Star Wars #3

Star Wars is an awkward comic. It's a fine book, but definitely awkward. It's mostly the time period this book is set in. I'm willing to overlook the fact that characters are forming relationships and taking part in events that are totally not mentioned in The Empire Strikes Back.

What is significantly more difficult to overlook is the sexual tension between Luke and Leia. I mean, we know they're related, but they don't yet. It's definitely a little weird, but you really have got to give Brian Wood credit for writing the characters how they felt after A New Hope instead of how we know them.

But all that aside, this book is still definitely worth your time, although you might be better off waiting for the trade. Right now, the story is a bit all over the place. It's great, but you've got Luke, Leia and company all of doing one thing, Han Solo and Chewie somewhere else, and Darth Vader practicing his evil deeds in some entirely other place.

It all leads to a very disjointed issue, but there isn't really a way to tell a story involving so many characters without that happening. It doesn't make the story bad, but it doesn't really lend itself to being serialized.

But the dialogue is spot on. Wood definitely captures the essence of these characters. It's really interesting to see a cocky Luke Skywalker, fresh after destroying the Death Star. It isn't the usual Luke we all know and love, but it is before his Jedi training.

To be fair, I think I'd have a bit of a big head too if I left my podunk desert planet, joined up with a ragtag group of freedom fighters and then landed the killing blow on a space station capable of destroying planets.

The art is really good. It's definitely better than most of the art in the other Star Wars books, but Carlos D'Anda does have a hurdle that other Star Wars artists don't have: he has to draw characters we've all seen.

It all looks great, but unfortunately Luke, Han, and Leia don't really stack up to my memories of them in the films. Really, any character that had a significant amount of screen time to make a lasting impression is going to look a little off in the comic book.

That isn't even that much of a problem. I understand that you can't draw real people exactly how they look, especially when you have your own style to work on. It did just pull me out of the story a little bit every once in a while.
 

It's incredibly nice to be back in the original trilogy, and I'm looking forward to reading this book until Marvel inevitably gets the comic rights to Star Wars and something new starts up. I don't think it will be as good, though.