Some Star Wars stories have stood the test of time better than any other. The Thrawn Trilogy is one of those stories. The thrilling adventure features Thrawn hunting down Luke and Leia as he works painstakingly to rebuild the might of the Empire. In the Star Wars Legends: The Thrawn Trilogy trade paperback, Mike Baron and Timothy Zahn put together the writing for an excellent book that was drawn by Fred Blanchard, Olivier Vatine, Pamela Rambo, and Edvin Biukovic. Isabelle Rabarot and Ellie de Ville also contributed as colorist and letterer respectively.
While it was once collected in 2018’s Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Republic Vol. 4, The Thrawn Trilogy is now the recipient of a trade paperback of its own. The 504-page trade holds the three Star Wars minis: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. Each mini is six issues long, making this a whopping 18-issue comic. Surprisingly, that is both more and less than what the trade actually feels like.
The story is dense and manages to pack an immense amount of plot, characterization, and setup in even just a single page. Characters are introduced and abandoned in the span of a page, but it never feels like it is especially rushed or dragging in any way.
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Without spoiling too much from the plot, every character feels fully realized — and their motivations clear — even without spending too much time focusing on a single subplot. It’s brilliantly structured, largely thanks to leaning so heavily on the original Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy books.
The plot progresses at a rapid pace, but it undoubtedly works, given that the characters are constantly drifting back and forth between their own crises. The fast-paced plot is nothing more than an accurate reflection of everything that the main trio is suffering through.
While he never appears so often that he feels overplayed, Thrawn is a massive presence in this book. He feels cunning and cautious, but never cruel or capricious like Darth Vader might have been. His intelligence seeps through every page — though there are points where it feels somewhat absurd that he planned as thoroughly as he did. Regardless, the titular villain is perfect in this Star Wars trade, which is likely why this is such a famous set of stories.
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It can, undoubtedly, be difficult to understand for those who are not already entrenched in the Star Wars Legends lore. The new characters are introduced well, even without too much setup, but there is little emotional attachment to them for those who rarely read Legends stories. This is a good start, but new readers will need to be patient and accept some of the new details of leading characters like Mara Jade and Talon Karrde.
As for the art, it does take some getting used to when it comes to the Heir to the Empire section. There is little in the way of facial expression, so most character reactions are communicated through dialogue alone. It’s somewhat jarring, but it does suit the material well, as the characters scheme against each other. Later, the trade defaults to a more expressive style, where faces are much larger and more apparent. That makes for a somewhat easier read. Still, that is not to disparage the original style, which works brilliantly.
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The cover is not especially representative of the trade, which is fairly typical for any trade paperback or collection. Marvel genuinely prefers to have unrelated artists put together the cover, rather than the original artists. Mathieu Lauffray does an excellent job at bridging the gap between realism and the uncanny valley, but it is not an accurate descriptor of the interior artwork, which is far more stylized.
Speaking of the characters, each feels realistic and true to the movies. Their dialogue is not only effective, but they sound exactly like their on-screen counterparts. Han, especially, feels like he was downright copy-and-pasted from the original trilogy. It’s an excellent showing that proves the trade’s deep understanding of both Star Wars and these characters.
The Star Wars Legends: The Thrawn Trilogy trade paperback is everything that can go right with an adaptation. It perfectly communicates the themes and messages of the original prose books, and the collection flows brilliantly from page to page. The transition between artists is somewhat jarring, given the difference in styles, but the book is certainly worth a thorough read. Newcomers to the Star Wars Legends books can get their start here with relative ease, and it will provide a brilliant insight into the rest of the Legends world.
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