12 Star Wars Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die

Of course, before Dark Horse took the ball and ran with it, we had the infamous Marvel Comics run of the seventies and eighties. There were rabbit aliens, banking subplots, and a lot of peculiar alien battles... including stormtroopers riding flying serpents!

But there were also true highlights and great stories. One of the strongest was the saga of Imperial agent and Rebel Alliance infiltrator Shira Brie. Serving as both a foil for Luke and a potential love interest, Shira was a character with tremendous depth and potential. She also led to one of the key moments in Luke's story, as he accidentally shot down her ship during a mission, causing him to question his Jedi abilities.

During a chaotic firefight, sensors were unable to tell friend from foe, so Luke trusted the Force to identify targets. The Force - rightfully! - pointed him at the double agent in his midst. And Luke's bout of friendly fire caused a great deal of tension in the Alliance at the time.

It was immensely clever and engaging storytelling, and only slightly tarnished by Shira's later transformation into the whip-wielding Dark Lady Lumiya who was such a thorn in everyone's side during the Legacy of the Force series of novels.