4 issue test #6 - Star Wars

It’s a Star Wars comic, how could it not be one of the most popular comics out there? But does that mean it’s any good? Well, let’s see if it passes the 4 issue test.

It’s another Marvel comic so be prepared for extra-expensive issues with bonus unnecessary digital versions. Here’s an idea Marvel: Most people who buy digital versions of comics are those who can’t get to a comic book shop, and might be a little far away to get them on ebay (my no. 1 comic source)

But let’s dive into the story of the comics

 

This cover is a nice group shot, with all our characters and their respective weapons almost entirely filling in the hyperspace silhouette of Darth Vader in the background . Pity about the plain white bits.

Like any Star Wars material worth its worth we open with a title crawl. With the Death Star destroyed (this comic takes place between a New Hope and the Empire strikes back) the Rebels intend to press their advantage and launch daring offensives in their limited window.

The story begins with a shuttle from Tatooine approaching Weapons Plant Alpha, they’re credentials are approved and they’re allowed to proceed but they’ll be destroyed if they deviate from the flight path. There’s a massive imperial presence on the planet

A general says he can smell ‘Outer Rim scum’ and tells his stormtroopers to be on alert. The ship lands and out comes Han Solo and R2-D2, under the guise of an emissary from Jabba the Hutt. One of the residents confirms his identity but also notes he has a bounty on his head (which they don’t shoot him on site for because clearly he’s working for Jabba despite the fact that he obviously isn’t) Overseer Aggadeen (seriously, that’s his name) tells Han and his escort to lay down their weapons, which they do, as Chewbacca is covering them via sniper rifle.

One of the guards gets in contact with C3PO and he goes on a bit almost blowing their cover but also expositing their plan. They intercepted Jabba’s reel envoy, and are using his ship as a cover for a sneak assault. They walk through a corridor full of machines working on things whilst Hans begins his negotiating tact.

Aggadeen says there will be no negotiations and that Jabba will supply whatever the Empire desires (it always comes down to trade negotiations), he escorts them to a meeting room but Han reveals his ploy as his two escorts reveal themselves to be Luke and Leia, between them and R2-D2 the stormtroopers are taken down.

Aggadeen is interrogated and he reveals where the power core is before Leia knocks him out. C3PO is on the millennium falcon, which has been covertly landed in a trash pile. C3PO says there are automated sentries patrolling the area and he doesn’t know how long he can remain undetected. As Han and Leia try and rig the power core Luke hears the voices of prisoners. He faces a prison guard, who defeats by chopping off his hand (what is it with star wars and chopping off people’s hands) and tells the prisoners to follow him

Hans and Leia have finished the rig, with 10 minutes to blow. Leia praises Han’s bravery for putting his face in front of the empire, so they’d know he’s a rebel. Luke arrives with the prisoners and they break for the exit. Chewbacca sees a ship coming in, the negotiator, Darth Vader himself. Han tells him not to take a shot at Vader since it’d put the entire factory on alert but Leia countermands him. 

Vader uses the force to force stormtroopers to take the blasts meant for him before taking down the tower Chewbacca was using as a vantage point. Vader tells some stormtroopers to go after Chewie whilst one informs him that they’re unable to reach Aggadeen, so Vader puts the entire factory on alert. Vader senses the pilot that destroyed the Death Star.

As the alarm goes off, Han tells C3PO to take off but the button doesn’t work. Native scavengers have been dismantling the ship. Han tells C3PO to take them out with a blaster. Han, Luke and Leia take out some stormtroopers and find themselves in a room full of walkers. They decide to get in one for Han to pilot but Luke is gone. Luke hears the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobe telling him to run as he comes face-to-face with Vader.

This is a great cover, depicting the enormity of the odds against our heroes

Issue two opens with Luke and Vader fighting and naturally Vader completely over-matches him. He uses the force to grab Luke’s lightsaber and is about to kill him when he notices something unusual about the lightsaber and halts just long enough for Han and Leia to stop the fight with the walker. Luke dives out of the way as some of the freed slaves take on the stormtroopers.

As Luke tries to lead them away, Vader kills one of them with Luke’s lightsaber whilst killing a few others with the force. Luke tries to reach for his Lightsaber but Darth Vader retrieves it as several other slaves are killed by the stormtroopers. Inside the walker, Leia and Han banter whilst it’s revealed their walker doesn’t have working cannons. R2 and one of the freed slaves are working on fixing that.

Leia tells C3PO to get the falcon running doing whatever it takes, so he takes the gun. He exits the vessel but drops the gun and instantly surrenders to their fire. With another of the slaves killed Luke eyes a vehicle that he can use his farmboy training to master. He takes out several of the stormtropers near Vader allowing the walker to attempt to step on him. Vader stops this using the force. They finally have the cannons working and they use it to stop Vader before he tears the walker apart.

They blast their way out of the building but C3PO is in bits and unable to help. Luke swings by to pick up his lightsaber, but not seeing Vader. We then see Vader getting out of the debris, his helmet had fallen off in the crash. He kills the stormtrooper who sees him without his helmet. Aggadeen warns Vader that the reactor is in meltdown and requests permission to evacuate, which Vader denies him. Vader orders the stormtroopers to stop the rebels, except for the boy, who he will deal with.

Another nice looking cover, a nice action pose for Luke, although where is the ground, and where are the stormtroopers falling?

Issue 3 opens with stormtroopers opening fire on the walker, a few slaves being killed and Luke firing a few shots from his speeder. As the walker takes out a TIE fighter Chewbacca takes out the scavengers and gets to work fixing the Falcon. The Walker is faced with a full area of imperial assault vehicles and they call in Luke to provide cover fire. Leia realises that the factory should’ve exploded by now and they must’ve stopped the meltdown.

Aggadeen confirms this to Vader who orders as many stormtroopers as possible to his location as he starts to attack the walker. Han calls in Chewie who says the repairs will take more time (he says a day and a half but clearly it took maybe 10 minutes.) Vader takes down another leg but they can’t fire at him this time as he’s too close (he was right underneath them the last time, right?) Luke goes in to help but Han warns him away, the walker is finished. With the walker down, the stormtroopers move in but Luke provides cover with his speeder and Lightsaber, allowing Leia and Han to start evacuating.

Luke says he can’t let it all be for nothing and speeds back into the factory. Darth Vader sets off in pursuit. Luke hits the power core, destroying the facory but is hit in the process, as he laments that he’ll never be the jedi his father was, he’s picked up by the Falcon, which is only barely functioning. They make the jump to lightspeed, somehow evading the star destroyers right in front of them. Vader hears news of their escape and talks using the force to Obi-Wan, he is untrained and only Vader can train him.

As the slaves celebrate their escape. Luke faces his own regrets about how he isn’t a jedi and there’s no-one left to train him. On Tatooine we see a castle with a box labelled ‘For Luke’

This cover would be great, if this was the Darth Vader comic, as it is, it doesn't feature any of the heroes from the book

Issue 4 opens with Darth Vader confronting Jabba himself for the trade negotiations. The negotiations are concluded with Jabba agreeing to supply whatever the empire needs, so long as he’s paid. Darth Vader prepares to leave but Jabba insists he stays, wanting to seal the venture by watching something die.

On the rebel base, Chewie and Han are trying to fix the Falcon. C-3PO is repaired and is somewhat rude to R2-D2. Leia tells the other rebel leaders that she doesn’t think they’re doing enough, despite the successes. As the empire rebuilds quickly, they only have a short window to attempt to cripple them. Admiral Ackbar says that while they’re still on the run, there aren’t many resources they can divert to these, especially when the chances of success are so slim.

Luke is training using a blindfold and some hover-drones, he deflects a few shots but is soon hit. Leia comes in but Luke instantly refuses to accompany any mission she wants him on. He’s no jedi and is a danger to everyone around him. He decides to leave and asks Leia to let him go.

Back in Mos Eisley, some rodians encounter someone wearing a cloak and armour. He/she’s offering a big bounty for a guy. They try and take the bounty without fulfilling the contract but the alien has an automated weapon beneath the table that will shoot at any body part ordered. Common on Nar Shadaa. The alien says he was hoping talk of a bounty would bring out Han Solo.

After 3 pages of Darth Vader talking to Jabba regarding some bounty hunters he’d hired for various purposes, we see Luke exiting the Rebel Fleet heading for Tatooine. Meanwhile, the injured rodians are confronted by someone who asks them about Kenobe. When one of the Rhodians asks why he’s hunting them, the guy points a gun at them and the issue ends with the revelation that Boba Fett was asking the questions.

So, are we looking at a great original story, or a terrible prequel? Let’s take a closer look.

The writing overall is actually pretty fantastic. Kudos to Jason Aaron, who seems to also be on fire with the Lady Thor story (sorry guys, I'm not reading it but I've heard good things) The first arc of the story in general was strong. I have a few issues with issue 4 and I’ll get to those momentarily. I like how they fleshed out pretty much everyone in the main cast (aside from Lando, who wasn’t really involved at this point) including, to their credit, a few of the villains too, particularly Vader.

Luke’s doubt over who he is well placed here. In the original movie. Luke had barely practised at being a jedi with very little formal training and his victory was down to his piloting and shooting skills. So it makes sense that he’d discover that he still had quite a way to go before he could even hope to be a match for the Empire.

Han keeps dropping hints to Leia about his romantic attraction to her, which are largely brushed off, continuing the patter that would ultimately be a part of episode V, C-3PO’s cowardice and Chewbacca’s bravery match each other pretty well and it was an interesting part, although it seems odd they’d not have someone who can actually defend the ship defending the ship.

Issues 1-3 combine to a really well told story, we see Darth Vader’s power and even the stormtroopers get a few hits in, killing some of the slaves.

Issue 4 is where I take issue. The lack of action is not my problem with it, my problem is that Darth Vader’s scenes contribute very little to the journey of the heroes (at least from the perspective of reading just this issue) and really they should’ve been relegated to his own book (I am not reading it) if necessary the title crawl could’ve filled in any blanks.

The artwork is fairly decent, the characters and designs are recognisable, the backgrounds are decent. Everything looks in place, at least from my perspective, there may be tiny details off that I don’t care about.

The other issue is just the lack of scope. This is a problem with tie-in material in general. You can’t feel afraid for our heroes because you know that they’re going to make it out alive because they’re in the next film. Likewise using villains like Darth Vader can be unsatisfying because you know he can neither win nor lose in a physical fight. Which is why I’m glad issue 4 does introduce a new villain, I just wish more time was spent establishing him rather than Vader’s talks with Jabba

Ratings

Issue 1: 8.5/10

Issue 2: 8.5/10

Issue 3: 8/10

Issue 7: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Recommendation: I absolutely recommend you pick up this title, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan. But as with S.H.I.E.L.D. you might want to wait for the trade to avoid Marvel’s digital copy pricing.

Next: Join us in 2 months time for the adventures of Kanan: The Last Padawan

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Images used in this review are from Star Wars #1-4 and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.