With Han trying to sneak his way off of Coruscant, Luke having snuck his way onto an Imperial Star Destroyer and Leia trying to sneak out for some alone time, this issue of “Star Wars” is brought to you by Metal Gear Solid.
Written by Brian Wood
Illustrated by Ryan Kelly
Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles intentionally allow themselves to be captured by the Empire to discover how Colonel Bircher is tracking the Rebels’ movements. Meanwhile, Darth Vader sends a spy into his own ranks to find out the same thing. And Han and Chewie go blaster to blaster against Boba Fett!
There’s an interesting fine line with licensed comics in that on one hand the story has to be true to the original material and stands as it’s own original work. Thankfully, “Star Wars” from Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly can just dance all over that line as it sees fit. You see, what makes “Star Wars” different from Dark Horse’s other Star Wars licensed books is that while it does adhere to the universe of the films, it discards anything that isn’t the original film in order to build its own continuity. As you can imagine, this freed up Brian Wood to tell a very different type of story than was presented in the films. Instead of the swashbuckling, space opera adventure of the films, Wood has opted for a more espionage-focused cloak and dagger story that has been a wonderful breath of fresh air to the franchise. With #8, we find Han Solo and Chewbacca in the middle of a battle with bounty hunters whilst trying to escape Coruscant; Luke and Wedge Antilles have snuck aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer and allowed themselves to be captured; and Leia is in desperate need of some time for reflection. This series is a very different beast than the films and that’s exactly why it works.
Not only does this series work by Brian Wood’s ability to take the building blocks of the films that make them Star Wars and build something new with it, but also by his ability to truly capture the character voices. This series was always going to live and die on whether or not Wood could capture the feel of Star Wars and he just nails it completely. His sense of character voice and world building is so that even though this is ignoring everything after the original film, it feels like this story always took place. It all fits so seamlessly that there’s never a point that reminds you that isn’t just the missing Star Wars Episode 1.5 that we’ve never seen before.
However, while Brian Wood definitely captures the feel of Star Wars, there are definitely instances of him over-writing the pages. It’s not a major complaint and it doesn’t exactly ruin the book, it’s just that most of the time Wood’s use of narration captions are superfluous to what is presented on the page. All the information the reader needs to glean is right there in Ryan Kelly’s artwork or the dialogue, so it feels like the captions are telling the reader what they can all already see on the page. It just feels like an unnecessary addition to the pages that unfortunately doesn’t allow Ryan Kelly’s artwork to stand on it’s own merits.
Much like with Wood’s writing, Ryan Kelly’s artwork here works largely on his ability to capture the feel of Star Wars. Ultimately, it’s what the series needs for it to work. Even down to the small details, everything feels right, which, for a book so heavily based on taking it’s cues from the original film, is perhaps the most important part. However, Kelly’s artwork, especially his characters, is less graceful that Wood’s writing of them. Largely, it comes down to how he draws faces and while most of the characters don’t seem to follow closely to the actor models, most of them at least feel vaguely like how the characters should look. For example, while Kelly’s Han Solo does not evoke Harrison Ford, he still feels like Han Solo. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Kelly’s Luke Skywalker, who neither evokes the look of Mark Hamill or the feel of the character. It’s the only complaint that really brings down the book which is unfortunate because otherwise it is a good book.
Overall, while it may not be perfect, this is still better than we’ve got from Star Wars in a long time and that’s saying something. Both Wood’s writing and Kelly’s artwork evoke the feeling of the original films that made us all love it so while telling an original story that is just as interesting in it’s own right. This series may only be eight issues in and with outside, surprisingly Disney-shaped factors looming over it, it still may well be the series to rejuvenate the franchise in time for those new films people keep talking about. It can only get better from here.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – It’s not perfect, but if you like Star Wars the flaws are easily overlooked for the gold underneath.
