Disney's Marvel's Star Wars

Whew, glad they didn't decide to put the title of the book like that!

The return of Star Wars to Marvel Comics got me thinking. For someone that wears their fandom on their sleeve as proudly as I do, I don't do a lot of blogging about Star Wars. When I started this off a few years ago, retro Star Wars Wednesday was a thing every week because if it's one thing I can go on about, it's Star Wars.

Maybe I haven't blogged about it  because it's become such a presence in the main stream of pop culture. I've been a fan since 1977, straight on through. Even during the "dark times" of the late 80s/early 90s when the only new Star Wars you could find were RPG books, I was just as into it. With about 11 months until we get a new movie, I figure it's as good a time as any to publicly dive in again.

Disney/LucasFilm deciding to ditch most of What Has Come Before to establish a new, and hopefully more solid, continuity is probably one of the best/worst ideas. Did it piss off a lot of long time fans? You betcha! But it does give them a clean slate to tell new stories that don't have to fit in with anything that happened on a page since 1977. Plus, it lets new readers come in without having to have read a small library-worth of back story.

Back in the day, Marvel's Star Wars series was our first look into the galaxy beyond the original movie. If you go back and look at it now, it is dripping in the 70s. Not only was I a kid, but we had nothing else to compare it to so I loved it! Sure, it introduced a 6' talking green space rabbit that has probably been the butt of more jokes than Jar Jar and the Ewoks combined, but I still love him as part of my childhood.

But there was some fun stuff among the weirdness too. I mean, you can't get much more bad-ass than Han Solo in an outer space shootout against a galactic pirate. Never mind the fact that the dude didn't seem to own a pair of long pants, but you know, 70s.

With all the covers that were available, I thought it wasn't going to be too difficult to pick just one. After seeing the Jaxxon (the green space rabbit) cover, I figured that was going to be the one for me. But when I got to the comic shop, I saw another one that I couldn't pass up. Somewhat ironically, Star Wars #1 is going to be the last physical comic I buy for the foreseeable future. My collection is taking up too much space so I'm going full digital.

Here's what I eneded up with...

So, let's get down to it.

The issue opens with about as perfect a cinematic experience as it could in the pages of a comic. The only thing missing is Williams' score. Although I have to admit, it was playing right along in my head. It's got everything you'd want from an outing with the original crew. And they nailed the trademark original trilogy humor which made me feel like I was reconnecting with friends I hadn't seen in a long time. They're even able to squeeze in a couple of nice little character moments.

Despite the many years of Dark Horse comics it manages to feel fresh. Maybe it's being back at Marvel, maybe it's knowing this is the first in a long line of new stories, or maybe it's being back with the old gang again. Whatever it is, I'm liking it and look forward to the next issue and the other series that are coming if they're on the same level.

If you're a fan of the original trilogy, I highly recommend checking this issue out. All you need to know is the original Star Wars and you can jump right into it.

There was a lot of hoopla with the #1 launch, which is to be expected I guess. I do think they went a bit overboard with the 30, 40... how many variant covers are there? Less than 10 would have been fine. All the crazy number of variants are doing is giving a boost to the issue sales numbers and the book is good enough it didn't need all this.

Look at that, I managed to do this without making a "the circle is now complete" joke.