It was if millions upon millions of Star Wars fans cried out in terror, then were suddenly silenced

It was announced that the thousands of books and comics from the Star Wars Extended Universe were going to be wiped clean. Marvel is now taking the helm and forging a new Star Wars Expanded Universe, so basically everything written before this point is void, and fans are not happy about it. Now beloved Extended Universe characters like Cade Skywalker, Mara Jade, Quinlan Vos, Thrawn and countless others have been deleted without a second thought. They are even closing the books (no pun intended) on countless events that took place in the extended universe without a glance. I guess they took the title Purge of the Jedi a little too seriously.

For the filthy casual fan this might not seem like a big deal, but to the die hard enthusiasts who have invested thousands of hours and dollars in to the extended universe this was like Leia being forced to watch as her home planet of Alderaan was blown to smithereens. This being the tragedy it is there is a good thing about the whole situation. The authors of the new extended universe can actually explore the franchise during it's hay day and bring forth a new era in comics and novels that don't have to stick with the old EU. With three comics in and one novel written in the new series, things aren't looking so bad, and this could actually be a refreshing take on the Extended Universe series.

Personally I think this move was made because of continuity issues. Mainly because it would be nearly impossible for J.J. Arbrams to catch people up on years and years of EU content with just a two hour and thirty minute run time. There's just too much back story to really cram into one film and still have it come out half way decent and satisfy both generations of Star Wars fans young and old.

The bad part about all of this is all the time and effort that went into the old comics and novels has literally been tossed to the side and discarded. All the money, ink, and paper in the eyes of die hard EU fans has pretty much just been wasted. Unless of course all the Dark Horse comics and Novels become something of a collectors item. However you can't have all of the good and none of the bad which is pretty much what life is all about. We weren't going to get a new trilogy without destroying something in it's wake, which unfortunately in this instance was the entire Extended Universe. It is exciting to see what the new writers and illustrators will bring to the table in the all new Extended Universe.