X-wing Rogue Squadron: Mandatory Retirement (Star Wars) by: Michael A. Stackpole, Steve Crespo, Chip Wallace
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Publisher: Titan Books Ltd
Release date: 23rd February, 2001
Media: Paperback
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Average rating -
Rating: 
- An excellent end to the X-Wing comic series.
THE STORY:
Rogue Squadron is tasked with rescuing the cruel former Emperor Sate Pestage to honour a bargain struck by the Rebel leadership. However, Ysanne Isard is swiftly cementing her control of the Empire and sends the brutal Admiral Delak Krennel to trap the Rogues on Ciutric.
WHAT'S GOOD:
This book sets all it's characters up so that their appearances in (chronologically) later stories is understandable. Tycho and Winter become ever closer; Soontir Fel is finally settling in as a Rebel; Wedge is starting to think about the future; Hobbie and Janson display their terrible luck with the ladies. The loss of one of the Rogues is handled very well and the reaction of the one in love with said casualty (I'm trying desperately not to spoil the story) is compelling reading. There's battles galore in this book, recalling the action and thrills of the rest of the series. The handling of the villains is good too, we get to see Isard's cutthroat grab for power, Tavira's hopes of being a warlord, a satisfying end to Sate Pestage and the establishment of Krennel's little empire (brought down in the novel 'Isard's Revenge'). Another element I enjoyed was the brief glimpse of the Rebel's fledgling government and the political rivalries therein. Fans should look out for cameos by General Cracken, the Interim Council (including Princess Leia and Borsk Fey'lya), C-3PO, General Salm, Kapp Dendo, Koyi Komad and Judder Page.
WHAT'S BAD:
The only real problem I had with this book was the fact that, despite my expectations, we don't get to find out what becomes of the Rogue who don't appear in the X-Wing novels (Feylis, Avan, Xarcce and Plourr), most galling of these omissions being the story of how Fel is recaptured by Thrawn and Isard.
Rating: 
- History that is fun!
I only really collect the X-wing Graphic novels because i got the X-wing novels. These are more exspensive, and theor main appeal are the fact they fill in lots of gaps. MR is hard to classify. THe artwork starts off appalling (it is hard to tell which chararcter is which, as in Masqurade), however soon soars to the ehieght achieved by the other collections. THe story in this isn;t as good as in some of the other collections, but if you have/are going to read ISahrd Revenge (the novel) get this. It fills in all the little plot details and makes the pverall fell much better. As a stand alone thought, knock 1 star of the rating
Rating: - Excellent finale - but why is it their last mission?
Being a big fan of the X-wing series of books and comics - I was really looking forward to this release, the last of the graphic novel series of Rogue Squadron's adventures. However, whilst the artwork was uniformly excellent - possibly the best of them all, and the plot tied up many loose ends from the series, I was rather disappointed by the ends still left dangling.
For example - I was kind of hoping it would explain why Rogue Squadron is apparently "disbanded" at the end of the graphic novel series - only to be resurrected for the series of novels by Stackpole/Allston. Instead, all we get is a throwaway comment by Wedge during his speech that this is their "last mission". Why?
As readers of the novels, will know - Rogue Squadron is reformed in the first of the novels after a hiatus. But what happened in between? What happened to Baron Fel? Why is he no longer with the Alliance when the novels pick up from the comics? How did Tycho Celchu get captured by the Empire and escape again? I was expecting these sorts of things to be answered in "Mandatory Retirement" but they weren't. In short - there's a big gap still waiting to be filled. Hence only 4 stars.
Even so however - I wouldn't have missed this for the world!
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