Last year, it was announced that the Expanded Universe of Star Wars, the decades worth of novels that many fans have been enjoying, was going to be retconned away, after Disney bought Star Wars from creator George Lucas and announced new movies on the horizon.  Many fans, me among them, were very annoyed.  If you haven’t read the EU books, there are some great characters and storylines there, and they’d gone far enough past the movies that some of the main characters were the next generation of heroes.  Oh well.  Comic book companies do it to us all the time.  It’s something sci-fi and fantasy fans need to deal with.  

Of course, since Disney also owns Marvel Comics, the Star Wars rights went to Marvel.  Many different companies have printed Star Wars comics since the first movie debuted back in 1977.  I was a bit skeptical, but I figured I’d at least take a look.  What the hell, get the first issue, drop it if I didn’t like it, right?

They did a great job.  First page: Black background, with just a few words: “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”  Second and third pages also had black background, with a double page spread of the Star Wars logo, with the joined S and T in the first word, and R and S in the second.  That right there captured the feel of the movies.

The story itself is set just after Star Wars: A New Hope (or just plain Star Wars to many).  Luke is even wearing the outfit with the yellow jacket you see him in at the end of the movie when he gets his medal from Leia.  I won’t give spoilers on the plot, but it reads well, and I think did a good job giving us a new story with those beloved characters.  The original crew is all here: Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, R2 and 3P0.  It’s a fun beginning to the adventure, and ends on a menacing cliffhanger, with one of the cast in a LOT of trouble.

Plot: I’ll go 4 out of 5 for this.  It was fun, it felt like Star Wars, and everyone got to do something.  The characterizations were good and rang true.

Art: The art impressed me.  I’ll give this, too, a 4 out of 5.  The artist even got Han’s smirk down pretty damn well.  The detail on Chewie’s fur was rendered particularly well.

Positives: Everyone felt right, and acted right.  Han got to do one of his infamous cons, Leia got some nice action scenes, and Luke was heroic.

Negatives: While I understand the change, I really wanted to see Chewie with his bowcaster, not the weapon he used here.  I also didn’t like how they used the Millennium Falcon.  Or didn’t use it, quite.

It was entertaining to read.  I recommend this to Star Wars fans in particular, and adventure fans in general.

Star Wars Issue 1

Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: John Cassaday
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover: Cassaday and Martin