but not exactly the Yoda I know. He doesn’t want Yaddle to become a Knight – because he feels her training is incomplete, even though she’s been training for hundreds of years. Through a flashback tale we find out why – her master was killed while they were on a mission, and she was imprisoned with no way out. Hundreds of years later, she escapes – having faced her captors and found her peace in the Force. It’s all a foregone conclusion, and just wasn’t really gripping for me.

What They Called Me is a mildly amusing tale, with artwork that reminds me of the Johnny Bravo cartoon. I imagine this as the tale of the Star Tours scout, looking for the tour line’s next destination and sampling all there is to offer on the Forest Moon of Endor. It’s not the story to buy this volume for, but it’s not bad in the use of Ewoks for humor.

A Summer’s Dream is the tale of a summer fling for Amidala – where the son of a man heavily invested in her political rival, finds himself drawn to her. It’s got a Romeo and Juliet feel, where you know from the get go that this just isn’t going to work – so it’s all just a matter of time to see how it’ll play out. What’s most interesting here is we get a glimpse into Amidala’s rise to power on Naboo and why. The art style is simple and I suspect was done by either the same artist as did the comic adaptation of The Phantom Menace or one of the tie-in comics. On the down side, you can tell it was written before Episode 2, because they only use the name Amidala (never Padme) which feels awkward knowing that’s not really her first name. And I think it would have been interesting if the people who make The Clone Wars cartoon had managed to make Padme’s recent Senate Spy story ‘former romance’ into this same character from this story – but it’s probably asking too much.

Hoth’s just what should have been a three panel cartoon in the Sunday comic strip drawn out over two pages.

But Lando’s Commandos is one of the highlights of the book. For some reason, this felt very much like Dark Empire to me – maybe because Lando leads a group of commandos in DEII, maybe because the story is a little dark – I don’t know. Here Lando is still a General for the Alliance – so it’s sometime after Endor but before Lando leaves to make his own way in the galaxy again. The New Republic is losing transports to a Pirate Gang flying Tie Interceptors, and they task General Calrissian to track them down and eliminate the threat. So Lando gathers a rag-tag group of warriors, including an Imperial Tie Pilot instructor whom the other Alliance team members don’t trust. Will he betray them, or is something else in store in this action packed tale – I’m not telling, because this is one of the reasons you should actually read this volume yourself.

The Hovel on Terk Street is an odd tale of a woman who hires Greedo to track down a politician who’s gone missing and she claims she works for. It’s meant to be kind of crime-noirish, but the problem here is that Greedo is really just a slimey guy, so who wants to root for him? He goes on a quest through the seedy underbelly of Tatoonie, resulting in a showdown with the woman who hired him (and was not what she seemed) – but it all just seemed a little too stretched thin in it’s believability for me. The problem steps from the fact that once the big reveal happens at the end, it negates the whole reason why she went to Greedo in the first place. We’re supposed to believe that she couldn’t have tracked down her quarry without Greedo’s help?

A Hot Night In The Cold Town Tonight is another Max Rebo band tale. Max and his band have been sent by Jabba to entertain a rival pirate gang on Hoth. But it’s all a set up because Jabba has rigged the band’s instruments with explosives – so Rebo has to figure a way out of their fix. The art style hasn’t changed from the last volume, the story goes on way too long, the pirate gang just looks ridiculous, and it STILL isn’t funny.

Fortune, Fate, and the Natural History of the Sarlacc corrects one of the problems with the previous story – the art is beautiful. And it’s long – lots of pages; where we get our first Boba Fett appearance – so at least he’s well rendered. But the problem here is, there’s really no story. Sometime before Return of the Jedi, Boba is on Jabba’s sail barge as a recent captive is lowered into a Sarlacc. The captive promises revenge on Boba, and we then follow the reproductive cycle of the Sarlacc until the spawn of the one from the beginning ultimately winds up with Boba in it’s gullet at the end.

Junk Heap Hero seems to be of the same style as Spare Parts from the previous volume – and again, this is better skipped. It doesn’t fit into any continuity, it makes no sense, and has no real point. I could understand if there was a point to telling this completely out of left field story because of a punchline – but there’s no humor to be had here.

The Hidden is another story that suffers from being way too long. Basically, we’ve got a probe droid (from the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back) sent to Dagobah – where Yoda promptly puts it out of commission before the Imperials get any images of him. It’s not a bad idea – and the art is interesting – but it didn’t need 8 pages to tell that story.

But Thank the Maker is one to be thankful for. Here we get another Boba Fett appearance - but more importantly we get a Vader story that’s actually a really great link between The Empire Strikes Back and The Phantom Menace. It’s a story taking place behind the scenes at Cloud City, in between the scenes we see in the movie – where Vader remembers his youth in putting together C-3P0, and we are shown why the droid parts ultimately wind up in the hands of Chewbacca. This was a well crafted tale and a nicely drawn one too (with a very memorable cover featured in the back of the book).

With Single Cell we’re treated once again to the art of Jan Duursema, and a story featuring a pirate gang led by a Feeorin – which if I’m not mistaken is the same race as the pirate Rav from the Legacy comic. So, not only do we get a little history for that race, it also seems like a nice tie in to that comic series. I can’t help but wonder if there are connections that I’m just not seeing (as this tale takes place just weeks before Episode 1 and Legacy is way in the future), but ultimately it’s easily enjoyed for what it is. We’ve got a group of pirates that wind up in trouble with the Trade Federation – and their leader takes the fall for them as he covers their retreat. Now he’s faced with torture at the hands of his captors – but pirates are a tricky bunch and he may still find a way out. While the story says ‘End’ at the end, I can’t help but wonder if there’s a continuation in an upcoming volume of this series.

I expected very little out of Nerf Herder – and was pleasantly surprised. The art is vaguely manga-ish (and the main BOY hero has hair that looks like Leia’s cinna-bon hair from A New Hope) – but the story actually made up for it (and the artist really does draw a nice Twi’lek). Our hero Domo (from Tatoonie – because, hey that’s the place we raise heroes in the Star Wars universe) works together with Blerx (who looks like one of the band members from the Mos Eisley cantina) to keep a black marketer from selling an essential component of proton torpedoes to some Imperials. With action and romance – it’s got just the kind things that make for a good Star Wars story.

Jedi Chef or Pizza the Hut is really just a spoof on Iron Chef featuring Plo Koon and his apprentice vying for the life of a friend who’s been captured by Jabba – by trying to win through a test of culinary skills. Plo cheats by adding in all sorts of odd ingredients into Jabba’s master chef’s food (through use of the Force) while his apprentice makes some passable food. The art is an interesting watercolor kind of style, but the story is forgettable.

Outbid But Never Outgunned is the true Boba Fett highlight of this volume. It’s a long story and in this case that’s a very good thing – as Boba tracks down a piece of his past that he wants forgotten. But wouldn’t you know it, Sintas has something else in mind. Great art, great story – and important continuity for this character to boot. This is the reason many people will want to pick up Tales 2.

Force Fiction is supposed to take place between scenes in Episode 1 – after the Jedi Council meets Anakin but before they’ve decided to train him. Yoda and Mace go to a diner (it’s supposed to be a humorous tale, yet I found it surprising that ultimately Lucas uses a very similar location in Episode 2) to talk about Anakin’s fate over coffee, and they wind up saving the place from a robber (who knows he’s in over his head when they reveal themselves as Jedi). But it’s an odd story – on the one hand, the message is in many ways serious (and really talks about interesting points long before many others were thinking about them) and yet there are these funny lines as well. I suppose that’s how Star Wars is – but the art style looked like it was leaning more towards the pure humor and that’s what threw me off.

Captain Threepio is the tale of how C-3P0 during the rebellion, has to lead a bunch of droids in piloting a ship when the non-droid crew are killed. He winds up somehow getting Captain Antilles personality implanted for a short time, which allows him to accomplish this goal we’re meant to believe he could otherwise never have done. I’d have been more pleased with the tale if it had been used to show C-3P0 COULD rise to the challenge on his own, but it’s not really meant to be taken seriously, so what can you do.

The One That Got Away is the story of the dancer before Oola – how she was just trying to make a little money to get through college when she wound up in Jabba’s servitude. She winds up escaping (with some help from a disguised Lando) and ultimately makes quite a life for herself. The art is interesting, the story not too bad – this one is right in the middle for this volume.

The Secret Tales of Luke’s Hand sort of has a problem from the very beginning. This is Han telling a totally made-up bedtime story to his son Anakin about the adventures of Luke’s cut off hand – how it faces the foot of the Emporer and Vader’s former hand – etc. It’s meant to be ridiculous – and that’s fine. But, we KNOW the fate of Luke’s hand – the Empire recovered it and used it to make the clone Luuke. And these characters know it long before Anakin Solo is born (let alone the 3-5 year old he appears to be here). Ah well – I should let these things go.

In Death Star Pirates – a pirate gang shows up just as the Rebels are evacuating Yavin IV. Han and Leia get caught by the pirates, and Luke has to board the ship to save them. It’s got an interesting art style that kept me engaged, a good story with a bunch of twists (and one awkward scene where I thought we were going to see Luke and Leia kiss) – but this was a nice story that seemed to fit well with the existing continuity and was a fun one to read on top of it all.

And finally there’s Bad Business, the continuing tale of Ville the Devaronian from Tales 1 that I enjoyed so much. This time around, Ville is tricked by Watto into accepting some broken down Pit Droids as payment for a completed job – droids that are intent upon ‘fixing’ his ship when it does not need it. Add to the mix the passenger he picked up, a female cat-like princess who cannot stay in hyperspace for too long – or bad things will happen – and you just know bad things are going to happen. I don’t think this story worked as well as the Ville story from Tales 1, but it wasn’t bad either, and while I would have chosen a stronger story to finish the volume with – it works out ok.

I have mixed feelings about Tales 2. The best stories from this volume probably beat out the best from volume 1, but I also felt there were more weak stories in this one than in the previous volume. At the same time, those highlights are well worth reading – especially Lando’s Commandos, Thank the Maker, and Outbid But Never Outgunned. If I could combine the best of these two volumes into one (or better yet, expand some of the best stories like Lando’s Commandos) – boy would that be a trade worth owning. Still, there is plenty in volume 2 to strike the fancy of any fan – no one should walk away without enjoying at least some of the stories – and for that I can certainly recommend it.