The Star Wars #1
Dark Horse
The latest, greatest crazy idea from the “Star Wars” comic series? Adapting George Lucas’ original screenplay into a maxi-series. As it’s been pointed out by some, this could be a foolish idea. “It was the original draft for a reason.” But there’s something very interesting about seeing how it all started. Seeing where all the ideas started. And now thanks to comics, we’re able to.
The irony of seeing how it all started is that it’s tough to wrap your mind around the differences there are compared to the “Star Wars“ we all grew up with. It’s difficult to adjust your thinking from what we’ve known for all this time to what the book is telling us. The pieces don’t fit, and they shouldn’t. This isn’t a “what if” story, it’s an original draft. Getting to that place of reading, as something you’ve never read before is difficult but once you can you realize how cool it is.
It opens with tragedy. These new characters and new versions of characters we thought we knew are off to a quick start. After a prologue featuring Annikin Starkiller and his family they throw us right into the thick of rising war. The New Empire is closing in on the last remaining independent empires and the Sith are getting ready for attack. The mysterious Jedi-Bendu are all but extinct. But they are needed and with so few left, what‘s going to happen?
Anchored by the absolutely stunning artwork of Mike Mayhew the book is quickly addicting. Due to it being based on a screenplay, it’s kind of like watching a British show on BBC America. They break for commercials at the most opportune time, but it’s clear it wasn’t written like that. “The Star Wars” is going to read phenomenal as a graphic novel, as one big story. Split up like this is fun, and J.W. Rinzler does a fantastic job with writing duties but after it’s collected it’s going to be quite the epic. It’s an intriguing and interesting look at the what made “Star Wars“, “Star Wars.”
Jo
