Star Wars Omnibus: X-Wing Rogue Squadron, Volume 1

Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron #0-2

by Jane Espenson, Mike Baron, W. Haden Blackman

The greatest starfighters of the Rebel Alliance become the defenders of a New Republic in this massive collection of stories featuring Wedge Antilles, hero of the Battle of Endor, and his team of ace pilots known throughout the galaxy as Rogue Squadron!

Meet the Rogues for the first time and learn the fate of the galaxy immediately after the events of Return of the Jedi as the Rebellion's best pilots battle remnants of the Empire wherever its ugly agenda of fear and domination appears.

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

296 pages, Paperback

First published June 7, 2006

About the author

Jane Espenson is an American television writer and producer who has worked on both situation comedies and serial dramas. She had a five-year stint as a writer and producer on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shared a Hugo Award for her writing on Conversations with Dead People. Between 2009-2010 she served on Caprica, as co-executive and executive producer for the series. In 2010 she wrote an episode of HBO's A Game of Thrones, and joined the writing staff for Series 4 of Torchwood, which will air on Starz in the US and the BBC in the UK in 2011. She will be co-writing the pilot episode for the US remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the spirit of Star Wars Day (May the 4th be With You) and Revenge of the Fifth (Yes, we Star Wars geeks take our $#!+ seriously), I read this Omnibus and simultaneously discovered that Dark Horse has no less than 35 Omnibus collections of Star Wars comics, and that's not to mention Marvel Comics that has their own extensive compilations.

This one, along with the next two compilations, focuses on the Rogue Squadron after the Battle of Endor (Star Wars Chapter VI: Return of the Jedi), where Wedge Antilles and his Squadron of X-Wing fighters are heralded as heroes. Although it looks like the Rebel Alliance has defeated the Empire, the galaxy is a vast place. Not everyone has received the message of a New Republic. It therefore behooves the Rogue Squadron to remain alert to deal with the pockets of resistance throughout.

This is a great way to learn about a new set of characters, as well as watch ancillary characters step up to take bigger and grander roles in the (Dark Horse) Star Wars universe. It's cool and fun but pisses me off that since ABC/Disney/Marvel/Star Wars have become one company, the Dark Horse stuff is NO LONGER considered canon. Oy vey!

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

After getting burned five or six times, I pay little attention to what's going on in the Star Wars Extended Universe. Except when it comes to X-Wings. Yes, my favorite Star Wars character, in the entirety of the canon, is Wedge Antilles. And yet I'd never gotten around to reading the X-Wing comics. This was very, very bad of me, and I'm trying to fix it now.

The Omnibus collects three of the X-Wing miniseries, plus a character guide to the series. They're all set very, very shortly after the events of Return of the Jedi, immediatly after The Truce at Bakura. It might help to have read that book beforehand, but I never have and I did just fine. Everything that's really important (namely, that the war isn't over because the Emperor is dead) is covered on the page. These are, for the most part, totally different Rogues than are seen in the comics. Wedge, Hobbie, Wes, and Tycho are all here, of course, but otherwise totally new characters to me. Not a bad thing.

The first of the minis, Rogue Leader, is by Haden Blackman. It's just ok. Basically without substance. Luckily, it's short. The next two are great improvements. Both The Rebel Opposition and The Phantom Affair are co-written by Michael A Stackpole, who would go on to write the Rogue Squadron books. The Rebel Opposition is co-written by Mike Baron, and is the lesser of the two. The plot doesn't really do anything for me, and it's honestly a bit shallow. The Phantom Affair (co-written by Darko Macan), on the other hand, is more like the Rogue books I've read. It's got the action and characters that I'm used to reading about in an X-Wing book.

The art... Well. Rogue Leader's art is serviceable, but not terribly good. The Rebel Opposition's art is frankly pretty terrible. Tycho looks oddly like Luke Skywalker, and Winter, who is supposed to look like Leia, doesn't. However, it had at least one fantastic cover by Dave Dorman. That beautiful, iconic painting of Wedge on a backdrop of X-Wings? My favorite piece of Star Wars art? This is where it came from. The Phantom Affair, finally, has decent art.

If I were rating these minis seperately, Rogue Leader would be a 3 (I'm grading a curve, because it's Rogues), The Rebel Opposition a 3.5, and The Phantom Affair a solid 4. I'm upgrading the whole collection to a 4 because it's Rogues, and I'm biased.

Oh, and that Rogue Squadon Handbook at the end? If you're reading the Rogue comics for the first time, then for the love of God, don't read it. It was published way after the minis collected here, and has spoilers for future comics. I have no idea what it's doing here, but it was a bad, bad, bad idea to include it. It should have been put at the end of the last omnibus instead.

[Drew Canole · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first story ends with the text: "We've have a fleet to protect, and a galaxy to inspire." - I wonder if the whole Omnibus series has been compiled with that quality of editing. It kind of ruined the ending for me.

I stopped reading after that first story. Why should I put the effort into reading this book when it's obvious the people at Darkhorse didn't?

My copy didn't contain any of the original covers, or even any information about the stories.

The idea behind this omnibus series is nice: collect a bunch of comics that would otherwise never be collected and re-printed. But the quality is what you would expect from that: a collection of comics that don't deserve to be reprinted.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty "meh" and could use some better editing...

[Caolainn]

This isn’t the book I read but I can’t seem to find the actual one 🤔

[Jaime K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this on the Dark Horse app, which doesn't have the page numbers in it, so I'll be going off the app # if cite anything.

I loved that there was a diagram of an X-Wing from the start.

Rogue Leader
The cover art is amazing. Actually, all the art is breathtaking. The details and colours (and clarity, though I don't know if that's the app or the art) draw me in with their accuracy and vibrancy. The purple lightning around the TIEs was pretty cool too.
It's because it's done by Michael Atiyeh. I keep an eye out for his name as I find his work spectacular.

Here we get snippets on Ten Numb, Tycho Celchu, Wes Janson, Wedge Antilles, and Luke Skywalker. The five head to Corellia for a bit of R&R, but also to begin tracking down Imperials who will fight to the end.

Ten is captured by Weir, a creepy Imperial leader who I feel will come back into play despite his being in a Sullust prison.
I liked how the writer and artists showed that Imperial grounds are lush with machinery, a contrast to the more natural bases the Rebels choose. Imps are proper and high-tech with money; Rebels are not. Imps rule with an iron fist (hah, literally), drones, and fear; Rebels fight back with heart.

I also like how Luke and Wedge have a discussion about what they plan for post-Endor, and we see Luke essentially giving command to Wedge.


The Rebel Opposition
This was written by Michael A. Stackpole (yay!) and the art is quite realistic. Tycho and Wes are shot down on a mission, and Wedge & others (Force-sensitive Sullustan named Dllr among them) go after them. I'm very surprised how quick Wedge is to trust Elscol and Groznik, especially after Elscol had a blaster pointed at him. I guess it's because she's good-looking ;)

Groznik is a Wookiee with a "Blood Debt" (which made me chuckle) to Elscol. One of the panels had his Wookiee toes showing. I don't recall Wooks having human-like toes but I haven't seen much art with them.

One of my issues with the art is that Tycho looks like Luke too often.
An issue with the story is that the stormtrooper suits can move on their own. It's just weird.

It made me squee when Winter showed up (and she doesn't look like Leia at all. Either people in the story are dumb or the art just isn't up to par with her). Winter explains Tycho's story, but I can see why someone who hasn't read the novels would maybe be suspicious of him. The real traitor though is known to the reader, and the characters soon realize it too.


The Phantom Affair
This was also written by Stackpole. The paneling is less traditional here, which is great. The art is quite intricate too.

Wedge et. al. are on Mrlsst where he sees Mirax Terrik. Their former nicknames - Myra and Veggies - are hilarious! I enjoyed seeing them reminiscing.
There's an Ante-Endor Association (AEA) that insists Endor didn't happen. Right. I do find it super odd that it's Ante and not Anti.
Wedge's parents are named as Jagged and Zene. I don't recall those names from the novels.

There is a band called Ghost Jedi, and their music is apparently very mathematical. I'd like to hear what that means!

I really love the space scene on page 200 (probably 201 in the regular comic). The angle was a bit different and made the ship seem to pop off the page. The page of the hoverbed rising up the tree to the "underground" of Mrlsst was also great imagery.

The ending is beautiful, even with the odd Ghost Jedi.


X-Wing Rogue Squadron Handbook
This knocks it from a 5-star to a 4.5-star (more of a 4-star). It's a guide to characters, vessels and situations throughout the entire X-Wing series. It's an obvious testament to the fact that the comics differ from the novels.
- Isard tried seducing Soontir. It may have happened in the novels, but I don't recall it.
- Moff Leonia Tavira is a TEEN who took advantage of her husband's suicide. That's just weird.

I enjoyed the image of the Reconnaissance X-Wing.

[Xan · Rating 3 out of 5]

En un tiempo muy, muy lejano lo habría disfrutado como un enano. Pero ha sido una tarde entretenida.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like there are going to be a lot of 3-star ratings in all of the Omnibus titles. They're fun Star Wars books if that sort of thing appeals, but the ones I have read thus far aren't anything to write home about. They aren't even canon anymore, so reading these doesn't even catch you up with the lore before the onslaught of upcoming movies and other media Disney is putting out. But they are good and fun and omg omnibus editions are the best way to read comics.

This isn't really a review, but I do want to point out something since this is Vol 1, in case you are new to reading Star Wars stuff. A lot of the comics won't deal with the main characters from the movies, so be sure to read the descriptions to figure out who is actually in the book you're about to pick up.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid writing and art direction across the board here.

[elef · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars i like it!! especially the first arc was so good

[David Cordero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wedge Antilles and Rogue Squadron continue to bring the battle to the Imps months after the death of the Emperor and the destruction of the second Death Star at Endor.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 1 out of 5]

X-Wing Rogue Squadron is supposed to be about the Rebel Alliance’s badass group of pilots. Too bad you won’t get that here.

Ok maybe that’s a bit sarcastic, since this volume does include stories about Wedge, Tycho, Jansen, and a few others who populate the ranks of Rogue Squadron. However, the stories included here in X-Wing Rogue Squadron don’t really tell any great tales or show how amazing this group is. So they can shoot down tie fighters? Han and Lando and about 20 other pilots did that multiple times.

Instead you get 3 half-assed, weak ass, and still ridiculously long bits and pieces of stories that don’t even make sense. I’ll give Blackman’s story a little bit of credit since it was the most fun and most recognizable Star Wars themed story in the collection, but Stackpole’s 2 arcs were just ridiculous. Combine that with horrible 1980’s Marvel illustrations and this collection was hugely disappointing.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rogue Squadron is the elite dogfighting force in the Rebel Alliance. The best of the best. Basically the Top Gun-trained crew. After the defeat of the Galactic Empire with the destruction of the second Death Star, things don't slow down for them. The Empire is still very much alive, just segmented. And Rogue Squadron is trying to ferret them out and defeat them so the Empire can never rise again.

This collected volume contains 13 issues of the comic as published by Dark Horse Comics. That's 280 pages plus another 20 pages with profiles of characters and vehicles featured in the volume. And it's pretty decent stuff if you enjoy that 80s comic sensibility. The art feels like any other that would come from comics of the day -- such as Larry Hama's G.I. Joe or whatnot -- and the dialogue falls in line pretty well. I felt like this could've been any comic I read as a kid, nothing that distinguishes itself like comics do in this day and age.

And perhaps that is part of the problem. I've become so spoiled by the bredth of creativity in comics that this sort of thing really requires me letting go and delving into my childhood to truly enjoy. It's possible, just not easy. But, given the recent change in possession of Star Wars comics from Dark Horse to Marvel, it's nice to go back and read some classics. Give it a go.

[Ondřej Puczok · Rating 2 out of 5]

Velitel Rogue
Proč by čtenář měl mít při čtení samostatného příběhu ze světa Star Wars encyklopedické znalosti o celém univerzu? A to ještě když informace pochází z nějaké méně známé knihy "legend" (Bitva o Bakuru? Příměří Impéria a nové republiky? Invaze Ssi-Ruuk? Cože?). Zdejší ilustrace navíc nejsou nejpěknější... Na druhou stranu je to zajímavé pokračování děje po bitvě o Endor. Impérium se nevzdává, všichni mají spousty otázek a nejistoty (nebo naděje), někteří ještě ani vše neví...

Opozice proti rebelům
Klasický příběh, klasická kresba. Musí ale být všichni ti hrdinové tak podobní? A nechybí tam nějaké stránky na vysvětlení a pro lepší pochopení? Některé postavy se jen objeví, některé se divně míjí... Jaká je vlastně pointa?

Fantómová aféra
Hezčí a přehlednější kresba, jen nechápu onu strukturu příběhu v příběhu, kde ještě dostaneme i nějaké ty flashbacky. Stále ale příliš nepřehledné na klidné pohodové čtení.

...jako celek je tedy pro mě tento omnibus zklamáním. Když to srovnám s novějším Star Wars: Vader - Stíny a tajemství, nemá to ten pořádný "Star Wars" pocit, je to zmatené, hůře ilustrované a bez pořádné pointy. Slabší 2,5 hvězdy.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the X-Wing series of 9 books years ago but never read the comics. Spotting this in a library, I thought it was a good opportunity to see what I was missing out on. Turns out I was missing quite a bit! While the book series starts 2 and a half years after Endor, this starts just after the big battle. The first story was written in 2005 but the other two in the mid-90s(last two Michael A Stackpole stories). The first story isn't up to the standard of the last two but its still all great fun, just like the original book series. There are some amusing errors, like the 2nd story everyone's lasers are red (including Tie Fighters) but in the 3rd everyone's lasers are green (including blasters!), Interdicators referred to as Dreadnaughts and a Z-95 Headhunter that looks strangely like an X-Wing. And for whatever reason Tycho Celchu looks strangely like Luke Skywalker at times, which leads to some confusion in the first story (who's flying that Tie Fighter? lol). Anyway, very entertaining and fun in the Star Wars tradition, unlike many other modern products churned out with the Star Wars name on it.

[Stephen Theaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two stories here, Rogue Leader and The Rebel Opposition, are a bit average. It was a bit of a struggle to get through them. The third, though, The Phantom Affair, is a huge improvement in every regard - plot, script, art, lettering, the works! All those things combine to leave it looking more like a French album than a mid-nineties Dark Horse comic. One of the things for which I was most grateful in the third story was that distinguishing between the human members of the team finally became possible, both in their dialogue and in their looks.

If I was reviewing The Phantom Affair alone I would have given it four stars, while Rogue Leader and The Rebel Opposition would have got two.

A curse on whoever decided to include the Rogue Squadron Handbook at the back of this volume. If it had contained spoilers for this book, that would have been bad enough, but it's full of spoilers for future volumes too (e.g. including an ally from this book in the villains section). So watch out for that - or rather don't watch out for it, keep your eyes averted!

[The Rudie Librarian (Brian) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good read. I am drawn more to the Jedi side of the Star Wars world so I think that is why I don't care as much about this as I would. Over all very enjoyable.

[Gav451 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 distinct tales and 3 distinct and different styles of art. It was workmanlike and good enough for the most part as opposed to the stunning you get in some comics. I do not want to damn it with faint praise however and these were clearly comics written and produced to more punishing schedules. They are symptomatic of the times in which they were produced.

Some of the designs took me out of the stories. In the first there was a decision to dress one character like Han. Like they did Lando at the end of The Empire strikes back. That seemed an odd decision to me and every time I saw it, I disengaged from the Narrative.

The stories were OK. Maybe because I was reading them at a time of stress or maybe because I was not focussing enough but I never fully engaged. This may not be the writer's fault. I left the book not really keeping much I read with me.#

Having said all that I never hated it, I read it until the end and there were moments I enjoyed. I would not categorise it as a bad read, just not a great one.

[Chrian Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is rated 3.5/5 for me.
While a majority of the storylines didn’t hook me, it was integral to finally see some light on who’s who in the X-Wing series of books also authored by Michael Stackpole.

It felt inconsistent in its storytelling, but it was enough to hook me in that Rogue Squadron did have a lot of ups and downs.

I liked the Cilpar affair. It’s wholly integral to the series.
The Mrlssi affair was alright, but it lacked a convincing villain.
Lastly, the first part was my least fave- Rogue Commander felt filler and just added a body to the breadth of the story, with General Weir looking like a violent stereotype just waiting to be killed off.

At least it gave a daring introduction to Winter, Elscol Lara and Tycho Celchu- some characters you’ll see later in EU settlements.

I hope the comic series gets better on its
second volume, it’s been lackluster but fun.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Review from 2024)
At the height of my pre-teen/teen reading of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, this omnibus slipped in among the content more focused on Jedi, The Clone Wars, etc. There’s definitely a noticeable gap in quality between the stories collected in it, with the one from the 1990s being the better of the two despite still being pretty “okay”. Still this was really what started getting my Star Wars fan self more interested into Wedge Antilles and these days the character is probably Top 15 characters in the franchise. I did like getting his pre-Rebellion backstory. Nothing too climatic or franchise defining overall but looking back I did have fond memories of reading this collection.

[Britain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the novels following the comics years ago but was never a big comic book reader.

Mica found this omnibus for me.

It is fantastic. The depictions of these characters mostly match what I imagined of those who carried over into the novels such as Tycho, Janson, Hobbie, Mirax, and even Winter.

The medium opens up dialogue since Stackpole and the other writers didn't need to "waste" time writing descriptions. There are just some expressions, body language, action, et cetera that can only be conveyed in image not English.

Granted, in 2025, I see the influence on character drawings from the 90s. Dennis Lawson was not as broad-shouldered as 90s-drawn Wedge Antilles.

Overall, I'm on the lookout for the other omnibus collections if they're still available.

[J.B. Mathias · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really sure what to make of this. I love these dark horse omnibus volumes and I enjoyed reading it, but it just seemed kind of bland. None of the characters seemed interesting, in fact it kind of seemed like they wrote the characters to be the main cast and then changed it at the last minute, Tycho Celchu looks just like Han Solo and I kept forgetting he wasn't Han Solo throughout. None of the original characters really interested me, and the plot wasn't that interesting either, in fact for a lot of this I wasn't really sure what anyone was trying to accomplish. Still the art was decent and it had it's moments.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of wish I'd gone back and added the omnibus collections in with the regular novels when I was reading the EU in chronological order. It's weird jumping back so far and refamiliarizing myself with all the members of Rogue Squadron.

I have to say, the artwork in this collection is ... not great. I won't go so far as to say it's horrible, since it gets the job done, but Luke doesn't look like Luke, and Winter, who's supposed to be a doppelgänger for Leia, doesn't look like Leia. Plus, there are some cases where the characters' faces look completely wrong (eyeballs don't line up properly and such).

[Victor Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of memorable adventures that are part of the best ever published of the former Expanded Universe of Star Wars, before the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney. This edition is full of endearing characters, telling the adventures of the most successful X-Wing squad of the Galaxy. Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson, Hobbie Clivan, Tycho Celchu and others are members of several important missions of the group, with original stories honoring the films of the Classic Trilogy, also showing what happened to the supporting characters. It was a very enjoyable read that I made at the turn of the year, a must read to all Star Wars fans.

[Erick M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una colección de historias más que divertidas e interesantes del Rogue Squadron en el universo expandido!! Es genial leer un poco más de mi equipo favorito de sw y vaya que no decepcionó!
El arte es un poco raro a veces y algunos detalles se me escaparon a veces (culpa del inglés), pero el inicio se las arregla para ser sólido y mantiene un estándar interesante, conexiones varias a otros trabajos de legends.
Mi conclusión: altamente recomendable!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork in the Rogue Leader storyline drove me crazy. I spent a good chunk of one issue thinking Wedge was Han Solo. Nice to see "Targeter" get some special agent screentime in the first Rogue Squadron story arc; the artwork picks up in the second arc. I'm not terribly attached to any if the characters so far besides Wedge. On to the next.

[Jeni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wish I would've read this series first, as this takes place immediately after Endor. Pour one out for Ten Numb, I was surprised he didn't make it, even knowing he isn't in later books. We get some Wedge backstory, specifically how his parents died (which was weird to read the name Jagged, as I associate it more with the grandson named after him).

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of a strange collection. It had a few new issues called Rogue Leader, which were great, and then a bunch of the late 90s Dark Horse Rogue Squadron comics, two story arcs to be exact. All in all they were pretty good once you got into the story, but squashing those two unrelated series together into one volume like they were a collection was just weird.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as the Dark Times Omnibus I just read. The team in this book spends too much time on the ground. It’s Star Wars, not Ground Wars LOL.

I will read volumes 2 and 3 though. I plant to read through the entire 35 volumes of the Star Wars Omnibus series of graphic novels. They’re a nice 1-2 hour read.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great classic Star Wars comics fun.