With all the news of JJ Abrams finally shooting Episode VII: A New Hip (thanks Stephen Colbert!), Disney could draw away the sadder attention they don’t want fans to know. Dark Horse’s license to publish Star Wars-based titles ends this year. Marvel which is also owned by Disney, will return to fill the void probably after their move to LA.
Admittedly, my skepticism over Marvel doing Star Wars is based upon old material which was uneven at best. It wasn’t entirely Marvel’s fault. The universe, characters, etc. weren’t well defined and Lucas didn’t have an ironclad grip on what the writers/artists could do.
When Dark Horse got the opportunity in 1992 (or was it 1993?). Everybody was thrilled. This publisher had done a solid job with creating new adventures with the Aliens, Predator and Terminator franchises. Their original material isn’t crap neither so I’m confident Dark Horse won’t shrivel up and die in 2015.
To close out their superior run, they are publishing a handful of miniseries but I want to focus on my two favorites.
The first is The Star Wars. It’s a comic-book adaptation of George Lucas’ earlier rough draft on what would become the legendary movie. It’s a good thing he continued to rework everything. As amusing at The is, there are too many characters and the story resembles Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress more distinctly. Still, diehards will chuckle continuously on how the names, races and tech were juggled around and recycled in the sequels. My favorite is the expression, “May the force of others be with you,” being said by the Jedi Knight characters General Luke Skywalker (Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Annikin Starkiller (Luke). Modernizing the look paid off too. I think the retro, Flash Gordon stylings would’ve fallen flat on 1977 audiences.
What makes this 24-part miniseries stand apart from the dozens Dark Horse has done is how successfully author Brian Wood recaptured the magic I felt after seeing Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. The definition of magic being the further adventures of Luke, Leia, Han and Chewbacca were going to be as kickass as those previous movies. We all know how that panned out. Not so here.
I’m sure the period between Star and Empire have been covered to death yet the author takes another crack and it’s great. The story begins with the Rebel fleet trying to find a new planet to hide on. Despite destroying the Death Star, Yavin was no longer safe and if the Rebel Alliance is to survive, it needs a world far from Imperial prying. Meanwhile, the Empire is having some difficulty internally. Losing the Death Star was a significant hit to the economy and resources. Plus enlistments are dropping partially out of fear and passive support for the rebellion. The Emperor’s confidence in Darth Vader is shaken over these events. So he transfers his apprentice to oversee the construction of the replacement Death Star instead of hunting down the Rebels. Vader senses something being amiss and starts the skullduggery he would eventually reveal in Empire.
The Star Wars wraps up next month with issue 8 and will be available in a trade paperback laster in the year. Star Wars (aka In the Shadow of Yavin) has a TPB covering issues 1-6 out now. Currently, the series is at #16.