Star Wars (Marvel) comics reboot

Launch parties in NYC at Midtown Comics (Fri 6-8) with Jason Aaron and John Cassady signing. Forbidden Planet and Royal Collectibles are having a sale. JHU Comic Books is giving away a free issue plus lithograph or pin.

Other books coming are Darth Vader by Kieron Gillen (art by Salvador Larroca), Princess Leia written by Mark Waid (art by the Dodsons) and a new adaptation of Episode IV.

I'm about to start reading the first issue right now. Looking forward to it.

Review when you're done, please.

Okay, so I read the comic and it's pretty good! Starts off to a pretty good start. This first part of the comic is called "Skywalker Strikes", and it starts off with the rebels trying to continue holding on the advantage they have after blowing up the Death Star in A New Hope. All in all, it's a good first issue so far.

Pros:

• Dialogue between the characters feels authentic and Original trilogy-ish: i.e., you can almost hear Harrison Ford saying Han's dialogue in the comic; the characters act like themselves, for the most part.
• Art is good, except for some uncanny valley here and there.
• Vader shows up

Cons:

• The lightsabers are depicted weirdly? Instead of being a solid blade, lightsabers are drawn as being a series of afterimages??? idk, but it's kind of weird.

... wasn't there a series of post Return of the Jedi comics that referred to the Empire as "the Remnant"?

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Remnant

edited 16th Jan '15 4:20:49 AM by AnotherGuy

Yes, but what's that have to do with anything? This comic is set after A New Hope.

Oh, ok.

I haven't been following/ Anything new?

About issue 2: what are those weird semi-Torgruta-but-not-Torgruta species?

You mean the one on the panel where Leia hugs R2? That's a good question. Wookiepedia says togruta. It's probably just a weird design choise.

edited 5th Feb '15 2:23:52 PM by Werebazs

Okay, just read the first issue of the Darth Vader comic, and Holy shit the Imperial Palace being the former Jedi Temple is insane. Not to mention Vader deciding to just kill another tribe of Tusken Raiders.

Yeah, I don't usually care for villain protagonists but I think I'm going to have to make an exception for Vader.

It has great visual moments, bits of info that are completely interesting that make complete sense (Darksiders don't use mindtricks? Given that in no movie has a darksider used a mind trick, and in TCW it may have been used once by a darksider who had former Jedi training, that makes perfect sense in continuity and why they don't use them makes sense)

Or it could be that Vader's just being his usualy arrogant self.

True, but when you look back in what's currently canon, you don't really see Darksiders using mind tricks. Palpatine doesn't seem to, Dooku never did when he was Sith, Maul never did, and I'm not sure even Ventress did. Talzin brainwashed Savage, but beyond that, it seems darksiders prefer normal manipulation or using force to get compliance. Vader seems to be right.

Makes sense. To the average Dark Sider, if you can't force (physically) or trick someone into doing your will, you're doing it wrong. Just hack 'em down and be done with it. Light Side would say that this person isn't bad but won't cooperate so just 'persuade' them to avoid further hassle.

I'm really enjoying Vader. It's also a subtle thing but I thought the scene of him ordering the astromech droid to self-terminate to maintain his secrets was a nice illustration of how far he'd fallen.

It seemed kind of shocking from the little boy who used to love tech and even built his own droid.

Keep in mind, the Dark Siders don't need to because they're in power. Did Darth Vader ever need to force persuade a Stormtrooper? Has Palpatine ever been in hiding, needing to hide his identity?

And according to Revenge Of The Sith, Palpatine WAS force persuading everyone. Remember Yoda remarking that their powers are dulled?

"Does his power have a range? When he was on Kashyyyk, did Yoda suddenly realize, 'Wait a minute... PALPATINE is behind it all!"

edited 26th Feb '15 10:58:44 AM by AnotherGuy

Did it ever state in Rot S that Palps was using a mind trick? I thought it was just his normal manipulative abilities. And the Dark Side clouds the Force- it's not Force Persuasion that was making the Jedi less effective, it was all the darkness in the Force and the general negativity the war brought.

It's something of a theme how Star Wars villains never lie, while the heroes are much more likely to spin matters From a Certain Point of View. Even Palpatine mostly just disguised his signature in the Force itself - I imagine using mind tricks would have been counter-productive to that effect. It could also be that mind tricks are traditionally a light side power in games, and the Sith are helpfully striving to preserve competitive balance.

Wasn't Palpatine's whole thing lying and spinning the truth to gain power in the prequels?

Greg Rucka will be writing Shattered Empire, the prequel to the new movie.

To be fair, Palps was a politician.

Exactly my point. Palps could have just swayed the corrupt senators without Force powers.

Next Star Wars issue is a bit of a game-changer. Meet Han Solo's ex-wife! http://www.bleedingcool.com/2015/06/03/todays-star-wars-comic-changes-the-canon-forever-big-han-solo-spoilers/