Review: The Star Wars #3

Despite it being a fresh start for the series, an alternate universe taking just the main ideas and reusing them in a different context, there’s just one thing that I can’t get away from with regard to Star Wars, even in this series. For the second issue in a row, I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, and I have a lot of that for the series itself. I love the potential that it has, but I’m never quite sure what to make of what they actually do with it. With that in mind, let’s look at The Star Wars #3 (written by J. W. Rinzler, illustrated by Mike Mayhew).

As I mentioned in the previous review, a number of more familiar elements are starting to show up in this series. While they provide touchstones to know where we are in the storyline, the fact that the story has been changed so much from what it was before almost makes it more disorienting than anything else. I’d call it something like the Uncanny Valley of adaptation – there’s an odd mix of the old with the new that’s too much new to be a recreation, but too much old to be a re-imagining, and it just seems to be lacking a real identity on its own. One particular scene in this issue is drawn almost exactly like it was shot in A New Hope, and that serves mostly to throw me off from finally being able to see this as truly separate from the original. Recreating scenes almost exactly while an entirely different story we never saw is playing out in other parts of the issue gives me a sense of whiplash when reading.

I think that what’s bugging me the most, if anything, is that there are a few too many storylines going on all at once. When I get to the end of an issue, while each story there may have come to a good stopping point to be picked up again in the next issue, the issues don’t feel like they’re full, standalone stories. Good or bad, this series is being written for the trade, at which point it should make a lot more sense. As for now, there’s a bit too much going on.

Also, I mentioned something that might be controversial among Star Wars fans in the last review, and I can talk about it here, as it continues on in this issue. I’m talking about R2D2 (or, as he’s called here, Artwo Detwo). In this, he can talk. Not just in beeps and whistles, but actual speech. Honestly, this doesn’t bother me at all, but I expect that there are going to be a lot of fans who react badly to this. So long as he and C3PO (I mean Seethreepio, since this galaxy was so long ago they never heard of shorthand) continue their banter, which they do, I’m okay with it.

I’ve mostly gotten used to the art in this series, which sets aside the fears I had early on that the art style just wouldn’t click right. What stuck out at me is that C3PO seems to have a slightly changed design – he was always intended to look like Maria from Metropolis, but it’s even more pronounced in this design. Again, it’s a change that I don’t really mind, but it also seems like it was a change made for the sake of making a change. 

Overall, I’m still a little torn on this series. I’m going to continue to follow it, since I’m enjoying it so far, but not enough to give it an unconditional recommendation. It’s also a little more difficult to make the recommendation at $3.99 for the issue, so I’ll have to leave it up to you: How much do you want to read good but not great alternate universe Star Wars? That’s what it ultimately comes down to.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) is far prouder of a single joke in this review than he ever should be – hasn’t stopped laughing at it all day. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings or check out his personal blog.

Review: The Star Wars #2

I was frustratingly vague in my review of issue #1 of this series. A lot of that was due to the fear that Dark Horse would send someone with a lightsaber to my apartment if I spoiled anything, but also because the idea alone carried the issue and my recommendation. However, now that the novelty has worn off, does The Star Wars #2 (written by JW Rinzler, illustrated by Mike Mayhew) carry itself with the story rather than just the concept?

I just had to post the Ralph McQuarrie cover.

I don’t hold Star Wars up as the foundation of my childhood or The Holy Trilogy (that belongs to Lord of the Rings), so I really wanted to see the different interpretations of these characters. While I still like it, this series is caught in a weird Catch-22 – it wouldn’t exist without the Star Wars name and is too much of a rip-off to exist on its own. Problem is, existing in the middle tends to just make things more confusing. The biggest issue is how much the characters are modeled after the actors – this Princess Leia looks like Carrie Fisher while acting nothing like her Leia, this Annikin looks like an older Hayden Christensen but is nothing like him. Just a change in the art, designing those characters to look different than their (somewhat) counterparts from the movies would go a long way towards avoiding confusion.

Big Star Wars fans are about to be pissed off at really stupid things, which I realize now should be the definition of fans. There are some familiar characters introduced here with a very different take than people are used to. Now, that can be said for everyone, but these are particularly beloved characters, and anything that’s changed about them is going to bring the angry fans out in droves, assuming that they’re reading this in the first place. While it caught me off-guard, I believe that changes shouldn’t be condemned automatically, and since the spirit of the characters is still intact, I’m willing to roll with it and actually enjoy seeing a different take.

The story in this issue is also a little unclear. The biggest problem is that it’s trying to hit on a lot of beats from the original movie (as much as I’d like to avoid the comparisons, they’re simply impossible not to make), but they play out in a different but unforunately unclear way. I’m also wondering how much ground of the original trilogy is going to be covered in this series, in their very compressed way. I thought this was just going to cover the ground of Star Wars, but this issue is making me think it’s going to cover a lot more.

Overall, I give this a tentative recommendation, only $3.99 after all. I have enough faith in it for now that my subscription is still going, but the novelty is wearing off and the rest of the story hasn’t yet stepped up to compensate. If you’re not in on it yet, this won’t convince you, but if you’re already reading it, you’ll want to keep going.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) tried writing this review purely in beeps and whistles, but the speech recognition software didn’t like that idea. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings for more, shorter thoughts.

Review: The Star Wars #1

Yes, The Star Wars #1 (written by J. W. Rinzler, illustrated by Mike Mayhew) is a Star Wars book. I’m not sure how to fit it into the Expanded Universe canon, if that’s even possible or necessary to. None of that matters, however, and I recommend that anyone who has even a passing interest in the concept pick it up: this is based on the original screenplay that George Lucas wrote in 1974, before many of the changes that made Star Wars what it eventually became.

This is why I say it’s not important to try and figure out how it fits into the canon – call it an alternate universe or something else, just take the concept and run with it. While I’d prefer the franchise in general to completely leave behind the Skywalker family, this is a good way to approach it. A lot of the things that you’re familiar with are gone (and I tried looking for them – they’re either gone or we’re just not there yet), so just take the basic ideas of how the Star Wars Universe works and run with it. It’s difficult to say what’s different because of spoiler limitations, but even knowing that this was based on a completely different version of the movie, I was surprised by how different it was.

A big difference that caught me off-guard was the different entry point into the universe. I expected an opening on Tattooine with Luke, or maybe even the actual opening to the movie with R2-D2 and C-3PO on the Tantive IV. Instead, it starts by going more behind the scenes of the rebellion going on when the original movie started. It serves the purpose of showing the actual events in the opening crawl that Star Wars made famous instead of just using said opening crawl, which may be a rather controversial decision depending on the fans you ask. Don’t worry about its complete absence, though – there is a half-page text crawl setting up the universe at the beginning as if you were completely unfamiliar with it, which applies to very few people but still is a nice touch.

I’m not entirely decided on the art style in this book. As I lack a good art background, I’m not entirely sure how to describe it, but there’s something about the way that faces are drawn that bugs me somewhat. They just look slightly off, but it could just be that it’s a stylistic choice that I won’t even notice after a couple issues have passed, it’s just something worth notice.

Overall, I recommend picking up this book. I know that I haven’t gone into too many specifics, but I don’t think you really need it at this point. It’s a really interesting idea to use the old draft of the script, especially when so many things from that script have been the “what might have been” about the series for decades, that I think just starting to see what it’s becoming is worth the $3.99 cover price. So long as you know that you probably won’t get exactly what you’re expecting, you’ll probably enjoy it.

Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) now has something else to add to his pull list. Somehow, getting free comics is really expensive. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings for more, shorter thoughts.