As we all know Disney and Lucasfilm
have been in full power mode, gearing up for a complete revival of the Star Wars franchise with a new sequel to
Return of the Jedi due to release in
less than a month, a revival of the Battlefront
franchise recently released , (more like Star Wars: Battlefield if we’re being
honest though), at least one more Star
Wars anthology film due for release next year, at least two direct sequels
to The Force Awakens due for release
over the next four years and a complete reboot of the franchise’s comics under
the all-powerful banner of Marvel Comics.
Since the year began, Marvel has released six different series based
around the iconic characters all of which have been selling incredibly well,
reaching issue sales levels that haven’t been seen since the peak of the
90s. But, since this is the comic
department of a franchise it was inevitable that some kind of crossover event
was bound to happen and is in the form of Vader
Down, with part two released just the other day. But before this event really gets underway, I
wanted to give my thoughts on the Star
Wars comics thus far and how they have either blown away my expectations,
let me down or have just been ok. These
are my thoughts on the Star Wars
comics.
Star Wars
When all is said and done, this
comic is pretty mediocre. It’s not necessarily
bad per say but for a series that was all but guaranteed to be a monster hit
you would think that the creative team behind it would use the opportunity to
leave their mark on the franchise by writing a bold and original story that
could possibly change our entire outlook on the universe. Instead they decide to place the series, (and
most of the others for that matter), in between A New Hope and The Empire
Strikes Back and decide to retread the plot of the latter. And when I say a
retread I mean a retread. You have an initial story that deals with a
battle with the Empire with less than ideal results then a second act where
Luke goes off to do Jedi stuff while Han and Leia engage in a “Will They, Wont
They” style subplot while running from the Empire and eventually climaxing with
one of the character getting captured, forcing the others to stage a
rescue. Only in this case Luke has been
kidnapped by a Hutt and has to be rescued by Han, Leia and Chewy and that’s
about it.
For reasons
that I have never quite understood a lot of writers seem to think that when an
audiences falls in love with a particular story, it’s the formula that they
fall in love with and that’s what they want to see more of and fail to realize
that it’s the world and further development of the characters that keep a
franchise fresh and going and this book is clearly a victim of this way of
thinking. There are some interesting
ideas thrown throughout the book every now and then, particularly in one issue
that details Obi-Wan’s life on Tatooine and some additional info on Han’s past
with decent artwork but it’s just an okay storyline and I have no idea why the
creative team would opt to go in this direction when they could have literally
gone in any direction and still have the book me a massive hit.
Verdict
Browse
Darth Vader
Initially,
this idea seemed really stupid to me as did the idea of having all the stories
in the comics take place in-between A New
Hope and The Empire Strikes Back
and while I still think the latter still is, this comic has very quickly proven
to be the best of the Marvel Star Wars
comics. To put it simply, this one does
everything right. The aesthetics are
exactly what you would want in a comic about Darth Vader and it addresses a lot
of things that many longtime fans probably would ask about Vader. Mainly, why didn’t he suffer any repercussions
after the Death Star was destroyed and how did he discover that Luke was his
son? Answers for both are provided in a
satisfying way, all the while it telling an original story dealing with Darth
Vader and his attempts to form his own private army and network of spies
outside of the Imperial chain of command, introducing a new cast of interesting
characters with their own personalities and backgrounds and giving us a closer
look at the underworld of the Star Wars Universe and the complicated
relationship between Vader and the Emperor.
While I’m not sure that this was necessarily a story that needed to be
told, I can honestly say that it is one that I have enjoyed reading and can
highly recommend to any fan of Star Wars.
Verdict
Read
Princess Leia
I will admit
right off the bat that I’ve only read the first issue of this comic and that’s
because said issue was just so bad that I had no in intention of wasting any of
my hard earned money on a series that started out so poorly. Effectively, the first issue is nothing but
Leia rebelling against the macho authority of the men in charge of the
rebellion who see Leia as a delicate flower who needs to be protected but she
is bound and determined to prove these masculine idiots that they’re
wrong! Ugh. This is just wrong on so many levels. For one thing it takes the most stereotypical
approach to a female empowering story, portraying all men as over protective
sexist pigs and the few women characters as oppressed heroes breaking away from
their oppression in order to do what needs to be done. What’s worse about it is that it doesn’t even
make any sense within the Star Wars
Universe. One of the Rebel Alliance’s
biggest leaders is a woman for starters so it doesn’t make any sense that they
would treat female characters like this.
Not to mention that none of the characters in the Star Wars universe had ever acted like this before or after the
events of this comic. No one had ever
given any indication that they felt Leia was in some way inferior to her male
counter parts. Quite the opposite is
true, in fact as throughout the series she is frequently shown to be in
positions of authority commanding those who this comic would depict as those
who would oppress her.
The whole endeavor
is made worse by the fact that not only is the plot of comic is pretty mediocre
but ends up undercutting its own obvious pro-feminism intent by its very
story. Taking place right after the destruction
of the Death Star, the books starts out with the Rebels preparing to evacuate the
base. But the story isn’t about
that. It’s not about Leia finding a new
spot for the Rebels to hide or gathering intelligence on the Imperial fleet and
its impending attack on the Rebel Base.
No, it about Leia going out into imperial controlled territory and
finding people from Alderaan who just happened to be off world when it was
destroyed and give them protection from the Empire. That’s it.
Not only does it have no bearing on the plot at large but it’s the kind
of plot that in any other story would undoubtedly end in the female character
getting capture, thus proving that the silly females should listen to the all-knowing
patriarchal figures that really know
what they’re doing and leave all the work to them. But again, I’ve only read the first issue so
this is just speculation on my part but that’s how it came off to me.
In the end
what little I read of Princess Leia
just offended me. I was offended as a
man. I was offended as a Star Wars
fan. And I was offended that the writers
expected me to buy that this was supposed to be a female empowering story when
the moment you stop and think about it, it comes off as the opposite. Don’t waste your time or money with it and if
you already have toss it in the damn fireplace.
Verdict
Burn
Lando
Lando has
always struck me as an odd character in the Star
Wars Universe. Not so much in that
he’s the only black man in the universe sort of way, but because he’s probably
the second or third most important character outside of the main cast and up
until recently we really didn’t know anything about him. We knew he was a friend of Han and had a
history of being something of a scoundrel but beyond that we really don’t know
all that much about who he was before the event of Empire Strikes Back. To a
certain extent the Lando miniseries is one of the few to make an attempt at
doing so and for what it is does so very well.
In a very short amount of time, the comic manages to give us a short but
satisfying look into the Star Wars underworld and the various people Lando has
connections to, flawlessly building its world and giving us a sense of the
history he has with these people without resorting to exposition and retreading
of people’s backstories, often telling us everything we need to know about the
history between these characters with maybe a line of dialog or two.
The plot of
the book itself isn’t all that much to write home about. It’s really just a heist story with a few
decent twists and turns that keep it interesting. The main thing that pulls this altogether is
Lando himself with the book giving us a three dimensional view of the character
and shows us just what kind of a person he is.
He’s a born leader but uses his skills for petty crimes. He has a natural ability to manipulate people
yet clearly cares for the people who are around him and is clearly laying down
the foundation of the man he will become by the time Empire comes around.
In the end
this was a short but satisfying miniseries.
As its own story it perfectly built its own world and established its
own characters in a very short amount of time that few stories of any kind are
able to do. As a short background story
about Lando I’m not entirely sure that it needed to exist but it was nice to
see the character get a bit more attention and tells a satisfying story as to
how he went from being the con artist that Han knew so well before the story
began to the leader of Cloud City who was doing everything he could to ensure
the survival of the people he cared about.
It’s a fantastic read and I could not recommend it highly enough.
Verdict
Read
Shattered Empire
Of all the stories that I wanted to
see come to light something along the lines of this was what I wanted to see
the most; a direct continuation of Return
of the Jedi that answered the questions of what happened to Luke, Han and
Leia after the Battle of Endor. What
happened to the rest of the Empire? Did
someone else take charge of it after the death of the Emperor? Did everyone just fall in line with the idea
of a new republic? Did Luke establish a
new Jedi Order? Well, unfortunately Shattered Empire only bothers to answer
one of these questions and doesn’t do so all that well.
After the Battle of Endor, it is
revealed that the Emperor had a backup plan in case he was ever killed that
promoted the idea of his death as rebel propaganda and called for a scorched
earth policy against any systems that were even remotely associated with the
Rebel Alliance. What follows isn’t so
much a story as it is a clip show; a series of battles and assignments that
take place all over the galaxy without much in the way of story or character
development. The main cast of characters
is delegated to supporting roles and has no real development while two new
characters have nothing to add outside of the fact that they want out of the
war because of the little time they have spent with their child. That’s really about all there is to say about
this one. There really just isn’t a lot
going on here. It’s not good enough to
recommend a glance but not bad enough to warrant rage. I would just say ignore it.
Verdict
Ignore
And that about wraps up my look at
the Star Wars comics. More than likely I’ll take another look at
them in a few months or so but for now this is where my opinion stands. Star
Wars is mediocre and deserved better, Darth
Vader was far better than it had any right to be, Princess Leia wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on, Lando was fantastic, and Shattered
Empire wasn’t noteworthy. While some of
the comics are good none of them really go over the top in quality and are a
bit difficult to recommend to anyone outside of the Star Wars fan base. All the
same, I am interested in seeing where the Star
Wars comic universe takes us but until the Vader Down story really gets underway, we’ll just have to wait and
see. So until next time, please follow the site, like the Facebook page, follow me on twitter and please join me next time. Until then, may the Force be with you.
