THE STAR WARS #2 (review)

Review by Tony Pacitti

The Star Wars #2 (of 8) 
Writer: J. W. Rinzler  
Artist: Mike Mayhew  
Colorist:  Rain Beredo  
Cover Artist: Nick Runge  
Published by Dark Horse Comics
On Sale October 2, 2013

In the first issue of The Star Wars we were introduced to the seeds of what became the Star Wars we all know and love.

The Starkiller family, among the last of the doomed Jedi, were attacked by a Sith agent, resulting in the death of the youngest Starkiller son and sending Annikin and his father, Kane, on a journey to meet their destiny. 

They go to Aquillae and meet up with Jedi General Luke Skywalker, to whom Kane reveals that he is dying and that his body is almost entirely mechanical. Skywalker agrees to take on Annikin as his Padawan learner just as something too large to be a ship is making a bee-line towards them.

It isn’t hard to play connect the dots between this and A New Hope.

Annikin becomes Luke, Luke becomes Obi-Wan, Kane kinda-sorta becomes Darth Vader, etc.

Unfortunately this issue gives us little more to go on than the last. Kane just sort of skips out after handing Annikin over to Luke and there’s little time for the two of them to do much together before the proto-Death Star shows up and starts raising some hell. At this point Skywalker slips into veteran commander mode as he leads a small squad of fighters from the ground and Annikin races to bring Princess Leia back to the relative safety of home base.

On the not-Death Star we meet the droids (not explicitly named) who, like so much of this series, look like their McQuarrie concept illustrations.  Artoo actually speaks, and a lot of their dialogue is familiar if not borrowed directly from A New Hope. Their relationship is a bit more antagonistic, and while Threepio was never as plucky or duty-bound as Artoo, here they’re both shown as being more interested in self-preservation when the stakes get too high.

A lot of this month’s issue is dedicated to the assault on the Death Star, which is never as thrilling on the page as it is on the screen, but what I found to be most interesting about this issue is that is clearly shows the influence of Kurosawa’a The Hidden Fortress.

Lucas has always maintained the connection between his space opera and the samurai classic, but only loosely associated fragments made it to the screen in 1977. The most obvious influence was on Threepio and Artoo, two minor players in a much larger saga, much like the peasants Tahei and Matashichi in The Hidden Fortress. You could assume that Obi-Wan was at some point more like Toshiro Mifune’s character,or that Leia was originally less head strong and more of a plot device.

In this issue the influences are much more obvious. General Skywalker is more like the gruff Mifune than the calm, sage-like Guinness—in fact Lucas had originally wanted Mifune to play the part—and the droids are much more like their poor, opportunistic inspirations in The Hidden Fortress.

Based on clues in this issue, I get the impression that Kurosawa’s princess using her family’s fortune to restore their domain might be swapped out for Lucas’ princess using her family’s cloning technology—referred to as a “genetic treasure” by an Imperial governor—to combat the evil empire. 

Next month promises the Rise of the Sith, and hints that Skywalker might go rogue with his padawan and a princess in tow. At some point they’re bound to meet up with the droids, but more than anything I want to see Vader get some real meaty scenes.

So far he’s just been standing around looking evil-with-a-capital-E with his red eye, badass scar, and Hitler haircut. And Han Solo!

Kane Starkiller left to meet up with Han Solo! But who, or what, will this scruffy looking nerf herder look like?

Stay tuned. I’m off to revisit The Hidden Fortress. This issue, and everything it suggests is on the horizon, demand I revisit it.