Dark Empire Issue 2: Devastator of Worlds

The second issue of Dark Empire picks up on the fifth moon of Da Soocha, where the Rebels/New Republic have regrouped their forces. Someone is pulling together and consolidating the Imperial remnants in the Galactic Core, and they're not sure who or what is behind it, but a massive war fleet is on the move, and they're equipped with massive ships called World Devastators.

They're a new kind of super weapon designed to destroy planets, but slowly. World Devastators work by consuming matter and planetary mass and converting the raw materials into new war materiel (usually automated by droids) that the Empire can release in battle. A large Imperial fleet with several of these warships included is currently attacking Admiral Ackbar's homeworld of Mon Calamari. Lando & Wedge prepare to lead a force to confront them.

Meanwhile, Leia worries terribly about where Luke is, and has serious doubts about letting him go off like that.

She's right to doubt. Luke and Artoo are imprisoned and taken to the Deep Core world of Byss, a planet soaked in the Dark Side of the Force. Here, in this stronghold, Luke is confronted by the mastermind of this resurgent Empire, none other than Emperor Palpatine himself in a cloned body.

The Palpatine reveal is a huge bombshell, but really isn't all that surprising. Bringing him back after his very definitive death in Return of the Jedi is, but the story justifies itself. He's so powerful in Dark Side abilities that he's able to transfer his essence from one body to another to prolong his life. He he was able to do that from the reactor shaft of the Death Star to Byss is a simple matter of SHUTUPTHAT'SNOTIMPORTANT. (Its kind of a plot hole, but its a cool scene nonetheless).

Luke, deciding to challenge the Emperor and the Dark Side itself from within, kneels before Palpatine. The issue's light on action, but heavy on reveals.

Would you look at that. Not-Porgs

Dark Empire: Issue 1: The Destiny of a Jedi

Taking a break from Vintage Marvel Star Wars for a moment because that's a big long run and variety is the spice of life.

In the early 90s, Dark Horse Comics, a young independent comic publisher founded in 1986, was given the licensing rights to Star Wars. Their first comic in the franchise was released in 1991 with Dark Empire issue 1. Written by indie comics veteran (and former Benedictine Monk) Tom Veitch and illustrated by 2000 AD artist Cam Kennedy, the story was originally developed for publication at Marvel before the license transferred over.

In production around the same time as Timothy Zahn was writing his Thrawn trilogy, Dark Empire is set six years after the Battle of Endor and the opening crawl makes it clear that a resurgent Empire has re-taken Imperial Center and driven the New Republic back into a rebellion. But a Civil War has broken out within the Empire.

It begins with Han, Leia, Chewie & the droids leading a rescue mission to Coruscant to rescue Luke, Lando & a force of Rebel troops that have crashed in the middle of a war zone.

They find Lando and the troops without much trouble, and fend off battlefield scavengers until an Imperial walker shows up. They're rescued by Luke, who solos the walker and warns the rest of them to get off-planet.

Luke taking down a walker on foot after deflecting its shots 

would be pretty cool in live actio--oh, right.

The Last Jedi happened.

He's in an emo phase and warns that something powerful is coming for him and he has to meet his destiny.

The rest of the heroes escape the planet while Luke & Artoo are caught up in a Force Storm that takes them off Coruscant for parts unknown.

There's a lot of stuff thrown at the wall, and the art is strikingly gorgeous. Its radically different from what came before (and after), which gives the whole thing an air of gravity. I remember the original floppy issues were printed on higher quality paper too. As a relaunch for Star Wars comics, it felt like a prestige product.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 10: Behemoth from the World Below

The giant reptile summoned from the depths of Aduba-3 rampages against the Cloud-Riders, whose blasters are proving ineffective weapons against its tough hide. Trying to get an edge in the fight, Serji-X Arrogantus tries to kill the old shaman controlling the behemoth, but both of them end up stomped underneath the monster's giant feet.

The Cloud-Riders gang are no more, but without the shaman to control it, the beast continues its rampage, throwing rocks and firing a deadly beam of energy from its head at Han Solo and his fellow mercenaries.

Desperately trying to think of a plan, Han doesn't notice the crazy old self-proclaimed Jedi Don-Wan Kihotay marching off to confront the beast with his lightsaber.

Hedji the spiner dies trying to help Don-Wan, but this gives Han time to realize that the lightsaber is the key to stopping the beast.

Meanwhile, Leia heads to the Drexel system alone in search of what happened to Luke Skywalker.

The action comes fast in this issue, and the kaiju-sized beastie is a strong escalation from rapacious bikers. Han's leadership is tested, the Starkiller Kid finds a reason to stay with his village, and Jaxxon & Amaiza have a growing banter-based relationship. All of which make it solidly entertaining as the first major story arc wraps itself up. This is also the first time in the franchise were Han Solo wields a lightsaber, predating Empire by two years.

It was now 1978, and ten issues into the series, the original creative team of Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin leave the book, moving on to other projects within Marvel. Helping with the script is Don Glut, who would himself later write the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back. Helping with art duties are Tom Palmer (who was already on the book for several issues) and Alan Kupperberg.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 9: Showdown on a Wasteland World!

Han Solo and the so-called Starhoppers of Aduba-3 ride banthas toward the little village terrorized by the Cloud-Riders. Along the way, they rescue a pretty young village girl named Merri from a bunch of flying bird-men. Han, being Han, flirts with her until Amaiza busrolls him in front of her family when they reach the village.

Meanwhile, Luke and the droids reach the isolated Drexel system, checks in with Yavin 4, and then the signal cuts out. Worried, Leia rushes off to find Luke and rescue him from whatever it is.

Back on Aduba-3, Merri's crazy old grandfather says the mercs aren't necessary because he's got a solution for the problem. Han blows him off, and then the Cloud-Riders attack, precipitating a lengthy action sequence where the Starhoppers suffer their first casualty: the droid Effie.

And then the crazy old man summons a giant monster, which was NOT in Kurosawa.

But should have been.

Its an action-oriented issue, which is pretty good, but there's not much to say about the details.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 8: Eight For Aduba-3

Han's conversation with the villagers introduced at the end of the last issue is interrupted by a reptilian who's mad Han was making moves on his girl. A cantina brawl ensues.

Victorious, Han & Chewie hear the villagers' plea. Their poor farming village is beset annually by a gang of vicious rogues and bandits called the Cloud-Riders led by Serji-X Arrogantus, “The Arrogant One.”

Realizing that he's outnumbered, Han puts out a call for hired guns and ends up with a motley assortment of spacers and locals:

Hedji, a member of the nearly extinct Spiner race, who can throw razor-sharp quills with deadly accuracy.

Don-Wan Kihotay, a clearly delusional old man who claims to be a member of the Jedi Knights and obviously based on Don Quixote. Han doesn't much believe that, but the man does have a lightsaber.

Amaiza, a beautiful female gunslinger and smuggler with a history with Han.

Jaxxon, a six-foot tall, carnivorous green rabbitt with a sassy attitude. You heard right. More on him another time.

Jimm, a local farmboy with dreams of adventure who calls himself “The Starkiller Kid” (a reference to the early draft of Star Wars). He reminds Han of Luke.

FE-9Q, “Effie” a tractor droid and Jimm's cranky guardian.

Thus assembled, Han has a tense introduction to Serji-X, and prepares to ride out to the village. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker bids farewell to Princess Leia as he heads off on a mission to scout for a new planet for the Rebel Alliance to make its home.

The plot is clearly lifted from The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven, which makes sense, since Kurosawa was a heavy influence on George Lucas.

The Cloud-Riders and their bikes are the first appearances of swoop bikes (they would first be identified as such in Han Solo's Revenge) and swoop gangs, who are, simply enough, biker gangs. Their leader, Serji-X, whose name and face are a direct nod to MAD Magazine luminary and creator of Groo the Wanderer, Sergio Aragonés in his younger days.

Right down the moustache

The Cloud-Riders themselves (with the Arrogant One being replaced as their leader with some newbie named Enfys Nest) are in Solo: A Star Wars Story, so if you pegged an obscure gang of goons from a couple issues in the 1970s making it to the big screen before Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, or Kyle Katarn, congratulations, you have successfully predicted the downward trajectory of the franchise.

I hope Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin at least get credit for creating the gang.

There's more to say, but there's more issues in this arc, so I'll save that for then. This issue sets up the situation and characters for the arc quite efficiently, and even the tavern brawl at the start has narrative value, since the alien who started it, Warto, joins up with the Cloud-Riders.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 7: New Planets, New Perils!

Marvel's adaptation of Star Wars was a financial hit. Such a huge hit that Jim Shooter credited it (and Roy Thomas, who arranged the deal with Lucasfilm) with saving Marvel's financial bacon in 1977-78.  The movie was a smash, and the comics sold accordingly, so naturally it made sense for all parties involved to continue making more Star Wars to fit the demand.

There was one problem: Movies take time to write, shoot and edit. It would be a few years before The Empire Strikes Back.

Re-enter Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin (now with Frank Springer on inks), Issue 7 is the first piece of what would be called “Expanded Universe” fiction ever released for Star Wars. Hitting stands in October of 1977, predating Splinter of the Mind's Eye by four months.

It starts, logically enough, right after the movie. The Rebel Alliance knows it needs a new base of operations since after the destruction of the Death Star, the Empire will come looking for revenge. Han and Chewie have more pressing issues: their debt to Jabba. Opting out of the Rebellion, they make haste to Tatooine with a cargo hold full of money.

Pants Optional

Along the way, they're waylaid by space pirates under the command of the physically imposing Crimson Jack. Shaken down for the money, Han & Chewie are forced to detour to a crappy backwater desert that's an even bigger podunk than Tatooine: Aduba-3.

There, the two get involved in a fracas where an insectoid alien priest is trying to bury a cyborg who looks an awful lot like a Legion of Super Heroes villain in the spacers' cemetery, and the spacers won't have it. Its a simple enough job after a shootout, and the “star-hoppers” (as spacers are called a bunch in this issue) celebrate their winnings in the local cantina, where a group of villagers show up looking for help.

This is part filler issue and part setup. It sets up Luke & Leia searching for a new Rebel Base (that would eventually be Hoth, but its doubtful Marvel, or even Lucas, knew that at this point) and we shift to Han & Chewie smuggler shenanigans. Crimson Jack and his first mate Jolli make a strong initial impression and leave, which leaves them open-ended for a return appearance.

The arrival on Aduba-3 shifts into a Western mode, with a frontier boom town that went bust. The anti-robot prejudice is an interesting angle that will be revisted again and again in early Marvel Star Wars because the Empire's anti-alien prejudice wasn't established yet.

By itself, its a decent issue and a necessary downshift in focus from a giant space battle for the fate of the Rebellion. It can't quite shake off that filler issue vibe, though.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 6: Is This the Final Chapter?

The cover is inaccurate. There are no Y-Wings in this issue.

Issue six closes out the adaptation of A New Hope with wall-to-wall space battle action. Its the entire Battle of Yavin, and Luke Skywalker & Blue Squadron fight their way to a hard-earned victory. Han saves Luke, Death Star blows up, everybody except Chewie gets a medal, you know the drill.

The scope of the battle here is much smaller than the movie. Gold Squadron's Y-Wings are completely absent. Blue Squadron consists of six starfighters, and that's it.

The final issue shakes up the creative team. While Roy Thomas and Howard Chaykin remain as writer & penciller, the inks are now done by Rick Hoberg (who apprenticed under the great Russ Manning) & Bill Wray (who would go on to work on Ren & Stimpy and other animated shows) and the colors are by the future wife of Dave Cockrum, Paty (they married in 1978).

The different inks and colors give it a completely different feel to the action. The inks are thick and the neon colors are strikingly bold. Its some of the most consistently dynamic art of the adaptation, and just about every page looks like it would make for a great pop art poster.

No lie, I would hang this on a wall

And that wraps up the 70s Marvel adaptation of Star Wars (A New Hope was added later). Its okay. Its not great, and even for its time, the art isn't consistently great compared to other Marvel books from the time (Avengers was still an A level book and X-Men was on its way up. Savage Sword of Conan was knocking it out of the park consistently with top level art). As a read, its okay, but aside from the script differences, there's no real reason to choose to read these six issues over re-watching A New Hope.

Its an interesting time capsule of popular Sci-Fi commercial art from the late 1970s and an early look at interpreting the Star Wars universe, but there's not much to it beyond that. Optionial tier.

However, the issues sold very, very well, and Marvel found themselves with a successful book with a demand for an ongoing series, so ongoing series it became.

That's where it gets really interesting.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 5: Lo, The Moons of Yavin!

Having escaped from the Death Star, our heroes fend off a TIE fighter attack. An attack that was all too easily thwarted, because the Empire attached a tracking device to their ship.

We need to bring back exclamation points at the end of every issue title!

Aboard the Falcon, tensions rise between Luke, Leia and Han about money and Luke's attraction to the Princess. The ship reaches Yavin IV with the Death Star plans and an attack strategy is prepped. Luke signs on as an X-Wing pilot while Han & Chewie get paid and get ready to leave.

There's a happy reunion with Biggs and he meets Blue Leader. Yes, Blue Squadron, not the Red Squadron of the final film. Preparations complete, the starfighters leave the moon for their fateful mission.

This is going to get real awkward in 1983

This issue adds some more cut scenes back in, especially in the hangar before Blue Squadron leaves, which is a good decision to wrap around Luke & Biggs' relationship as it was established in the first issue.

This issue added Glynis Wein as the colorist, who was one of the most respected colorists in the industry and the then-wife of Len Wein, a comics legend in his own right (He co-created Swamp Thing and helped save the X-Men from total obscurity in the 70s by co-creating Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Storm & Colossus and putting them on the team). Just some fun side details.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 4: In Battle With Darth Vader

Luke, Han & Chewie have rescued Princess Leia, and jump into the garbage chute to escape the detention block. Garbage masher, escape, split up, Luke & Leia kiss and swing across a chasm, and everyone gets back to the Falcon in time to see Ben Kenobi's last duel with Darth Vader before they escape the Death Star's hangar. The creative team of Thomas, Chaykin, and Leialoha remains.

Hindsight is 20/20

Again, there's not a whole lot to say about this issue. It hews closely to the final product of the movie with a few art differences. Like Han shooting at the dianoga's tentacle reaching for them when they escape the garbage chute.

Ben Kenobi is also a lot sassier in his duel with Vader, which is a lot more visually dynamic than the film version. Then it ends on one of the weirdest depictions of Kenobi's death ever.

Its been 40 years. No spoiler warning for you

Its dynamic, its painful, its weird. It looks like Ben's electrocuted and incinerated at the same time, which I guess kind of works as a killing blow for a lightsaber, but even then lightsaber cuts were depicted inconsistently in the Original Trilogy. Sometimes they cauterize and sometimes they leave bloody messes. The only way the panel works at all is thanks to the 70s colors. Its a curious end to a well choreographed fight.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 3: Death Star!

Issue 3 picks up on the Death Star and Alderaan gets blown up on page two. That's where we are in the movie. In hyperspace, Ben Kenobi senses the destruction of the planet and then gives Luke his first lesson in Force training, which is slightly different from the movie.

They get to the Death Star and begin the rescue of Princess Leia. That's about it.

Not much different from the movie, and this is an action-oriented issue. The creative team of Roy Thomas, Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha remain, and the art is steadily improved from the last issue.

Wish I had more to say about this issue, but oh well. Gotta get through the movie adaptation issues before the real interesting stuff starts.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 2: Six Against the Galaxy!

Picking up with the Tusken Raider attack, there is a definite change in the quality of the art. Roy Thomas is still the writer and editor, Howard Chaykin remains the illustrator, but the addition of Steve Leialoha as the embellisher (inker) and colorist changes the entire texture of the issue. Leialoha would go on to have a long career, working at Marvel and DC on various titles.

Gone are Chaykin's sketchy in strokes, and the whole issue has a more photo accurate art style in general. I would assume that they received reference photos from Lucas as the movie came closer to release, but that's assumption. There are also more blues in the color palette, adding a cooling balance to the reds and oranges.

The plot follows along closely with the movie. Ben saves Luke and starts telling him about “The Force.” (Their quotes, not mine). Darth Vader interrogates Leia. Luke & Ben find the wrecked sandcrawler and then Luke's farm is burnt down. They go to Mos Eisley and hire Han Solo and Chewbacca. There is a firefight in the docking bay and they make the jump to lightspeed in the Millennium Falcon.

One point of difference is the deleted scene where Han meets Jabba that was restored in the Special Editions. This was well before Jabba's design was finalized as a giant slug, so here we have a random alien who would later be retconned as Mosep Binneed, Jabba's accountant and occasional face-man.

No, I'm not making that up.

There's not much to say about the issue. Its a faithful adaptation of that section of the movie and the slight shift in art style is for the better.

Marvel Star Wars: Issue 1

I've spent more time than I really needed to thinking about how to approach the old Marvel Star Wars ongoing from the 70s and 80s. It was one of the original tie-in materials and would end up being a constant thread throughout the Original Trilogy's theatrical run and even outlived it, ending in 1986 with issue 107. That's almost a decade of comics and taken as a whole, its an impressive body of work. Individually, though, it goes in fits and starts, so that's how I figured I wanted to go through the series: Individually, and in fits and starts.

Launching in 1977 right before Star Wars was released (remember, A New Hope was added later), the first issue features scripting and editing by Silver & Bronze Age comics luminary Roy Thomas with art (pencils and inks) by Howard Chaykin early in his career.

The issue covers the beginning of the movie up to the point where Luke is attacked by Sand People in the Jundland Wastes while looking for Artoo.

Like the novelization, the comic script follows an earlier draft of the script than what the final movie would have. There's a lot more Luke on Tatooine stuff, where he witnesses the space battle from the ground and has a farewell meeting with Biggs. Its not something really missing from the movie, but in a medium like comics, the scene adds some good characterization beats for Luke's desire to get off Tatooine.

The art is very 1970s. Vehicles are oddly proportioned and frequently off-model, Chaykin's inks are frequently thick over somewhat sketchy pencils and the colors by Marie Severin are heavy on the reds, oranges and pinks in places. The hyper-stylized color scheme holds together thanks to Chaykin's dynamic poses, but I wouldn't call the art especially great, even for its time. 

Recently, Marvel re-released the six original issues in a “remastered” form with modern coloring techniques and a film-accurate palette, and it just looks like badly proportioned art (It kind of is, but the original coloring helped it stand as a stylistic choice).

The Biggs stuff is nice, the art can be polarizing, but it does feature the best version of Vader choking Admiral Motti, where he casually uses the Force to bring him a cup of coffee while he tortures him.