Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Villains

Star Wars: Age of Resistance

by Tom Taylor, Leonard Kirk (Illustrator), Patrick Zircher (Cover Art)

Collects STAR WARS: AGE OF RESISTANCE — CAPTAIN PHASMA, GENERAL HUX, KYLO REN and SUPREME LEADER SNOKE.

This is the Age of Star Wars — an epic series of adventures that unites your favorite characters from all three trilogies! The First Order takes center stage! As Captain Phasma leads an attack on the iron planet Demir, a young Stormtrooper looks to follow in Phasma’s footsteps. But can she follow the First Order captain’s merciless ways? General Hux has always been looked down upon, but Kylo Ren’s fate will be in Hux’s hands when a sabotaged shuttle crash-lands on an unknown planet! Meanwhile, can Kylo Ren ever escape the long shadow cast by his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker — or will he succeed where Darth Vader failed? And as Supreme Leader Snoke begins Ren’s training, will the sadistic master break his tormented protégé?

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

111 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 20, 2019

About the author

Once a professional juggler and fire eater, Tom Taylor is a #1 New York Times Bestselling, multi-award-winning comic book writer, playwright and screenwriter.

Well known for his work with DC Comics and Marvel, Taylor is the co-creator of NEVERLANDERS from Penguin Random House, SEVEN SECRETS from Boom Studios and the Aurealis-Award-winning graphic novel series THE DEEP. Taylor is also the Head Writer and Executive Producer of The Deep animated series, four seasons of which is broadcast in over 140 countries.

He is perhaps best known for the DC Comics series, DCEASED (Shadow Awards Winner), NIGHTWING (nominated for 5 Eisner Awards), SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL (GLAAD Award Nominee), INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US, SUICIDE SQUAD, EARTH 2 and BATMAN/SUPERMAN as well as Marvel's FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN, ALL NEW WOLVERINE, X-MEN: RED, DARK AGES and SUPERIOR IRON MAN. Taylor is also the writer of many Star Wars series, which include STAR WARS: INVASION and STAR WARS: BLOOD TIES (Stan Lee Excelsior Award winner). Taylor has written for Marvel, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, IDW Publishing, Boom Studios, Wildstorm, 2000 AD and Gestalt Comics.

He can be followed on twitter @TomTaylorMade.

Reviews

[Jesús De la Jara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todo lo que le faltaba a las películas de esta tercera trilogía. De hecho una estrella más por llenar algo ese gran vacío que siempre ha existido pues las películas empiezan cuando ya todo está instaurado para la Primera Orden y no sólo no vemos cómo cayeron los pocos jedi que quedaban ni la formación de la primera orden sino tampoco vemos cómo ellos interactúan casi entre ellos.
En esta serie de cómics sobre los Villanos nos hablan de Snoke, Capitán Phasma, el General Hux y Kylo Ren. Cada uno tiene una aventura muy corta pero ilustrativa de sus personalidades y ambiciones. De hecho también se nos descubren algunos aspectos del entrenamiento de Kylo, de una misión muy riesgosa para Kylo y Hux, de la dirección en batalla por Phasma y el último sobre Kylo me gustó mucho también.
Un muy buen aperitivo antes de la película que ya está por llegar y que a mí me interesa bastante.

[Artemy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely the best of the entire “Age of...” series. Between the three writers Taylor has the best grip on these characters, and the new trilogy has the best set of villains in the entire Star Wars movie canon (IMO, don’t care that you disagree). The result is a fantastic set of comics that shows something new about each character in a way that feels organic and enriching. Yes, the Snoke issue is secretly another Kylo issue, but that’s great, because Kylo is an awesome character and Snoke was never going to be anything more than a foil, so I’m actually much more pleased with how that particular issue turned out than if it actually did focus on Snoke. Overall, yeah, I loved this book.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one felt more substantial than the "Heroes" volume by the same author, showing that it's sometimes good to be bad.

The First Order comes across as a dysfunctional family in which everyone resents, suspects, fears and loathes the others- it's a wonder they were able to get anything done!



I probably enjoyed the Hux story most of all and, for reasons which became clear(er) after the release of The Rise of Skywalker we did not get much more backstory on Snoke, though the accompanying article did make a pretty strong reference the the Wizard in Wizard of Oz, so clearly editorial was well aware that something was up and there was a puppetmaster behind him from the jump

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[Eva B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite graphic novels so far!! I love the sequel trilogy and its villains, so this was an excellent read for me! I'd say that my favorites in this are Hux and Snoke's stories.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was better than the Heroes counterpart, mostly because the Snoke issue is one of the best in the entire series. Kylo Ren is in nearly every issue of this, almost making it a Kylo Ren mini, which isn't a criticism because he's a cool character. I could easily take more for each of these. It's just cool to explore the bad guys isn't it?

[Joshua Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given this comic by a friend.

This set of stories goes over the main bad guys in the most trilogy (7-8-9) and helps to further expand them and center them into the Star Wars universe. What we get here aren’t stories that are ground breaking or provide crazy lore but reinforcing what lore the characters already have. If you’re a fan of Phasma, or Snoke or even Kylo, you may enjoy these as they show you more of where a character comes from and who they are.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Phasma one was just like every other Phasma story out there. The Snoke one was like every other Snoke story out there. The Hux one was....LIKE EVERY HUX STORY OUT THERE. The Kylo Ren one was actually pretty fun because he had a snarky stormtrooper foil, and also lots of Anakin echoes.

[Sophie_The_Jedi_Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but not as good as Age of Resistance Heroes.

This review will contain spoilers for The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker

Let me just start by saying that the new trilogy had some strange villains.

Kylo Ren was an excellent character with a fantastic arc. Phasma was interesting as a fan-favorite and a female villain, but she honestly didn't have too much substance within the movies for me.
Snoke was a knock-off Palpatine in TFA and then was just... nothing in TLJ. He was a really weird character. And then there's Hux. It felt like his character had more potential than was used in the movies. He was also just... weird.

PHASMA
I know Phasma has a book or two but I haven't read them yet. This story wasn't her backstory but just her being mercenary with her Stormtroopers. Interesting but nothing too special. If you think about it, Phasma didn't get a ton of screentime in TFA and TLJ, and this story doesn't really add too much to her character because she didn't have time to make herself a distinct character in the first place.

HUX
First off: oh my goodness, this story is an absolute gold mine for Kylux shippers. I never really got that ship, but wow, if you do ship it, here you go! That being said, it was interesting to get some insight into Hux's background. I was wondering throughout the story why Snoke cared about keeping Hux alive and in command so much, but that sort of got explained, and it was interesting. Ultimately, though, like Phasma, Hux was just a strange character who didn't get enough time to become more unique.

SNOKE
I was very relieved that this was not a story about Snoke's backstory but rather him training Kylo Ren. I liked seeing that and it didn't feel like the writer was struggling to come up with a Snoke story, as I thought would be the case. The focus on Kylo was nice. My jaw literally dropped when they went to DAGOBAH and then THE CAVE and then Kylo saw his parents... aah, so good! And then he didn't kill them! Which was good because if he had that would have messed up his entire arc in the movies. A very well done story! Although I do think having Kylo be able to trick Snoke so easily weakens Snoke as a character. But hey, he's already weak as heck.

KYLO REN
A very cool part of this story was having a direct parallel between Kylo and Vader. The plot is Kylo going to take over this planet that Vader once had control over. There are so many amazing panels with parallels between them and oh, it's so good. And this story had a creature that I recognized from The Clone Wars, so that was cool. But ultimately I couldn't tell what this story was. It's kind of about Kylo wanting to be better than Vader, but... what was the ending? It was just a little strange.

I did really enjoy this, and the original trilogy references in Snoke's story were incredible. I'm looking forward to getting to Age of Republic and Age of Rebellion! 4/5 stars.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comicbook collection features four villain stories from the Resistance Era.
These comics don't necessarily add anything new to the canon, they simply highlight the traits of their respective main character.

Both Phasma and Hux showed how these two characters would do anything to keep their order winning.
Snoke was my personal favourite as it showed perfectly how he manipulated Kylo Ren. This story was almost more about Kylo than Snoke but since it gives actual background to the relationship of the duo that makes perfect sense.
Kylo Ren highlights his snarky sarcasm, one of my favourite things about his character. Seeing him fight a Zillo Beast with more ease than anyone in The Clone Wars managed to do was pretty fun.

All in all, this collection isn't needed to understand the movies better but it is a fantastic highlight of the wit and cruelty of the First Order leaders. Both the Hux and the Snoke comic gripped my attention from the first page and deserve a 4.5-5 star rating. The two others I'd give 3.5-4 stars, landing on a general rating of 4 stars.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a step up from the Age of Rebellion era stories, it feels a bit like they've already run the well dry on these new trilogy villains. The Snoke story was the most disappointing, because it doesn't reveal anything new about Snoke and instead focuses more on Ren. Hux's story is similar; he's practically a bit character in another story about Ren. Ren's story highlights how he is trying to push himself out of the shadow of Vader (and does so in high fashion with a pretty impressive action sequence). Phasma's story just details how ruthless she is in a manner that isn't particularly novel but definitely hammers the idea home.
All told these were an okay assortment of stories and the art is good throughout, but it's nothing particularly special. Look to the Heroes issues for that.

[will · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy hux’s section just being him as a child and him and Ben when they were younger actually

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is going to function as a dual review for both the Villains and Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Heroes books, because I mainlined all the issues in one fell swoop and not entirely in order. Each character-centric issue is absolutely tiny: it’s more like a bite-sized vignette, a brief glimpse of a moment that characterises them.

The villains set was more interesting to me because of the insight it gave us to Snoke and Kylo Ren, mostly because I am very interested in those mysterious arcs and where in the world they’re going in the movies, and so it’s interesting to see that during his training, Kylo was unable to kill the Force manifestations of his parents. Also, Hux and Kylo’s dynamic continues to crack me up for how much they bicker and squabble!!

In contrast, the heroes’ issues were mostly just… more of the same: Finn’s early compassion, Rey’s scrappiness and hope, Poe’s first glimpses of the Resistance. None of it is particularly surprising or unexpected, but it is nice just getting to see more of these characters.

[Neil · Rating 1 out of 5]

An entire graphic novel about the dark secrets and amazing adventures of the fearsome villains of the sequel trilogy! The book opens with a story about Phasma, and then moves to a story featuring Hux.

Are you chuckling yet?

Seriously, these villains are ridiculous. It's time for Star Wars books to give up on Phasma: she's a character failure. She obviously died in The Force Awakens. Rian Johnson only brought her back in The Last Jedi because, as he said, "I wanted to hang out with Gwendoline Christie." They should've hung out in their spare time, because the character's reappearance in the second film only made her sillier.

The art in this book is much better than in Marvel's main Star Wars series, but I just don't find the characters interesting, and the stories are quick and relatively inconsequential.

[Megan Tosti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give me allllllll the Kylo Ren things. 😍🖤😍🖤

[Matthew Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed these stories! These all stood out in their own ways and there wouldn’t be one of these that I wouldn’t recommend. The dark side definitely intrigues me more than the light in the sequels era.

[Štěpán · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be kind and give this four. Snoke and Kylo's issues were really good.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot more than Star Wars: Age of Resistance - Heroes.

Unlike its counterpart, there wasn't that many bland moments. Sure, there were some, but for the most part it was interesting to see the backstories of the antagonists of the Sequel Trilogy.

[Lois Merritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the stories in this one, but it's so short!

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually the best of these anthology volumes. Yes, the Snoke issue is really a second Kylo Ren story and doesn't really have anything at all to do with Snoke, but it's a really good Kylo Ren story. Both of them are. And the Phasma story is a great, blunt story about an unapologetically ruthless character. Plus, Hux as evil Aaron Burr, which made the character click with me for the first time. He's not standing still, he is lying in wait. Interestingly, there's no issue with a few even shorter stories this time around, which might be because there just isn't a huge variety of evil characters in the new trilogy.

[Salamanderinspace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting with the Phasma comic. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t have Stormtroopers who have clearly been trained as collectivists–to give themselves to the higher cause, to fight for the First Order and shout “for the First Order!” as they attack, to treat each other as tools, guns on each others’ belts, extensions of one soldier with one name–while also having a Captain who has succeeded by her ruthless individualism. You can’t have an ultranationalist who refers to her troops as “patriotic idiots.” The values dissonance is non-sensical. It makes for art that is about nothing, that represents nothing, that takes no position as it takes all positions. What do they believe? "Well, they’re the Bad Guys.“ Yes but what do they BELIEVE? What makes them bad? They are not in hegemonic power as the Empire was; it is not power that corrupts them. It is the quest for power, more recognizable as powerlessness.

The Hux comic was better. It delves into his backstory, his character, though there is still a certain amount of "his character trait is BAD" characterization that feels lazy. The exploration of the relationships between Snoke, Kylo, and Hux was interesting--there is slightly more than one dimension in the way Kylo shouts "get behind me!" and the way Snoke defends Hux. Ultimately these guys do work TOGETHER, if in a state of tension.

There was little to be gained from the Snoke comic except artwork of Snoke, which I did appreciate. The Kylo Ren comic was mostly about how Badass Kylo is, so I enjoyed that. But the vein of hypocrisy runs through both stories: why does Kylo specifically ask for an older Stormtrooper's help if he's the kind of guy who cuts down anything on his own? Why does Kylo train with Snoke if Snoke has so little to teach? The narrative is desperate not to give any of the Bad Guys any good qualities, and in doing so it steps on itself constantly, undercutting characters when it bothers to characterize.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The four primary villains of the latest Star Wars trilogy get one-shots from Tom Taylor, who is usually a superstar when it comes to fun, fluffy comics. He does his best here, with a boost from Leonard Kirk's fine artwork. But one-shots for barely established villains are just never going to be great. It's a lost cause at the outset.

Minor fun, I didn't hate it, middle of the pack when it comes to these "Age of Resistance" collections. Minus one star because Snoke and Kylo Ren went back to that damn tree on Dagobah for yet another lightsaber battle with dark side ghosts. No more of that!

[Joey Nardinelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was honestly probably one of the better collections of one shots. The Kylo Ren chapter is good, but the Hux and Snoke chapters both do just a little bit of character building that the Phasma one also attempts but *shock* ends up in basically the same redundant territory as every Phasma narrative I’ve read so far.

[nobody · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[J K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despues de The Clone Wars, fue casi imposible no emocionarme con The Zillo Beast 😢.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Give me more stories from the POV of villains being thrown heroes of their own story.

[Jay DeMoir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely enjoyed this more than the Heroes version! Maybe the dark side isn't so bad.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another largely inconsequential collection...Lots of effort went into this--why?

[maggie · Rating 2 out of 5]

lackluster. snoke's story is centered more on kylo than snoke, not that i was particularly interested in him, but still. my favorite was hux's.

[˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally! Some exclusively Kylo material!! Yes! Yes! And Yes!

Kylo taking on the legacy of Vader is such a distinctive way, recreating a successful battle and doing it better, was a curious story to explore. The smile on his face when the trooper pronounced that Kylo “won” his self made competition with his grandfather was just adorable.

I like Snoke’s comic the best because you learn so much about Kylo and where his loyalties lie. I knew Kylo was good, just scared into this path.

Hux’s comic was good too, but his turning on Bylsma at the end. The deal jokes and back and forth with Kylo made his great.

Phasma’s was good, though predictable. However, it was interesting to see her from the perspective of someone who idolizes Phasma.