Star Wars #1

A few months after the Rebel Alliance’s victory which ended with the destruction of the Galactic Empire’s doomsday weapon known as the Death Star, there’s an uneasy feeling throughout the Alliance. Leader of the Rebel Alliance Mon Mothma suspects a mole within and appoints Leia Organa with the task of finding the culprit. Welcome to the Star Wars series which brings new life to old characters with a fresh new perspective.

The Team

Written by Brian Wood (The Massive Vol. 1 : Black Pacific, Local, Channel Zero) & illustrated by Carlos D’Anda (JLA : Kid Amazo, Batman : Arkham City). Covers by Alex Ross (Marvels, Kingdom Come). Published by Dark Horse Comics.

The Pros & Cons

Like millions of people out there, I’m a Star Wars fan. Some movies are awesome (Episode 4-6), some not so much (Episode 1-3). I’ve read several comics and collected the odd action figure here & there and I’m looking forward to new movies under Disney’s very powerful thumb. So when they announced that writer Brian Wood would be doing a new monthly Star Wars series simply titled “Star Wars”, my little geeky heart fluttered like Watto’s wings on pod race day.

However, what Wood is attempting to do has been done before and there lies the pitfalls. Prequels or in-betweener stories tend to be a little tricky, it’s like taking a trip to the past and stepping on a pre-historic bug, coming back to the present only to find out history has been drastically altered. You could argue that the present Star Wars comics & trades stories are written in stone and that Dark Horse can’t upset the continuity of the timeline. I don’t need to tell you what Hollywood has done with movies, i.e. X-Men : First Class, I won’t go into detail, but it involves continuity and it still pisses me off to this day. To be fair, Dark Horse has handled stories like this and they’ve done it well. Stories like Shadows of The Empire and The Thrawn Trilogy were very entertaining stories, while respecting the timeline and keeping the spirit of Star Wars alive and well.

This story takes place after the events of Episode 4 : A New Hope (but before Episode 5 : The Empire Strikes Back), the old gang’s all here, Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie & even C3-P0 (R2 are you there?). Mon Mothma has a mission for Leia and the Emperor has one for Vader as well, hoping to redeem himself from his recent failures and faster than you can say “I got a bad feeling about this”, x-wings, tie fighters & star destroyers are flying in space like fireflies in the night sky.

Brian Wood will bring to this already massive universe some old fashioned charm, fleshing out these iconic & much loved characters and giving them more development with new adventures and perhaps a few surprises along the way. Accompanying him through hyperdrive is penciller Carlos D’Anda, who’s work I’m not familiar with. With the assistance of colourist Gabe Eltaeb, the Star Wars comic book universe never looked better. Wide images & large panels of space, as ships are chasing & blasting their way through the cosmos is simply breathtaking. I love the attention to detail of Luke & Leia’s x-wing control panels, you get a sense of what it would be like to pilot one of those things. The baddies look great as well, especially Darth Vader, when he storms out after getting an ear beating from the Emperor, bad ass doesn’t even begin to describe what he looks like. Cue “Bad to the Bone” by George Thorogood, I think Colonel Bircher needs to change his Imperial underwear. Another reason to make this comic worthwhile and the absolute icing on the cake is the cover by Alex Ross. Ross brings his iconic real life drawings reminiscent of the old Star Wars posters we loved growing up, getting nostalgic here.

The Outcome

What can I say? This first issue completely exceeded my expectations and gave this old Star Wars fanatic a jaw dropping experience. If you’re a Padawan to Star Wars, go watch the holy trilogy (the good one) and come back and read this first issue. If you’re a Jedi… buckle up and enjoy the ride!