The Star Wars comics are unchartered territory for many fans and it deserves to be in the spotlight. Follow the adventures of Luke and more.
The Star Wars Comics are a universe all by itself. Whenever I talk to my friends about Star Wars outside the movies, the first thing they ask is: Have you read this book? Since I am not a very ardent reader my answer is almost always no. But I do read the comics and I have read a whole bunch of them. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good books and I used to read a lot but then I rediscovered comics and I got sucked back in only to never leave. It is like The Eagles’ Hotel California song; You can check out anytime you want but u can never leave. And I never left.
The Marvel Years
Back when George Lucas started out with Star Wars, he quickly figured out that he would need to establish a fanbase for the Star Wars: A new hope movie. Because movies are one thing but having a community wanting to come back for more would be the ultimate thing so at a comic con, when comic cons were still about comics and not movies, he contacted Marvel’s posterboy Stan Lee.
And Lucas was successful in his effort.
The Marvel run of Star Wars lasted 108 issues, three annuals and a lot of classics. Many new villains and a huge Star Wars Universe expansion. Most of them are non canonical but that doesn’t matter much.
“Long ago in a galaxy far, far away… there exists a state of cosmic civil war. A brave alliance of underground freedom fighters has challenged the tyranny and oppression of the awesome Galactic Empire. This is their story!“―Introduction to many issues of Marvel’s Star Wars
My personal favorite of the Marvel Star Wars years was issue number 38 titled “Riders of the Void“. During a medical supplies run Luke and Leia get attacked by a Starship Destroyer and while they flee their ship is badly shot. They take the ship into subhyperspace and enter a void where they encounter a living ship.
The ship entertains itself by playing games and thought that Luke and Leia are a game. When Luke destroys one of the ship’s droid during a lightsaber battle the ship realizes that the twins aren’t part of a game but that they are real. The ship tries to boot them out by creating a hole in the hull and tries to blow them into space. Luke barely hanging on still tries to rescue Leia and this is the moment where the ship realizes that the two of them are willing to sacrifice each other and closes the hole.
The ship tells Luke and Leia that he was once part of a war and upon return to the planet the enemy released a biological bomb that killed all the inhabitants and thus the ship fled into space wandering aimlessly into eternity. Over time the ship and the one crew member that was left fused together and entertained themselves playing games over and over.
Luke and Leia tell the ship what they were doing and the ship decides to return the two to their own part of the galaxy. When they drop out of hyperspace, the ship is attacked by the same Imperial Star Destroyer that attacked Luke and Leia.
The ship destroys the Star Destroyer and the TIE fighters using anti-matter. However the ship, apparently deeply traumatized by the war he was in, found that part of the galaxy too real and left immediately after dropping off Luke and Leia.
This is one of the first comics I read of the Marvel Star Wars Universe and it to me it remains one of the best ones. The ship showed what war can do to a person. The ship also showed escapism by playing games while wandering aimlessly in the galaxy. The notice of a war brought up a wound that hadn’t healed properly.
Luke and Leia’s bond got a new dynamic when Luke saved Leia while in great peril. Which in turn triggered the ship to save their lives instead of killing them.
If you can get your hands on Marvel’s Star Wars issue 38 “Riders of the Void” then don’t hesitate, it’s a very emotional read.
Dark Horse Star Wars Comics
Dark Horse took over the Marvel license and published their first Star Wars comics in 1991.
The stories were more grim and so was the artwork. I remember one of my classmates taking some of the comics to school and while I was impressed by the artwork and storytelling, my main comics were still Marvel’s Spiderman and X-men at the time.
This is what Dark Horse had to say when they took over the comicbook license:
“Our goal was to create sequels and prequels to the films we loved, paying careful attention to quality and detail, essentially treating those films as though they were our own. Star Wars has been the crown jewel of this approach.“―Mike Richardson, on the end of Dark Horse’s Star Wars publishing run
And they succeeded.
The Dark Horse Run is actually still going.
Their best comic in my opinion is the Star Wars: The Old Republic run with Zayne Carrick. The series ran for 50 issues and the story telling and artwork were amazing. Shadows of the Empire is another classic that deserves a mention. Not sure the comics but also the videogames but we are discussing comics.
But my absolute favorite was Dark Empire. So many plot twists and turns. Like Luke Skywalker joining the Dark Side and while Leia tries to turn him back to the Lightside and visibly succeeding it turnedo out that Luke went all David Copperfield on her by creating a Force Illusion on her and as they fled in the Millennium Falcon, Luke Copperfield Skywalker’s illusion fell apart and we see Luke still in the hands of the Emperor.
The thing is however is that Luke was pretending to be a darksider but with a lot of camouflage he was still on the lightside. It was a difficult skill to master and Yoda warned him that things could go awry. And it did, Luke managed to defeat the many many clones of the Emperor but did not exit the battle unscathed. He was tainted by the Dark Side. So imagine that one of the most powerful Jedi that had ever lived turns dark. The rammifcations of that are immense. But that’s what friends and family are for: It was Leia and her unborn baby who saved Luke from The Emperor and while Luke’s subsconcious was still tainted by the darkside, the most powerful Jedi was back to helping people instead of oppressing them.
There are many many more classics Dark Horse has published for instance Episode one to Episode six, which I think are available on Comixology and Amazon or perhaps directly from Dark Horse itself in a trade paperback or just the normal comics. A trade paperback is what I would recommend; you get all the comics with no advertising on better quality paper. The alternative is ofcourse to get the comics digitally if you don’t care about the resell value of the comics or don’t see comics as an investment. Much like myself, I prefer to read the comics digitally. I care about the stories, not the resell value. Sorry for those who I mention in my will ;)
Back to Marvel
After Disney took over Lucasarts, they also inherited the Star Wars comicbook license. Disney also took over Marvel, known for their movies and comics and so it was a match made in heaven. At least for me it was. You basically get two household names together and we get Mickey Mouse…no wait; You get awesome comics, published on a very accessible platform with a huge marketingbudget.
And I have to say that I have really enjoyed the second Marvel Run. The Darth Vader comics in particular. It was dark, grim and embodied and personified what the darkside does to a person. Even Darths are sad sometimes.
Their best were the Star Wars books however. It was the gang reunited fighting off the darkside all over the galaxy making sure that wretched hives of scum and villainy are cleaned out or completely destroyed to ensure that citizens of the galaxy are freed from the tiranny of Darth Vader and his evil master The Emperor.
Other works include the solo comics of Kanan and Leia.
I was a big fan of the artwork and storytelling, it was clearly aimed at young adults but Marvel still made it attractive for older readers as well. Ofcourse the idea of having Han Solo, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker and Chewbacca traveling around the galaxy fighting for peace assisted by the Rebel Alliance and loyal allies such as R2-D2 and C3PO was beyond our imagination.
IDW Publishing takes over
The IDW Publishing years. While I am impressed by IDW Publishing I am not a big fan of their publish. The art and storytelling is mostly aimed at children and it just doesn’t do it for me. But like I said I am impressed by IDW Publishing but more for their Transformers run which were aimed more at my demographic. And by that I don’t mean the elderly but the middle aged people. Don’t get me wrong, the franchise deserves the younger readers among us but Star Wars Comics I read are aimed at people my age.
The Star Wars movies versus the Star Wars comics
I am and have been for years a fan of Star Wars movies during the Lucas years. And after watching the movies it always left me with a craving for more Star Wars. So slowly but surely I started to read the comics. Not just the adventures of Luke Skywalker and friends but also the adventures of Cade Skywalker who lived about 150 years in the future. He was more an anti hero. But that is what I mean, why stop at just the movies? The comics provide for a fun read and a very nice way of spending time in your favorite universe.
There are the games ofcourse as well but you finish a game a few times and you know the story by heart, since Star Wars is mostly known for their invigorating storytelling.
The comics however, there are so many. The comicbook part of the Star Wars franchise has been going since the 1970s with so many comics published and that is including specials, annuals and movie adaptations. The library of Star Wars comics is so vast that I think it will take a lifetime to read all of it and the good stuff just keeps coming.
So as an ardent comicbook reader would I recommend to read the Star Wars comics? Yes, I would. I would recommend both the Marvel eras and the Dark Horse years in particular. The Dark Horse universe is massive and will take you to that galaxy far far away for many many hours. The best part about the comics is that they can go where the movies can’t go. The comics don’t have to keep in mind that they only have two to three hours to tell a story. A comicbook can easily do a six parter and still add a three comic epilogue to it. That is what is so great about comics: You can tell more story and have more time to do so.
