If they put JarJar binks in this I’m rioting!
I’m a fan of Star Wars, always have been, and unless they tweak the originals more, always will be. Now I’m not a fan as in “FANATIC” or “FANBOY” but I love the first 3 films and could honestly say that they are the films I have watched and enjoyed the most during my life.
So when I saw Dark Horse had just released a first issue the temptation was just too much. Especially when you see the cover, which in itself is a piece of art, I think the cover even stands up against the original classic posters from the 70’s.
I haven’t read a Dark Horse comic before so I wasn’t expecting a whole bunch (ignorant I know) but wow I couldn’t have been more wrong.I’m starting to think the more I read outside of the big 2, that I have been totally underestimating the other “minor” players in comics publishing (but that’s another post in itself).
This issue is placed just after the events in “A New Hope” and focuses on the Rebellion trying to find a new home outside of the reaches of the Empire. The writing was surprisingly good and the story has you flipping pages effortlessly.
Now I said the story is surprisingly good, what I mean is it’s surprisingly good to me a relative comic noob, but after a little research it appears that Brain Wood is a class act with Eisner nominations coming out of his ears and a glowing reputation in the industry. So I guess it was not really a shocker to everyone else that he did such a stellar job on this book.
One of the highlights for me is the characterisation of Vader and the personality that Wood manages to portray in a character that is basically clad from head to toe in stiff black plastic, this is really quite a feat! Some of the panel/page art is fantastic, and the kid in me loved it! One of the standouts is a scene where Leia comes face to face with a downed Ti fighter pilot, a few choom choom’s (sound of the guns.. quality addition by the way) later and we now have a blood splattered badass Princess. As I said at the start of this post, I really wasn’t expecting anything from this book except maybe someone trying to cash in on the billion $ franchise, and I was very pleasantly surprised to be wrong.
Give it a go yourself and if you’re a Star Wars guru I’d love to know your take on it.
Rating : B+
New 2 Comics 
I’ll look into this! Thanks for the review.
Cool, I can see from your blog that your an authority when it comes to Star Wars so I’d be interested to see what you think.
I happened to pick this one up too – just loved the cover. I thought it was a pretty good issue, set in an interesting time before Empire. I have to say though I didn’t like how the main characters were drawn. Han Solo is one of the coolest characters if all time, and he just looked wrong in this comic!
Yeah I can see what you mean about the drawing but it was never going to be life like page to page. That would be way to restrictive for the penciler, but I do agree the essence of a couple of the main characters was a little off, for me it was Luke. To draw Mark Hamill or Harrison Ford like representations on every panel would just have been a massive job and off putting I think???
I guess it’s just a little jarring because we’re so used to those characters, they seemed wrong somehow. I did like the characterisations though, they give a little more depth than the movies did.
Oh and I loved the choom chooms too!