Last year, writer Cavan Scott partnered with Dark Horse Comics to bring fans the excellent short-story anthology Star Wars: Tales from the Rancor Pit, which was ostensibly intended to be a Halloween release but was delayed until late November. Thankfully last week’s just as fantastic follow-up release, entitled Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star, has come out just in time before the end of the 2023 spooky season.
Much like with Rancor Pit, Tales from the Death Star features a wrap-around narrative that Scott uses as a device to introduce each of the four other short stories contained within the hardcover volume. But this one is even more interesting, in that it takes place on Endor’s moon of Kef Bir, which was introduced in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and pretty much ignored by the franchise since then. We also get to spend some time with the little-seen character of Jannah (also from TROS) and her squadron of ex-First Order stormtroopers, one of whom wants to venture off from the group and explore the wreckage of the second Death Star submerged in Kef Bir’s enormous ocean. On the shore before he departs, this young man named Fry is confronted by a mysterious, hooded figure who warns him of the dangers he would face. To better illustrate the point, the figure begins a series of tales involving both Death Stars, each more spooky (in a decidedly family-friendly way) than the last.
One tale involves outlaws who are enlisted to hunt the dianoga– and another, perhaps even more dangerous creature– stalking the halls of the Death Star. Another sees two Imperial TIE fighter pilots pursued by an enigmatic “Wild Squadron” of ghostly ethereal starfighters on Life Day. The penultimate story involves an Imperial officer who steals a mystical ring from Emperor Palpatine and uses it to reanimate expired members of the workforce building the second Death Star. I’d say this particular tale had a bit of its thunder stolen when Star Wars: Ahsoka introduced zombie stormtroopers a few weeks ago, but it’s still good twisted fun nevertheless. The final story is probably my favorite, in that it’s the most subdued and grounded of all of them. This tale follows Grand Moff Tarkin as he is haunted by all those he has had a hand in killing throughout his life, including his own brother Gideon. I loved seeing cameo appearances by the spirits Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and even Orson Krennic in this piece, among others.
I’m just loving these Halloween-season Star Wars anthologies so much because they allow Cavan Scott and the talented artists he’s collaborating with (here they are Soo Lee, Vincenzo Riccardi, Fico Ossio, Ingo Romling, and Juan Samu) to really go hog-wild with the ideas and their respective illustrations. One doesn’t often think of the horror genre when envisioning A Galaxy Far, Far Away, but I think Scott and other writers like George Mann have proven that they do work together quite well when handled appropriately. And this comic-book anthology context sure seems like the perfect place to explore these somewhat out-there ideas, as the stories are couched in unreliable-narrator flashbacks that beg the question of whether or not they “really” happened within the larger canon. All told, I really hope this trend continues as Halloweens come and go, and as Dark Horse retains the rights to publish these terrific collections from Lucasfilm Publishing.
Star Wars: Tales from the Death Star is available now wherever comics and books are sold.