Any comic with the words "STAR WARS" in the title will always be one that catches my eye. If it's a #1, it's a safe bet that comic is coming home with me.
Dark Horse's latest (and perhaps
final(?)) dive once more into the fray of the "Universe That George Built" appears to be the title that many long time fans should get excited about. It's not a book that takes place 100,000 years before the events of the Star Wars Prequels...or 50 years after the death of Han Solo's great great grandson or halfway through a video game for a console you don't own. It's right after the events of EPISODE IV "A NEW HOPE", what could arguably be the most interesting era for old fans like me, and the cast of characters is a cast that everyone will be pretty familiar with.
After the destruction of the Death Star, Luke and Leia are making their way across the galaxy looking for a suitable home to make a new Rebel Base. There's some Black Ops stuff going on in the background and of course, the shadow of the Empire is falling on everything around them. And that's pretty much the springboard.
As far as the credits go, Brian Wood is a nice name to see attached to the title, but personally I thought the book had to explain an awful lot about what was going on between the Rebels and the Empire with an awful lot of unnecessary narration. Not saying that everyone is as well-versed in STAR WARS mythology as I like to think I am, but I think the casual reader should have been able to get the jist of the story even if they'd seen "A NEW HOPE" once in their life. Even still, it's hard not to smile a little bit to read a new story featuring the classic characters.
Carols D'Anda was a great choice for the interior art and I hope he stays on this title for the forseeable future. His rendition of Darth Vader has a terrific "Dr. Doom" like feel that I hope to see more of in the title.
I don't quite know what to think about Alex Ross' cover for this book. Don't get me wrong. I think it's gorgeous, but it's not my favorite. Where's Dave Dorman when you need him??
According to a press release on DarkHorse.com, this issue sold out in 24 hours and a second print will be hitting stores on February 6th. There are NO variant covers to this issue as of this writing, so what's out there is what's out there. Man, it would have been nice to see a blank sketch cover produced of this book so I could get some sketches done...I'd be surprised if that doesn't happen at some point before the franchise leaves Dark Horse and heads into the HOUSE OF IDEAS. They need to milk this thing for everything they've got while the getting's good.
I highly recommend you grab the nearest Corellian freighter, Incom T-16 Skyhopper or Republic Shuttle and plot a course for the nearest comic book shop before the next planetary rotation. In other words, get your @$$ to your LCS and buy 2 copies of STAR WARS #1. Even Master Yoda won't mind a little greed in this case.