The second volume of this series really starts to get into the intricacies of the various plot lines, but I found myself doing a lot more Wookieepedia-ing than in the previous volume. Figuring out who were major players, and who was descended from which original-trilogy characters was a bit annoying at first, not to mention getting a gloss over of the formation of the New Empire and it's split with the Galactic Alliance and the betrayal of the Empire by the Sith. It's a lot of information either way, and all of it is important to the main stroyline, so it makes sense that the writers tried to dump/cram all that info into a single graphic novel rather than try a integrate it into the whole series. It might make sense in that regard, but with some careful planning I think that they could have spread it out a bit more on an "as need" basis, just so that the reader doesn't have to spend an entire issue being vaguely confused and annoyed before the real action picks up again in the next story arc. ( )

While I am not a big fan of the Sith in this series the variety of force users is very interesting. There were some things in this volume I was not expecting or had even thought about, specifically the ending. ( )

The story picks up as we see more of the background providing the transition from the New Republic era to the Legacy era. The standalone tale "Noob" in particular stands out, and we begin to see the likable side of Cade Skywalker as he finally accepts that the Force isn't going to leave him alone. Most the pencilers in this volume handle combat fairly well, though Duursema's contribution still has that puzzling, off-balance quality. ( )

All that said, the future of Star Wars has been lying more and more with the comic books as of late. This is how to do it. This volume of Legacy moves us away from Cade Skywalker and friends to look at the wider galaxy, showing us the big picture (something Legacy of the Force has almost entirely failed at). Here we get the fall of the Galactic Alliance and then the Fel Empire, the adventures of a squad of Imperial stormtroopers, the trials and tribulations of the (cool) Imperial Knights, and the machinations of Imperial Intelligence. Now that I think about it, that's a lot of focus on the Empire, but it works here, given the "rehabilitation" of the Empire, as well as its current factionalization. These comics also make better use of the novel continuity than the novels do; it's nice to know that someone hasn't forgotten about the Yuuzhan Vong invasion. The weak points in this solid volume are the first half of "Ready to Die" and, strangely, the one story to directly impact the series' main story, "The Ghosts of Ossus", which just comes across as kind of limp and perfunctory.