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THE STAR WARS #3 (review)

Review by Tony Pacitti

The Star Wars #3 (of 8) 
Writer: J. W. Rinzler  
Artist: Mike Mayhew  
Colorist:  Rain Beredo  
Cover Artist: Nick Runge  
Published by Dark Horse Comics
On Sale November 6th, 2013

Going into this issue I was really excited about two things–the more obvious similarities to Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress and the appearance of Han Solo.

I’ll start with Han, since our favorite scoundrel is still M.I.A. The reason for my excitement is the same as my initial reaction to this series, to see what Ralph McQuarrie’s Han Solo looks like. I know it’s out there, and that I could just Google it or flip through my bible, The Making of Star Wars, but there’s a surprise to be had in the context.

He’ll either look like the proto-Chewbacca alien McQuarrie designed or he’ll be that young George Lucas looking character.

Either way, with Han comes a certain amount of more grounded, Earth-like humanity and levity comes with him–at least that’s what he brought to the final film–and it’s something that the series has been lacking up to this point.

The droids, as in last month’s issue, signal the obvious nods to The Hidden Fortress and that continues here, especially when they meet up with Skywalker, Annikin, and Princess Leia.

I won’t get into the similarities too much because I discussed it quite a bit last month, but I will echo my feelings about it. The similarities are fairly superficial in the final version of the story as it was filmed. Here they’re super obvious if you’re familiar with Kurosawa’s work. It’s easy to hate George Lucas sometimes and it’s easy to accuse him, if you want to be that guy, of stealing Kurosawa’s movie. Sergio Leone stole Yojimbo and we got A Fistful of Dollars so, you know, shut up.

While on the topic of influences, in addition to Flash Gordon, Kurosawa and Dune, we get a pretty big nod to Asimov’s Three Laws when Annikin questions whether or not the droids can be trusted. Skywalker reveals that not only will a droid never harm a human, but they will always “give accurate information to anyone who asks” and that they should be mindful of any secrets they may speak in front of them.

What’s interesting about that the droids are both portrayed with similar personalities to the ones we’re familiar with. Artoo is headstrong (domestrong?) and plucky. Threepio’s a bit of a worry wart (worry bolt? fine I’ll stop) who at one point faints after a heated skirmish. Yet they have no allegiance to either side of the conflict. They’re potentially spies and they can’t even be held accountable for it.

Never at any point in the films do we get the sense that they’d assist the Empire. Threepio explicitly lies to a bunch of Stormtroopers as a way of assisting Luke, Han and Leia’s escape from the Death Star.

Imagine that scene playing out like this:


INT. DEATH STAR COMMAND STATION
Stormtrooper opens supply cabinet revealing ARTOO and THREEPIO.
THREEPIO

They’re madmen! They’re heading for the Millennium Falcon and should be there any minute. If you hurry, you might catch them. Also, they turned off the tractor beam.Plus this guy has the only weakness for this station in his head, so, you know, you should probably shoot him.

Stormtroopers all open fire on ARTOO before calling KEVIN in maintenance and asking him to turn the tractor beam back on. They then call every other stormtrooper on the DEATH STAR and tell them to converge on HANGAR BAY 327. They start shooting at THE MILLENNIUM FALCON just in case while they wait. THREEPIO gives absolutely zero fucks.
THE END

It wouldn’t have made for a great ending.

Or a great movie.

In fact they probably wouldn’t have gotten to the Death Star in the first place. Threepio would have just told those sandtroopers in Mos Eisley, “Yes, we’re EXACTLY the droids you’re looking for!” and hopped off of the speeder. Lucky for us a few revisions were made, in this instance and to the big picture.

The politics and the history of things come across as unaccessible and almost off putting. It serves the purpose of establishing this world as one that has existed for thousands of generations and it’s up to you, the reader, to figure it out and keep up.

But A New Hope did the same thing without making it difficult. Like the prequels, this series has given us a bunch of flat “evil politicians” who are supposed to be important but who cares because Darth Vader is the only one who seems interesting and even he’s not really.

I’m sensing a lot of Prequel-itis from this issue and dudes, it’s not a bad thing. The big draw of this series is it’s role as a fully realized “coulda been”. The elements that don’t work aren’t necessarily supposed to. The whole point is just to see where it all started.

Of course this is supposed to be entertaining as well, but for me my curiosity for the project trumps any demands I may have otherwise.

Like the first two issues, there’s one standout scene–a battle in the desert between the Imperial invasion forces and our fleeing heroes–and the rest is the sort of stuff stuff that takes up more real estate in a comic than it does in a film.

This isn’t a particularly exposition heavy issue and I wonder if, when all of this is said and done, if the whole thing will read better than it currently does, one issue at a time. Movie adaptation comics have this problem a lot. When forced to break a single narrative down into several smaller pieces that “read well” on their own something gets lost. It often feels like coming across a movie already in progress, watching fifteen minutes, and then turning the TV off.

Most of the things that hook you tend to leave you hanging by the time the issue’s over, something that waiting for the collected edition of the series might remedy.

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