Comics from a Galaxy Far, Far Away 8: The Thrawn Trilogy

So, we’re now at the last installment of this series of articles I’m doing revolving around the comic books based on the Star Wars franchise. And I must say, coming up with 8 of these things was just the right call to make considering I was running out of Star Wars funny books to read. And if you’re asking, no, I’m not planning on doing this again anytime soon.
But, going back to the main topic of this little entry I’m doing, I am now currently almost finished with reading the Thrawn trilogy, which is considered by many Star Wars nuts out there as one of the greatest comics based on the franchise to ever be published. That’s an understatement, even: fanboys and fangirls think this is the legitimate sequel to Return of the Jedi. And I can’t really say I agree with them.


Okay, so let’s start with the good parts of this series. First, I think that Thrawn – at least in this iteration – is a great villain. So much so, that I prefer this grand admiral with the red eyes and blue skin over Darth Vader or Darth Sidious (although I must admit the latter is one of the funniest antagonists in cinematic history I’ve seen for some reason). In Grand Admiral Thrawn, we’re not getting some overly intimidating, ridiculously powerful foil to our heroes the way Sith like Vader, Sidious, or even the likes of Kylo Ren for those who prefer the latest trilogy more. Instead, we get to witness a calculating, precise, and ultimately cold villain, which is a sort of oddity for the franchise. At least, it’s an oddity to someone like me who isn’t balls deep in the expanded universe.
Now, let’s go to the reasons why I think that the Thrawn trilogy isn’t all that it’s lauded to be. Sure, I will admit that I am currently enjoying this series, but I can’t say it’s a very good comic book. Now, I should be fair and say that the Thrawn trilogy comic book series is based on the novels written by Timothy Zahn, and I haven’t read any of those (or any Star Wars novel, for that matter). So, I’m not sure if there is a part in that comic book adaptation that seems to have missed certain parts of the original story or whether it remained true to the source material, because there are some points in the story that shifted pretty abruptly. A plot going at breakneck speed is one thing, but suddenly discovering one plot point without any precedence is just too jarring.


But, my main gripe with this comic doesn’t have anything to do with the plot but more with the production values of these books. Art-wise, it’s great to have a different artist with each volume, but one thing that remained (sadly) constant in the Thrawn trilogy is the imprecise lettering job on the title. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me. Go on and read the series to decide for yourself.