Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: Tales of the Jedi, Vol. 1

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection #1

by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema (Illustrator)

The origins of the Jedi order are revealed! Journey all the way back to the beginning, more than 25,000 years before the saga of the Skywalkers, and discover how the Jedi began! Before lightsabers, before hyperspace travel, before the Jedi's message spread throughout the galaxy. When connections to the Force were strange and new. There, on a distant planet, a group of beings strive to balance the mysterious Force. Behold the Jee'dai! But a stranger is coming, one who has a connection to the Force all his own - and the doors to the galaxy are about to swing wide open!

COLLECTING: STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE JEDI - FORCE STORM (2012) 1-5, STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE JEDI - PRISONER OF BOGAN (2012) 1-5, STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE JEDI - FORCE WAR (2013) 1-5, STAR WARS: DAWN OF THE JEDI (2012) 0

Genres: Star Wars, Comics, Graphic Novels, Science Fiction, Marvel, Fantasy, Space Opera

376 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2020

About the author

John Ostrander is an American writer of comic books. He is best known for his work on Suicide Squad, Grimjack and Star Wars: Legacy, series he helped create.

Originally an actor in a Chicago theatre company, Ostrander moved into writing comics in 1983. His first published works were stories about the character "Sargon, Mistress of War", who appeared the First Comics series Warp!, based on a series of plays by that same Chicago theatre company. He is co-creator of the character Grimjack with Timothy Truman, who originally appeared in a back up story in the First Comics title, Starslayer, before going on to appear in his own book, again published by First Comics in the mid 1980s. First Comics ceased publication in 1991, by which time Ostrander was already doing work for other comics companies (his first scripts for DC Comics were published in 1986).

Prior to his career in comic books, Ostrander studied theology with the intent of becoming a Catholic priest, but now describes himself as an agnostic. His in-depth explorations of morality were later used in his work writing The Spectre, a DC Comics series about the manifestation of the wrath of God. His focus on the character's human aspect, a dead police detective from the 1930s named Jim Corrigan, and his exploration of moral and theological themes brought new life to a character often thought of as impossible to write. He has also worked on Firestorm, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, Manhunter, Suicide Squad, and Wasteland for DC.

Reviews

[DiscoSpacePanther · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a blast revisiting the ancient history of the Star Wars Classic EU. This collection covers a story arc detailing the first contact between the Je'daii of Tython and the Rakatan Infinite Empire, thousands of years before the founding of the Old Republic.

The artwork is very evocative, and the characters are all suitably villainous or heroic as befits a semi-mythological pre-lightsaber (kind of) ancient Jedi history. It's good to see a fun-loving member of the Sith species being one of the Je'daii, a reminder of the convoluted chain of retcon after retcon introduced into the Star Wars continuity to explain just precisely what a Sith was before George Lucas got anywhere close to enlightening the audience in The Phantom Menace.

The dialogue is pretty wooden, but then again I wasn't expecting Shakespeare (or even Ian Doescher) from a Star Wars comic collection. Like Jango Fett's clones - the words do their job.

[Kamil Bryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pierwszy arc trochę meh, ale tak jak drugi wchodzi na zdecydowanie wyższe obroty, tak trzeci czyta się właściwie z zapartym tchem. W historii nie ma nic oryginalnego i jest dość przewidywalna, ale to nie przeszkadza w dobrej zabawie i zaangażowaniu się w fabułę, Graficznie całość prezentuje się fantastycznie, choć, jak ktoś już zauważył, postaci są naprawdę przeseksualizowane: albo kwadratowe szczeny, gołe klaty, giga chady, albo mmm, mmm cycunie. No cóż, taki chyba urok tego typu komiksów.

[Eye-ra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this to be a pretty damn solid read.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've experienced a wide range of emotions reading the books in the Legends EU, but this is the first time I was straight-up BORED. I didn't even think that was possible.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining plot, the writing is a little overdone, art not to my taste. It's a shame this is all we'll ever get of this series, a lot of potential here.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting book. Epic is a rancor dragon. The surprising thing is that this was all about neutral Je'daii and dark side users fighting. The Jedi of light didn't exist yet.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a solid read, its so ambitious like in a good way and it really changes your perception about the Jedi and the galaxy of star wars and yeah I love it. There are so many new concepts introduced as it should and it really takes quite a bit of time to read too!

There is a lot introduced in the first arc with Force hunters and all and how the Jedi arrived on this planet Tython and 10k years later and 3 main characters in Shae, Sek'nos and Tasha as they fight kesh and who maybe responsible for the dark side storm on the planet and lightsaber lore and other characters and myths intro and how they defeat this guy and send him to bogan moon and I really found their battle and character lore and motivations so compelling and once you get to it, the central focus on these 3 characters is so awesome!

The 2nd arc "the prisoner of bogan" was so good as we see Xesh on bogan and meeting Daegen lok and his history and their escape from the planet to go to krev coeur to make lightsabers and we know a bit about lok, his fall, his visions and all and now how other jedis are hunting for them, fun focus on shae and sak'nos and also how trill comes in and her history with Xesh and her mission for the Raakata empire, all plots coming together, the war a decade ago and what heppend that time which is referenced multiple times here.. and the big battle.. and how Xesh is saved and I really liked it! Showing the triumph of the light side for his character!

Okay that last story arc was so epic and we see the Raakata have invaded Tython system and how the Jedi are fighting them on another planet in the solar system and what it leads to, great focus on xesh and people fighting, his betrayal and Skal'nas, the Raakatan predor getting the focus and how he wants to access the gates and the history and the lore of it and its connections to the Raakata and their origin, the conflict within Xesh and how he is back to the light side saved by Shae and I loved their love story! epic arc!

It did feel like it was being rushed as the 2nd arc took it slow and seems like they were told to wrap it up with 3rd arc and it does feel like if it had a little more time we could have developed the characters more and their mission and like actually done a long run or something but then again good wrap up despite the obvious criticisms.

The #0 issue in the end if you read after reading the whole thing, it will make you appreciate this world and system and how much thought the writer has put into it and really expanded the central world from which the Jedi came and actually setting stage for lots of stories to come.. or rather connecting them all and yeah the #0 issue can feel like a wiki thing but then again its meant to be read in the end I feel.

I like some characters like Xesh obviously as he gets the most focus here and obviously his arc of redemption multiple times is the best and there is the romance with Shae Koda which was cool too, and she does get a bit of shine here and there but her riding that rancor dragon was badass. Other good characters were Sek'nos whose a sith (species) and we see the connection to the larger lore there so yeah fun read overall and yeah takes a bit of time to finish and can be a lot to take in sometimes. But definitely read it!!

[J.W. Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Years have passed since the bloody Despot War, and it’s been millennia since the arrival of the mysterious Tho’ Yor, when pyramidal vessels appeared at different regions of the galaxy. First, they appeared to the mystic ancient order of Dai Bendu monks, then they appeared to the worlds of scores of other peoples and races, bringing cosmic enlightenment, and finally taking all to the Core Worlds at the center of the galaxy. This is when many beings discovered the Force and their connection to it. And on the Force-radiating planet of Tython, the Dai Bendu formed a new order of mystics, known as the Jedaii. For millennia, these Jedaii have protected the known galaxy, especially the Jedaii Rangers, who roam the distant frontier of space and keep law and order amongst the stars. But a new threat has emerged; a tyrannical alien empire that gorges itself on the dark side of the Force has sent forth a scout ship to search for new prey and beings to enslave, and the known galaxy shall discover a monstrous threat it’s never known before…….

When I first read the “Dawn of the Jedi” story arc, it was in the novel “Into the Void” by Tim Lebbon. The collected tpbs of the Dawn of the Jedi comics were, by this point, rare and expensive, and I had no idea that Marvel had released an “Epic Collection” collecting them all. Being a bit confused with some of the terms and happenings thrown at me in “Into the Void,” I decided to look again for the original collected comics and thankfully, finally found the Marvel collected edition and purchased it.
What follows is a very entertaining and interesting read with flashy and impressive artwork about the beginnings of the Jedi Order, the distant, ancient past of the Star Wars galaxy, and the beginnings of what would become known as the Dark Jedi, or the Sith.
I must admit that I didn’t love every one of the heroes in this, in fact, there were some that my mind kind of glossed over as I didn’t find them interesting, but the three or four that I did like, I really enjoyed. And the villains in this series, the Infinite Rakatan Empire, are some of the most sadistic, evil beings I’ve ever seen in the Star Wars mythos.
There is much swashbuckling adventure, shootouts, battles, and dogfights/starfights to please any Star Wars fan here, complete with cosmic mystery and powerful mystical forces. At times, though, it doesn’t feel completely like Star Wars as it takes place tens of thousands of years in the past, but is still interesting and enjoyable. And even though I didn’t get all my questions answered about just what happened between the Dawn of the Jedi and the Old Republic eras in this collection, it was an engrossing and enjoyable, worthwhile read.

I give “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Epic Collection” a 4.5 out of 5.

[Mister · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all the title of this book, "Tales of the Jedi Vol 1" can be a bit confusing. It contains the "Dawn of the Jedi" series. It's not directly related to the original "Tales of the Jedi" series. The original "Tales of the Jedi" series chronologically begins with "The Golden Age of the Sith" story arc and the first story arc released was "Tales of the Jedi" which was later renamed "Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic" to differentiate it from the other story arcs (and to be extra confusing that is different from the "Knights of the Old Republic" series by John Jackson Miller). Hopefully we will eventually see the other Tales of the Jedi story arcs re-released in new Epic Collection: Tales of the Jedi volumes sometime soon.

Now back to this volume 1, Dawn of the Jedi... the artwork is quite good in this graphic novel and there are some cool and unique looking characters. Some of the elements of the story are interesting too. Unfortunately there is a lot to criticize here as well. We are introduced to the "Je'Daii," the predecessors of the Jedi as we know them. The Je'Daii focus on the balance of the force, welcoming both the light and dark aspects rather than only embracing the light. It doesn't really feel like it fits the lore of Star Wars, it feels very off. Other elements of the story feel very off as well, including the minor love story. Actually calling it a love story is giving it too much credit, it doesn't feel at all motivated.

At the beginning of the story some large unmanned ships gather force sensitive beings from different planets and bring them to Tython. Tython is a planet that is very reliant on the balance of the force. It tends to kill off beings that don't have the proper dark/light balance through it's flora/fauna or weather. Additionally if there isn't balance of dark/light within the people it seems to rather upset the planet, creating force storms. It feels a bit silly. I tried to look past these things as much as I could as there were hints of good story elements and character designs beyond them, but it can be challenging. Then there's a rancor with wings. Sigh.

All in all, there is a basic underlying structure of a decent story and what could have been some very interesting characters if their dialogue and story had been as well fleshed out as the artwork. There might have been potential here, but it wasn't fulfilled.

[B.A.G. Studios · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely a stronger story than the related novel. But I still have so many of the same problems I had there here. For being so many millennia removed, it looks way too similar. Again, the only real difference is the lack of lightsabers. Otherwise, this is just a “What If Quinlan Vos was a herald of Galactus?” story. This would be cool enough setup if it went anywhere, but I don’t think it’s a worthwhile piece on its own. It asks more questions than it answers, and I’ll mark this as one of the premiere casualties of the Disney buyout. Without having time to explain the Tho Yor, the entire collection feels meaningless to me. Sure, it has some nice commentary on the viability of a balance between light and dark. But we’ve done that before, and it had more stakes for the Galaxy at large. This might have those stakes, but the series didn’t last long enough to tell me about them. It’s a shame, but unfortunately that leaves this very much without a home.
The Rakatans seem interesting. And if they have an “Infinite Empire,” it seems they travel a lot. Must be a lot more to the galaxy than we know. But we’ll never see it. Would be cool to see how the Jedi philosophy evolves out of this era, and the Sith for that matter. But we’ll never see that. Might’ve liked to know who put the Tho Yor there, what the deal is with those, but we’ll never learn that. So what do I do with this?
It feels like gaps are missing, it feels like the ending is missing, and overall, I was just bored. Even the art I can’t truly praise, everyone looks like they’re shouting all the time. And sometimes, randomly, it looks like a bunch of CGI Blender renders on a comic book page. I don’t know enough about art to explain why, but it was very off putting to look at. Almost that tracing style most people don’t like, except worse.
Yeah, the more I talk, the less I like this book, so I’m going to stop now.

[Tony Romine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some stories really benefit from a non-linear narrative style, but the Dawn of the Jedi comics collected here really don't. It's not entirely non-linear, but there are key elements to the story that they reserve for surprise twists rather than helping the reader get a grasp of what's going on.

At it's core, it's not a complicated story, but there's an overview of the world Ostrander created at the beginning that is both rushed and overlong at the same time. It's an unnecessary information dump that can be easily solved by some sort of Issue #0 where they explain, in brief detail, an overview of what you're about to read. Lucky for you, the Marvel Epic Collection includes this issue #0, but puts it at the end as an extra rather than before the comics you're going to read and where that kind of info would be useful.

The story and characters themselves? Honestly not that bad for a Star Wars comic. I've read a ton of the expanded universe at this point and these comics are a decent entry into the lore of the franchise. The problem is that there seems to be skipped moments that would help you make better sense of the narrative. The comics here are grouped into 3 books of 5 issues each and the gap between the end of book 2 and the beginning of book 3 was jarring to the say the least, a year has passed and there are some huge character turns that happen that I basically had to tell myself "I guess it happened during that year" to keep reading.

In the end it's something for completionists to read, but I couldn't recommend it to casual Star Wars fans.

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m amazed this is sitting currently above an aggregate 4.2 rating on Goodreads when I thought a 3/5 was erring well into generosity. The Dawn of the Jedi series was clearly planning to go other places, but as far as it got, it sort of attempts to flesh out the Rakatan Infinite Empire that predates KOTOR. There’s a lot that just doesn’t work well here. Rancor dragons are silly. The forcesabers in the Legends canon through out the notion of early lightsabers needing waist-mounted or back-mounted supply packs and that they run off anger is just...weird and never meaningful to the narrative. The arc itself isn’t really compelling — Xesh turns twice on a dime and his romance with Shae is woefully underdeveloped. Lok is maybe the most interesting character on tap here, but he’s not even really a central character for much of the final arc. How the Rakatans came to power (just by being the scariest bad guys?) when they eat their inferiors and seem to have no culture or familial support structure just makes zero sense. We’ve seen this time and time again in Star Wars, where the desire for a big bad defined as an alien race often forgoes any sort of logic and thereby passes over meaningful character development or opportunities for thematic richness. The more I write here, the more I feel like I’m talking myself into a 2/5...

[Evan Dossey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. Complete fucking garbage. I was a fan of the Ostrander / Duursema runs on Clone Wars and to a lesser extent Legacy, even though I find his love for the Grey Jedi trope baffling. That schtick runs rampant here, along with a ton of bizzarro 'lore' about the early Jedi that amounts to....calling Jedi, Jedaii. It's really just not particularly interesting stuff and suffers from the worst of the worst when it comes to Ancient EU storytelling, which posits everything 10,000 years prior to the Original Trilogy was essentially the same, right down to Wookies on Kashyyyk and Twi'Leks on Ryloth. I dunno. One thing I love about the *original Tales of the Jedi comics* is that there was so little pre-existing lore about the Star Wars Universe that they ended up with some fairly out-there fantasy vibes while still following the traditional Fall -> Redemption Jedi plots. This just feels like it's trying way, way too hard. I wish it did not come in the same Epic set as the much better stories (Which are in vol 2, 3, and an upcoming Omnibus I will eventually buy even though it will contain Yawn of the Jedi.)

[Rick Ray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of Star Wars Legends comics takes place many millennia prior to the events of A New Hope and looks at the early precursors to the Jedi Order. It's incredibly lore dense, but Ostrander does a pretty solid job distilling it down to make the comics read easier. At times this does revel in the excess of the lore and melodrama, but the story does move along at a nice clip. The main story told across the three main miniseries collected in this volume involves the impending invasion of the Infinite Empire who seeks subjugation of a planet of Force sensitive warriors who are basically proto-Jedi Knights. There is plenty of great character drama revolving around the balance of the light and dark side - a staple to classic Star Wars, and nice set pieces involving lightsabers, aliens and spaceships. The artwork is engaging enough, though at times I did feel like it didn't always capture the ambitious scale of the storytelling. This is a solid collection of comics, and I'm interested in checking out the next volume.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title can be confusing, as this collects the entire Dawn of the Jedi series, which is 20,000 years before the Tales of the Jedi series. I suppose I could have waited for the omnibus that collects both series in one book, but that just doesn't feel right to me, since they are two distinct eras both chronologically and in terms of when they were written.

As a huge fan of the Legacy comic series by this same team of Ostrander and Duursema, I was pretty excited about delving into this comic series. The art definitely carries it more than anything. The settings and creatures look cool, with a bit of a metal music album cover aesthetic. Unfortunately, the characters feel very lacking in personality. I didn't really care much about anyone. There are interesting ideas here and there, but there's not much reason to care when the players are bland.

[Taka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was excellent, 5/5. Every page looks beautiful.

Now the rest, ugh. Clunky dialogues, plot holes everywhere, awkward gaps in the story, illogical explanations, too on-the-nose implications, unnecessary backstories for well known elements in the Star Wars Universe (how was the lightsaber introduced, where the GE symbol comes from), and so on.

At a point I didn't know if the story was written for teenagers or by teenagers. Seriously, one of the very first dialogues shows 3 je'daii trainees basically drooling over another trainee, and I know this is fiction but it let me wondering who speaks like this, really. While I threw up in my mouth a little bit. And it doesn't get any better at any point in the book, it made it very difficult to finish reading it! JJ Abrams level of bad.

[Stijn Vercruysse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The earliest story of a galaxy far, far away was a surprisingly pleasant read in the Star Wars Legends.
The artwork is really fantastic and for this only a must have for comic book fans.
For Star Wars fans this also a fine addition to your collection.
The story delves deep into the story of the Rakatan infinite empire (for those who played Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic).
But most important we witness here the origins of the Jedi.
This bundle comes in handy as it is complete with the entire storyline.
Definitely a keeper.

[David Waweru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Origin of the Jedi

An interesting story of how the Force manifested it's self and trained force sensitive people from across the galaxy. The ideal of balance in the Force, is something that the Jedi have loss. It leads to their downfall, because they don't study it. They can't sense it and thus fall prey to it. I do wish they would say who built the ships that pick up the original recruits. The Ancient Race that's in the story, uses a different type of transportation. This is a good read. It's just that wish it was canon to Star Wars.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book in the Star Wars Legends Epic Collection goes way back to the origins of the Jedi. In terms of providing some backstory and history, I think that the volume is interesting enough. However, I didn't like the writing all that much. Things were very disjoint and I had a hard time keeping up with what was going on. I am looking forward to when Tales of the Jedi, Vol 2 comes out but I hope that the writing is easier to follow.

[Sara I · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always down for some Star Wars from any time period and this story was epic and had plenty of twists and breath-holding moments! I enjoyed it quite a bit, especially getting to meet some new Jedi heroes. As always, there is that toing of the line between what is light and dark and I especially liked the focus of absolutes not being the answer or key to things.

[Zach Wile · Rating 5 out of 5]

Origin of the Jedi

Great, gripping, creative story that tells of a group before the Jedi, and how they came to be. If someone recommended an expanded universe story to start with after finishing the 9 films, I’d point them to this one.

[Jessica McKendry · Rating 3 out of 5]

As someone who is a super fan of Star Wars, I really enjoyed reading this comic collection! I think if you're not a big Star Wars fan, this is probably not for you.

This story takes place 25,700-ish BBY, and in it we read about the origins of the Jedi on Tython, and their war with the cannibalistic aliens called the Rakata. My favorite characters in this were Xesh (a Force-sensitive slave to the Rakata) and Shae (a Je'daii) who end up falling in love. Together, along with other Je'daii, they work to destroy the leader of the Rakatan forces while having to face their own inner darkness.

Before going into this, I knew nothing about the Rakata or the origins of the Jedi, but everything is explained really well.

[JYukon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read

If you are a fan, it’s a great spin on the history of the Star Wars universe. Wont disappoint. Love the art work.

[Shaun Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant read, even though it is a star wars story it feels really fresh as it's set pre-hyperdrive / blasters / lightsabers. Ties in quite nicely with other aspecs of the lore. Nice art style.

[Jack Hayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining but lacks substance. A little over the top, and short.

[Great Gracchus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book. Not great, but I enjoyed it.

[John_H92 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good story telling with some great art. The characters felt a little bland though the concept was very cool.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cool look at the ancient Jedi (Je’daii). Though this is considered “legends” now it’s still a neat read.

[Rian Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Might not be canon anymore (☝️🤓) but the lore is cool as fuck as an origin for the Jedi Order so it's going in my headcanon. Cool collection

[Jedi Master Nate Lightray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Somewhat a slow start, this volume picks up once I became familiar with the characters. Very good by the end.