Summer in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

The womprats are only seen at night. The Tusken raiders have moved on to cooler climes. It must be summer on Tatooine. So what is there to do? Well, you could try to get into Jabba’s palace for a little exotic dance revue. But then you’d have to put up with the smell and the ever present danger of being fed to the rancor. Or you could head into Toshii Station for some power converters. If neither of these sound like a good idea, check out this list of Star Wars related items for this summer season.

Television

There are really only 2 things on television to excite fans this summer. The first is reruns of the clone wars on cartoon network. You may be asking, “but Jezmon, why get excited about reruns?” Force-slap for interrupting. The official site is hosting “decoded” episodes of the series. Basically pop-up video. For those younglings too small to remember pop up video, facts and trivia about the characters and story “pop-up” on screen throughout the episode. I know that, strictly speaking, this is not on “tv” but that’s where the series originated, so force-slap for questioning my judgment.

Aside, from watching reruns of the Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network, all true star wars fans should watch the Star Wars Comic-Con Spectacular on G4 on July 25th. Basically this is the star wars panel at the con. Any big announcements for the coming year/years should be made in this forum. As a fan, this should be on your DVR’s to do list. If you call your self a big fan but don’t plan on watching, I may have to pay you a visit and cut up your membership card with my lightsaber.

Comics

This summer offers all the same ongoing series from Dark Horse plus one new title.

I’ll start with the one new title starting this summer, Invasion. This is the first comic set during the Youzahn Vong war. The story is supposed to weave in and out of the novels that first chronicled the war. It looks to be an interesting series. Check out the preview here.  If you want my brief cliff notes-esque over view of the war click here.

The next thing I want to cover is Legacy. Legacy takes place about 150 years after A New Hope and follows the adventures of Luke’s great-grandson, Cade Skywalker. This summer the series moves to Tatooine. This should be the event that firmly places Legacy in the cannon.  We all know that you can’t really have a star wars era/storyline without going to Tatooine at some point.  The cover for the August issue shows Cade having a lightsaber fight with Luke Skywalker.  That should be interesting.

Books

If you’ve got a few extra credits lying around, a new series of Star Wars novels starts this summer. The bad news is that they are all hardcover. The good news is that 2 of the authors (Denning and Allston) of this series also wrote the superb Legacy of the Force series. I don’t recommend starting this series without having read Legacy of the Force first. The first 2 books are on shelves now and the third is due out in august.

DVD

Coming this summer to a dvd player near you.

Yep that’s right the guys from robot chicken are back, poking fun at star wars. This is set to release on July 21^st. If you don’t want to wait that long you can get most of the clips on the adult swim site. Clips like this one from the first special.

Or this one from the second special.

The other big Dvd release this summer is out now, Fanboys.

This love letter to Lucas and Star Wars fans everywhere should have a spot on every fan’s video library. If you haven’t seen this you should.  It has a lot of big cameos and fights with trekkies.  I don’t think I need to say anymore.

Toys

Here we have a variety of pool toys available now. What better way to lounge in the pool than on your very own x-wing (complete with squirt gun)? The one toy I like, and will be trying to track down, is the R2-D2 floating drink island. I mean, really, how cool is that?  The only thing that would make it better would be if the R2 top opened and he had ice inside.  Maybe in next year’s model.

Video Games

There may not be much coming out soon in the galaxy far far away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t start getting excited about The Old Republic. Bioware are working on the next chapter of their force-tastic KOTOR series. This time set in a MMORPG format. Coming from Bioware, the game will have a stronger story and be completely voiced. A cinematic trailer was released last month at E3. If you haven’t seen it, check it out or you will have to hand in your plastic lightsaber.

Roleplaying Games

The big release this summer from Wizards of the Coast is the Jedi Academy Training Manual and associated miniatures. This book enhances Jedi in any campaign, giving them more powers, lightsaber customization options, and force sensitive villains to fight. The book is out now and the miniatures should be hitting shelves this week.

That should do it.  Have a great summer and may the force be with you.