X-Wing Rogue Squadron, the series, had its high and lows ... and not in any particular order. This trade paperback is somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. It's the second to last story-arc, and Stackpole had mastered the comic book writing formula by this time. Unfortunately, the editors chose a completely inappropriate team to handle the art chores. I use the term "inappropriate" because the art itself isn't bad -- but it doesn't suit the tech-heavy universe of Star Wars.

Michael A. Stackpole is a fantastic writer and perfectly suited to write in the Star Wars universe. He found success and quick acceptance from the fans with his X-Wing novels, so it made perfect sense to Dark Horse to have him plot an X-Wing comic. Yes, "plot" only. But he won over the editors at DHC and midway through the series took over scripting the issues as well. A vast improvement came over the series just in time for the Horse to cancel the book. In this story-arc, the author began to bring together a lot of earlier sub-plots from the series as well as work in important points established in continuity from other sources, mainly Sate Pestage's fall from grace as leader of the floundering Empire and Chief Intelligence Director Ysanne Isard's rise to power after the death of the Emperor. Seemingly unconnected plots from earlier story-arcs came together and showed just how well Stackpole plans things out for the long haul ... either that or he just checks things off while writing and makes it up as he goes. Marvel Comics Group should put him on the payroll and have him fix the X-Men's convoluted history. Or DC Comics could put him on Hawkman, probably the single-worst continuity of a character ever. Now back to Star Wars ...

Rogue Squadron, the Rebel-Alliance-slash-New-Republic's elite X-Wing starfighter squadron has gone through many changes. It's hard to establish a roster when you get sent on the worst missions. Worst meaning deadly, not boring. But the fan favorites are there: Wedge Antilles, Wes Janson and Hobbie Klivian. Plus Stackpole's own creation, the oh-so-popular Tycho Celchu who got extra face-time in this storyline as his burgeoning relationship with Intelligence agent and Leia-decoy Winter is taken to the next level. Which level, you ask? Read the book! Stackpole also keeps us guessing on the loyalty of Baron Soontir Fel, ace Imperial pilot but currently running with the Rogues. Oh, and for all of you who are only into the films but are reading this anyway ... you get Han Solo, Chewbacca and a feisty Princess looking to bring down the Empire faster than you can say "Let's make a deal!" There's even more to this storyline -- character development of the other Rogue pilots, intense political intrigue, space pirates, kidnapping, dogfights, and most importantly a case of mistaken identity. But I don't want to overstate the quality.

And here's why. The art is simple. Simple as in style, as in it makes me think of Japanese anime where I have trouble telling the characters apart. Maybe that's where artists Johnson and Hall got their inspiration. But that's' a problem when you have this many characters running around. The artist, or in this case, artists, simply can't draw enough distinguishing hairstyles to help us keep the identities straight. And the changes in clothing keep us readers from assigning unique clothes to individuals. Thank goodness some of the pilots are aliens, or the book would have been a complete loss. The characters we can easily identify -- wrinkly Pestage, goatee'd Baron Fel, mismatched-eyes Isard -- really stand out beautifully on some pages, and you can see how good the artists are. Even Han and Chewbacca look fantastic and show a range of emotions beautifully. But don't put Han next to Wedge, next to Tycho, next to Hobbie. You'll only know Han thanks to his trademark vest. Then turn the page to shift scenes where you've got three human pilots with short-brown hair huddled around and you'll really be scratching your head.

The other major weakness in the art is technology. Remember this is a book about starfighter pilots. Starfighter being the keyword. The ships look like cardboard cutouts. The larger vessels look like bloated eggs. And the Millennium Falcon comes across like a pancake. Nothing has three dimensions to it. And that's not what you want in a comic book. Especially one where the battles in space should be exciting and vital and leap off the pages. These just lie there. The coloring doesn't help much, either, because it's inconsistent from page to page. It's hard to believe that one person was responsible for the whole book. But I've had this problem with Dave Nestelle before. I think he needs to be inspired by the art or is simply at a loss when looking at the black-and-white pages. Wonderful coloring on Isard as she makes her way through a shooting gallery is then transformed into a mishmash of odd color choices as we travel to a royal feast attended by some of the Rogues. Again the space battles are left to die a stagnant death on one page, but turn to the next and a beautifully colored scene unfolds between Admiral Ackbar and Antilles. A funny quip involving fish happens, too.

Terese Nielsen painted a beautiful cover for this trade paperback with Isard and Fel the centerpieces. The backgrounds with the green planet and orange moon really frame the two perfectly. A nice cityscape along the bottom with several X-wings flying about foreshadows the climax of the storyline in the skies above Axxila. The original painted comics covers by John Nadeau are given a two-page spread at the end, and like this book, they shoot about fifty percent in quality. Two of the covers are exciting space battles, but the other two character-featured covers are somewhat lackluster, especially the one with Tycho and Tavira. Interesting that it's the exact opposite of the interior artwork in this reprint. Vickie Williams does a solid lettering job, although I wouldn't mind seeing her develop different styles for different characters or to differentiate between dialogue and exposition.

So what do you want me to say to wrap this piece up -- buy it or don't buy it? Heck, I say buy it! The story is great, ignore the art where it's lacking -- you can let your imagination take it to a higher level. Good stuff happens here, and it's exactly the kind of story we want Dark Horse to publish in the future. I'll take great story with bad art over lousy story with great art any day. Especially when it comes to Star Wars. Beautiful art gets hung on a wall and glanced at from time to time. But great stories like this will get read over and over again.

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(Chad Clark is an avid fan of both comics and Star Wars. He's currently trying to live through a deadly case of boredom running rampant through the state of North Carolina. Help him survive by emailing him something interesting and well written at chad@echostation.com.)