Why I am completely and utterly opposed to the New Legacy of the Force Comic Books.

As most of you have read in your new Insider, (I guess it's not quite so new now but anyhow) there is an upcoming Legacy of the Force Comic Book series planned. (no relation to the soon-to-be-released nine book series by Lucas Books that begins in May). And as I read the article, I realized that I have severe misgivings about this project, and I think it is a rather short-sided that the project was given the green light. Why? Because, nobody likes to be boxed in.

What do I mean by this? Well, the continuation of the Star Wars' story outside of film has been delivered through three mediums, Video Games, Comics, and Novels. Video Games, by virtue of their focus on action and not story building, do not have nearly as much impact as the other two, and even Comics do not allow for as much character-development as novels (which is why I prefer the latter, but that's a different entry). Anyway, in the Star Wars fandom, there are those who read Comics and those who read the Novels (and those who read books of course, but for the purpose of this discussion I'm simplifying a bit). And there seems to be a certain unwritten rule pertaining to which medium delivers which part of the Star Wars universe. This rule is that (with exceptions) Comics get to explore the events that precede the films, KOTR etc. up to Episode I. And the novels get to explore the events that precede the films, from Return of the Jedi onward.

With Legacy of the Force Comics, this rule is being broken. Now the Comics are directing the path of the novels, boxing in and restricting the freedom of the novel authors. All of a sudden, Luke now has a definitive point prior which he must die; he's not in these new comics, so he has to get whacked somewhere. Why? With the revelations from Episode III, it is reasonable to believe that he could live forever, as well as the other Jedi. The Skywalkers as we know them do not have to die off with the new knowledge from ROTS, but these Comics are forcing their hand. New Sith? New Skywalkers? New Empire? I don't want that to be forced upon me. If it has to happen, I'd rather take it from Michael Stackpole, thank you. I don't want my choice of Star Wars ingestion (Novels) to be forced into certain directions by the Comics. I would like Karen Traviss and Troy Denning to determine what happens to my favorite characters in the way they see best, not the Authors of the Comic Books. I put my trust in the authors who gave me these characters to give me the destinies of these characters. I trust Mr. Luceno with handling the Yuuzahn Vong more then the Comic Book authors, and I want Mara's final send-off to be from Timothy Zahn's imagination, an imagination that's not hampered by having to fit his story into that of these new Comic Books.

Comic lovers, you guys can have your pre-TPM stories all to yourself, I don't want Aaron Alston to force your favorite writers hands either. I'm sure you would have trusted Quinlan Vos' fate with one of his creators, not with Greg Keyes. Can't I have the same?

I'm not one for petitions, but please post a comment if you agree with me (or especially if you disagree) that this Legacy of the Force Comic Series is anything but good news.