Star Wars #108 Marvel Style

After acquiring the rights to Star Wars back from Dark Horse, Marvel went and published roughly 200 different series focusing on various timelines and characters. I must say I had mixed feelings about Marvel, through Disney, taking back on the Star Wars franchise.

As a child, seeing the original film in the theater, the comics and novels were the only way to enjoy the Star Wars universe between films. Marvel's comics, in particular, thrilled me to no end. It was one of two subscriptions I had to Marvel's books. There were, however, some real clunkers in there, as the writers were constrained by George Lucas and just what could be done with the characters. There were also some gems, though, too, which I fondly remember. I've written about my love before here, so go back and read that column for the skinny.

When Dark Horse lost the license and it reverted back to the House of Ideas, I must admit I was skeptical. Dark Horse had been doing okay, though some of the fun had been sucked out of the franchise in its hands, if one must be critical. Marvel, however, had not been doing comics very well in quite some time, and I feared Star Wars would suffer the same fate.

I was wrong. The core series was killer, and brought me right back to being a kid. Then came the announcement. Marvel, which ended its original Star Wars series at issue #107, was going to publish issue #108, and it would take place back in that often misguided universe.

You bet I ordered it.

What could have been a disaster, filled with secondary characters few current readers knew about (but older readers either fondly remembered or hated), was actually quite amazing. Marvel had done something very right for a change. It was an absolute gem of a comic, and brought those old characters into a new light.

I'm glad Marvel has Star Wars back under its belt. I just hope the company doesn't let it slide into oblivion like it did the first time. It was a sad day for me when that final issue was published, and it was a long time before anything new from the universe was released in either book, comic, or movie form. I hope I never have to experience that again ...

Marvel's Star Wars

If you were a Star Wars fan and a comic book fan in the late 1970s and early 1980s, you knew of and most likely read Marvel's Star Wars comic. Three annuals, 107 issues and the four-issue adaptation of Return of the Jedi, Marvel's series was the only fix fans had outside the movies and lame television specials. There were the novelizations, three Han Solo novels, three Lando Calrissian novels, and Alan Dean Foster's Splinter of the Mind's Eye (later adapted by Dark Horse), but the comic books felt right (even when they were oh-so-wrong).

Marvel gets some jabs now for the series. Jabba the Hutt in those early issues? Hideous. Jax? What were they thinking? But there were some great moments, too, like Boba Fett surviving his fate ... the first time. The hunt for Han Solo. The new Sith Lord. For me, the comic books kept the movies alive. Hell, it was one of two titles I first subscribed to. (And I never got that last issue, and it took me years to find. Thanks, Marvel, you bastard.) Getting it every month in the mail was just about as exciting as seeing The Empire Strikes Back. I never knew what I'd expect, but I knew it would be enjoyable.

I still read some of the Dark Horse titles today, but they don't feel the same. Sure, I like them, but that sense of wonder is gone. Perhaps its due to all the novels and video games. Maybe it's because the new films took some of that joy away. Looking back at my old Marvel comics, though, brings those old feelings right back. There are some great covers, stories, characters. Jo Duffy was my favorite writer. Solo my favorite character. Even Luke was a pleasure to read.

Purists balk at much of the comic's content, rightly claiming that the Dark Horse series is canon and maintains a much more even interpretation of the mythos. That's fairly true. After all, are there any fans who want to see those little furry creatures called Lahsbees show up in novel after novel, but who among us didn't thrill to see Solo try to save Boba Fett?

Marvel, as mentioned earlier, takes some good-natured ribbing over the series, but all of that criticism is also tempered with love. Any fan old enough to have read that series loved it. It was all we had, and we ate it up. We can joke about some of the strange and utterly crappy alien races the creators wrote stories around, but we didn't care then. We accepted it and had a good time reading it. It, like the movies, was fun ... and isn't that what you want out of a comic book series?