Should the "Star Wars" comics be read as canon?!
Question: I know that they're officially licensed, and bear the official Star Wars brand. But should they be viewed as canon, part of the official storyline? I.e., how hard would George Lucas try to work around them if he were to create Episode 7, or another film or animated series between Episodes 3 and 4?
I was just wondering, really. They're generally a good read but you start to wonder whether they're worth reading to enhance the genuine storyline, or if they're basically fan fiction.
Many thanks all!
D
(www.spinninglizard.co.uk)
Answers: I know that they're officially licensed, and bear the official Star Wars brand. But should they be viewed as canon, part of the official storyline? I.e., how hard would George Lucas try to work around them if he were to create Episode 7, or another film or animated series between Episodes 3 and 4?
I was just wondering, really. They're generally a good read but you start to wonder whether they're worth reading to enhance the genuine storyline, or if they're basically fan fiction.
Many thanks all!
D
(www.spinninglizard.co.uk)
This is actually a complicated question. The original Star Wars comics from Marvel were not considered canon at first, they were largely ignored until recently.
However, one of the characters from Marvel's comics, Shira Brie, became the Dark Lady Lumiya, and is figuring prominently in the recent "New Jedi Order" books.
The Dark Horse comics are also canonical, there has been more crossover between them and the published books (one comics series showed the wedding of Luke and Mara Jade, which was not in any book).
Dark Horse also did a line of comics about the Clone Wars, which sort of tied in with the animated Clone Wars series. Considering that someone from Lucasfilm has to coordinate all the books and comics to make sure they don't conflict with Lucasfilm's movies and TV shows, I'd say the comics have to be treated as canon.
The zen answer, since we're dealing with fiction here, is that any or all of it is as real as you want it to be. If you don't want the comics to be part of your Star Wars experience, don't read them.
After seeing Episodes 1-3 I am kind of wishing Lucas won't make any new stuff. A lot of talented writers have worked on the books and comics over the years and I think they're really enriched and fleshed out the Star Wars universe with some very cool stuff.
Quite frankly Lucas's last movies were not what I was hoping for. Now I don't hate them, I am just not as dazzled as I had wanted. So I think that allowing other writers to contribute to the canon, to make it a more detailed universe with interesting characters and places, will only enhance the background for future work.
No, I view it as flexible, as new stories pop up.
As long as Geroge recuts Star wars to have Greedo draw first, NOTHING is written in stone
NO DO NOT READ THEM AS CANON