STAR WARS #1
Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Jesus Saiz
Colorist: Jesus Saiz; Arif Prianto
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: Marvel
Rating: 8/10
With so much Star Wars talk flooding the world of fandom ( Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian) dividing fans, it's nice to be able to escape back to the era of Star Wars I love so much, the original trilogy. While I haven't been following the Star Wars books recently, I thought this was the perfect time to jump back in. "Empire Strikes Back" has always been my favorite Star Wars movie and I've been waiting for the comics to get to this point. We'll finally get the chance to see Luke deal with the knowledge of Vader being his father and maybe even get to see him build his new new lightsaber. There is so much stuff that I can't wait to see.
The issue opens up where Empire ends, Luke's hand cut off and still in shock over the revelation of his father. Soule captures each characters voice perfectly and after his run on DARTH VADER, I feel like he's a great choice to take over STAR WARS. Luke looks absolutely defeated, I mean the life looks like it's been drained out of him. Jesus Saiz art is on a whole other level, that image of Luke slumped over needed no words. It perfectly epitomizes what Luke is going through.
With our heroes on the run after narrowly escaping Vader, Lando is still trying to convince Leia and Chewie that he's on their side. He also explains why they can't go after Han just yet. This is one of the things I'm kind of upset about. There won't be any Han in this series since he's frozen in carbonite until "Return of the Jedi".
I'm not sure who this Commander Zhara is, but she's clearly being set up as an antagonist for the Rebels. She goes after the Millennium Falcon and with no backup Leia and the rest of the crew have to make their stand. With no other choice Leia asks Luke to take the gun station. But with only one hand and the voice of Obi Wan and Vader floating in his head, he has a hard time. What we see next though, is one of the biggest moves Luke has ever done, at least at this point. He takes down the tie-fighters using the force, helping them make their escape.
You might be wondering, "where the hell is Vader in all this?" well he makes an appearance for one page when Zhara tells him of her failure. I still don't get how or why Vader wasn't apart of the hunt for Luke. It seems like this was kind of a wasted opportunity, but maybe we'll get some answers in next months DARTH VADER #1.
With the rebellion dwindled down to one ship and Luke in such a dark and uncertain place. It will be interesting to see how things turn around for them. Luke is a far cry from where we see him at the beginning of ROTJ. This is sure to lead to some interesting stories.
While this wasn't perfect, it was definitely a good start and I wanna see where this is headed. There so much potential for great stories. I mean, like I said, we never get to see Luke deal with fallout of the revelation of his father or how he turns into a badass right before ROJ. Soule and Saiz have a lot on their plates in terms of what fans are expecting and so far they seem up for the task.